South Ossetia is a conflict zone in the Caucasus, sandwiched between Georgia and Russia, and bordering Russia's North Ossetia. The small, mountainous region has declared indepedence from Georgia since 1991, and is governed by the Republic of South Ossetia. The only UN members to recognize South Ossetia as an independent nation are Russia and Nicaragua, the latter due to the fact that Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega is a former Marxist guerilla who was close with Moscow during the Soviet era. 

Statistics: The area of South Ossetia is 3,900 km² (2,423 mi² ) -- for comparison,  French Polynesia has an area of 4,000 km² . The capital of South Ossetia is Tskhinvali, a small town of only 15,000 residents. It was estimated in 2000 that South Ossetia Transnistria is home to approximately 70,000 people. For comparison, the island of Bermuda has a population of 65,000. Orthodox Christianity of the Georgian and Russian sects, is the prevalent form of religion in South Ossetia, while there are also small numbers of Sunni Muslims and Jews. Russian, Georgian, and Ossetic, an East-Iranian language, are spoken in the region.

History: The Ossetian people are descended from an ancient Iranian tribe, the Alans. They were a nomadic, pastoralist branch of the Sarmatians who settled between the Don and Volga rivers from the 1st through the 3rd century. After decimation by the Huns, the Alans split off into a number of several smaller tribes, some going as far as Gaul to join the Vandals. Those who remained in the North Caucasus eventually formed alliances and built up the Alanian Empire in the 8th century. The majority of Alans converted to Christianity, and Alania aligned itself with the Kingdom of the Khazars, while butting heads with the Byzantine Empire. The Mongol invasions of the 13th century devastated Alania, and the region was squabbled over by the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire until Imperial Russia took over in 1774. At this point, the region was referred to as Ossetia, and its people, Ossetians.

When the Soviet Union was established, Ossetia was divided, with North Ossetia becoming part of the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic, and South Ossetia going to the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic as an autonomous oblast. Under Georgian rule, South Ossetians enjoyed a high degree of autonomy relative to other territories of the Soviet Union, including being able to speak the Ossetian language and teach it in schools.

Hostilities between South Ossetia and Georgia were few and far between during the Soviet years, save for clashes between Menshevik Georgia and Bolshevik Russia, with whom Ossetians sympathized, from 1918-1920. However, in 1989, when talk began of independence for Georgia from the Soviet Union, South Ossetians worried about losing their autonomy. In 1989, the South Ossetian Regional Council asked the Georgian Regional Council if South Ossetia's status could be upgraded to that of "autonomous republic." They did not oblige, and chose the same year to make Georgian the official national language. The following summer, the Georgian Supreme Council banned regional parties, angering Ossetians. In September 1990, South Ossetia declared itself the South Ossetian Democratic Republic, sovereign within the Soviet Union. The Georgian government's response was, in December 1990,  to eliminate South Ossetia's autonomous status altogether.

Conflict: The next month, 6,000 armed Georgians entered Tskhinvali, sparking the tinder of ethnic tensions. Ossetians began attacking Georgian houses and schools in the city, while Georgians went after Ossetian villages. This began a conflict that lasted until June 1992, during which the South Ossetian army was backed by volunteer North Ossetians, as well as Russian troops. The Georgian army did not recieve as much support, and the state did not even have a national guard until days before the conflict. Over 1,000 were killed in the crisis, with appoximately 100,000 ethnic Ossetians fleeing both South Ossetia and Georgia for North Ossetia. Georgia, looking to avoid further conflict with Russia, signed a ceasefire in 1992 and established a peacekeeping mission comprised of Georgians, Russians, and Ossetians. The peace lasted until June 2004, when the violence resumed in response to Georgia's efforts to gain greater control over the region. Another ceasefire agreement was signed in August 2004, though it was violated almost immediately.

The tensions between South Ossetia and Georgia continued to boil, and finally culminated in the 2008 South Ossetian war. The conflict broke out between Russia and Georgia on August 8th, 2008, after Georgia had launched a military attack on South Ossetia the day before. Russia sent its troops to back South Ossetia, and bombed much of Georgia proper. After five days of intense fighting, Georgian troops left South Ossetia and Abkhazia; meanwhile, Russian troops continued to occupy the Georgian cities of Poti and Gori, heavily shelling infrastructure.

Though a ceasefire was mediated by the EU and signed by both parties on August 16th, thousands of Russian soldiers remained in South Ossetia as "peacekeepers" until October 8th. Approximately 300-400 people lost their lives in the conflict. Human Rights Watch asserts that all parties involved with the conflict committed gross violations of human rights, using indiscriminate force and disregarding the safety of civilians.

The Present: The majority of the South Ossetian population lives off of subsistence farming, and unemployment plagues the region. Being a mountainous place, South Ossetia has little in the way of natural resources to import or export, and given the devastation of its infrastructure, not much else either. The region would lack electricity altogether if not for Russia's direct assistance.

In the end, not much has changed. South Ossetia continues to function as a de facto independent republic while Georgia continues to claim sovereignty over it. Though fighting has ceased for now, the greater conflict continues on, and is not likely to cease anytime soon.

Image courtesy of BBC News.