Serbia Balkan republic that, with the smaller Republic of
Montenegro, forms the rump federal state of
Yugoslavia. Serbia is bounded
n by Hungary,
e by Romania and Bulgaria,
s by Macedonia,
sw by Albania and Montenegro,
w by
Bosnia-Herzegovina, and
nw by
Croatia. It includes the provinces of Vojvodina (
n) and
Kosovo (
s), formerly autonomous under the Yugoslav federation. The capital is
Belgrade, and other major cities include Niš (Serbia), Novi Sad (Vojvodina), and Priština (Kosovo). The republic can be geographically divided between the mountainous
s and the fertile
n plain drained by the rivers
Danube, Sava, Tisza, and Morava. Vojvodina is the principal agricultural area, producing fruit and grain. Serbia is the principal industrial area, with mining and steel manufacture. Kosovo is a poor region with large coal deposits.
History and Politics
Serbs settled the area in the 7th century
ad, and they adopted Orthodox Christianity under
Byzantine rule. Serbia was the leading Balkan power until defeated by the Ottoman Turks in 1389. The Ottomans divided the territory and installed a puppet regime. In 1459, Serbia became a province of the
Ottoman Empire. The 18th-century decline of the Ottoman Empire encouraged Serbian nationalism. In 1829, Serbia gained autonomy under Russian protection. In 1867, Milan Obrenović began a war in support of a rebellion against Turkish rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Russia intervened to aid Serbia and, in 1878, Turkey finally granted Serbia complete independence. In 1903, King Alexander Obrenović was assassinated, and
Peter I (the Great) became king.
In 1908, when Austro-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia responded by forming the Balkan League. In 1912, the alliance defeated the Turks but disintegrated into factional feuding. In 1913, Serbia defeated Bulgaria in the second Balkan War. The expansion of Serbian territory in the Balkan Wars antagonized Austria, and the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand led to the outbreak of World War 1. In 1918, Serbia became the leading force in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. During World War 2, the German army occupied and divided Yugoslavia. Resistance was two-fold: Tito led the Yugoslav communist partisans, and Mihajović led the Serbian nationalists (Chetniks). In 1946 Serbia became an autonomous republic within Tito's neo-communist Yugoslavia. In 1987, President Slobodan Milošević restated nationalist claims for a Greater Serbia, including Vojvodina, Kosovo, and Serb-populated areas in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Macedonia. In 1989, Serbian troops were sent to suppress Albanian nationalism in Kosovo. In 1991, Serbia prevented Croatia from assuming presidency of the federation. Croatia and Slovenia responded by declaring independence, and the Serbian-controlled Yugoslav army invaded. In 1991, the army withdrew from Slovenia. In 1992, Serbia and Croatia agreed to a UN-brokered ceasefire, allowing Serbia to keep the territory it captured. Serbian troops quickly seized nearly 75% of the newly recognized republic of Bosnia-Herzegovina and pursued a policy of ‘ethnic cleansing’, forcibly resettling, incarcerating or killing Muslims, and repopulating villages with Serbs. The UN imposed sanctions on the Serbian regime, but atrocities continued on both sides.
In 1995, Bosnian-Serb troops captured UN protected areas, and Western governments and NATO launched air strikes against Serb targets. Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia began a new offensive against Serbia and reclaimed much lost territory. The US-brokered Dayton Peace Accord (November 1995) divided Bosnia-Herzegovina into provinces. Following peaceful, mass demonstrations in Belgrade, Milošević was forced to concede some of the Zajedno coalition victories in 1996 elections in Serbia. In 1997, Milošević resigned the Serbian presidency in order to become president of Yugoslavia. Fighting recommenced in Kosovo in 1998, and hundreds of thousands of Kosovars fled into neighbouring countries, mainly Albania and Macedonia, to escape ‘ethnic cleansing’. In 1999, NATO launched a wave of air strikes against Serbia, devastating its economy. In June 1999, the Yugoslav Army withdrew from Kosovo and a United Nations' peace-keeping force (K-FOR) deployed in the province. In 2000 elections, Vojislav Koštunica replaced Milošević as president of Yugoslavia. In 2001, Milošević was arrested on charges of corruption and abuses of power and faced the International War Crimes Tribunal. In 2003, prime minister Zoran Djindjić was assassinated.
http://www.serbia.sr.gov.yu
