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History
of Serbia |
Important
dates in Serbian history
Formation - 8th century
Independence - c.1166
Kingdom established - 1217
Independence lost to Ottoman Empire - 1459
First Serbian Uprising against the Turks - Feb 15, 1804
First Constitution - Feb 15, 1835
international Recognition - 1878
Kingdom of Serbs Croats and Slovenes formed - 1918
Socialist Yugoslavia formed - 1943
Breakup of Yugoslavia - 1991-1995
State Union of Serbia and Montenegro dissolved - June
5, 2006
Medieval Serbia (7th-14th century)
The Serbs entered their present territory early in the
7th century AD, settling in six distinct tribal delimitations:
- Raška/Rascia (present-day Western Serbia and Northern
Montenegro),
- Bosnia (indistinct from Rascia until the 12th century),
- Zahumlje (western Herzegovina),
- Travunija (eastern Herzegovina),
- Paganija (middle Dalmatia) and finally
- Duklja/Zeta (predecessor to Montenegro)
The first recorded Serb princes were Vlastimir, Višeslav,
Radoslav and Prosigoj. By that time, the country had entirely
accepted Christianity. In Zeta, today's Montenegro, Bodin
was crowned by the Pope (the first mention of this is
a century later, in the 10th century. The rulers kept
changing and the country accepted supreme protection from
the Byzantine Empire rather than from hostile Bulgaria.
Serbia was freed from the Byzantine Empire a century later.
The first unified Serb state emerged under Časlav Klonimirović
in the mid-10th century in Rascia. However the first half
of the 11th century saw the rise of the Vojislavljević
family in Zeta. Finally, the middle of the 12th century
saw once more the rise of Rascia with the Nemanjić dynasty.
The Nemanjić were to lead Serbia to a golden age which
lasted for over three centuries and produced a powerful
Balkan state which had its apogee under the reign of Tsar
Stefan Dušan in the mid 14th century, before finally succumbing
to Ottoman Turkish subjugation (with Zeta, the last bastion,
finally falling in 1499).
In 1170, after a struggle for the throne with his brothers,
Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, rose
to power and started renewing the Serbian state in the
Raška region. Sometimes with the sponsorship of Byzantium,
and sometimes opposing it, the veliki župan (a title equivalent
to the rank of prince) Stefan Nemanja expanded his state
seizing territories east and south, and newly annexed
the littoral and the Zeta region. Along with his governmental
efforts, the veliki župan dedicated much care to the construction
of monasteries. His endowments include the Djurdjevi Stupovi
Monastery and the Studenica Monastery in the Raška region,
and the Hilandar Monastery on Mt. Athos.
Stefan Nemanja was succeeded by his middle son Stefan,
whilst his first-born Vukan was given the rule of the
Zeta region (present-day Montenegro). Stefan Nemanja's
youngest son Rastko became a monk and took the name of
Sava, turning all his efforts to spreading religiousness
among his people. Since the Curia already had ambitions
to spread its influence to the Balkans as well, Stefan
used these propitious circumstances to obtain his crown
from the Pope thus becoming the first Serbian king in
1217. In Byzantium, his brother Sava managed to secure
the autocephalous status for the Serbian Church and became
the first Serbian archbishop in 1219. Thus the Serbs acquired
both forms of independence: temporal and religious.
The next generation of Serbian rulers - the sons of Stefan
Prvovenčani - Radoslav, Vladislav and Uroš I, marked a
period of stagnation of the state structure. All three
kings were more or less dependent on some of the neighboring
states - Byzantium, Bulgaria or Hungary. The ties with
the Hungarians had a decisive role in the fact that Uroš
I was succeeded by his son Dragutin whose wife was a Hungarian
princess. Later on, when Dragutin abdicated in favor of
his younger brother Milutin, the Hungarian king Ladislaus
IV gave him lands in northeastern Bosnia, the regions
of Srem and Mačva, and the city of Belgrade, whilst he
managed to conquer and annex lands in northeastern Serbia.
Thus, all these territories became part of the Serbian
state for the first time.
Under the rule of Dragutin's younger brother - King Milutin,
Serbia grew stronger in spite of the fact that occasionally
it had to fight wars on three different fronts. King Milutin
was an apt diplomat much inclined to the use of a customary
medieval diplomatic expedients - dynastic marriages. He
was married five times, with Hungarian, Bulgarian and
Byzantine princesses. He is also famous for building churches,
some of which are the brightest examples of Medieval Serbian
architecture: the Gračanica Monastery in Kosovo, the Cathedral
in Hilandar Monastery on Mt. Athos, the St. Archangel
Church in Jerusalem etc. Because of his endowments, King
Milutin has been proclaimed a saint, in spite of his tumultuous
life. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Stefan,
later dubbed Stefan Dečanski. Spreading the kingdom to
the east by winning the town of Niš and the surrounding
counties, and to the south by acquiring territories on
Macedonia, Stefan Dečanski was worthy of his father and
built the Visoki Decani Monastery in Metohija - the most
monumental example of Serbian Medieval architecture -
that earned him his byname.
Medieval Serbia that enjoyed a high political, economic
and cultural reputation in Medieval Europe, reached its
apex in mid-14th century, during the rule of Tzar Stefan
Dušan. This is the period when the Dušanov Zakonik (Dushan's
Code) the greatest juridical achievement of Medieval Serbia,
unique among the European feudal states of the period.
St. Sava's Nomocanon, Dushan's Code, frescoes and the
architecture of the medieval monasteries adorning Serbian
lands are eternal civilizational monuments of the Serbian
people. Tzar Stefan Dušan doubled the size of his kingdom
seizing territories to the south, southeast and east at
the expense of Byzantium. He was succeeded by his son
Uroš called the Weak, a term that might also apply to
the state of the kingdom slowly sliding into feudal anarchy.
This is a period marked by the rise of a new threat: the
Ottoman Turk sultanate gradually spreading from Asia to
Europe and conquering Byzantium first, and then the other
Balkan states.
Serbia under Turkish rule (14th-19th century)
Having defeated the Serbian army in two crucial battles:
on the banks of the river Marica in 1371 - where the forces
of noblemen from Macedonia were defeated, and on Kosovo
Polje (Kosovo Plain) in 1389, where the vassal troops
commanded by Prince Lazar - the strongest regional ruler
in Serbia at the time - suffered a catastrophic defeat.
The Battle of Kosovo defined the fate of Serbia, because
after it no force capable of standing up to the Turks
existed. This was an unstable period marked by the rule
of Prince Lazar's son - despot Stefan Lazarevic - a true
European-style knight a military leader and even poet,
and his cousin Djuradj Brankovic, who moved the state
capital north - to the newly built fortified town of Smederevo.
The Turks continued their conquest until they finally
seized the entire Serbian territory in 1459 when Smederevo
fell into their hands. Serbia was ruled by the Ottoman
Empire for almost five centuries. The Turks persecuted
the Serbian aristocracy, determined to physically exterminate
the social elite. Since the Ottoman Empire was an Islamic
theocratic state, Christian Serbs lived as virtual bond
servants - abused, humiliated and exploited. Consequently
they gradually abandoned the developed and urban centers
where mining, crafts and trade was practiced and withdrew
to hostile mountains living on cattle breeding and modest
farming.
European powers, and Austria in particular, fought many
wars against Turkey, relying on the help of the Serbs
that lived under Ottoman rule. During the Austrian-Turkish
War (1593-1606) in 1594 the Serbs staged an uprising in
Banat - the Pannonian part of Turkey, and the sultan retaliated
by burning the remains of St. Sava - the most sacred thing
for all Serbs honored even by Moslems of Serbian origin.
Serbs created another center of resistance in Herzegovina
but when peace was signed by Turkey and Austria they abandoned
to Turkish vengeance. This sequence of events became usual
in the centuries that followed.
During the Great War (1683-1690) between Turkey and the
Holy Alliance - created with the sponsorship of the Pope
and including Austria, Poland and Venice - these three
powers incited the Serbs to rebel against the Turkish
authorities, and soon uprisings and guerrilla spread throughout
the western Balkans: from Montenegro and the Dalmatian
coast to the Danube basin and Ancient Serbia (Macedonia,
Raska, Kosovo and Metohija). However, when the Austrians
started to pull out of Serbia, they invited the Serbian
people to come north with them to the Austrian territories.
Having to choose between Turkish vengeance and living
in a Christian state, Serbs massively abandoned their
homesteads and headed north lead by their patriarch Arsenije
Carnojevic. Many areas in southern Balkans were de-populated
in the process, and the Turks used the opportunity to
Islamize Raska, Kosovo and Metohija and to a certain extent
Macedonia. A process whose effects are still visible today
started.
Another important episode in Serbian history took place
in 1716-1718, when the Serbian ethnic territories ranging
from Dalmatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgrade
and the Danube basin newly became the battleground for
a new Austria-Turkish war launched by Prince Eugene of
Savoy. The Serbs sided once again with Austria. After
a peace treaty was signed in Pozarevac, Turkey lost all
its possessions in the Danube basin, as well as northern
Serbia and northern Bosnia, parts of Dalmatia and the
Peloponnesus.
The last Austrian-Turkish war was the so called Dubica
War (1788-1791), when the Austrians newly urged the Christians
in Bosnia to rebel. No wars were fought afterwards until
the 20th century that marked the fall of both mighty empires.
Modern Serbia (1804-1918)
Serbian resistance to Ottoman domination, latent for many
decades surfaced at the beginning of 19th century with
the First and Second Serbian Uprising in 1804 and 1815.
The Turkish Empire was already faced with a deep internal
crisis without any hope of recuperating. This had a particularly
hard effect on the Christian nations living under its
rule. The Serbs launched not only a national revolution
but a social one as well and gradually Serbia started
to catch up with the European states with the introduction
of the bourgeois society values. Resulting from the uprisings
and subsequent wars against the Ottoman Empire, the independent
Principality of Serbia was formed and granted international
recognition in 1878.
This period was marked by the alternation of two dynasties
descending from Djordje Petrovic - Karadjordje, leader
of the First Serbian Uprising and Milos Obrenovic, leader
of the Second Serbian Uprising. Further development of
Serbia was characterized by general progress in economy,
culture and arts, primarily due to a wise state policy
of sending young people to European capitals to get an
education. They all brought back a new spirit and a new
system of values. One of the external manifestations of
the transformation that the former Turkish province was
going through was the proclamation of the Kingdom of Serbia
in 1882.
In the second half of 19th century Serbia was integrated
into the constellation of European states and the first
political parties were founded thus giving new momentum
to political life. The coup d'etat in 1903, bringing Karadjordje's
grandson to the throne with the title of King Petar I
opened the way for parliamentary democracy in Serbia.
Having received a European education, this liberal king
translated "On Freedom" by John Stewart Mile and gave
his country a democratic constitution. It initiated a
period of parliamentary government and political freedom
interrupted by the outbreak of the liberation wars. The
Balkan wars 1912 - 1913, terminated the Turkish domination
in the Balkans. Turkey was pushed back across the channel,
and national Balkan states were created in the territories
it withdrew from.
The assassination of Austrian Crown Prince Franc Ferdinand
in Sarajevo in 1914, served as a pretext for the Austrian
attack on Serbia that marked the beginning of World War
I. The Serbian Army bravely defended its country and won
several major victories, but it was finally overpowered
by the joint forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria,
and had to withdraw from the national territory marching
across the Albanian mountain ranges to the Adriatic Sea.
Having recuperated on Corfu the Serbian Army returned
to combat on the Thessalonike front together with other
Entante forces comprising France, England, Russia, Italy
and the United States. In world War I Serbia had 1.264.000
casualties - 28% of its population (4.529.000) which also
represented 58% of its male population - a loss it never
fully recuperated from. This enormous sacrifice was the
contribution Serbia gave to the Allied victory and the
remodeling of Europe and of the World after World War
I.
Serbia as a part of Yugoslavia (1918-1991)
Serbia was part of Yugoslavia from 1918 to 1991. This
can be devided down to the following periods:
1918-1941 - The Kingdom of Yugoslavia
1941-1945 - The WWII
1945-1991 - SFR Yugoslavia
1991-1995 - The breakup of SFR Yugoslavia
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918-1941)
With the end of World War I and the downfall of Austria-Hungary
and the Ottoman Empire the conditions were met for proclaiming
the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians in December
of 1918. The Yugoslav ideal had long been cultivated by
the intellectual circles of the three nations that gave
the name to the country, but the international constellation
of political forces and interests did not permit its implementation
until then. However, after the war, idealist intellectuals
gave way to politicians and the most influential Croatian
politicians opposed the new state right from the start.
The Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) headed by Stjepan Radic,
and then by Vlatko Macek slowly grew to become a massive
party endorsing Croatian national interests. According
to its leaders the Yugoslav state did not provide a satisfactory
solution to the Croatian national question. They chose
to conduct their political battle by systematically obstructing
state institutions and making political coalitions to
undermine the state unity, thus extorting certain concessions.
Each political or economic issue was used as a pretext
for raising the so-called "unsettled Croatian question".
Trying to match this challenge and prevent any further
weakening of the country, King Aleksandar I banned national
political parties in 1929, assumed executive power and
renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist
tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions. However
the balance of power changed in international relations:
in Italy and Germany Fascists and Nazis rose to power,
and Stalin became the absolute ruler in the Soviet Union.
None of these three states favored the policy pursued
by Aleksandar I. In fact the first two wanted to revise
the international treaties signed after World War I, and
the Soviets were determined to regain their positions
in Europe and pursue a more active international policy.
Yugoslavia was an obstacle for these plans and King Aleksandar
I was the pillar of the Yugoslav policy.
During an official visit to France in 1934, the king was
assassinated in Marseilles by a member of VMRO - an extreme
nationalist organization in Bulgaria that had plans to
annex territories along the eastern and southern Yugoslav
border - with the cooperation of the Ustashi - a Croatian
fascist separatist organization. The international political
scene in the late 30's was marked by growing intolerance
between the principal figures, by the aggressive attitude
of the totalitarian regimes and by the certainty that
the order set up after World War I is was loosing its
strongholds and its sponsors were loosing their strength.
Supported and pressured by Fascist Italy and nazi Germany,
Croatian leader Vlatko Macek and his party managed to
extort the creation of the Croatian banovina (administrative
province) in 1939. The agreement specified that Croatia
were to remain part of Yugoslavia, but it was hurriedly
building an independent political identity in international
relations.
World War II and it's effects (1941-1945)
At the beginning of the 1940's, Yugoslavia found itself
surrounded by hostile countries. Except for Greece, all
other neighboring countries had signed agreements with
either Germany or Italy. Hitler was strongly pressuring
Yugoslavia to join the Axis powers. The government was
even prepared to reach a compromise with him, but the
spirit in the country was completely different. Public
demonstrations against Nazism prompted a brutal reaction.
Luftwaffe bombed Belgrade and other major cities and in
April 1941, the Axis powers occupied Yugoslavia and disintegrated
it. The western parts of the country together with Bosnia
and Herzegovina were turned into a Nazi puppet state called
the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and ruled by the
Ustashe. Serbia was occupied by German troops, but the
northern territories were annexed by Hungary, and eastern
and southern territories to Bulgaria. Kosovo and Metohija
were mostly annexed by Albania which was under the sponsorship
of fascist Italy. Montenegro also lost territories to
Albania and was then occupied by Italian troops. Slovenia
was divided between Germany and Italy that also seized
the islands in the Adriatic.
Following the Nazi example, the Independent State of Croatia
established extermination camps and perpetrated an atrocious
genocide killing over 750.000 Serbs, Jews and Gypsies.
This holocaust set the historical and political backdrop
for the civil war that broke out fifty years later in
Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and that accompanied
the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991-1992.
The ruthless attitude of the German occupation forces
and the genocidal policy of the Croatian Ustasha regime
generated a strong Serbian Resistance. The Serbs stood
up against the Croatian genocidal government and the Nazi
disintegration of Yugoslavia. Many joined the Partisan
forces (National Liberation Army headed by Josib Broz
Tito) in the liberation war and thus helped the Allied
victory. By the end of 1944, with the help of the Red
Army the Partisans liberated Serbia and by May 1945 the
remaining Yugoslav territories, meeting up with the Allied
forces in Hungary, Austria and Italy. Serbia and Yugoslavia
were among the countries that had the greatest losses
in the war: 1.700.000 (10.8% of the population) people
were killed and national damages were estimated at 9.1
billion dollars according to the prices of that period.
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1945-1991)
While the war was still raging, in 1943, a revolutionary
change of the social and state system was proclaimed with
the abolition of monarchy in favor of the republic. Josip
Broz Tito became the first president of the new - socialist
- Yugoslavia. Once a predominantly agricultural country
Yugoslavia was transformed into a mid-range industrial
country, and acquired an international political reputation
by supporting the de-colonization process and by assuming
a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement. Socialist
Yugoslavia was established as a federal state comprising
six republics: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Macedonia and Montenegro and two autonomous regions -
Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija. The two autonomous
regions were at the same time integral part of Serbia.
Because of such an administrative division and due to
historical reasons, the Serbs - the most numerous of the
Yugoslav peoples - lived in all six republics and both
autonomous regions. The trend to secure the power of the
republics at the expense of the federal authorities became
particularly intense after the adoption of the 1974 Constitution
that encouraged the expansion of Croatian, Slovenian,
Moslem and Albanian nationalism and secessionism.
The breakup of SFR Yugoslavia (1991-1995)
Between 1991 and 1992, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina forcibly seceded from Yugoslavia, whilst Macedonia
did so peacefully. The break-up of Yugoslavia was endorsed
by the international powers that recognized the right
of self-determination to all nations except the Serbs
which generally wanted to continue living in Yugoslavia.
The secessionist republics were quickly granted recognition
by the international community in clear breach of the
principle of inviolability of international borders of
sovereign countries and without fulfilling the criteria
that a given state has to meet to be recognized internationally.
Serbia and Montenegro opted to stay on in the federation
and at the combined session of the parliaments of Yugoslavia,
Serbia and Montenegro held on April 27 1992 in Belgrade,
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
was passed thus reaffirming the continuity of the state
first founded on December 1st 1918.
The dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and
Montenegro (2006)
In February 2003, Republic of Serbia and Republic of Montenegro
adopted a new Constitutional Charter that transformed
FR Yugoslavia into the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.
The Charter gave rights to both member states to hold
a referendum in three years and decide whether they would
remain in the State Union. The Republic of Montenegro
exercised this right in May 2006 and by popular vote decided
to leave the State Union and declare its independence.
On June 5, 2006, National Assembly of the Republic of
Serbia passed a conclusion that the Republic of Serbia
is a state and a legal successor of the State Union of
Serbia and Montenegro. |
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