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Serbia was formerly an autonomous Principality ( 1817 – 1878 ), independent Principality ( 1878 – 1882 ), independent Kingdom ( 1882 – 1918 ), part of the Kingdom Of Serbs, Croats And Slovenes ( 1918 – 1941 ) (since 1929 the Kingdom Of Yugoslavia ), Nazi occupied puppet state ( 1941 – 1944 ), socialist republic within Socialist Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia ( 1945 – 1992 ) and republic within Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia (since 1992 ) (since 2003 Serbia And Montenegro ). HISTORY '']] ''See also: List Of Serbian Monarchs , History Of Yugoslavia Medieval Serbia, 7th – 14th century See Also: History of Medieval Serbia The Serbs entered their present territory early in the 7th Century , settling in six distinct tribal delimitations: The first recorded Serb princes were Vlastimir , Viseslav , Radoslav and Prosigoj . By that time, the country had entirely accepted Christianity . In Zeta , today's Montenegro , Mihailo was Crowned by the Pope in 1077. At this time, Serbs were Catholics as well as Orthodox. King Mihailo also obtained from the Pope the title of Archbishop for the city of Bar. With this act, the Serbs managed to achieve religious independence. His son, Konstantin Bodin, claimed the throne in 1080, and ruled until his death in 1101. The rulers kept changing and the country accepted supreme protection from the Byzantine Empire rather than from the hostile Bulgaria . Serbia was freed from the Byzantine Empire a century later. Serbs have not been united since the Middle Ages. The nation was split into several states, which were at times independent but at other times united. The names of those states were Duklja (Zeta), Zahumlje (today's Hercegovina, with the city Dubrovnik), Travunija (Trebinje, part of today's Bosnia and Croatia), Pagania (today's eastern Dalmatia with the Islands), Bosna (Bosnia) and Rascia (today's Sandžak). Eventualy Rascia emerged as the strongest and took the name Serbia instead. The first Serb-organized state emerged under Časlav Klonimirović in the mid-10th century in Rascia. The first half of the 11th Century saw the rise of the Vojislavljević family in Zeta. Marked by disintegration and crises, it lasted until the end of 12th Century . After a struggle for the throne with his brothers, Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjić Dynasty , rose to power in 1166 and started renewing the Serbian state in the Raska region. Sometimes with the sponsorship of Byzantium, and sometimes opposing it, the '' Veliki župan '' ('Grand Župan', a Slavic title, then equivalent to the rank of Prince ) Stefan Nemanja expanded his state by seizing territories in the east and south, and newly annexed the littoral and the Zeta region. Along with his governmental efforts, the ''veliki zupan'' 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 Mount Athos . The Nemanjići led Serbia to a golden age which produced a powerful state with its apogee under Tsar Stefan Dušan in the mid- 14th Century , before finally succumbing to the Ottoman Empire (with Zeta, the last bastion, finally falling in 1499 ). and Stefan Prvovenčani ]] Stefan Nemanja was succeeded by his middle son Stefan II, 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 Christianity among his people. Since the Curia already had ambitions to spread its influence to the Balkans as well, Stefan Prvovenčani Of Serbia used these propitious circumstances to obtain his crown from the Pope Honorius III , thus becoming the first Serbian king in 1217 . Actually he was only the first Serbian King to came from Rascia, because the first Serbian king was King Mihailo (1077) from Zeta. In the Byzantine Empire , his brother Sava managed to secure the Autocephalous status for the Serbian Church and became the first Serbian orthodox Archbishop in 1219 . Thus the Serbs acquired both forms of independence: temporal and religious. The next generation of Serbian rulers - the sons of ) and ''Lower Srem'' (present day Mačva). Kingdom of Srem under the rule of Stefan Dragutin was actually Lower Srem, but some historical sources mention that Stefan Dragutin also ruled over Upper Srem and Slavonia . After Dragutin died (in 1316 ), new ruler of the ''Kingdom of Srem'' became his son, king Vladislav II , which ruled this state until 1325 . Under the rule of Monastery on Mount 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 conquering the town of Niš and the surrounding counties, and to the south by acquiring territories in Macedonia . Stefan Dečanski was worthy of his father and built the Visoki Dečani Monastery in Metohia — the most monumental example of Serbian medieval architecture — that earned him his nickname. ]] Medieval Serbia enjoyed a high political, economic, and cultural reputation in Europe. It was one of the few states that did not practice the feudal order. Medieval Serbia reached its apex in the mid-14th century, during the rule of Tzar which gradually spread from Asia to Europe conquering Byzantium first and then the remaining Balkans states. Turkish conquest See Also: History of Ottoman Serbia ]] Two of the most powerful Serbian barons in the Serbian Empire, the brothers Mrnjavcevic, gathered a great Army to fight and push back the Turks from Europe. They marched into Turkish territory in 1371 to attack the enemy but they were too confident in themselves. They built a camp overnight near the river Marica at Chermen in today's Bulgaria , and started celebrating and getting drunk. During the night, a detachment of Turkish forces attacked the drunk Serbian knights and drove them back to the river. Most of the Serbs were either drowned or killed, thereby annihilating the Serbian army which was gathered from southern states. Having defeated the Serbian army in two crucial battles: on the banks of the river Marica in 1371 — where the forces of Serbian noblemen Mrnjavcevic from Macedonia were defeated, and on Kosovo Polje (Kosovo Field) in 1389 , where the vassal troops commanded by Prince Lazar — the strongest regional ruler in Serbia at the time —killed Turkish Sultan Murat but suffered a defeat, due to the legendary "sudden departure" of Brankovic's Serbian troops. 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 instable period marked by the rule of Prince Lazar's son — despot Stefan Lazarević — a true European-style knight a military leader as well as a poet, and his cousin Đurađ Branković , who moved the Capital north — to the newly built fortified town of Smederevo . The Turks continued their conquest until they finally seized the entire norhern Serbian territory in 1459 when Smederevo fell into their hands. Only free Serbian territories were parts of Bosnia and Zeta. But they lasted only until 1496. The present-day Serbian territory would be ruled by the Ottoman Empire for the next four centuries. From the 14th century onward an increasing number of Serbs began migrating to the north to the region today known as Vojvodina , which was under the rule of the Kingdom Of Hungary in that time. The Hungarian kings encouraged the immigration of Serbs to the kingdom, and hired many of them as soldiers and border guards. Therefore, the Serb population of this region highly increased. During the struggle between the Ottoman Empire and Hungary, this Serb population performed an attempt of the restoration of the Serbian state. In the Battle Of Mohač on August 29 1526 , Ottoman Turkey destroyed the army of Hungarian - Czech King Louis Jagellion , who was killed on the battlefield. After this battle Hungary ceased to be independent state and much of its former territory became part of the Ottoman Empire. Soon after the Battle of Mohač, leader of Serbian mercenaries in Hungary, Jovan Nenad established his rule in Bačka , northern Banat and a small part of Srem (These three regions are now parts of Vojvodina ). He created an ephemeral independent state, with city Subotica as its capital. At the pitch of his power, Jovan Nenad crowned himself in Subotica for Serb emperor. Taking advantage of the extremely confused military and political situation, the Hungarian noblemen from the region joined forces against him and defeated the Serbian troops in the summer of 1527 . Emperor Jovan Nenad was assassinated and his state collapsed. European powers, and Austria in particular, fought many wars against the Ottoman Empire, 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 sultan Murad III retaliated by burning the remains of St Sava — the most sacred thing for all Serbs, honored even by Muslim s of Serbian origin. Serbs created another center of resistance in Hercegovina 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 ( and the Dalmatian Coast to the Danube basin and Old Serbia (Macedonia, Raška, 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 Ottoman reprisal and living in a Christian state, Serbs abandoned their homesteads and headed north lead by Patriarch Arsenije Čarnojević . Another important episode in Serbian history took place in 1716 – 18 , 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-Ottoman war launched by Prince Eugene Of Savoy . The Serbs sided once again with Austria. After a peace treaty was signed in Požarevac, the Ottomans 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-Ottoman war was the so called Dubica War ( 1788 – 91 ), 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 See Also: History of Modern Serbia Serbia gained its autonomy from the Ottoman Empire in two uprisings in 1804 (led by Đorđe Petrović - Karađorđe) and 1815 (led by Miloš Obrenović ), although Turkish troops continued to garrison the capital, Belgrade , until 1867 . 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 . Serbia was a Principality or kneževina (knjaževina), between 1817 and 1882 , and a Kingdom between 1882 and 1918 , during which time the internal politics revolved largely around dynastic rivalry between the Obrenović and Karađorđević families. This period was marked by the alternation of two dynasties descending from Đorđe Petrović — Karađorđe, leader of the First Serbian Uprising and Miloš Obrenović , 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 1849 ]] During the Revolutions Of 1848 , the Serbs in the Austrian Empire proclaimed Serbian autonomous province known as Serbian Vojvodina . By a decision of the Austrian emperor, in November 1849 , this province was trasformed into the Austrian crownland known as the Vojvodina Of Serbia And Tamiš Banat (Dukedom of Serbia and Tamiš Banat). Against the will of the Serbs, the province was abolished in 1860 , but the Serbs from the region gained another opportunity to achieve their political demands in 1918. Today, this region is known as Vojvodina . 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'état in 1903 , bringing Karađorđe'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 Liberty" by John Stuart Mill 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 – 13 , terminated the Turkish domination in the Balkans. Turkey was pushed back towards the Bosporus, and national Balkan states were created in the territories it withdrew from. Serbia in World War I See Also: Serbian Campaign (World War I) The June 28 , 1914 assassination of Austrian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo , served as a pretext for the Austrian declaration of war on Serbia, marking the beginning of World War I , despite Serbia's acceptance (on July 25 ) of nearly all of Austria-Hungary 's demands. The Serbian Army defended the country and won several victories, but it was finally overpowered by the forces of Germany , Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria , and had to withdraw from the national territory marching across the Albania n mountain ranges to the Adriatic Sea . On 16 August Serbia was promised by the Entente the territories of Srem, Bačka, Baranja, eastern Slavonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and eastern Dalmatia as a reward after the war. Having recuperated on Corfu the Serbian Army returned to combat on the Thessaloniki front together with other Entente forces comprising France , the United Kingdom , Russia , Italy and the United States . In World War I, Serbia had 1,264,000 casualties — 28% of its 4½m population, which also represented 58% of its male population — a loss from which it never fully recovered. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia See Also: History of The Kingdom of Yugoslavia A successful Allied offensive in September 1918 secured first Bulgaria's surrender and then the liberation of the occupied Serbian territories (November 1918 ). On November 25, the Assembly of Serbs , Bunjevci , and other nations of Vojvodina in Novi Sad voted to join the region to Serbia. Also, on November 29 the National Assembly Of Montenegro voted for union with Serbia, and two days later an assembly of leaders of Austria–Hungary's southern Slav regions voted to join the new State Of Slovenes, Croats And Serbs . With the end of World War I and the collapse of both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires the conditions were met for proclaiming the Kingdom Of Serbs, Croats And Slovenes 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. Trying to match this challenge and prevent any further weakening of the country, King 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 Alexander I. 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 Marseille by a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization — an extreme nationalist organization in Bulgaria that had plans to annex territories along the eastern and southern Yugoslav border — with the cooperation of the Ustaše — a Croatian fascist separatist organization, although some Croatian and independent scholars do not believe Croatian cooperation was provided or even necessary. It is possible to believe this without being a fascist sympathizer or a Catholic apologist. The international political scene in the late 1930s 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 was losing its strongholds and its sponsors were losing their strength. Croatian leader Vlatko Maček and his party managed to extort the creation of the Croatian banovina (administrative province) in 1939. The agreement specified that Croatia was to remain part of Yugoslavia, but it was hurriedly building an independent political identity in international relations. Serbia in World War II , 1941-1944]] At the beginning of the 1940s , 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. The 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 set up as another puppet state under Serbian army general Milan Nedić . The northern territories were annexed by Hungary, and eastern and southern territories to Bulgaria. Kosovo and Metohia 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, which also seized the islands in the Adriatic. In Serbia, the German occupation authorities organized several concentration camps for Jews and members of the partisan resistance movement. The biggest ones were Banjica and Sajmište near Belgrade , where, according to the most conservative estimates, around 40,000 Jews were killed. In all those camps, some 90 percent of the Serbian Jew population perished. In the Bačka region annexed by Hungary, numerous Serbs and Jews were killed in 1942 raid by the Hungarian authorities. The persecutions against ethnic Serb population also occurred in the region of Syrmia , which was controlled by the Independent State Of Croatia and in the region of Banat , which was under direct German control. The ruthless attitude of the German occupation forces and the s according to the prices of that period. Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia See Also: History of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia While the war was still raging, in , Slovenia , Bosnia And Herzegovina , Macedonia and Montenegro and two Autonomous Region s within Serbia — Vojvodina and Kosovo And Metohija . The Serbs were both the most numerous and the most widely distributed of the Yugoslav peoples. The 1974 constitution produced a significantly less centralized federation, increasing the Autonomy of Yugoslavia's republics as well as the autonomous provinces of Serbia. When Tito died in 1980 , he was succeeded by a rotating presidency that led to a further weakening of ties between the republics. During the 1980s the republics pursued significantly different economic policies, with Slovenia and Croatia allowing significant market-based reforms, while Serbia kept to its existing program of state ownership. This, too, was a cause of tension between north and south, as Slovenia in particular experienced a period of strong growth. The break-up of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke up in 1991/1992 following the independence of Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia And Herzegovina , and Macedonia . Two remaining republics of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro , formed in 1992 a new federation named Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia (In 2003 this state was transformed into the State Union of Serbia And Montenegro ). Despite the civil wars in neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia And Herzegovina , Serbia remained peaceful until 1998, although part of its leadership and institutions supported Bosnian and Croatian Serbs who were one of the sides in these wars by arming and directing their troops. Between ). Slobodan Milošević remained in power after the Kosovo conflict. On October 5 , 2000 after demonstrations and fighting with police, he was overthrown. The appointment of Vojislav Koštunica became legal when on the following morning, Milošević publicly aknowledged the uprising and thus conceded his presidency. Following parliamentary elections in January 2001 , Zoran Đinđić became Prime Minister. Đinđić was assassinated in Belgrade on March 12 , 2003 by assailants believed to be connected with Organized Crime . Immediately after the assassination, a state of emergency was declared under Nataša Mićić , acting Prime Minister for the Republic of Serbia. In 2002 the Federal Parliament in Belgrade agreed to a more relaxed federation, which would see the national name change from Yugoslavia to the State Union of the Republics of Serbia and Montenegro. The transitional ceremony was inaugurated in Februay 2003. ''(for more, go to Serbia And Montenegro )'' SEE ALSO
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