After the Grand Principality of Serbia emerged, it gradually expanded during the 12th century, encompassing various neighbouring regions, including territories of Raška (Serbian Cyrillic: Рашка; Latin: Rascia), modern Montenegro, Herzegovina, and southern Dalmatia.

It was founded by Grand Prince Vukan, who initially served as the regional governor of the principality (c. 1082), appointed by King Constantine Bodin.

Through diplomatic ties with the Kingdom of Hungary, Vukan's successors managed to retain their self-governance, while also recognizing the supreme overlordship of the Byzantine Empire, up to 1180.

Meanwhile, Duklja emerged as the dominant Serbian principality, that gradually also included Travunija, Zahumlje, Bosnia and Serbia proper.

Mihailo was given the nominal title King of Slavs by the Pope after having left the Byzantine camp and supported a Slavic uprising in the Balkans, in which his son Bodin played a central part.

[12] Subordinate to him were local counts (titled župan), who seem to have been more or less autonomous in the internal affairs of their counties, but who obliged loyalty, and warfare support.

[14] Immediately after the Emperor's departure, Vukan broke the treaty and began to expand along the Vardar, obtaining much booty and taking the cities of Vranje, Skopje and Tetovo.

Kočapar's reign was short-lived, as he fell in battle during a conflict with Zahumlje; Vukan installed another member of the dynasty, Vladimir, to whom he married his daughter.

Upon spreading his influence in Duklja, Vukan invaded Byzantium once more in the spring of 1106, taking advantage of the Norman campaign, defeating co-emperor John II Komnenos, but then sent hostages in return for peace in November.

They subsequently installed their protégé, while ruler Đorđe took refuge in Serbia under the protection of Uroš and married his relative.

After a Byzantine invasion of the maritime, they nominally recognized Gradinja, resulting in a guerrilla war which ended with Đorđe's capture.

1127, a Byzantine–Hungarian war broke out, with the Hungarians taking over Belgrade, then penetrating to Niš, Sofia, and Philippopolis, after which John defeated them with infantry and navy on the Danube.

Jelena is sourced as having decided to massacre 68 aristocrats at the Arad assembly, due to their persuasion of Coloman to blind her husband earlier.

[19] A major war was about to erupt in the Balkans; Uroš II and Desa, in light of Byzantine retaliation, sought aid from their brother Beloš, the count palatine of Hungary.

Manuel I now put Tihomir at the Serbian throne; he was the son of Zavida, a close relative to Uroš II who had held Zahumlje.

As Nemanja had now become very powerful, and the Byzantines had wanted to see Serbia weak by dividing it, Manuel I now turned to the expelled brothers.

Nemanja decisively defeated him at Pantino, with Tihomir drowning in the Sitnica river, and then proceeded to capture his other brothers with whom he made peace and offered their former lands in return for recognizing him as the only ruler of Serbia.

Although not recorded in the historical sources, somewhere in the second half of the 12th century, Stari Ras was conquered and came under full Serbian control, becoming the centre of defence and residency for a long period.

[23] The important Via de Zenta, a trade route connecting the Adriatic with Serbia started from the mouth of the Bojana, the Shkodër (Skadar) port, (alternatively Bar then Cetinje) along the Drin Valley to Prizren, then to Lipljan, then through Novo Brdo to Vranje and Niš.

William, the archbishop of Tyre, when crossing Serbia for the Holy Land in 1168, he described the Serbs: "They are rich in herds and flocks and unusually well supplied with milk, cheese, butter, meat, honey and wax".

[24] In the 12th and 13th centuries the Republic of Ragusa benefited greatly by becoming a commercial outpost of the rising and prosperous Serbian state, especially after the signing of a treaty with Stefan the First-Crowned.

[25] Later, in 1268, Uroš signed a treaty with Ragusa imposing the, so-called, St. Demetrious Revenue (Svetodimitarski dohodak), by which Ragusans were to pay to Serbian king 2,000 hyperperi a year.