Serbia, Serbian Srbija or Srbiya, republic (34,107 sq mi/88,337 sq km; 1988 estimated populatiion 9,762,000; 2004 estimated population 10,825,900), former constitutent of Yugoslavia, and the larger of the two remaining republics in the federation of Serbia and Montenegro; (cap.) Belgrade.
Geography
It is bounded NW by Croatia, N by Hungary, NE by Romania, E by Bulgaria, S by Macedonia, and W by Albania, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the early 1990s, secessionist movements in four Yugoslavian republics left only Serbia and Montenegro representing the Yugoslavian federation. The republic consists of Serbia proper with the cities of Belgrade and Niš, Vojvodina province with Subotica and Novi Sad, and Kosovo province with Priština. Serbia lies within several mountain systems: the Dinaric Alps (W), the North Albanian Alps and Sar Mountains (SW), and the Balkan Mountains (E). Serbia slopes generally N toward the Danube and Sava rivers; it is drained chiefly by the Drina (it forms part of the W border), Kolubara, Morava, Mlava, Timok, and Tisza rivers and their tributaries.
Population
The republic’s populatiion consists primarily of Serbs, with Albanian, Magyar, Croat, Montenegrin, and Macedonian minorities. The Serbs distinguish themselves culturally from the closely related Croats and Slovenes through their membership in the Orthodox Eastern Church and use of the Cyrillic rather than the Roman alphabet.
Economy
The fertile plains of Vojvodina, known as the “Serbian Breadbasket,” are the most productive agricultural areas. Wheat, corn, hemp, sugar beets, and flax are the chief crops. Serbia has extensive vineyards and is one of Europe’s major regions for fruit growing (notably plums). The raising of cattle (N, NW), horses (N), sheep (S, E), swine, poultry, silkworms, and bees is also important. Serbia is rich in coal and lignite; mines of copper, gold, and antimony; and quarrying of marble and millstone. Its many health resorts and spas are well known. Mining and manufacturing are the largest contributors to the economy; manufacturing includes steel, iron, transport vehicles, and plastics. Kosovo is the poorest and least developed region, although it does hold large coal reserves. The political turmoil of the early 1990s and the international embargo imposed as a result of the war in Bosnia greatly exacerbated Serbia’s already severe economic problems.
History to 1355
Serbs settled in the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th and 7th century and accepted Christianity in the 9th century. Their petty principalities were theoretically under a grand zhupan, who usually recognized Byzantine suzerainty. Civil strife and constant warfare with their Bulgarian, Greek, and Magyar neighbors characterized the early history of the Serbs. Raška, the first organized Serb state, was probably founded in the early 9th century in the W Serbian mountains; it steadily expanded from the 10th century. The Byzantine emperor recognized Stephen Nemanja as grand zhupan of Serbia in 1159; his son and successor assumed the title king of all Serbia in 1217 with the pope’s blessing. However, the king’s brother, Sava, archbishop of Serbia, won recognition from the patriarch of Constantinople of an autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church in 1219. Although at first overshadowed by the rapid rise of the Bulgarian empire under Ivan II (Ivan Asen), Serbia under Stephen Dushan (king 1331–1355, czar from 1346) became the most powerful empire in the Balkan Peninsula, much of which it absorbed. Even among European states, Serbia was noted for its high economic, social, and cultural level.
History - 1355 to 1812
After Stephen’s death in 1355, however, the empire decayed, as the Ottoman Turks advanced and defeated the Serbs at the Maritsa River in 1371. In 1389, during the battle of Kosovo Field, the cream of Serb nobility was massacred and the fate of independent Serbia sealed. For Serbs, Kosovo retains its symbolic significance, hence Serbia’s opposition to Kosovo’s separatist movement. The Turks completely annexed Serbia in 1459, wresting Belgrade from Hungary in 1521. It was the Serbian Orthodox Church that preserved Serb national traditions and historical memory. Although the Serbs were forbidden to possess weapons, frequent insurrections erupted. No attempt was made to curb Christianity, but the Serbian Church was placed in the hands of unpopular Greek Phanariots. Turkish reverses in 17th- and 18th-century wars against Austria and Russia revived Serb hopes for independence.
History - 1812 to 1914
The Treaty of Bucharest (1812) forced Turkish recognition of Serb autonomy, but Russian preoccupation with Napoleon allowed the Turks to reassert their control. A revolt flared in 1815 under Miloš Obrenovic, who in 1817 became prince of Serbia. Unable to challenge him, Turkey was forced by Russia, under the Treaty of Adrianople (1829) to grant Serb autonomy under Russian protection and to recognize Miloš as hereditary prince. Except for garrisons in Belgrade and other fortresses, the Turks evacuated Serbia. Much of Serbia’s ensuing history revolved around the bloody power struggle between the Karadjordjevic and Obrenovic families, which ended when the last Obrenovic king was assassinated in 1903. The throne in the 19th century passed back and forth between the two clans. In 1867 the last Turkish troops left Serbia. Prince Milan Obrenovic liberalized the constitution in 1869, granting more power to the Skupchtina (the lower house of Parliament). He also declared war on Turkey in 1876 and the subsequent Congress of Berlin (1878) recognized Serbia’s complete independence and substantially increased its territory. The strengthening of parliamentary government and expansion of the economy greatly raised Serbia’s prestige and exerted a powerful attraction on the South Slavs who remained under Austro-Hungarian rule. In response to the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908, the Serbs created a Balkan League (with Montenegro, Bulgaria, and Greece) to liberate the Balkan Slavs from both Austro-Hungarian and Turkish rule. The league defeated Turkey in the First Balkan War (1912), but disagreements among the victors led to the Second Balkan War (1913), with Serbia defeating Bulgaria and securing a major portion of Macedonia. Serbia’s victory made it the foremost Slavic power in the Balkans but greatly increased tensions with Austria-Hungary.
History - 1914 to 1946
When a Serb nationalist (acting without governmental collusion) assassinated Austrian archduke Francis Ferdinand in 1914, the empire declared war on Serbia, thus precipitating World War I. In 1915, when Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and Germany reinforced the Austrians, Serbia was overrun. The Serb troops and government were evacuated to Corfu, Greece, where in 1917 Serb, Croatian, Slovenian, and Montenegrin representatives proclaimed the union of South Slavs. In 1918 the kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, headed by Peter I of Serbia, officially came into existence. Serbia’s predominant position in the new kingdom was a major cause for unrest in Croatia and Macedonia in the period between World Wars I and II. After the conquest and dismemberment of Yugoslavia in World War II, German occupation forces set up a puppet government in a much-diminished Serbia. The Serbs waged guerrilla warfare under the leadership of Draža Mihajlovic. Later, Marshal Tito and his pro-Communist partisans attracted the majority of the Yugoslav resistance fighters, while Mihajlovic’s following became mostly restricted to the Serb nationalists.
History - 1946 to 1991
The federal constitution of Yugoslavia, adopted in 1946, stripped Serbia of Macedonia, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and Montenegro, which became autonomous republics. In the 1970s, the autonomy of the various Yugoslav republics slowly increased as the economy began to stagnate. With the death of Tito in 1980, an unwieldy collective leadership was established, and economic problems and ethnic divisions deepened through the 1980s. In 1987, Slobodan Miloševic, an ardent Serb nationalist, became leader of the Serbian League of Communists. To the alarm of the other republics, he and his supporters began to revive the vision of a “Greater Serbia,” comprising Serbia proper, Vojvodina, Kosovo, the Serb-populated parts of Croatia, large chunks of Bosnia and Hercegovina, and possibly Macedonia. In early 1989, Serbia made moves to rescind Kosovo’s autonomy, which was granted in the 1974 constitution, and sent in troops to suppress the protests of Kosovo’s 85% Albanian majority. In May 1991, Serbia managed to block the ascension of Croatian leader Stipe Mesic to the head of the collective presidency and thus triggered the breakaway of Slovenia and Croatia. The federal army, which by this time was largely controlled by Serb leaders, moved into Slovenia and Croatia.
History - 1991 to 1999
The army pulled out of Slovenia by July 1991, but not until a UN-monitored cease-fire in January 1992 was there peace in Croatia, where Serbs still held 30% of the territory. Threatened by the calls of Bosnian Muslims for an Islamic state and following the recognition of Bosnia and Hercegovina’s sovereignty by the EC and the U.S. in April 1992, Serb troops quickly seized about 65% of the new state’s territory and proclaimed the undelineated Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the ensuing conflict, Muslims and Serbs in Bosnia were uprooted from their homes and thousands were killed in atrocities committed by both sides. In the summer of 1992, the remnants of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) were placed under economic sanctions by the UN and condemned internationally for their aggression. In September 1992, the UN declared that the new Federation of Serbia and Montenegro could not claim take over the international rights and responsibilities of the former Yugoslavia. In the wake of Serbia’s cooperation with the Dayton Agreement (1996) sanctions were gradually lifted, but the economy, remained in grave condition. In 1998, clashes between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo became more pervasive and violent, prompting the reimposition of sanctions; when Serbian military and paramilitary activities in Kosovo increased, including expulsions of ethnic Albanian Kosovars, international pressure forced cease-fire talks but Serbia refused to sign the Rambouillet accords and sent military forces into Kosovo.
History - 1999 to Present
In March 1999, NATO airstrikes against Yugoslav forces in Kosovo and Serbia began; hundreds of thousands of refugees flooded into neighboring Albania and Montenegro. Following the withdraw of Serbian troops, NATO and Russian peacekeeping forces deployed in Kosovo. Widespread anti-Miloševic protests and growing agitation for Montenegro's independence in 2000 led to a popular uprising in October when Miloševic refused to abide by the election of opposition leader Vojislav Kostunica; Miloševic was ousted from power and arrested in April 2001. International sanctions against Serbia and Yugoslavia were lifted in September 2001and Miloševic was put on trial in The Hague for war crimes in Februay 2002. In February 2003, Yugoslavia was formally desolved in favor of a loose federation of Serbia and Montenegro that called for a referrendum on complete independece for the two countries in 2006.
Government
In March of 2003 Svetozar Marovic became president. He is also head of government.
