And reading your second point, I’m understanding about what I wrote in this wall of text. Odd.
Yea … we’re on the same page here (I think). All the things you’re talking about are the important stuff, IMO. “Yugoslavia is in south eastern Europe” doesn’t mean much, even if you can guess something about the relatively obvious implications of that geography, as you say. But those implications come from somewhere, some understanding of some other episode of history. Or it could come form learning about Yugoslavia’s and the Balkan’s history. For instance, you might note from the location this it’s relatively close to Turkey, but that wouldn’t lead you to naturally expect a sizeable Islamic population in the region (well I didn’t at first), unless you really knew the Ottoman history too. So there’s a whole story to learn there of the particular cultural make up of the place and where it comes from and how that leads to cultural tensions come the Yugoslavian wars. In learning about that, you can learn about how far away the Ottoman empire was and where its borders got to over time, where the USSR was and the general ambit of Slavic culture etc. Once you’ve a got a story to tell, those things become naturally important and memorable.
And now I’ve added my own wall of text … sorry. So … yes! I agree! Both of our walls of texts are (loosely) about the important stuff, with facts sure, but motivated by and situated in history (though there’s obviously a fuzzy line there too!)