History of Serbia
Serbian revolution against Ottoman rule in 1817 marked the birth of the Principality of Serbia, which achieved de facto independence in 1867 and gained full recognition by the Great Powers in the Berlin Congress of 1878.
The Romans continued the expansion of Singidunum (modern capital Belgrade), Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica) and Naissus (Niš), among other centres, and a few remnants of monuments survive, such as Via Militaris, Trajan's Bridge, Diana Fortress, Felix Romuliana (UNESCO), etc.
[citation needed] The Neolithic Starčevo and Vinča cultures existed in or near Belgrade and dominated the Balkans (as well as parts of Central Europe and Asia Minor) about 8,500 years ago.
[6] The chief towns of Upper Moesia were: Singidunum (Belgrade), Viminacium (sometimes called municipium Aelium; modern Kostolac), Remesiana (Bela Palanka) Seventeen Roman Emperors were born in present-day Serbia.
[8] By the early 6th century South Slavs, present throughout the Byzantine Empire in large numbers,[9] merged with the native population (Celts, Dacians, Illyrians, Scythians, Thracians) and assimilated them,[10] forming the base of the ethnogenesis of modern Serbs.
Threatened by an alliance between the Byzantines and the Serbian state of Duklja, in 997 the Bulgarian tsar Samuel defeated and captured its Prince Jovan Vladimir and took control of the Serb lands again.
[35][36][37][38] 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.
Another important episode in the history of the region took place in 1716–18, when the territories ranging from Dalmatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgrade and the Danube basin became the battleground for a new Austria-Ottoman war launched by Prince Eugene of Savoy.
Vienna's strategy was that a liberal political system in Serbia would divert its impulse to foment nationalist unrest within its neighbors, and also delay its efforts to gain territory at the expense of the Ottoman Empire.
The successes included freedom from foreign rule, acquisition of land by the peasants, Belgrade becoming the political and cultural center, and the diffusion of adoption of modern European norms and economic institutions.
Further development of Serbia was characterized by general progress in economy, culture and arts, primarily owing to a wise state policy of sending young people to European capitals to get an education.
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.
[55] Pašić believed that Yugoslavia should be as centralized as possible, creating in place of distinct regional governments and identities a Greater Serbian national concept of concentrated power in the hands of Belgrade.
[56] However, what pushed the Kingdom into crisis was when a Serb representative opened fire on the opposition benches in the Parliament, killing two outright and mortally wounding the leader of the Croatian Peasants Party, Stjepan Radić in 1928.
Taking advantage of the resulting crisis, King Alexander I banned national political parties in 1929, assumed executive power, and renamed the country Yugoslavia.
The ruthless attitude of the German occupation forces and the genocidal policy of the Croatian Ustaša regime, aimed at Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-Ustaša Croats, created a strong anti-fascist resistance in the NDH.
[59] Slobodan Milošević leader of the League of Communists of Serbia since May 1986, became the champion of the Serbian Nationalists when on 24 Apr 1987 he visited Kosovo Polje and, after local Serbs had clashed with the police declared, 'No one has the right to beat you'.
Milosevic supporters gained control of three other constituent parts of Yugoslavia in what became known as the Anti-bureaucratic revolution, Vojvodina on 6 Oct 1988, Kosovo on 17 Nov 1988, and Montenegro on 11 Jan 1989.
In this speech Milošević's reference to the possibility of "armed battles" in the future of Serbia's national development was seen by many as presaging the collapse of Yugoslavia and the bloodshed of the Yugoslav Wars.
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia broke up in 1991/1992 in a series of wars following the independence declarations of Slovenia and Croatia on 25 Jun 1991, and Bosnia and Herzegovina on 5 Mar 1992.
The Yugoslav People's Army(JNA) tried and failed to prevent the separation of Slovenia in the Ten Day War 26 Jun – 6 Jul 1991 and completely withdrew by 26 Oct 1991.
From 24 March to 10 June 1999, NATO undertook an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia following a violent crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province of Kosovo.
An essential element of Milošević's grasp on power was his control of the Serbian police, a heavily armed force of some 100,000 that was responsible for internal security and which committed serious human rights abuses.
After an initial honeymoon period in the wake of 5 October, DSS and the rest of DOS, led by Đinđić and his DS, found themselves increasingly at odds over the nature and pace of the governments' reform programs.
Koštunica's party, having informally withdrawn from all DOS decision-making bodies, was agitating for early elections to the Serbian Parliament in an effort to force Đinđić from the scene.
After the initial euphoria of replacing Milošević's autocratic regime, the Serbian population, in reaction to this political maneuvering, was sliding into apathy and disillusionment with its leading politicians by mid-2002.
[66] The newly formed union government of Serbia and Montenegro reacted swiftly by calling a state of emergency and undertaking an unprecedented crackdown on organized crime which led to the arrest of more than 4,000 people.
[77] The Serbian government passed through weeks of severe crisis after the unilateral declaration of independence of its southern province of Kosovo on 17 February 2008, which was gradually recognized by the United States and numerous European Union countries.
[94] In December 2023, ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of President Vučić won a snap parliamentary election, gaining an absolute majority with more than half of the 250 seats in the National Assembly.
In 2013, the two sides began to normalise relations in accordance with the Brussels Agreement, but the process stalled in November 2018 after Kosovo imposed a 100 percent tax on importing Serbian goods.
