| Military of Serbia |
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Themilitary history ofSerbia spans over 1200 years on theBalkanpeninsula during the various forms of the Serbian state and Serbian military.
The Serbian army in the Middle Ages primarily consisted of light cavalry and infantry force armed withspears,javelins orbows. With the increasing wealth from mining, mercenaryknights were recruited to complement noble cavalry armed withbow andlance. This enabled the Serbs to fight effectively outside their mountain strongholds. The core of the army consisted of noblecavalry (vlastela) armed with lance and bow in theByzantine style in early medieval times. These were increasingly supplemented by western-style knights, mostly Germans (inEmperor Dušan reign).
Emperor Dušan's military tactics consisted of wedge-shaped heavy cavalry attacks with horse archers on the flanks. Many foreign mercenaries were in the Serbian army, mostlyGermans as cavalry andSpaniards as infantry. Serbian army that defeated the Bulgarians atBattle of Velbazhd in 1330 were composed of 15,000 Serbs, 2,000 Italians from the Kingdom of Naples and 1,000 German mercenaries,[1] Dušan also had personal mercenary guards, mainly German knights. A knight named Palman was the commander of this unit and was the leader of all German mercenaries. Light horses were provided byHungarian andCuman mercenaries. Later in the period, Serbian lance armedHussars took over this role. The infantry still included lightly armed javelin troops although the bow andcrossbow became the most important infantry weapon in the 14th century. A western-style charge by the armoured cavalry and knights was the main tactic that the infantry used to follow up.[2]Ragusan historianMavro Orbin recorded that PrinceLazar used cannons as early as 1373 in his war against Nikola Altamanovich in northern Serbia.[3] DespotStefan has armed hisknights with light firearms (musket "Fitiljača"), also withspears,swords,daggers,maces,bow andarrows,crossbows,shields,armours,halberd andcannons. He also introduced European-style knight tournaments.
The modern Serbian military dates back to theSerbian revolution which started in 1804 with theFirst Serbian Uprising againstthe Ottoman occupation of Serbia. The victories in the battles ofIvankovac (1805),Mišar (August 1806),Deligrad (December 1806) andBelgrade (November–December 1806), led to the establishment of thePrincipality of Serbia in 1817. The subsequentSecond Serbian Uprising of 1815–1817 led to full independence and recognition of theKingdom of Serbia and weakened theOttoman dominance in theBalkans. In November 1885 theSerbo-Bulgarian War occurred followingBulgarian unification and resulted in a Bulgarian victory. In 1912 theFirst Balkan War (1912–1913) erupted between theOttoman Empire and theBalkan League (Serbia, Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria). Balkan League victories in theBattle of Kumanovo (October 1912), theBattle of Prilep (November 1912), theBattle of Monastir (November 1912), theBattle of Adrianople (November 1912 to March 1913), and theSiege of Scutari (October 1912 to April 1913) resulted in the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, which lost most of its remaining Balkan territories per theTreaty of London (May 1913). Shortly after, theSecond Balkan War (June to August 1913) broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with the division of territory, declared war against its former allies, Serbia and Greece. Following a string of defeats, Bulgaria requested anarmistice and signed the 1913Treaty of Bucharest, formally ending the war.
Serbia's independence and growing influence threatened neighboringAustria-Hungary which led to theBosnian crisis of 1908–09. Consequently, from 1901, all Serbian males between the ages of 21 and 46 became liable for general mobilization.[4] Following theassassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in June 1914, Austria-Hungary implicated Serbians anddeclared war on Serbia (July 1914), which marked the beginning of theFirst World War of 1914–1918. Serbian forces repelled three consecutive invasions by Austria in 1914, securing the first major victories of the war for theAllies, but were eventually overwhelmed by the combined forces of theCentral Powers (October–November 1915) and forced toretreat throughAlbania (1915–1916) to theGreek island ofCorfu (1915–1916).
Serbian military activity after World War I took place in the context ofvarious Yugoslav armies until thebreak-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the restoration of Serbia as anindependent country in 2006.
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