 HISTORY |
 I. Medieval Serbia |
During the A.D. 500's and 600's, various groups of Slavs, including the ancestors of the Serbs, settled in the Balkan Peninsula in the area of present-day Serbia.
Each group had its own leader until the late 1100's, when Stefan Nemanja, a warrior and chief, formed the first united Serbian state. During the 1300's, Emperor Stefan Dusan led the country in successful wars against the Byzantine Empire.
Medieval Serbia had a high political, economic and cultural reputation in Medieval Europe, and reached its apex in mid-14th century. This is the period of the Code, frescoes and the architecture of the medieval monasteries decorating Dusanov 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 lands are eternal civilizational monuments of the Serbian citizens. Tzar Stefan Dusan doubled the size of his kingdom seizing territories to the south, southeast and east at the expense of Byzantium.
The Serbian empire began to break up after Tzar Stefan Dusan's death in 1355. He was succeeded by his son Uros called the Weak, a term that could also be applied to the state of the kingdom slowly sliding into feudal anarchy. This is a period marked by the Ottoman Turk sultanate gradually spreading from Asia to Europe and conquering Byzantium first, and then the other Balkan states. The Ottoman Empire, based in what is now Turkey, defeated Serbia in the Battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389. The battle remained of great importance to Serbians for centuries as it basically defined Serbia's fate.
| II. The Ottoman Empire |
The Ottoman Empire conquered Serbia in the mid-1400's and ruled the region for more than 400 years. Noteworthy is that European countries, and Austria in particular, fought many wars against Turkey, relying on the help of the Serbs that lived under Ottoman rule.
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) the alliance 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 move north with them to the Austrian territories. Having to choose between Turkish vengeance and living in a Christian state, Serbs massively abandoned their homes and headed north lead by their patriarch Arsenije Carnojevic. Many areas in southern Balkans were de-populated in the process, and certain areas such as Raska, Kosovo, Metohija and to a certain extent Macedonia, were islamized… a process whose effects are still visible today.
Nevertheless Serbs never lost their national pride. Djordge Petrovic, a Serbian peasant who was nicknamed Black George, led an uprising against the Ottomans in 1804. Later, Milos Obrenovic, led a second revolt in 1815.
Serbia regained independence only in 1878, following the Ottoman Empire's defeat against Russia in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878.
In the First Balkan Wars (1912-1913), Serbia and the other Balkan states gained control of almost all of the Ottoman Empire's territory in Europe. The Turkish Empire was facing a deep internal crisis without any hope to recover, and most Christian / Orthodox countries under its authority grabbed the opportunity for national revolutions. The national Serbian revolution was followed by a social revolution, which influenced the introduction of "bourgeois" society values.
| III. World War I and The kingdom of Yugoslavia |
In the early 1900's, various economic and political conflicts developed between Serbia and Austria-Hungary. In June 1914, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Serb from the ancient Province of Bosnia-Herzegovina in Austria-Hungary. The assassination lead to World War I, which began a month later when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia.
After the first World War ended in 1918, Serbia led the way in forming the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The kingdom was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929 but soon after, Croatian resistance to this new kingdom's authority prompted King Alexander I to split the traditional regions among nine new administrative provinces.
| IV. World War II and the creation of the Socialistic Federation of Yugoslavia |
During World War II (1939-1945), the Axis powers -led by Germany and Italy- occupied Yugoslavia and divided it among them. Most of Serbia was under German occupation. A group of Communists led by Josip Broz Tito (1896-1980) drove out the occupation forces. After the war, Tito and the Communists founded Yugoslavia with a federal system of government. Under this system, a central government and the republics shared power. Serbia became one of the country's six republics. In order to prevent renewed Serbian domination, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Montenegro were given separate and equal republican status within the new socialist federation of Yugoslavia; Kosovo and Vojvodina were made autonomous provinces within Serbia.
Tito was initially linked to Stalin, but he soon split in order to establish his own brand of socialism. "Titoism" gave him a leading role in the Cold War as the leader of Yugoslavia - a "non-aligned state". Tito established strict rules against the expression of "nationalism," and his unique brand of totalitarianism successfully kept the peace within Yugoslavia. Tito had killed many of his opponents after he secured victory in 1945, and throughout his leadership he imprisoned activists for nationalist movements.
Post-war Yugoslavia was a socialist state based on the Communist party, the Jugoslavija Narodna Armija (JNA), the Police (or militia) and the concept of workers' self-management. For 45 years, Tito's totalitarianism kept ethnic peace within Yugoslavia. The concept that he continually advocated was called "Brotherhood and Unity."
Serbian communists played a leading role in Yugoslavia's political life for four decades after World War II. Under communist rule, Serbia was transformed from an agrarian to an industrial society. As the economy began to fail in the 1980s, Albanians in Kosovo, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina slowly requested independence from Yugoslavia. In 1989 Serbia imposed one more time direct rule over those provinces.
On May 4, 1980, Tito died at age 88 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. After his death, there was increasing resentment of centralized government control. The state-run socialist economy continued to stagnate, as was the case in most of communist Eastern Europe. It was compounded by two facts: a return of the masses of Yugoslav guest-workers who returned home in the face of a depressed economy in Western Europe; and by the end of the favourable position Yugoslavia had held as a non-aligned nation between the US and USSR during the Cold War. Nationalist demands and calls for increased autonomy grew among the various ethnic groups of Yugoslavia. Deteriorating economic circumstances led to ethnic tensions, as nationalist politicians sought scapegoats to blame for the difficult economic times. Increasingly, there were fears by other groups of Serb domination in the region. In the spring of 1981 clashes occurred in Kosovo between the Serb administration and numerous Kosovo Albanians calling for status as the seventh republic, but not for independence. This situation led to bloody and violent demonstrations, which were severely suppressed by the police as well as by tanks of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA).
| V. The black years: Slobodan Milosevic |
In May 1986, Slobodan Milosevic, a former manager of a gas company, became head of the communist party of Serbia and stressed Serbian ultra-nationalism. His wife, Mirjana Markovic, played a key role in his decision-making process and some analysts say that her commitment to Serb nationalism runs deeper than her husband's. In 1984, Milosevic changed careers and entered politics. Stambolic, who became President of the Serbian Communist organization, appointed Milosevic head of the Belgrade Party Committee. In 1986, Stambolic moved on to become President of Serbia and Milosevic assumed Stambolic's old position. But in 1989, after working the backrooms of the party machine, Milosevic turned on his former mentor and friend and orchestrated his ouster as president of Serbia - a job Milosevic assumed himself. He's been the key figure in the Balkans ever since.
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Milosevic carved a place for himself in Yugoslav politics in Kosovo, the heart of Serbia's once great medieval past. His success was very much owed to being in the right place at the right time. As a high-level Communist bureaucrat in 1987 he travelled to a suburb of Pristina, Kosovo's capital, to meet with Communist party delegates. His meeting was interrupted by thousands of angry Serbs: the minority Serbs were growing dissatisfied with the constitutional order in Kosovo as imposed by the country's Communist founder Josip Broz Tito. The angry mob of Serbs said they were second-class citizens in Kosovo and that the Albanians had far too much authority. As the police pushed the crowd of Serb demonstrators back, Milosevic told the crowd that "No one will dare beat you again." He stayed talking with the Serbs for hours, hearing all their complaints about their fate in Kosovo. The hitherto almost non-entity with few of the skills to be a mass leader had become the savior of the Serbs and Serbia.
The 600th anniversary of the battle of Kosovo Polje on June 28, 1989 provided Milosevic with an opportunity to clearly state his support for the Serb nation, demonstrating pure Serbian chauvinism by claiming tighter control over Kosovo. Yugoslavia's constitution in 1974 gave autonomy to the Albanians in Kosovo. While they did not gain republic status as they had hoped, they were a republic in all but name. For many Serbs this was a betrayal of their interests, especially since Kosovo plays such an important role in Serbian history. To them, the Albanian presence in Kosovo was a result of Serbia's occupation by the Ottoman Turks, which began with Serbia's heroic defeat in Kosovo in 1389, the defining moment in Serb history.
Autonomy for Kosovo, many argued, was a deliberate attempt to weaken Serbia and an infringement of its sovereignty over a region that they see as an integral part of Serbia. After all, the country's other republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Macedonia) exercised full control over their republics, why not the Serbs as well. For many Serbs, while the Albanians may very well be a majority in Kosovo, they are also a minority in Serbia.
Milosevic used the Serbs' discontent with the status quo in Kosovo to catapult him to power - first in Serbia, the largest and most powerful republic in Yugoslavia and later to the presidency of Yugoslavia (now containing only Serbia and Montenegro.)
Milosevic's very real desire to make Kosovo Serbian again unleashed the forces that subsequently destroyed Yugoslavia. Leaders of the country's other republics saw the writing on the wall and interpreted Milosevic's Kosovo policy as a desire to build a "Greater Serbia", not a multinational and tolerant Yugoslavia. In March 1989 the autonomous status of Vojvodina and Kosovo was annulled, and those regions, against their collective wills, again became integral parts of Serbia. The dismantling of Tito's multi-ethnic Yugoslavia was underway.
In 1990 elections were held within Yugoslavia. Only in Montenegro and Serbia did the communist parties win, while nationalist parties came into power in the four other federal republics. The nationalist victories were in many ways a reaction against a fear of increasing Serb power. After the elections Croats and Slovenians abandoned the idea of a unified Yugoslavia, left the FRY, and were recognized by European countries as independent states. Franjo Tudjman, the new Croatian president promised the voters "a strong, democratic and independent Croatia within its historical borders." Serb President Milosevic stated that "in case of the ruin of Yugoslavia, the borders of Serbia must be redefined, because a future Serb state must include all areas where Serbs live."
After an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Slovenia's separation in 1991, Serb elements of the Yugoslav armed forces moved to Croatia. In March 1992, the republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence. Fighting then broke out in Bosnia-Herzegovina, pitting ethnic Serbs, who opposed independence, against Bosnian Muslims and Croats. In April 1992, Serbia and Montenegro formed a new Yugoslavia. Milosevic was reelected in December 1992.
In late 1995, the government of Croatia and Croatian Serb leaders agreed to end the war in Croatia. Also in late 1995, representatives of Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia signed a peace plan for Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In 1997, Milosevic's second term as president of Serbia ended. Yugoslavia's parliament elected Milosevic president of Yugoslavia, though some members boycotted the vote.
In early 1998, Serbian police attacked Kosovo in what Milosevic said was a crackdown on the Kosovo Liberation Army, which demanded independence for Kosovo. Serbian forces destroyed villages in the province and drove many of Kosovo's Albanians from their homes.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) sponsored peace talks in early 1999, but Serbian delegates rejected the peace plan. In March, NATO began air strikes against military targets in Yugoslavia to force the government to accept the peace plan. But Serb attacks against Muslims continued, and hundreds of thousands of people fled from Kosovo. In June, however, Serbian military commanders agreed to withdraw forces from Kosovo, and NATO stopped the bombing after the withdrawal had begun and sent an international peacekeeping force to Kosovo. The refugees returned to Kosovo, but tensions ran high between Serbs and Albanians in the province.
Opposition to Milosevic's rule grew within Serbia. However, the government seized or interfered with opposition newspapers and broadcasters, and protesters met resistance from police forces. Most analysts accept that the break up of Yugoslavia, which brought war to Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo was not the result of submerged ethnic hatreds but of the very real efforts of the country's politicians.
In Yugoslavian presidential elections in 2000, opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica won significantly more votes than Milosevic. However, Milosevic and his allies claimed that a runoff election was necessary. The opposition claimed victory, and protesters flooded the streets of Serbia's major cities to show their support for Kostunica. Police forces were overwhelmed by the size of the protests, and Milosevic was ousted from power. More than any other leader, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was blamed for the tragic events that swept the region. He's an extraordinary political survivor whose twelve years in power are devoid of any real successes yet he remained not only in power, but by all accounts still had the support of the majority of the Serb people until the elections of 2000. Few leaders could boast such a contradiction. He oversaw the break-up of Yugoslavia, failed to secure his vision for the Serbs of Bosnia or Croatia, the economy of the once prosperous country all but bottomed out, and then he brought war to the country.
| VI. The new Republic of Serbia |
There have been three countries known as Yugoslavia in this century. The first, 1918-1941, ultimately failed to resolve ethnic tensions especially between Serbs and Croats, the second Yugoslavia (1945-1992) again failed to resolve the country's ethnic questions, the third Yugoslavia of Slobodan Milosevic headed for collapse for its failure to solve the Albanian question without war.
Today, Serbia has a strong democratic and reform oriented government. Eighteen parties and one labour union gathered as DOS, the Democratic opposition of Serbia, won the parliamentary and presidential elections in late 2000. At this stage DOS holds all key positions in federal and Serbian government. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) is comprised of two republics - Serbia and Montenegro, both of which in March 2002 chose to keep separated economical systems but to join their efforts toward a fast association with the European Union (EU).
On October 5th 2000, former president of FRY, Slobodan Milosevic, was ousted. After ten years of suffering, Serbian people chose to elect DOS because it promised fast and thorough economical reforms, rule of law and close cooperation with the international community.
Led by FRY president Vojislav Kostunica, federal prime minister Miroljub Labus, member of the strongest Serbian non-governmental group G17 and Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic, leader of the Democratic Party (DS), the country made considerable achievements both on local and international levels. Within a year Serbia restored its relations with G7 group of countries, strengthened its already close ties with Russia and China, substantially improved its relations with neighbouring countries and reached an agreement with its federal partner Republic of Montenegro about future relations.
Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia and Montenegro have signed an agreement which will consign the name Yugoslavia to history. Under the deal, the two remaining partners in the Yugoslav Federation will become two semi-independent states, running their own economies, currencies and customs systems. The new entity, to be called "Serbia and Montenegro", will however retain some federal institutions, like the presidency, and the defence and foreign ministries. The deal was reached under the mediation of the European Union, and signed by Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Hailed as a landmark accord, Montenegro has nonetheless reserved the right to take the issue of independence to a referendum after three years. But the deal will resolve any immediate demands by Montenegro for full independence from the dominant Serbian republic. The West was keen to prevent Montenegro splitting away, fearing that this would send a signal to Albanians in Kosovo and Macedonia and Serbs in Bosnia that regional boundaries in the Balkans can be redrawn. The EU stepped into discussions after talks between the two sides broke down last November. Both sides were told that reaching an agreement would assist their efforts to join the Western club. "This is an extraordinary step forward in terms of stabilizing the region," Mr. Solana said. Mr. Kostunica and Mr. Djukanovic joined the EU leaders in Barcelona for lunch. Montenegro's campaign for independence began with the election in June 1998 of Mr. Djukanovic, a leading opponent of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. Mr. Djukanovic promised the tiny 650,000-strong Adriatic republic a referendum on the issue. Both republics have now the right to hold a referendum on independence after three years. "The agreement does not jeopardize the basic right of every people to re-examine after a certain period their stand on the future of the state," he told reporters after the accord was signed. |
