Serbia

The Republic of Serbia (Serbian: ????????? ??????, Republika Srbija) is a republic in south-eastern Europe which is united with Montenegro in a loose commonwealth known as the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

History

Main article: History of Serbia

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See also The Serbia Series:

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See also: List of Serbian monarchs, History of Yugoslavia, History of Serbia and Montenegro

Related Topics:
List of Serbian monarchs - History of Yugoslavia - History of Serbia and Montenegro

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Medieval Serbia, 7th – 14th century

The Serbs entered their present territory early in the 7th century, settling in six distinct tribal delimitations:

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• Ra?ka
• Bosnia
• Duklja/Zeta
• Zahumlje
• Travunia
• Pagania

The first recorded Serb princes were Vlastimir, Viseslav, Radoslav and Prosigoj. By that time, the country had entirely accepted Christianity. In Zeta, today's Montenegro, Mihailo was crowned by the Pope 1077. At this time Serbs was catholics as well as orthodox. King Mihailo also achieved frop Pope archbishop title for bishop in city of Bar. With this act Serbs managed to achieve religious independence. His son Konstantin Bodin reclaimed the throne 1080, but it lasted until his death in 1101. The rulers kept changing and the country accepted supreme protection from the Byzantine Empire rather than from hostile Bulgaria. Serbia was freed from the Byzantine Empire a century later.

Related Topics:
Vlastimir - Viseslav - Radoslav - Prosigoj - Christianity - Zeta - Montenegro - Mihailo - Crowned - Pope - Byzantine Empire - Bulgaria

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Serbs have not been united in the Middle Ages. The nation was splitted into several states which were sometimes independent but sometims united. Names of those states were Duklja (Zeta), Zahumlje , Travunija , Pagania , Bosna and Rascia . Eventualy the last one, Rascia emerged as the strongest one and after a while it took name Serbia instead. The first Serb-organized state emerged under ?aslav Klonimirovi? in the mid-10th century in Rascia. The first half of the 11th century saw the rise of the Vojislavljevi? family in Zeta. Marked by disintegration and crises it lasted until the end of 12th century. After a struggle for the throne with his brothers, Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanji? dynasty, rose to power in 1166 and started renewing the Serbian state in the Raska region. Sometimes with the sponsorship of Byzantium, and sometimes opposing it, the veliki zupan (a title equivalent to the rank of prince) Stefan Nemanja expanded his state seizing territories east and south, and newly annexed the littoral and the Zeta region. Along with his governmental efforts, the veliki zupan dedicated much care to the construction of monasteries. His endowments include the Djurdjevi Stupovi Monastery and the Studenica Monastery in the Ra?ka region, and the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos. Nemanji?i led Serbia to a golden age which produced a powerful state with its apogee under Tsar Stefan Du?an in the mid-14th century, before finally succumbing to the Ottoman Empire (with Zeta, the last bastion, finally falling in 1499).

Related Topics:
11th century - 12th century - Nemanji? dynasty - 1166 - Prince - Stefan Nemanja - Studenica - Ra?ka - Hilandar - Stefan Du?an - 14th century - Ottoman Empire - 1499

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Stefan Nemanja was succeeded by his middle son Stefan II, whilst his first-born Vukan was given the rule of the Zeta region (present-day Montenegro). Stefan Nemanja's youngest son Rastko became a monk and took the name of Sava, turning all his efforts to spreading religiousness among his people. Since the Curia already had ambitions to spread its influence to the Balkans as well, Stefan II (Prvoven?ani) used these propitious circumstances to obtain his crown from the Pope thus becoming the first Serbian king in 1217. Actually he was only a first Serbian King who came from Rascia because, first Serbian was King Mihailo from Zeta. In Byzantium, his brother Sava managed to secure the autocephalous status for the Serbian Church and became the first Serbian orthodoxarchbishop in 1219. Thus the Serbs acquired both forms of independence: temporal and religious.

Related Topics:
Stefan Nemanja - Sava - Stefan II (Prvoven?ani) - 1217 - Byzantium - Autocephalous - Archbishop - 1219

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The next generation of Serbian rulers - the sons of Stefan Prvoven?ani - Radoslav, Vladislav and Uro? I, marked a period of stagnation of the state structure. All three kings were more or less dependent on some of the neighboring states - Byzantium, Bulgaria or Hungary. The ties with the Hungarians had a decisive role in the fact that Uros I was succeeded by his son Dragutin whose wife was a Hungarian princess. Later on, when Dragutin abdicated in favor of his younger brother Milutin (in 1282), the Hungarian king Ladislaus IV gave him lands in northeastern Bosnia, the regions of Srem, Slavonia and Ma?va, and the city of Belgrade, whilst he managed to conquer and annex lands in northeastern Serbia. His new state was named Kingdom of Srem, and northern border of the state crossed not only the Sava river, but also the Danube. Thus, some of these territories became part of the Serbian state for the first time. After Dragutin died (in 1316), new ruler of the Kingdom of Srem became his son, king Vladislav II, which ruled this state until 1325.

Related Topics:
Stefan Prvoven?ani - Radoslav - Vladislav - Uro? I - Byzantium - Bulgaria - Hungary - Dragutin - Abdicated - Milutin - 1282 - Ladislaus IV - Bosnia - Srem - Slavonia - Ma?va - Belgrade - Sava - Danube - 1316 - Vladislav II - 1325

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Under the rule of Dragutin's younger brother — Milutin, Serbia grew stronger in spite of the fact that occasionally it had to fight wars on three different fronts. King Milutin was an apt diplomat much inclined to the use of a customary medieval diplomatic expedients — dynastic marriages. He was married five times, with Hungarian, Bulgarian and Byzantine princesses. He is also famous for building churches, some of which are the brightest examples of medieval Serbian architecture: the Gracanica Monastery in Kosovohttp://www.kosovo.com/egracanica.html, the Cathedral in Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos, the St Archangel Church in Jerusalem etc. Because of his endowments, King Milutin has been proclaimed a saint, in spite of his tumultuous life. He was succeeded on the throne by his son Stefan, later dubbed Stefan De?anski. Spreading the kingdom to the east by winning the town of Ni? and the surrounding counties, and to the south by acquiring territories on Macedonia, Stefan De?anski was worthy of his father and built the Visoki Decani Monastery in Metohija — the most monumental example of Serbian medieval architecture — that earned him his nickname.

Related Topics:
Dragutin - Milutin - Gracanica Monastery - Hilandar - Mount Athos - St Archangel Church - Jerusalem - Stefan De?anski - Ni? - Decani Monastery - Metohija

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Medieval Serbia, which enjoyed a high political, economic and cultural reputation in medieval Europe, reached its apex in the middle of the 14th century, during the rule of Tsar Stefan Du?an 1331-1355. Du?an ruled from the ancient Serbian city Prizren (in today's Kosovo) which was called . This is the period when the Du?anov Zakonik (Du?an's Code 1349) the greatest juridical achievement of medieval Serbia, unique among the European feudal states of the period. St Sava's Nomocanon, Du?an's Code, frescoes and the architecture of the medieval monasteries adorning Serbian lands are eternal civilizational monuments of the Serbian people. King Stefan Du?an doubled the size of his kingdom seizing territories to the south, southeast and east at the expense of Byzantium and conquered almost entire today's Greece without Peloponaise and the islands. After he conquered city Ser, he was crowned as the by the first Serbain Patriarch at the year 1346. Before his sudden death, Stefan Du?an tryed to organize with Pope a Crusade against the threatning Turks. Unfortunately he died in December 1355. at the age 47. Modern abduction of the emperor's body reveals us that he was poisoned. He was succeeded by his son Uro?, called the Weak, a term that might also apply to the state of the kingdom slowly sliding into feudal anarchy. This is a period marked by the rise of a new threat: the Ottoman Turk sultanate gradually spreading from Asia to Europe and conquering Byzantium first, and then the other Balkans states.

Related Topics:
14th century - Stefan Du?an - 1331 - 1355 - Du?an's Code - 1349 - Nomocanon - Byzantium - Uro? - Ottoman Turk sultanate - Asia - Europe - Balkans

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Turkish conquest

[[Image:Kosovka devojka.jpg|thumb|right|Kosovka devojka (The Kosovo Maiden), a picture by Uro? Predi?

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Two most powerful Serbian barons, brothers Mrnjavcevic in the Serbian Empire gathered great Army to fight end draw back the Turks from Europe. They marched into Turkish territory toattack the enemy. But they were to confident in themselfs so when they build a camp over night near river Marica in today's Turkey, and started celebrating and getting drunk. During the night Turkish detached forces attacked drunked Serbian knights and drive them to the river. Many of them drowned in it, others were killed and so the complete Serbian army gathered from sothern states was annihilated.

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Having defeated the Serbian army in two crucial battles: on the banks of the river Marica in 1371 — where the forces of serbian noblemen Mrnjavcevic from todaysMacedonia were defeated, and on Kosovo Polje (Kosovo Field) in 1389, where the vassal troops commanded by Prince Lazar — the strongest regional ruler in Serbia at the time —killed turkish Sultan Murat but suffered a defeat, due to the legendary "sudden departure" of Brankovic's Serbian troops. The Battle of Kosovo defined the fate of Serbia, because after it no force capable of standing up to the Turks existed. This was an unstable period marked by the rule of Prince Lazar's son — despot Stefan Lazarevi? — a true European-style knight a military leader and even poet, and his cousin ?ura? Brankovi?, who moved the capital north — to the newly built fortified town of Smederevo. The Turks continued their conquest until they finally seized the entire norhern Serbian territory in 1459 when Smederevo fell into their hands. Only free Serbian territories were parts of Bosnia and Zeta. But they lasted only until 1496. Serbia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for almost four centuries. The Turks persecuted the Serbian aristocracy, determined to physically exterminate the social elite. Since the Ottoman Empire was an Islamic theocratic state, Christian Serbs lived as virtual bond servants — abused, humiliated and exploited. Consequently they gradually abandoned the developed and urban centers where mining, crafts and trade was practiced and withdrew to hostile mountains living on cattle breeding and modest farming.

Related Topics:
1371 - Macedonia - 1389 - Battle of Kosovo - Stefan Lazarevi? - ?ura? Brankovi? - Capital - Smederevo - 1459

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In the battle of Mohács on august 29 1526, Ottoman Turkey destroyed the army of Hungarian-Czech king Louis Jagellion, who was killed on the battlefield. After this battle Hungary ceased to be independent state and became a part of the Ottoman Empire. Soon after the Battle of Mohács, leader of Serbian mercenaries in Hungary, Jovan Nenad established his rule in Ba?ka, northern Banat and a small part of Srem. (These three regions are now parts of Vojvodina). He created an ephemeral independent state, with city Subotica as its capital. At the pitch of his power, Jovan Nenad crowned himself in Subotica for Serb emperor. Taking advantage of the extremely confused military and political situation, the Hungarian noblemen from the region joined forces against him and defeated the Serbian troops in the summer of 1527. Emperor Jovan Nenad was assassinated and his state collapsed.

Related Topics:
Battle of Mohács - August 29 - 1526 - Ottoman Turkey - Hungarian - Czech - King - Louis Jagellion - Jovan Nenad - Ba?ka - Banat - Srem - Vojvodina - Subotica - 1527

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European powers, and Austria in particular, fought many wars against Turkey, relying on the help of the Serbs that lived under Ottoman rule. During the Austrian–Turkish War (1593–1606). in 1594, the Serbs staged an uprising in Banat — the Pannonian part of Turkey, and sultan Murad III retaliated by burning the remains of St Sava — the most sacred thing for all Serbs, honored even by Muslims of Serbian origin. Serbs created another center of resistance in Hercegovina but when peace was signed by Turkey and Austria they abandoned to Turkish vengeance. This sequence of events became usual in the centuries that followed.

Related Topics:
Austria - Austrian–Turkish War - 1593 - 1606 - 1594 - Banat - Pannonia - Murad III - Muslim - Hercegovina

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During the Great War (1683–90) between Turkey and the Holy League — created with the sponsorship of the Pope and including Austria, Poland and Venice — these three powers incited the Serbs to rebel against the Turkish authorities and soon uprisings and guerrilla spread throughout the western Balkans: from Montenegro and the Dalmatian coast to the Danube basin and Ancient Serbia (Macedonia, Ra?ka, Kosovo and Metohija). However, when the Austrians started to pull out of Serbia, they invited the Serbian people to come north with them to the Austrian territories. Having to choose between Turkish vengeance and living in a Christian state, Serbs massively abandoned their homesteads and headed north lead by their patriarch Arsenije ?arnojevi?. Many areas in southern Balkans were de-populated in the process, and the Turks used the opportunity to Islamize Ra?ka, Kosovo and Metohija and to a certain extent Macedonia. A process whose effects are still visible today started.

Related Topics:
1683 - 90 - Holy League - Poland - Venice - Guerrilla - Montenegro - Dalmatian coast - Danube - Christian - Patriarch - Arsenije ?arnojevi?

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Another important episode in Serbian history took place in 1716–18, when the Serbian ethnic territories ranging from Dalmatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgrade and the Danube basin newly became the battleground for a new Austria-Turkish war launched by Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Serbs sided once again with Austria. After a peace treaty was signed in Po?arevac, Turkey lost all its possessions in the Danube basin, as well as northern Serbia and northern Bosnia, parts of Dalmatia and the Peloponnesus.

Related Topics:
1716 - 18 - Eugene of Savoy - Peloponnesus

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The last Austrian-Turkish war was the so called Dubica War (1788–91), when the Austrians newly urged the Christians in Bosnia to rebel. No wars were fought afterwards until the 20th century that marked the fall of both mighty empires.

Related Topics:
Dubica War - 1788 - 91 - 20th century

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Modern Serbia

Serbia gained its autonomy from the Ottoman Empire in two uprisings in 1804 and 1815, although Turkish troops continued to garrison the capital, Belgrade, until 1867. The Turkish Empire was already faced with a deep internal crisis without any hope of recuperating. This had a particularly hard effect on the Christian nations living under its rule. The Serbs launched not only a national revolution but a social one as well and gradually Serbia started to catch up with the European states with the introduction of the bourgeois society values. Resulting from the uprisings and subsequent wars against the Ottoman Empire, the independent Principality of Serbia was formed and granted international recognition in 1878. Serbia was a principality or kne?evina (knja?evina), between 1817 and 1882, and a kingdom between 1882 and 1918, during which time the internal politics revolved largely around dynastic rivalry between the Obrenovi? and Kara?or?evi? families.

Related Topics:
Ottoman Empire - 1804 - 1815 - Belgrade - 1867 - 1878 - Principality - 1817 - 1882 - Kingdom - 1918 - Obrenovi? - Kara?or?evi?

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This period was marked by the alternation of two dynasties descending from ?or?e Petrovi? — Kara?or?e, leader of the First Serbian Uprising and Milo? Obrenovi?, leader of the Second Serbian Uprising. Further development of Serbia was characterized by general progress in economy, culture and arts, primarily due to a wise state policy of sending young people to European capitals to get an education. They all brought back a new spirit and a new system of values. One of the external manifestations of the transformation that the former Turkish province was going through was the proclamation of the Kingdom of Serbia in 1882.

Related Topics:
?or?e Petrovi? - Milo? Obrenovi?

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Between 1849 and 1860 there was an Austrian crown land known as Dukedom (Vojvodina) of Serbia and Tamis Banat. This region is still known as Vojvodina.

Related Topics:
1849 - 1860 - Austrian - Vojvodina - Banat

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In the second half of 19th century, Serbia was integrated into the constellation of European states and the first political parties were founded thus giving new momentum to political life. The coup d'état in 1903, bringing Kara?or?e's grandson to the throne with the title of King Petar I opened the way for parliamentary democracy in Serbia. Having received a European education, this liberal king translated "On Freedom" by John Stuart Mill and gave his country a democratic constitution. It initiated a period of parliamentary government and political freedom interrupted by the outbreak of the liberation wars. The Balkan wars 1912–13, terminated the Turkish domination in the Balkans. Turkey was pushed back towards the Bosporus, and national Balkan states were created in the territories it withdrew from.

Related Topics:
19th century - Coup d'état - 1903 - Petar I - John Stuart Mill - Balkan wars - 1912 - 13

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Serbia in World War I

The June 28, 1914 assassination of Austrian Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, served as a pretext for the Austrian attack on Serbia that marked the beginning of World War I, despite Serbia's acceptance (on July 25) of nearly all of Austria-Hungary's demands. The Serbian Army bravely defended its country and won several major victories, but it was finally overpowered by the joint forces of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, and had to withdraw from the national territory marching across the Albanian mountain ranges to the Adriatic Sea. On 16 August Serbia was promised by the Entente the territories of Srem, Baranja, eastern Slavonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and eastern Dalmatia as a reward after the war; although, this would not come to be because of the much more popular mith of a "unified South Slavic Country" (see below) Having recuperated on Corfu the Serbian Army returned to combat on the Thessaloniki front together with other Entente forces comprising France, the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy and the United States. In World War I, Serbia had 1,264,000 casualties — 28% of its 4½m population, which also represented 58% of its male population — a loss from which it never fully recovered. This enormous sacrifice was the contribution Serbia gave to the Allied victory and the remodeling of Europe and of the World after World War I.

Related Topics:
June 28 - 1914 - Franz Ferdinand - Bosnia - Sarajevo - World War I - July 25 - Austria-Hungary - Germany - Bulgaria - Albania - Adriatic Sea - 16 August - Entente - Corfu - Thessaloniki - France - United Kingdom - Russia - Italy - United States

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The Kingdom of Yugoslavia

With the end of World War I and the collapse of both the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires the conditions were met for proclaiming the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in December of 1918. The Yugoslav ideal had long been cultivated by the intellectual circles of the three nations that gave the name to the country, but the international constellation of political forces and interests did not permit its implementation until then. However, after the war, idealist intellectuals gave way to politicians, and the most influential Croatian politicians opposed the new state right from the start.

Related Topics:
World War I - Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes - 1918

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The Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) headed by Stjepan Radi?, and then by Vlatko Ma?ek slowly grew to become a massive party endorsing Croatian national interests. According to its leaders the Yugoslav state did not provide a satisfactory solution to the Croatian national question. They chose to conduct their political battle by systematically obstructing state institutions and making political coalitions to undermine the state unity, thus extorting certain concessions. Each political or economic issue was used as a pretext for raising the so-called "unsettled Croatian question".

Related Topics:
Croatian Peasant Party - Stjepan Radi? - Vlatko Ma?ek

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Trying to match this challenge and prevent any further weakening of the country, King Alexander I banned national political parties in 1929, assumed executive power, and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions. However the balance of power changed in international relations: in Italy and Germany, Fascists and Nazis rose to power, and Stalin became the absolute ruler in the Soviet Union. None of these three states favored the policy pursued by Alexander I. The first two wanted to revise the international treaties signed after World War I, and the Soviets were determined to regain their positions in Europe and pursue a more active international policy. Yugoslavia was an obstacle for these plans, and King Aleksandar I was the pillar of the Yugoslav policy.

Related Topics:
Alexander I - 1929 - Yugoslavia - Italy - Fascists - Nazis - Stalin - Soviet Union

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During an official visit to France in 1934, the king was assassinated in Marseille by a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization — an extreme nationalist organization in Bulgaria that had plans to annex territories along the eastern and southern Yugoslav border — with the cooperation of the Usta?e — a Croatian fascist separatist organization, although some Croatian and independent scholars do not believe Croatian cooperation was provided or even necessary. It is possible to believe this without being a fascist sympathizer or a Catholic apologist. The international political scene in the late 1930s was marked by growing intolerance between the principal figures, by the aggressive attitude of the totalitarian regimes, and by the certainty that the order set up after World War I was losing its strongholds and its sponsors were losing their strength. Supported and pressured by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, Croatian leader Vlatko Ma?ek and his party managed to extort the creation of the Croatian banovina (administrative province) in 1939. The agreement specified that Croatia was to remain part of Yugoslavia, but it was hurriedly building an independent political identity in international relations, much like the Irish Free State so far away to the west.

Related Topics:
France - 1934 - Assassinated - Marseille - Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Usta?e - Irish Free State

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Serbia in World War II

At the beginning of the 1940s, Yugoslavia found itself surrounded by hostile countries. Except for Greece, all other neighboring countries had signed agreements with either Germany or Italy. Hitler was strongly pressuring Yugoslavia to join the Axis powers. The government was even prepared to reach a compromise with him, but the spirit in the country was completely different. Public demonstrations against Nazism prompted a brutal reaction. The Luftwaffe bombed Belgrade and other major cities and in April 1941, the Axis powers occupied Yugoslavia and disintegrated it. The western parts of the country together with Bosnia and Herzegovina were turned into a Nazi puppet state called the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) and ruled by the Ustashe. Serbia was set up as another puppet state under serbian army general Milan Nedi?. The northern territories were annexed by Hungary, and eastern and southern territories to Bulgaria. Kosovo and Metohija were mostly annexed by Albania which was under the sponsorship of fascist Italy. Montenegro also lost territories to Albania and was then occupied by Italian troops. Slovenia was divided between Germany and Italy that also seized the islands in the Adriatic.

Related Topics:
1940s - Greece - Hitler - Luftwaffe - Belgrade - 1941 - Independent State of Croatia - Ustashe - Slovenia

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Following the Nazi example, the Independent State of Croatia established extermination camps and perpetrated an atrocious genocide killing of over at least 700,000 mainly Serbs, but also Jews and Gypsies, according to most independent studies of these atrocities; indeed some claim that 1,000,000 Serbs or more died in Croatian concentration camps by many means. The method of killing employed by authorities was to connect exhaust of trucks used to transport detainees to the cabin where they were loaded. This cabin had no fresh air supply, so the detainees would have died on the way to their burial site from carbon monoxide poisoning. This holocaust set the historical and political backdrop for the Yugoslav wars that broke out fifty years later in Croatia and Bosnia–Herzegovina and that accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991–92.

Related Topics:
Yugoslav wars - 1991 - 92

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The ruthless attitude of the German occupation forces and the genocidal policy of the Croatian Usta?a regime created a strong anti-fascist resistance. Most Serbs, some Bosnian Muslims, some Slovenes, some Croats and some Macedonians stood up against the genocide and the Nazis. Many joined the Partisan forces who was created by Comunist Party, (National Liberation Army headed by Josip Broz Tito) in the liberation and revolutionary war agains Germans and all the others who was agains Comunism. Partisans killed during the war many civillians because they didn't wanted to support they communist ideals. By the end of 1944, the Red Army liberated Serbia and by May 1945 the remaining republics, meeting up with the Allied forces in Hungary, Austria and Italy. Yugoslavia was among the countries that had the greatest losses in the war: 1,700,000 (10.8% of the population) people were killed and national damages were estimated at 9.1 billion dollars according to the prices of that period.

Related Topics:
Genocidal - Josip Broz Tito - 1944 - 1945 - Dollar

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Serbia in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

While the war was still raging, in 1943, a revolutionary change of the social and state system was proclaimed with the abolition of monarchy in favor of the republic. Josip Broz Tito became the first president of the new — socialist — Yugoslavia. Once a predominantly agricultural country, Yugoslavia was transformed into a mid-range industrial country, and acquired an international political reputation by supporting the decolonization process and by assuming a leading role in the non-aligned movement. Socialist Yugoslavia was established as a federal state comprising six republics: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia–Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro and two autonomous regions within Serbia — Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija. The Serbs were both the most numerous and the most widely distributed of the Yugoslav peoples.

Related Topics:
1943 - Josip Broz Tito - Yugoslavia - Decolonization - Non-aligned movement - Republic - Autonomous region

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The 1974 constitution produced a significantly less centralized federation, increasing the autonomy of Yugoslavia's republics as well as the autonomous provinces of Serbia.

Related Topics:
1974 - Autonomy

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When Tito died in 1980, he was succeeded by a rotating presidency that led to a further weakening of ties between the republics. During the 1980s the republics pursued significantly different economic policies, with Slovenia and Croatia allowing significant market-based reforms, while Serbia kept to its existing program of state ownership. This, too, was a cause of tension between north and south, as Slovenia in particular experienced a period of strong growth.

Related Topics:
1980 - 1980s

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The break-up of Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia definitively and incontrovertibly broke up in 1995 following the success of Tudjman's forces over the Serbian establishment, which had been weakened and demoralized by the Allied bombings, embargoes and tacitly accepted Croatian arms-trafficking, and the subsequent secession of Croatia, Macedonia and part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, which would prove by far the most troublesome and complicated part of the equation by the presence of the large Muslim (Bosniak) population, which had caused it to develop into an irredentist three-way conflict that was by far the bloodiest of the Yugoslav wars.

Related Topics:
Croatia - Macedonia - Bosnia-Herzegovina

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In 1999, continued reported Serbian action in Kosovo led to NATO aerial bombardment (See Kosovo War). The war stopped only after Milo?evi? agreed to the retreat of the army and police from Kosovo. The province of Kosovo is now governed by the UN.

Related Topics:
1999 - NATO - Kosovo War - UN

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Slobodan Milo?evi? remained in power after the Kosovo conflict. On October 5 after demonstrations and fighting with police he was overthrown and later arrested, and Ko?tunica took power as President. Following parliamentary elections in January 2001, Zoran ?in?i? became Prime Minister. ?in?i? was assassinated in Belgrade on March 12,2003, by assailants believed to be connected with organized crime. Immediately after the assassination, the government declared a state of emergency.

Related Topics:
October 5 - 2001 - Zoran ?in?i? - March 12 - 2003 - Organized crime

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In 2003 the name Yugoslavia was finally retired, as the two states agreed to a looser union, to be known as the State Union of the Republics of Serbia and Montenegro.

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