| | |  For travelers interested in knowing something about the history of the country before they hit the road, here is some basic info. It should be noted that this is just a very brief overview of the Serbian history.
| The beginning | | In the 5th century AD, the territory of today's Serbia was inhabited by Celtic and Ilirian tribes. One of the largest cities in this part of Balkan peninsula was Singidunum, which is a Celtic name for Belgrade. Today's central and southern Serbia used to be parts of Roman Empire, under the name of Moesia Superior, and western Serbia was known as Pannonia Secunda and Dalmatia Praevalis. Apart from Singidunum, some of the most important cities in the old ages were Sirmium (today's Sremska Mitrovica) and Naisus (Nish) - the later being the birthplace of the famous Roman emperor Constantin. Archeological museums in both Sremska Mitrovica and Nish today host some excellent collections of roman relicts. |  | | Constantin (museum of Nis) | | | In the 4th and 5th century AD the Gotic tribes started inhabiting the territory of Balkan peninsula, followed by southern Slavs in 6th century. | | Together with other Slavic tribes, Serbs came to Balkan peninsula and started settling there around the year 630. Strongly influenced by the Byzantine empire, new inhabitants of Balkans started accepting Christianity in the late 9th century. Along with the religion, Serbs accepted a part of the cultural heritage of what used to be known as the Eastern Roman empire. The remnants of that culture can be seen today in a number of monasteries scattered around the mountains all around Serbia. | Medieval Serbia | In the year 1168, Stefan Nemanja united Serbian tribes and established what later become known as the first kingdom of Serbia. The kingdom reached its golden age during the 13th century, under the Nemanjics, the oldest Serbian royal family. Kings and nobles from medieval Serbia ordered the construction of numerous monasteries, many of which still stand and can be seen all around the country. Churches were fortified by massive walls with many towers, and these large complexes were the centres of medieval culture, where some of the first Serbian literary works came into being. |  | | Stefan Nemanja | |  | During the reign of Stefan Dushan (1331-1355), Serbia controlled much of what is now Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia, Dalmatia, Macedonia, Albania and Greece. In the year 1346, Stefan Dushan declared himself a "king of Serbs and Greeks", and moved his capital to Skoplje (today's Macedonia). In the year 1349. he published the legal code, which was one of the most important Serbian legal documents in the Middle Ages. He established the headquarters of Serbian Orthodox church in Pec (today's Kosovo) where it remained until late 20th century. Stefan Dushan died in 1355. and his sarcophagus, together with his relics, can today be seen in the St. Marc's church in Belgrade. | | st. Sava | | The Kosovo battle Dushan's heir, Urosh, didn't manage to keep control over the vast lands conquered by his father, and soon enough Serbia fell apart into a number of small, semi-independent states governed by different noblemen. Disunited, one by one they had to plead alleigance to the expanding Ottoman empire. The last nobleman to confront the Turks was king Lazar, the ruler of one of the small squabbling principalities of former Serbian Empire. Hugely outnumbered by the sultan's army, Lazar's army was completely annihilated, and both the Serbian king and the Turkish sultan were killed in the battle. This bloodshed inspired the generations of Serbian folk poets, singers and story-tellers to create some of the most beautiful epic poems. | The last days | | After the Turks were defeated by Mongols in the famous Angara battle (1402), Lazar's son Stefan managed to regain autonomy and re-establish Serbia as an independent country. He moved the capital up north, to Belgrade, and built numerous monasteries - the most famous one that still stands is Manasija, fortified with massive walls. Manasija used to be a famous school for copying old books. Stefan Lazarevic paid great attention to supporting and developing art in Serbia, and was a very fine poet himself. However, this period didn't last long - in the year 1459. the last fortified city in Serbia, Smederevo, fell in the Turkish hands, thus marking the end of medieval Serbian kingdom. |  | | Manasija monastery | | Ottoman empire After the fall of Smederevo, Serbia became a part of the vast Ottoman empire. However, despite the 500-year long Turkish reign, Serbian people managed to preserve their national identity, language, religion and tradition. Throughout the following centuries, Serbia didn't exist on the map of the world, but the monasteries built by the kings have nourished Serbian cultural heritage and preserved it to this day. Outside the monasteries, the epic poems and tales were kept alive through the centuries as a part of a vast tradition of oral storytelling. Turkish reign of terror compelled some Serbian families to convert to Islam. This was mostly the case in some parts of Bosnia and southern Serbia, and the descendants of this families are today known as Slavic Muslims (as refered to by Encarta encyclopaedia). As Serbia is a country with hundreds of mountains covered by thick forests, some people were leaving their villages and forming guerrila units. The member of such a group was known as "hajduk". They were monitoring narrow roads between the hills and attacking and robbing Turkish caravans. Hajduks, as well as brave peasants who were helping them, are the protagonists of numerous traditional folk songs and poems. The migrations |  | In the Austro - Turkish war (1683. - 1699.) Serbs lined with the Austrians who, in the beginning, managed to win a few battles and penetrate the Ottoman empire all the way down to what is today's Macedonia. However, Austria lost the war and Serbs started migrating to the north, running away from the Turkish revenge. In the year 1690, a huge number of Serbs left Kosovo and settled in today's Vojvodina, a part of then Austro - Hungarian empire. | | Novi Sad, late XVIII century | | | Austrian emperors encouraged Serbian settlements in Vojvodina, using Serbs as a defence wall against the Turkish empire. This area was known as the military province ("Vojna krajina"). The Serbs who lived there were granted a degree of cultural and educational authonomy in exchange for their almost constant engagement in battles and wars waged by Austria. In the late 18th century, Serbs comprised 1/3 of the Austrian army. | The uprisings The first Serbian uprising took place in the year 1804, led by Karadjordje (Turkish for "the black George), a Serbian peasant. Belgrade was liberated in 1806, and many battles against the Turks were won thanks to the help of the Russian army. However, Russians drew back in 1812. and the free Serbian territories were again conquered by the Turks. However, the new Turkish government wasn't any better than the old one, so the second Serbian uprising took place in 1815, led by Milos Obrenovic. Belgrade was won again, as well as many other cities, and Milos managed to establish himself as a duke, thus founding the Obrenovic royal family. His descendants continued to fight the Turks, and Serbia finally got its independence recognized at the Berlin congress in 1879. Only 3 years later, Milan Obrenovic became the king of Serbia. | WW I In 1912 and 1913, the two Balkan wars took place, first one with the goal of evicting the last remaining Turkish forces from the Balkans, and the latter one as a struggle among the previous allies to divide the newly liberated areas. Serbia emerged victoriously from both wars, but significantly wounded by many human losses. After the Balkan wars, Serbia controlled the territories of today's Serbia (without Vojvodina) and Macedonia. In 1914, the famous assassination of the austrian prince-regent took place in Sarajevo. The assassin was Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student, member of the organization "Young Bosnia". Austro-Hungarian Empire, which felt increasingly anxious over the growing new state in the Balkans, decided it was a perfect moment to declare war on its weakened neighbour. As the other mighty empires of the time, for their own various reasons, decided to take part in what was supposed to be a small-scale Balkan conflict, it soon turned into the World War I. During the war, Serbia was conquered by Austrians, Hungarians and Germans, and the big migration took place, through Albania to Greece, in which a huge part of Serbian population was killed, which lead Serbian people to the brink of extinction. However, the remaining Serbian army managed to join the allies in Greece, and in 1918. Serbian and French troupes won the battle at Salonika. Nis was liberated in September 1918, Belgrade in October, and the austrian and hungarian armies were banished from Vojvodina. In late November 1918, the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians was formed. The royal family in power were Karadjordjevics, descendants of Karadjordje who started the first Serbian uprising. King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic was assassinated in Marceilles in 1936. |
Yugoslavia between the World Wars In late November 1918, the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed. It included area today covered by Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Serbia and Montenegro and Macedonia. In 1929, in order to reinforce the unity of the nations that comprised it, the name was changed to Yugoslavia. The royal family in power were Karadjordjevics, descendants of Karadjordje who started the first Serbian uprising. Its capital was Belgrade. It was a parliamentary monarchy, with a capitalist economy. Not everyone was satisfied by the large, centralized country - some saw it a Serbian hegemony - and in 1934 King Aleksandar Karadjordjevic was assassinated in Marseilles by seccesionist terrorist forces.
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World War II
In early 1941, Yugoslav government signed a treaty with Axis powers, hoping it will thus preserve the country from another war destruction. However, the ordinary people soon joined in the protests against this decision and in order to punish the disobedient, Germany, Austria and Hungary launched an attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941. They invaded Serbia soon afterwards, placing it under direct German military occupation. The King and the governmnet fled the country, and mostly Serbian guerrila fighters started to fight back the Germans. As the war went on, the resistance became more organized, but Serbs also fought amongst themselves (the royalists vs. the communists). At first, the western countries supported primarily the royalists forces, but in 1943 they decided to switch their support the growing movement of communist partisans, led by Josip Broz Tito.
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The Second Yugoslavia (1945 - 1990)
When the Axis Powers were defeated in 1945, the Communist party took over the control of the country and Tito was proclaimed for a life-long president. The country was still called Yugoslavia, but now it was a non-democratic one-party system, known as the "soft communism" (as compared to the Russian system). Whilst keeping it communist, Tito steered the country away from the Iron Curtain and, along with the newly liberated African and Asian counrties, Yugoslavia created the Movement of Non-aligned countries. Tito was skillful in manevouring between the forces of the Cold War, keeping the country in mostly friendly contact with both sides. It was a time of rebuilding and the progress for Yugoslavia, mostly thanks to the plentiful donations it continously received from the West. It was also the time when any display of nationalistic or patriotic feelings for Serbia, Croatia, or any other republic in Yugoslavia, was severely punished (in years long prison sentences) in order to keep the unity of the country "unspoiled".
When Tito died in 1980, it turned out that there was nobody who would stand to the task of replacing "the son of all our nations and nationalities". The newly emerging national leaders saw the revival of nationalism in the late 1980's as their ticket to seizing the power. This was a choice that led to the destruction of Yugoslavia and the civil wars in the Balkans.
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The destruction in 1990's
In 1990, Slovenia was the first to declare indepence and it took place without many large-scale incidents. Croatia in 1991, and Bosnia and Hercegovina in 1992, tried to follow Slovenia, but because of their mixed population (Serbian/Croatian/Muslim) and the overwhelming nationalism heavily spurred on by the politicians on all sides, the civil wars broke out. After four years of terror, with the mediation of the United Nations, the wars were put to an end, leaving many towns destroyed and hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and refugees behind them.
Macedonia declared its indepence peacefully in 1992. The remaining two states, Serbia and Montegro went on to create the third Yugoslavia. It was rulled by Slobodan Milosevic, who reintroduced the multi-party system, but kept all the real power to himself. Under his rule Serbia experienced a downfall in all the areas of living; the economy, the trade, the culture, the health protection, the security… He ruled the country by keeping a small elite of followers and criminals around him who only looked after his and their own interest. During this time Serbia fell into complete isolation from the international community. In 1999 it even suffered a three-months NATO bombing, as an answer to the human right violations commited against Albanians by the Serbian troops in Kosovo.
As 1990's went by, the Serbian people became growingly disillusioned about the nature of Milosevic's government. After his attempt to cancel the results of the presidential elections he lost in 2000, the disappointment grew to a peak and angry masses stormed in the Parliament bulding and the national television in Belgrade and forced Milosevic out of power.
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Serbia today
Soon after Milosevic was ousted, Serbia found its way back to the international society. It applied for reception in the international institutions and was received in the United Nations in 2001 and in the Council of Europe in 2003. Milosevic was replaced by a coalition of no less than 17 democratically oriented parties, which later dissolved into smaller groups and individual parties.
Today, whilst still carrying some burdens from Milosevic's times, Serbia is a country whose standards of democracy are in level with the European ones. It is working in co-operation with the other countries in the region towards common goals. Slowly, yet persitently, it is working its way towards the European standards in education, trade, economy, health and other areas of life. The study of feasibility of Serbia and Montenegro joining EU is about to be completed and if the expected positive conclusion is reached, it will open the door for further integration of Serbia in the international society.
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Serbia - basics