4.

SERBIA

Serbia,[c] officially the Republic of Serbia,[d] is a landlocked country at the

crossroads of Southeast and Central Europe,[9][10] located in the Balkans and
the Pannonian Plain. It borders Hungary to the north, Romania to the
northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia
and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest.
Serbia claims a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo.
Serbia has about 6.6 million inhabitants, excluding Kosovo. Its capital
Belgrade is also the largest city.

Continuously inhabited since the Paleolithic Age, the territory of modern-day

Serbia faced Slavic migrations in the 6th century. Several regional states
were founded in the early Middle Ages and were at times recognised as
tributaries to the Byzantine, Frankish and Hungarian kingdoms. The Serbian
Kingdom obtained recognition by the Holy See and Constantinople in 1217,
reaching its territorial apex in 1346 as the Serbian Empire. By the mid-16th
century, the Ottomans annexed the entirety of modern-day Serbia; their rule
was at times interrupted by the Habsburg Empire, which began expanding
towards Central Serbia from the end of the 17th century while maintaining a
foothold in Vojvodina. In the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution
established the nation-state as the region's first constitutional monarchy,
which subsequently expanded its territory.[11] In 1918, in the aftermath of
World War I, the Kingdom of Serbia united with the former Habsburg
crownland of Vojvodina; later in the same year it joined with other South
Slavic nations in the foundation of Yugoslavia, which existed in various
political formations until the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. During the breakup
of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro,[12] which was
peacefully dissolved in 2006, restoring Serbia's independence as a sovereign
state for the first time since 1918.[13] In 2008, representatives of the
Assembly of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed
responses from the international community while Serbia continues to claim
it as part of its own sovereign territory.

Serbia is an upper-middle income economy and provides universal health

care and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. It is a unitary
parliamentary constitutional republic, member of the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP,
BSEC, CEFTA, and is acceding to the WTO. Since 2014, the country has been
negotiating its EU accession, with the possibility of joining the European
Union by 2030.[14] Serbia formally adheres to the policy of military neutrality.

Etymology
See also: Names of the Serbs and Serbia and Origin hypotheses of the Serbs
The origin of the name Serbia is unclear. Historically, authors have
mentioned the Serbs (Serbian: Srbi / Срби) and the Sorbs of Eastern
Germany (Upper Sorbian: Serbja; Lower Sorbian: Serby) in a variety of ways:
Cervetiis (Servetiis), gentis (S)urbiorum, Suurbi, Sorabi, Soraborum, Sorabos,
Surpe, Sorabici, Sorabiet, Sarbin, Swrbjn, Servians, Sorbi, Sirbia, Sribia,
Zirbia, Zribia, Suurbelant, Surbia, Serbulia / Sorbulia among others.[15][16][17]
These authors used these names to refer to Serbs and Sorbs in areas where
their historical and current presence is not disputable (notably in the Balkans
and Lusatia). However, there are also sources that have used similar names
in other parts of the world (most notably in the Asiatic Sarmatia in the
Caucasus).

There exist two prevailing theories about the origin of the ethnonym *Sŕbъ
(plur. *Sŕby), one from a Proto-Slavic language with an appellative meaning
of a "family kinship" and "alliance", while another from an Iranian-Sarmatian
language with various meanings.[16][18] In his work, De Administrando Imperio,
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus suggests that the Serbs originated from
White Serbia near Francia.

From 1815 to 1882, the official name for Serbia was the Principality of
Serbia. From 1882 to 1918, it was renamed to the Kingdom of Serbia, later
from 1945 to 1963, the official name for Serbia was the People's Republic of
Serbia. This was again renamed the Socialist Republic of Serbia from 1963 to
1990. Since 1990, the official name of the country has been the Republic of
Serbia.

History
Main article: History of Serbia
Further information: Timeline of Serbian history
Prehistory and antiquity
Main articles: Prehistoric sites in Serbia and Serbia in the Roman era
 Vinča culture figurine, 4000–4500 BC

Archaeological evidence of Paleolithic settlements on the territory of present-

day Serbia is scarce. A fragment of a hominid jaw found in Sićevo (Mala
Balanica) is believed to be up to 525,000–397,000 years old. [19]

Approximately 6,500 BC, during the Neolithic, the Starčevo and Vinča
cultures existed in the region of modern-day Belgrade. They dominated
much of Southeast Europe as well as parts of Central Europe and Anatolia.
Several important archaeological sites from this era, including Lepenski Vir
and Vinča-Belo Brdo, still exist near the Danube.[20][21]

During the Iron Age, local tribes of Triballi, Dardani, and Autariatae were
encountered by the Ancient Greeks during their cultural and political
expansion into the region, from the 5th up to the 2nd century BC. The Celtic
tribe of Scordisci settled throughout the area in the 3rd century BC. It formed
a tribal state, building several fortifications, including their capital at
Singidunum (present-day Belgrade) and Naissos (present-day Niš).

The Romans conquered much of the territory in the 2nd century BC. In 167
BC, the Roman province of Illyricum was established; the remainder was
conquered around 75 BC, forming the Roman province of Moesia Superior;
the modern-day Srem region was conquered in 9 BC; and Bačka and Banat in
106 AD after the Dacian Wars. As a result of this, contemporary Serbia
extends fully or partially over several former Roman provinces, including
Moesia, Pannonia, Praevalitana, Dalmatia, Dacia, and Macedonia. Seventeen
Roman Emperors were born in the area of modern-day Serbia, second only to
contemporary Italy.[22] The most famous of these was Constantine the Great,
the first Christian Emperor, who issued an edict ordering religious tolerance
throughout the Empire.
 Remnants of the Felix Romuliana Imperial Palace,
298 AD, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; Some historians believe as many as 18 Roman
emperors were born in modern-day Serbia[23][24]

When the Roman Empire was divided in 395, most of Serbia remained under
the Byzantine Empire, and its northwestern parts were included in the
Western Roman Empire. By the 6th century, South Slavs migrated into the
Byzantine territory in large numbers.[25] They merged with the local
Romanised population that was gradually assimilated. [26][27][28]

Middle Ages
Main articles: Sorbs (tribe) and Serbia in the Middle Ages

The Coronation of the tsar Stefan Dušan, known as

Dušan the Mighty, in Skopje, as Emperor of Serbs and Greeks in 1346

White Serbs, an early Slavic tribe from White Serbia eventually settled in an
area between the Sava river and the Dinaric Alps.[29][30][31] By the beginning of
the 9th century, Serbia achieved a level of statehood. [32] Christianization of
Serbia was a gradual process, finalized by the middle of the 9th century. [33] In
the mid-10th-century, the Serbian state experienced a fall. During the 11th
and 12th century, Serbian state frequently fought with the neighbouring
Byzantine Empire.[34] Between 1166 and 1371, Serbia was ruled by the
Nemanjić dynasty, under whom the state was elevated to a kingdom in 1217,
[35]
and an empire in 1346,[36] under Stefan Dušan. The Serbian Orthodox
Church was organized as an autocephalous archbishopric in 1219,[37] through
the effort of Sava, the country's patron saint, and in 1346 it was raised to the
Patriarchate. Monuments of the Nemanjić period survive in many
monasteries (several being World Heritage sites) and fortifications.
During these centuries the Serbian state (and influence) expanded
significantly. The northern part (modern Vojvodina), was ruled by the
Kingdom of Hungary. The period after 1371, known as the Fall of the Serbian
Empire saw the once-powerful state fragmented into several principalities,
culminating in the Battle of Kosovo (1389) against the rising Ottoman
Empire.[38] By the end of the 14th century, the Turks had conquered and ruled
the territories south of the Šar Mountains. The political center of Serbia
shifted northwards, when the capital of the newly established Serbian
Despotate was transferred to Belgrade in 1403,[39] before moving to
Smederevo in 1430.[40] The Despotate was then under the double vassalage
of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.[41] The fall of Smederevo on 20 June
1459, which marked the full conquest of the Serbian Despotate by the
Ottomans, also symbolically signified the end of the Serbian state. [42]

Ottoman and Habsburg rule

Main articles: Ottoman Serbia and Great Migrations of the Serbs

The Battle of Kosovo (1389) is particularly important

to Serbian history, tradition and national identity.[43]

In all Serbian lands conquered by the Ottomans, the native nobility was
eliminated and the peasantry was enserfed to Ottoman rulers, while much of
the clergy fled or were confined to the isolated monasteries. Under the
Ottoman system, Serbs and Christians were considered an inferior class and
subjected to heavy taxes, and a portion of the Serbian population
experienced Islamization. Many Serbs were recruited during the devshirme
system, a form of slavery, in which boys from Balkan Christian families were
forcibly converted to Islam and trained for infantry units of the Ottoman
army known as the Janissaries.[44][45][46][47] The Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was
extinguished in 1463,[48] but reestablished in 1557,[49][50][51] providing for limited
continuation of Serbian cultural traditions within the Ottoman Empire, under
the Millet system.[52][53]

After the loss of statehood to the Ottoman Empire, Serbian resistance

continued in northern regions (modern Vojvodina), under titular despots
(until 1537), and popular leaders like Jovan Nenad (1526–1527). From 1521
to 1552, Ottomans conquered Belgrade and regions of Syrmia, Bačka, and
Banat.[54] Wars and rebellions constantly challenged Ottoman rule. One of the
most significant was the Banat Uprising in 1594 and 1595, which was part of
the Long War (1593–1606) between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans.[55][56]
The area of modern Vojvodina endured a century-long Ottoman occupation
before being ceded to the Habsburg monarchy, partially by the Treaty of
Karlovci (1699),[57] and fully by the Treaty of Požarevac (1718).[58]

Migration of the Serbs, by Paja Jovanović (c. 1896),

depicting the Great Migration of 1690, led by the patriarch Arsenije III Crnojević

During the Habsburg-Ottoman war (1683–1699), much of Serbia switched

from Ottoman rule to Habsburg control from 1688 to 1690.[59] However, the
Ottoman army reconquered a large part of Serbia in the winter of 1689/1690,
leading to a brutal massacre of the civilian population by uncontrolled
Albanian and Tatar units. As a result of the persecutions, several tens of
thousands of Serbs, led by the patriarch, Arsenije III Crnojević, fled
northwards to settle in Hungary,[60] an event known as the Great Migration of
1690.[61] In August 1690, following several petitions, the Emperor Leopold I
formally granted Serbs from the Habsburg monarchy a first set of
"privileges",[62][63] primarily to guarantee them freedom of religion.[64] As a
consequence, the ecclesiastical centre of the Serbs also moved northwards,
to the Metropolitanate of Karlovci,[65] and the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was
once-again abolished by the Ottomans in 1766.[66][67]

In 1718–39, the Habsburg monarchy occupied much of Central Serbia and

established the Kingdom of Serbia as crownland.[58] Those gains were lost by
the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739, when the Ottomans retook the region. [68]
Apart from territory of modern-day Vojvodina which remained under the
Habsburg Empire, central regions of Serbia were occupied once again by the
Habsburgs in 1788–1792.

Revolution and independence