History
Forged in the early middle ages by Slavic migrations, Serbia lies at the heart of Southeast Europe, its fortunes shared by many of its neighbors as outside empires sought to hold the crossroads of Europe for themselves. In this region, Serbia has been at the forefront of affairs, first as a powerful kingdom during the Middle Ages, then, following Ottoman rule, as one of the premier Balkan states, in the center of the web of alliances that led to the first Great War. Waxing and waning throughout the twentieth century, today Serbia has emerged from war and dissolution as a developed aspirant to the European Union.
Geography and Climate
Located in the center of the crossroads from Central to Southern Europe, landlocked Serbia has some of the most diverse terrain in all of Europe. Fertile and temperate plains cover the northern third of the country, becoming more hilly and rugged to the south, with the most southerly reaches dominated by untamed mountains. Serbia boasts some of the highest biodiversity in Europe, but is also among the most prone to natural disasters. Its temperature ranges from bitterly cold winters caused by the intense Košava winds, to warmer and more arid climates akin to other Mediterranean nations.
Early History
Among the most significant facets of Serbia's earliest history is the presence of the Neolithic Vinča culture, one of the most extensive and developed pre-Indo-European cultures. After its decline, the region was largely defined by the advancing Greeks under Alexander the Great, and the various peoples in conflict with them, such as the Illyrians and Thracians. By 75 BC, the Roman Empire had conquered the region, firmly establishing it under the provinces of Dalmatia and Moesia, turning it into one of their core areas of stability. Even after the split and subsequent collapse of the Western Roman Empire, Serbia remained under Byzantine influence, whereupon migrating Slavic people began to call the region home.
Middle Ages
During the seventh to ninth centuries AD, the Serbian Principality was formed, for the first time establishing the Serbian people as a sovereign realm. At this point, friction with the invading Bulgar was the primary concern of the Principality, and in 924, faced with a Serbian alliance with Byzantium, Časlav Klonimirović of the Bulgars invaded and annexed Serbia, ending the first Principality. Upon his death, the Balkans grew unstable, led by petty lords and switching between Bulgar and Byzantine hands, until in 1090 when the Serbian Grand Principality was reinstated, elevated to Kingdom status in 1217 by Grand Prince Stefan Nemanja. Together with his son, who he installed as the first King of Serbia, Nemanja is often considered the father of the Serbian nation, and was canonized by the Serbian Orthodox Church after his death.
During this time, as Byzantium began to falter, Serbia flourished, steadily expanding southwards even when war on many fronts faced down the kingdom. In 1331, Stefan Dušan overthrew his father and established the Serbian Empire, coming to dominate nearly all of the Balkans and marking a golden age of Serbian prosperity. As the Byzantine Empire collapsed in the wake of the Turkish invasions, Dušan sought to make Serbia a new successor to Roman tradition, and to make himself the new Byzantine Emperor. However, in 1355, Dušan died of sudden illness while on the march to capture Constantinople. This, combined with the advancing Turks and the weakness of his son, caused the complete collapse of Serbia as it was soon completely conquered by the Ottoman Empire just a century later.
Ottoman Rule and Independence
As the buffer zone between the constantly clashing Habsburgs and Ottomans, Serbia was a land of strife and chaos for most of the next few centuries. Most of its inhabitants became serfs of an inferior class under Ottoman law, prompting the Great Exodus, a mass migration of Serbs to the Habsburg realm. Throughout the later Middle Ages into the early modern times, most of the Balkans were a shifting frontier between larger powers. But during the early 1800s, Serbians made numerous attempts to reclaim their sovereignty, starting with two uprisings led by Karađorđe Petrović and Obrenović from 1804 to 1815. Struggling at first, the Serbians were vastly outnumbered by Ottoman forces, but during the Great Eastern Crisis that devastated the Ottomans permanently, Serbia managed to acquire peace and sovereignty, eventually leading to globally recognized independence during the 1878 Congress of Berlin. The nation continued to push against the faltering Ottoman Empire as the central force of the Balkan League, and emerged even larger when the League collapsed and Serbia found itself against previously allied Bulgaria. It was during this time that Peter I Karađorđević was in power, and the earliest years of the 20th century were marked as a golden age for Serbia, its territory greatly expanded, its policies and culture hitting a marked high point.
World War I
Despite its successes, Serbia was the epicenter of what was described as the 'powder keg of Europe'. Russian allegiances and treaties in the Balkans destabilized the area, any move certain to resound throughout the web of agreements woven across the continent. In June of 1914, exactly this happened: Gavrilo Princip, a pan-Serbian nationalist revolutionary, assassinated Austro-Hungarian heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand while he was in Sarajevo. Though the archduke was unpopular, Austrian officials decided to take the opportunity to justify war against Serbia, delivering the unreasonable July Ultimatum. When only one of the ten demands was refused, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, who was then allied with the Russian Empire, who proceeded to mobilize against Austria-Hungary. Germany, knowing France had military agreements with Russia, issued its own ultimatum to the French, who agreed to withdraw but began mobilizing its own reserves, prompting Germany to attack Belgium and Luxembourg, then France as well. As Belgium's neutrality was enforced by the British, soon Great Britain declared war on Germany in August, and in the span of barely more than a month, all the Great Powers of Europe and their global holdings were engulfed in what came to be known as the Great War.
The war was characterized by months, if not years, of impenetrable trench warfare, only broken much later by usage of gas warfare and the invention of the battle tank. Serbia, while allied with France, Great Britain, and Russia, was in between the Central allies of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire, and comparatively small. Surrounded on all sides by greater foes, Serbia was conquered within the year, more than a quarter of its pre-war population dying in combat, its survivors increasingly pushed farther and farther south to Greece. Near the end of the war, Serbian forces joined with French support and reclaimed the abandoned Balkan front - by which point, most of the fighting was concentrated between the United States and Germany. With the collapse of Austria-Hungary by the end of World War I, some of its former territories merged with Serbia to create the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, officially named such by the son of Peter I, Alexander the Unifier, in 1929.
Yugoslavia
The first World War left southeastern Europe stricken with poverty and debt. The vast majority of Yugoslavia's populace were farming peasants in dry or hilly terrain, with little to no mechanization, and very little other industry to speak of. With ethnic conflicts straining the nation, the Great Depression coerced Yugoslavia to become a dependent of Nazi Germany. King Alexander established autocracy of the king in 1931, only to be assassinated three years later. The king's cousin, Prince Paul, headed the regency council for Alexander's child king, and pledged formal allegiance to the growing Axis powers in 1941. With massive protests sweeping Yugoslavia, Paul was overthrown by a British coup just two days afterwards. Subsequent withdrawal of Axis support led to a German invasion just a few weeks later, and Yugoslavia remained divided between Axis territories with the royalty in exile for the remainder of World War II. Loyalist resistance groups continued to fight occupation, but gradually Allied support shifted from them to the more powerful Partisans under Joseph Broz Tito.
Though formally it was the monarchy who had been restored to power following the war, Tito's Communist Partisans held true control over Yugoslavia, and in late November 1945, the king was formally deposed, and Tito established the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Despite Tito's Communist policies and initial alignment with Joseph Stalin, Tito split from the Soviet bloc with ambitions of unifying Eastern Europe under his own influence, and became instrumental in founding the Non-Aligned Movement. Despite this, a threat of Soviet invasion prompted Tito to align more closely with the United States, who shipped aid and weaponry in the hopes of turning Yugoslavia into the front line of defense against the Iron Curtain. Over the next three decades, Tito enacted sweeping reforms, developing the economy at a rapid pace while granting increased autonomy to the Republic's constituents. On the whole, Yugoslavia was a success at becoming an intermediary between the East and West blocs, occupying an important strategic geopolitical location during the Cold War. Though Tito was among the more globally popular Communist authoritarian leaders, in 1980, he died at the age of 87, and Yugoslavia was soon to break apart.
Dissolution and the Modern Day
The republic was plagued with problems during the end of the 20th century, with ethnic and economic tensions tearing at the nation. Finally, by 1991, warfare marred the Balkans as Yugoslavia's constituents violently broke from each other in Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II, lasting through the decade. The Yugoslav Wars took the lives of thousands: in Serbia (then established as the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, breaking in 2006), this was most highlighted by the Kosovo Wars, as the former semi-autonomous region declared independence, which has not yet been resolved today despite greater European support in favor of Kosovo. Despite such recent violence and ongoing territorial disputes, the largest in Europe, Serbia is still one of the prime applicants for expansion of the European Union, and has settled from the chaos that plagued the Balkans into modest stability. It is likely, however, that joining the European Union within the coming decade will settle the Kosovo dispute, and hopefully bring the perennially troubled region greater prosperity for the future.
Factoids
Famed inventor Nikola Tesla, best known for the creation of the AC electric supply system that is now a global standard, was a Serbian (though born in modern Croatia, at the time part of Austria-Hungary) born in 1856.
Serbia is the world's second largest producer of plums, second only to China.
More Roman Emperors were born in Serbian provinces than anywhere except Italy itself.
