PEOPLE
Serbia
The Serbian state as known today was created in 1170 A.D. by Stefan
Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjic dynasty. Serbia's religious
foundation came several years later when Stefan's son, canonized
as St. Sava, became the first archbishop of a newly autocephalous
Serbian Orthodox Church (1219). Thus, at this time, the Serbs
enjoyed both temporal and religious independence. After a series
of successions, Serbia fell under the rule of King Milutin, who
improved Serbia's position among other European countries. Milutin
also was responsible for many of the brightest examples of Medieval
Serbian architecture. Moreover, Serbia began to expand under Milutin's
reign, seizing territory in nearby Macedonia from the Byzantines.
Under Milutin's son, Stefan Dusan (1331-55), the Nemanjic dynasty
reached its peak, ruling from the Danube to central Greece. However,
Serbian power waned after Stefan's death in 1355, and in the Battle
of Kosovo (June 15, 1389) the Serbs were catastrophically defeated
by the Turks. By 1459, the Turks exerted complete control over
all Serb lands.
For more
than 3 centuries--nearly 370 years--the Serbs lived under the
yoke of the Ottoman sultans. As a result of this oppression, Serbs
began to migrate out of their native land (present-day Kosovo
and southern Serbia) into other areas within the Balkan Peninsula,
including what is now Vojvodina and Croatia. When the Austrian
Hapsburg armies pushed the Ottoman Turks south of the Danube in
1699, many Serbs were "liberated," but their native
land was still under Ottoman rule.
Movements
for Serbian independence began more than 100 years later with
uprisings under the Serbian patriots Karageorge (1804-13) and
Milos Obrenovic (1815-17). After the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29,
Serbia became an internationally recognized principality under
Turkish suzerainty and Russian protection, and the state expanded
steadily southward. After an insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina
in 1875, Serbia and Montenegro went to war against Turkey in 1876-78
in support of the Bosnian rebels. With Russian assistance, Serbs
gained more territory as well as formal independence in 1878,
though Bosnia was placed under Austrian administration.
In 1908,
Austria-Hungary directly annexed Bosnia, inciting the Serbs to
seek the aid of Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece in seizing the
last Ottoman-ruled lands in Europe. In the ensuing Balkan Wars
of 1912-13, Serbia obtained northern and central Macedonia, but
Austria compelled it to yield Albanian lands that would have given
it access to the sea. Serb animosity against the Habsburgs reached
a climax on June 28, 1914, when the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand
was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip,
setting off a series of diplomatic and military initiatives among
the great powers that culminated in World War I.
Soon after
the war began, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces occupied
Serbia. Upon the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the war's end
in 1918, Vojvodina and Montenegro united with Serbia, and former
south Slav subjects of the Habsburgs sought the protection of
the Serbian crown within a kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.
Serbia was the dominant partner in this state, which in 1929 adopted
the name Yugoslavia.
The kingdom
soon encountered resistance when Croatians began to resent control
from Belgrade. This pressure prompted King Alexander I to split
the traditional regions into nine administrative provinces. During
World War II, Yugoslavia was divided between the Axis powers and
their allies. Royal army soldiers, calling themselves Cetnici
(Chetniks), formed a Serbian resistance movement, but a more determined
communist resistance under the Partisans, with Soviet and Anglo-American
help, liberated all of Yugoslavia by 1944. In an effort to avoid
Serbian domination during the postwar years, 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 Yugoslavia.
Despite
the attempts at a federal system of government for Yugoslavia,
Serbian communists played the leading role in Yugoslavia's political
life for the next 4 decades. As the Germans were defeated at the
end of World War II, Josip Broz Tito, a former Bolshevik and committed
communist, began to garner support from both within Yugoslavia
as well as from the Allies. Yugoslavia remained independent of
the U.S.S.R., as Tito broke with Stalin and asserted Yugoslav
independence. Tito went on to control Yugoslavia for 35 years.
Under communist rule, Serbia was transformed from an agrarian
to an industrial society. In the 1980s, however, Yugoslavia's
economy began to fail. With the death of Tito in 1980, separatist
and nationalist tensions emerged in Yugoslavia.
In the late 1980s, Slobodan Milosevic propelled himself to power in Belgrade by exploiting the fears of the small Serbian minority in Kosovo. In 1989, he arranged the elimination of Kosovo's autonomy in favor of more direct rule from Belgrade. Belgrade ordered the firing of large numbers of Albanian state employees, whose jobs were then taken by Serbs.
As a result of this oppression, Kosovo Albanian leaders led a peaceful resistance movement in the early 1990s and established a parallel government funded mainly by the Albanian diaspora.
Between 1991 and 1992, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia all seceded from Yugoslavia. On April 27, 1992 in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro joined in passing the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
When Kosovo's peaceful resistance movement failed to yield results, an armed resistance emerged in 1997 in the form of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The KLA's main goal was to secure the independence of Kosovo.
In late 1998, Milosevic unleashed a brutal police and military campaign against the separatist KLA, which included atrocities against civilian noncombatants. For the duration of Milosevic's campaign, large numbers of ethnic Albanians were either displaced from their homes in Kosovo or killed by Serbian troops or police. These acts, and Serbia's refusal to sign the Rambouillet Accords, provoked a military response from NATO, which consisted primarily of aerial bombing. The campaign continued from March through June 1999. After 79 days of bombing, Milosevic capitulated and international forces, led by NATO, moved into Kosovo. The international security presence, which is known as Kosovo Force (KFOR), works closely with the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to ensure protection for all of Kosovo's communities.
In March 2002, the Belgrade Agreement was signed by the heads of the federal and republican governments, setting forth the parameters for a redefinition of Montenegro's relationship with Serbia within a joint state. On February 4, 2003, the F.R.Y. parliament ratified the Constitutional Charter, establishing a new state union and changing the name of the country from Yugoslavia to Serbia and Montenegro.
On May 21, 2006, the Republic of Montenegro held a successful referendum on independence and declared independence on June 3. Thereafter, the parliament of Serbia stated that the Republic of Serbia was the continuity of the state union, changing the name of the country from Serbia and Montenegro to the Republic of Serbia, with Serbia retaining Serbia and Montenegro's membership in all international organizations and bodies.
On February 17, 2008, the UN-administered province of Kosovo declared its independence. The United States officially recognized Kosovo's independence the following day.
People (2004 est.)
Nationality: Noun--Serb(s); adjective--Serbian.
Population (2002 Republic census): 7,478,820.
Population growth rate: -3.5%.
Ethnic groups (2002 population census): Serbian 83%, Hungarian 4%, Bosnian 2%, Albanian 1%, Montenegrin 1%, other 9%.
Religions (2002 population census): Orthodox 85%, Roman Catholic 5.5%, Muslim 3%, Protestant 1%, other 5.5%.
Languages: Serbian 88%, Hungarian 3.8%, Bosnian 2%, Albanian 1%, others 5%.
Health: Infant mortality rate--8.1 deaths/1,000. Life expectancy--males 72.44 yrs., female 77.86 yrs.
