ThePrincipality of Serbia was a state in theBalkans that came into existence as a result of theSerbian revolution which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Despite brutal oppression and retaliation by theOttoman authorities, the revolutionary leaders, firstKarađorđe and thenMiloš Obrenović, succeeded in their goal to liberate Serbia after centuries of Turkish rule.
At first, the principality included only the territory of the formerPashaluk of Belgrade, but in 1831–1833 it expanded to the east, south, and west. In the first decades of the principality, the population was about 85% Serb and 15% non-Serb. Of those, most wereVlachs, and there were some Turkicized Muslim Albanians, which were the overwhelming majority of the Muslims that lived inSmederevo,Kladovo andĆuprija. The new state aimed to homogenize its population, especially aftertwo Great Migrations of the Serbs also known as theGreat Exoduses of the Serbs, in 1690 and in 18th century, between 1718 and 1739, from various territories under the rule of theOttoman Empire, particularly the Kosovo Vilayet, to theKingdom of Hungary under theHabsburg monarchy.[2][3] As a result, from 1830 to 1876, it has been estimated that up to 150,000 Albanians that lived in the territories of the Principality of Serbiaemigrated or were expelled.[4]
In 1867 theOttoman army garrisons retreated from the Principality, securing itsde facto independence.[5] Serbia expanded further to the south-east in 1878, when it won full international recognition at theCongress of Berlin.
The elite of Serbia was divided into two camps, the liberals vs. the conservatives, which corresponded to the similar division in the Russian intelligentsia between the "Westernizers" vs. the "Slavophiles".[10] Many of the terms and ideas used in the debate in Serbia were borrowed directly from the Russian debate between Slavophiles and Westernizers.[10] The conservatives wanted an society dominated by the Orthodox Church, were suspicious of Western values, looked back towards an idealized version of the medieval Serbian empire and generally preferred to preserve the predominately rural Serb society.[10] The liberals looked towards the West as a model; wanted less power for the Orthodox Church; looked forward to the future, and favored reforms designed to transform Serbia into a modern industrial, urbanized society.[10] By the beginning of the 1880s, Serbia along with Montenegro were the only European nations that had no railroads.[11] The lack of railroads sparked a bitter debate in the parliament with the liberals pressing for a railroad while the conservatives were opposed, warning that the changes that would be introduced by the railroad would be the end of traditional Serb society.[11] One conservative deputy warned that building railroads would cause Serbia to "suffer the same fate of the Indians following the discovery of America...Columbus brought European culture to America, but with it also the chains of slavery".[12] There was also the question of independence vs. dependence as Serbia was very much in the Austrian sphere of influence both politically and economically until 1903, and Serbia had been bullied into signing a series of trade agreements with the Austrian empire that were highly disadvantageous from the Serb viewpoint.[11] Unable to generate much economic growth, Serbia was forced into debt with the Serb national debt raising from 16.5 million francs in 1880 to 903.8 million francs in 1914.[11] The two most popular political parties, the Progress Party and the Radical Party, both represented the liberal tendency in Serb politics.[11] However, the idea of "progress" generated fears of a loss of national identity and that all that made Serbia unique would disappear forever, which was expressed in novels by writers such asLaza Kostić,Đura Jakšić andStevan Sremac.[13] An editorial in the Belgrade newspaperDnevni List (Daily Newspaper) stated: "Nowhere else in the world can one see the miraculous and absurd situation that the modern ideas of political and social progress are advocated in parliament by village cash-loan givers, former municipal cops, and illiterate bench-sitters and chicken sellers".[11]
Serbia was a predominately agrarian society with most Serbs living in an extended family unit known as thezadruga.[14] Serbia had one of the highest birthrates in Europe with the population increasing by 71.3% between 1880-1914.[14] At least part of the population increase was due to the structure of thezadruga, which provided for sharing the burden of child-rearing while also ensuring that young man could marry without first owning land or learning a craft as was the norm in Western Europe.[14] Serb couples tended to marry young.[14] Serb society was extremely patriarchal with fathers and husbands having absolute authority over their wives and children.[14] Legally, a man remained a minor until his father died, and it was common for azadruga to be dominated by grandfathers who exercised absolute power over their sons and grandsons along with the women in thezadruga.[14] The German historian Marie-Jannine Calic wrote: "Thezadruga represented a community of property, life, work, and authority. Private property did not exist, not even money".[14] In the late 19th century, thezadruga started to break down in part because family units of about 20-40 people were too large to share the same plot of land; in part because of the coming of a market economy in place of the previous barter economy, which made it possible for a couple to break away from azadruga without suffering economic ruin; and in part because of a tendency of many young men to learn a trade or a craft in order to escape the patriarchalzadruga.[15] In the Ottoman era, the majority of the land was owned by Muslim pashas or beys, and in the aftermath of independence, the feudal estates of the Muslim aristocracy were broken up.[16] Serbia was one of the few places in Eastern Europe at the time where the peasantry owned their own land instead of working in a feudal estate owned by some nobleman.[16] However, land was owned by thezadruga instead of by individuals, and legally land owned by azadruga could only be divided in exceptional conditions.[16] Poverty was extreme in rural Serbia owning to the small size of the farms vs. the largezadrugas, and between 1910-1914 two-thirds of Serb farmers were not able to make an existential minimum.[17] Surveys revealed that half of Serb farmers did not own a yoke of oxen while a third did not own plows or even beds.[17] By October of each year, about 28% of rural Serbs suffered from food insecurity, and by the time of January–February about 46% of rural Serbs suffered from food insecurity.[18] The increasing population along with the poverty led to a tendency to increase farmland instead of increasing yields as it was common for farmers to turn woods and meadows into grain fields alongside a tendency to switch from a meat-based diet to a vegetarian diet.[17] The upper and middle classes in Serbia represented a small percentage of the population.[11] Besides for the royal family, Belgrade had only six millionaires in 1900.[11] In the cities such as Belgrade, people started to discard the traditional clothing in favor of Western style clothing by the 1890s as a symbol of modernity and progress.[19]
TheSerbo-Bulgarian War erupted on November 14, 1885, and lasted until November 28 of the same year. The war ended in defeat for Serbia, as it had failed to capture theSlivnitsa region which it had set out to achieve. Bulgarians successfully repelled the Serbs after the decisive victory at theBattle of Slivnitsa and advanced into Serbian territory takingPirot and clearing the way toNiš.
WhenAustria-Hungary declared that it would join the war on the side of Serbia, Bulgaria withdrew from Serbia leaving the Serbo-Bulgarian border precisely where it had been prior to the war. The peace treaty was signed on February 19, 1886, inBucharest. As a result of the war, European powers acknowledged the act ofUnification of Bulgaria which happened on September 6, 1885.
Territorial expansion of the Kingdom of Serbia in 1913Serbia in 1918 (27 November – 1 December,during de facto military demarcation)
Negotiations between Russia, Serbia and Bulgaria led to the Serbian-Bulgarian Treaty of Alliance of March 1912, which aimed to conquer and to divide the Ottoman held Macedonia. In May, a Serbian-Greek alliance was reached and in October 1912, a Serbia-Montenegro alliance was signed.[20]
After the war started, Serbia, together with Montenegro, conqueredPristina andNovi Pazar. At theBattle of Kumanovo Serbs defeated the Ottoman army and proceeded to conquerSkopje and the whole ofKosovo vilayet. The region ofMetohija was taken by Montenegro. AtBitola andOhrid Serbian army units established contact with the Greek army.Populations of ethnic Serbs and Albanians tended to shift following territorial conquests. As a result of the multi-ethnic composition of Kosovo, the new administrations provoked a mixed response from the local population. Serbs considered this a liberation.[21]
On November 29, 1913, theDrač County of the Kingdom of Serbia was established on the part of the territory of Albania taken from the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War. Serbian Drač County had four districts (Serbian:срез):Drač (Durrës),Lješ (Lezhë),Elbasan andTirana.[22][23]
After theFirst Balkan War of 1912, territories of Kosovo and north-western Macedonia were internationally recognised as a part of Serbia[24] and northern Metohija as a part of Montenegro at theTreaty of London of May 1913.[25] In a report toRome,Lazër Mjeda, Archbishop of Skopje, estimated that 25,000 Albanians were killed by Serbian forces during and after the conflict.[26]
The old disagreements regarding the territory ofMacedonia among the members of theBalkan League and primarily Serbia and Bulgaria, led to theSecond Balkan War. Here, Serbia, Greece, Romania, the Ottoman Empire, and Montenegro fought against Bulgaria in 1913.
The assassination ofArchduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 inSarajevo (then part ofAustria-Hungary) brought the tensions betweenAustria-Hungary andSerbia to a head. Behind the assassination in Sarajevo was the secret Serbian officers organizationBlack Hand.[27] The assassins were supported by an "underground railroad" of Serbian civilians and military officers that provided transportation and hid them; members of the Serbian military that trained them, encouraged them, and provided weapons, maps, and other information. After the assassination, the conspirators were arrested inBosnia-Herzegovina and tried inSarajevo in October 1914.
The political objective of the assassination was to break the southern Slav provinces off from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered a chain of international events that embroiled Russia and the major European powers in the conflict.
At the end of the war and the collapse ofAustria-Hungary, Serbia experienced a loss of 28 percent of its pre-war population[28] and went through radical changes after the liberation, all within days. On November 28, 1918, it absorbed theKingdom of Montenegro at thePodgorica Assembly.[29][30]
In 1888People's Radical Party led bySava Grujić andNikola Pašić came to power and a newconstitution, based on the liberalConstitution of Belgium was introduced. The lost war and the Radical Party's total electoral victory were some of the reasons why King Milan I abdicated in 1889. His son Alexander I assumed the throne in 1893 and in 1894 dismissed the constitution.
Jews from modern-day North Macedonia got their citizen rights after the region became a part of Kingdom of Serbia.[32]
KingAlexander I of Serbia and his unpopular wife QueenDraga were assassinated inside theRoyal Palace inBelgrade on the night of 28–29 May 1903. Other representatives of the Obrenović family were shot as well. This act resulted in the extinction of theHouse of Obrenović, which had been ruling Serbia since 1817.
After the May Coup the SerbianSkupština invited Peter Karađorđević to assume the Serbian crown asPeter I of Serbia. A constitutional monarchy was created with the militaryBlack Hand society operating behind the scenes. The traditionally good relations with Austria-Hungary ended, as the new dynasty relied on the support of theRussian Empire and closer cooperation withKingdom of Bulgaria.
In April 1904 the Friendship treaty and in June 1905 the customs union with Bulgaria were signed. In response Austria-Hungary imposed a Tariff War (Pig war) of 1906–1909. After the 1906 elections thePeople's Radical Party came to power. In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia, where Serbia had hoped to expand its territory.
Austria-Hungary had ambitions of imperialistic expansion and saw the Balkans in the same way that other colonial powers saw Africa or Asia. This idea was severely opposed by the Serbian public andintelligentsia, mainly gathered around Serbian Literary Herald (Srpski književni glasnik).[33]
Russia, theOttoman Empire, Britain, theKingdom of Italy, Serbia, thePrincipality of Montenegro,German Empire and France took an interest in these events. In April 1909, the 1878Treaty of Berlin was amended to accept the newstatus quo and bringing the crisis to an end. The crisis permanently damaged relations between Austria-Hungary on the one hand and Russia and Serbia on the other. The annexation and reactions to the annexation were some of the contributing causes of World War I.
Peter I after his coronation on September 21, 1904
During its existence, the Kingdom was ruled by two competing dynasties: theHouse of Obrenović and theHouse of Karađorđević.KingMilan Obrenović ruled from 6 March 1882 to 6 March 1889, when heabdicated the throne. He was succeeded by his son,Aleksandar Obrenović, who ruled from 6 March 1889 to 11 June 1903, when he was killed by a group of officers. The slaughter of the royal couple (the king andQueen Draga) by theBlack Hand shocked Europe. This opened the way for the descendants ofKarađorđe (Karageorge), regarded bySerbs throughout theBalkans as the man who threw off theTurkish yoke, to return to the throne.Petar Karađorđević was initially reluctant to accept the crown, disgusted as he was by thecoup d'état. However, he finally did accept and was the Kingdom's sovereign from 15 June 1903 to 1 December 1918, the day that theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed.
Serbia was geographically located in the path of several trade routes linking Western and Central Europe with Middle East. TheMorava Valley was part of the strategically important terrestrial route that linked Central Europe with Greece and Constantinople. During the 19th century major efforts were made to improve the transport in this connections. At theCongress of Berlin in 1878, Austria-Hungary helped Serbia to gain new territories, conditioning Serbia, however, to sign a new convention. The convention obliged Serbia to construct the railway line from Belgrade to Vranje and Turkish and Bulgarian borders in three years. In addition, the obligation to sign commercial contracts was imposed on Serbia, as well as a claim to carry out regulation works inĐerdap. Serbian Government approved this treaty by adopting the Law on Proclamation of the convention. Consequently,Serbian Railways were formed in 1881. The regular traffic on the railway line Belgrade–Niš started in 1884.[34]
^Bataković, Dušan T. (2011).Minorities in the Balkans: state policy and interethnic relations (1804–2004): Les minorites dans les Balkans. Balkanološki institut SANU. p. 98.ISBN9788671790680.
^Rama 2019, p. 72:The outcome of this policy was that since the beginning of the war in 1876, according to, Braha and Brestovci, about 150,000 Albanians living there had been gradually expelled from the Serb state or emigrated from there
^Olivera Milosavljević; (2002)U tradiciji nacionalizma ili stereotipi srpskih intelektualaca XX veka o "nama" i "drugima"(in Serbian) p. 80; Helsinški odbor za ljudska prava u Srbiji[1]Archived 2022-10-06 at theWayback Machine
^Geniş & Maynard 2009, pp. 556–557."Using secondary sources, we establish that there have been Albanians living in the area of Nish for at least 500 years, that the Ottoman Empire controlled the area from the fourteenth to nineteenth centuries which led to many Albanians converting to Islam, that the Muslim Albanians of Nish were forced to leave in 1878, and that at that time most of these Nishan Albanians migrated south into Kosovo, although some went to Skopje in Macedonia.
^Daskalovski 2003, p. 19. "The Serbian-Ottoman wars 1877/1878, followed mass and forceful movements of Albanians from their native territories. By the end of 1878 there were 60,000 Albanian refugees in Macedonia and 60,000–70,000 in the villayet of Kosova. At the 1878 Congress of Berlin, the Albanian territories of Niš, Prokuple, Kuršumlia, Vranje and Leskovac were given to Serbia."
^Stefanović 2005, pp. 469–470:Despite some voices of dissent, the Serbian regime 'encouraged' about 71,000 Muslims, including 49,000 Albanians, 'to leave'. The regime then gradually settled Serbs and Montenegrins in these territories. Prior to 1878, the Serbs comprised not more than one half of the population of Nis, the largest city in the region; by 1884 the Serbian share rose to 80 per cent. (..) The 1878 cleansing was a turning point because it was the first gross and large-scale injustice committed by Serbian forces against the Albanians. From that point onward, both ethnic groups had recent experiences of massive victimization that could be used to justify 'revenge' attacks. Furthermore, Muslim Albanians had every reason to resist the incorporation into the Serbian state.
^Bogdanović, Dimitrije; Radovan Samardžić (1990).Knjiga o Kosovu: razgovori o Kosovu. Književne novine. p. 208.ISBN9788639101947.Archived from the original on October 6, 2022. RetrievedAugust 2, 2011.На освојеном подручју су одмах успостављене грађанске власти и албанска територија је Де Факто анектирана Србији : 29. новембра је основан драчки округ са четири среза (Драч, Љеш, Елбасан, Тирана)....On conquered territory of Albania was established civil government and territory of Albania was de facto annexed by Serbia: On November 29 was established Durres County with four srez (Durres, Lezha, Elbasan, and Tirana)
^Strachan, Hew (2001) The First World War Volume 1: To Arms (p. 46). Oxford University Press. Oxford.ISBN0-19-926191-1
^Sulović, V; Pavlović, B (September 1998). "[125 years' of the Serbian Medical Society]".Srpski Arhiv Za Celokupno Lekarstvo.126 (9–10):402–407.PMID9863416.
Frucht, Richard, ed.Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe: From the Congress of Vienna to the Fall of Communism (2000)onlineArchived 2018-08-19 at theWayback Machine
Geniş, Şerife; Maynard, Kelly Lynne (2009). "Formation of a Diasporic Community: The history of migration and resettlement of Muslim Albanians in the Black Sea Region of Turkey".Middle Eastern Studies.45 (4):553–569.doi:10.1080/00263200903009619.S2CID143742189.
Radovanović, Bojan, and Mioljub Veličković. 110 years of the National Bank: 1884–1994: establishment and beginning of operation of the Privileged National Bank of the Kingdom of Serbia. National bank of Yugoslavia, 1994.
Stefanović, Djordje (2005). "Seeing the Albanians through Serbian eyes: The Inventors of the Tradition of Intolerance and their Critics, 1804–1939".European History Quarterly.35 (3):465–492.doi:10.1177/0265691405054219.hdl:2440/124622.S2CID144497487.
Reiss, Rodolphe Archibald.The Kingdom of Serbia, 1919.
Šojić, Milan, and Ljiljana Đurđević. "Dinar Exchange Rate in the Kingdom of Serbia 1882–1914." The Experience of Exchange Rate Regimes in Southeastern Europe in a Historical and Comparative Perspective, ONB Workshop. No. 13. 2007.
Stavrianos, L.S. The Balkans Since 1453 (1958), major scholarly history;online free to borrow
f Annexed by Italy (1941–1943) and Germany (1943–1944). Smaller part annexed by the Independent State of Croatia (1941–1944).
g North Macedonia's official and constitutional name was the Republic of Macedonia until 2019. It was known in the United Nations asthe former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia because of anaming dispute withGreece.
h Free Territory was established in 1947. Its administration was divided into two areas (Zone A) and (Zone B). Free Territory was de facto taken over by Italy and SFRY in 1954.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)
