Highlights of Serb History

c. 600

Avars and masses of Slavs overflow the Balkan Peninsula. Between the years 626 and 641 the Slavic tribe of Serbs settles the grounds in central and west Balkans.

c. 850

The Serbs adopt Christianity and the newly established Slavonic liturgy.

9th and 10th centuries

First Serb states created in the mountainous regions of present-day Montenegro and Herzegovina struggle to maintain the independence from Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarians.

1034-1181

Duklja, led by Stefan Vojislav, emerges as the most powerful of Serb lands and manages to win its independence from Byzantium. Vojislav’s son Mihajlo (1055-92) is acknowledged as a king but in 12th c. Duklja looses its primate to Raška in the east.

1168-1371

Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjić dynasty, ascends the throne of Raška and unites all the Serb lands except Bosnia under his rule. In 1217 his son Stefan “Prvovenčani” (First-Crowned) secures the crown as the first king in the lineage while in 1219 Nemanja’s other son monk Sava (future saint) is granted to organize an independent church. Several kings to follow expand the state at the expanse of Byzantium and Bulgaria. Dušan the Mighty (1331-1355) is crowned emperor in 1345 and the archbishopric is raised to the status of patriarchate. Serbia reaches the height of its power during the Middle Ages. The year 1371 sees both the death of emperor Uroš the Weak, the last ruler of the dynasty, and the defeat of the most powerful Serbian nobles from Macedonia by the Turks.

1389

The battle of Kosovo: both the Turkish sultan Murad I and the leader of the united Serb forces prince Lazar die. Lazar’s son, 11-year-old Stefan, is forced to pay the tribute to the Turks.

1402-1499

Taking advantage of the defeat of the Turks at Angora by Tamerlaine and his Mongolians, Stefan Lazarević (1389-1427) and his successor Djuradj Branković (1427-1456) bring Serbia, now under the title of despotes (“lord”), to the new cultural and economic pinnacle. Squeezed between the Islamic Turks and the Catholic Hungarians, Serbia is the scene of recurring wars. Following the fall of Constantinople, Mahomet the Conqueror launches an offensive on Serbia and in 1459 Smederevo on the Danube, the last Serbian capital, is lost. In 1463 the Turks occupy Bosnia and execute its last king. In 1494 the first book in Serbian is printed in Cetinje (Montenegro) but the town is captured by the Turks two years later.

1557

Grand vizier Mehmed-pasha Soccolly, Serb by birth, restores the Patriarchy allowing the Serb church to take place of the vanished state.

1683-1699

With the defeat at the gates of Vienna the Turkish power crumbles and in 1689 Serbia is briefly liberated only to be lost again; tens of thousands flee Turkish revenge and settle in the north. The peace of Karlowitz (now Sremski Karlovci) in 1699 leaves the areas south of Sava and Danube under Turkish domination. In 18th c. Serbia is once again the bordering region disputed by two warring empires.

1804-1815

The rebellion against the local usurpers in the dissolving Turkish state rises to a full scale rising led by Djordje Petrović, known as Karadjordje (“Black George”). After significant successes the Serbs are defeated in 1813. Renewed Turkish terror results in one more uprising in 1815, this time led by Miloš Obrenović, who soon decides to take the course of compromise with the Ottoman Empire and gradually introduces autonomous rights.

1815-1830

Using all the available means, from bribing and begging to threatening, Miloš Obrenović assures and wideness the autonomy of Serbia under the hereditary rule of his family. His autocratic rule is met with resistance among younger intelligence and the other prominent people that had no share in the rule so that in 1835 Serbia receives her first short-lived constitution and abandons all remains of feudalism. The year 1840 sees the expelling of Obrenovićs, and Aleksandar Karadjorjdjević, Karadjordje’s son, is brought to the throne.

1848

The Hungarian revolution brings Serbs and Croats of Habsburg Empire together against their neighbors Hungarians. Bloody clashes devastate Vojvodina while its refugees bring European manners to still oriental Serbia.

1867

The last six fortresses held by Turkish army are returned to Serbian hands.

1878

After the two wars against Turkey (1876 and 1877) Serbia expands to the south-east. The Berlin congress grants it the status of an independent principality, raised in 1882 to the status of kingdom, but leaves Bosnia-Herzegovina, the nucleus of the Serb anti-Ottoman mutiny, to the Habsburgs. King Milan pursues unpopular pro-Habsburg policy while his son Aleksandar shows blatant disregard to parliament and constitutional rule.

1903-1912

The plotting army officers execute Aleksandar (1888-1903), the last king of Obrenović dynasty, and Petar Karadjordjević, a ruler ready to obey the democratic procedure and the will of the majority, secures a decade of prosperity for Serbia. The new course is also the one of rising nationalism and calls for South Slav unification.

1912-1918

Tired after the two Balkan wars that liberated Kosovo and Macedonia, Serbia is exhausted after the First World War. Looted, desolate and with a third of the populace dead, Serbia embraces areas with different systems, laws and customs within the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

1929

The new state is torn within, faced with interethnic and party struggles that climax in the assassination of several Croatian MPs. King Aleksandar abandons the unstable parliamentary system and assumes dictatorship. The name of the state is changed to Yugoslavia. After Aleksandar’s assassination in 1934 by the Croatian and Bulgarian nationalists the dictatorship gradually melts down.

1941-45

After the 27th of March demonstrations against the joining of the Axis Powers pushed the fragile state into war against Germany, the enemy armies easily break all the resistance in just a couple of days. Serbs find themselves in a number of hostile quisling states that start their revenge on civilians leaving hundreds of thousands killed throughout the country. The struggle of the two guerilla movements, communist partizan and royalist četnik, bring even more confusion and misery. Helped by the Allies and the USSR, partizans, led by Josip Broz Tito, seize the power as they liberate the country in 1944-45. The communists alter the country according to the soviet model abolishing the monarchy and proclaiming the Federal Republic with Tito as a lifelong president.

1948

Unable to secure total obedience of the local communists Stalin presses Yugoslavia accusing it of unorthodoxy. Tito and the communist party resist the threat by mercilessly purifying its own ranks and strengthening the connections with the West.

1950s and ‘60s

Soviet dogma is abandoned and the new way of Yugoslav communism is called “workers’ self-management”. The international course is the one of non-alignment between two super blocks. Helped by the loans from the West the golden age follows but the unsolved economic problems pile up.

1974

The new constitution grants wider rights to the federal units and to the autonomous provinces of Serbia that will eventually lead to a paralysis of this republic.

1980

Tito dies and a rotating presidency takes his place. Without Tito’s guidance, republics and autonomous provinces take growingly independent courses.

1987-1991

The last years of the socialist Yugoslavia are marked with the rising national tensions hushed up in previous half century. Slobodan Milošević takes advantage of the poor treatment of the Serb minority in Kosovo and of the unequal status of Serbia (blocked by the vetoes of the autonomous provinces) to rise to the position of the president of Serbia. In 1989 the Communist party of Yugoslavia breaks up. In 1990 the first multi-party elections take place in all of the republics and the undisputed winners are the national parties.

1991-2000

Final break up of Yugoslavia starts with the secession of Slovenia and the short war designed to stop it. International recognition of Slovenia and Croatia follow. The Serbs in Croatia decide to stay in Yugoslavia and form their own republic. By the end of 1991 brutal civil war rages in Serb areas of Croatia. In 1992 fighting spreads into Bosnia-Herzegovina and lasts until 1995 when it is ended with the Dayton peace agreement. Hundreds of thousands Serbs flee Croatia and West Bosnia. In the meantime, in 1992 Serbia and Montenegro form the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia controlled by the ex-communist parties. In 1993 Yugoslavia has one of the worst inflations ever recorded. Endless protests against Milošević regime that brought war, sanctions, poverty and refugees seem to have no impact on his tight grip. In 1998 the clashes start in Kosovo; the actions of army and police against the Albanian terrorists provoke the NATO bombing that forces Milošević to back up and turn over Kosovo - another exodus of Serbs follows. Finally united, the Serbian opposition manages to defeat Milošević in the elections of 2000 and on 5th of October mass demonstrations force him to hand over the power.

2003

In an attempt to avoid justice, mafia and remains of the disbanded special forces unit assassinate prime minister Zoran Djindjić, a leading reformist figure, but are captured and convicted.

2006

Montenegro steps out of the state union and thus Serbia regains its sovereignty.