<P> In his 1992 article Jihad vs. McWorld, Benjamin Barber proposed that the fall of communism will cause large numbers of people to search for unity and that small scale wars will become common; groups will attempt to redraw boundaries, identities, cultures and ideologies . Communism's fall also allowed for an "us vs. them" mentality to sprout up . Governments become vehicles for social interests and the country will attempt to form national policies based on the majority, for example culture, religion or ethnicity . Some newly sprouted democracies have large differences in policies on matters that ranged from immigration and human rights to trade and commerce . </P> <P> Academic Steven Berg felt that at the root of nationalist conflicts is the demand for autonomy and a separate existence . This nationalism can give rise to strong emotions that may lead to a group fighting to survive, especially as after the fall of communism, political boundaries did not match ethnic boundaries . Serious conflicts often arose and escalated very easily as individuals and groups acted upon their beliefs, causing death and destruction . When this would happen, those states who were unable to contain the conflict ran the risk of slowing their democratization progress . </P> <P> Yugoslavia was established after WWI and was a merger of three separate ethnic groups; Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . The national census numbers for a ten - year span 1971--1981 measured an increase from 1.3 to 5.4% in their population that ethnically identified as Yugoslav . This meant that the country, almost as a whole, was divided by distinctive religious, ethnic or national loyalties after nearly 50 years . </P> <P> Within Yugoslavia, separating Croatia and Slovenia from the rest of Yugoslavia is an invisible line of previous conquests of the region . Croatia and Slovenia to the northwest were conquered by Catholics or Protestants, and benefited from European history; the Renaissance, French Revolution, Industrial Revolution and are more inclined towards democracy . The remaining Yugoslavian territory was conquered by the Ottoman or Tsarists empires; are Orthodox or Muslims, are less economically advanced and are less inclined toward democracy . </P>

Why was america a house divided after creating a sense of nationalism