AskHistorians

The fall of the USSR was certainly a factor, but like most things the cause was multifaceted. Tito, the long term dictator of Yugoslavia died in 1980, and his replacements weren’t quite as skilled at stemming the rise of nationalist factions. On top of that, constitutional changes in the 70’s weakened federal power which fueled the growth of local nationalist factions. I’d say the final straw came from the man who came to power not long after Tito, Milošević. He was an ethnic Serb who moved to give Serbia more and more power in the nation over the other ethnic factions. This ultimately led to Slovenia and Croatia declaring independence and kicking off the conflict