Breakup in the Balkans: The Tragedy of Yugoslavia

Like the Croats and Montenegrins, the Serbs are a Slavic people who most likely migrated from Ukraine. By 850 AD, the Serbs had set up a Serbian religious state in the Balkans, when they converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

The Serbs thrived from 850 AD to 1389 AD, resisting expansion and colonization by the Ottoman Empire. In 1389, a Ottoman Turk army marginally defeated the Serbs in the Battle of Kosovo. This Serb defeat opened up Serbia to the Ottoman occupiers. While Serb resistance fighters took refuge in the mountains, they attached to Kosovo a symbol of national pride. To escape the Turks, many Serbs immigrated to southern Hungary, where they were more or less secure. In 1815, some areas with Serb populations revolted against the Turkish rulers. These areas won autonomy as a result of the uprisings. Still more freedom for the Serbs followed soon after.

In 1830, the Serbs were given religious freedom. The Turks were Muslims, but now the Serbs were free to practice their Christian beliefs. Along with this religious freedom, Serbia was confirmed as a protectorate of the Russian Empire. In 1877, Serbia demanded more independence. An alliance of Montenegro, Romania, Russia, and Serbia, attacked the Turks to free the Balkans. While the Turks maintained power, the Serbs achieved some political victories.

At the Treaty of San Stefano and the Treaty of Berlin, Serbia was recognized as a free and independent state, no longer under Turkish rule. However, this Serb success scared the Hapsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary into action. To keep Serbia from expanding anymore, and thereby threatening Austria-Hungary, the Hapsburg Empire was extended into occupying Bosnia, Hercegovina, and Novi Pazar, a city to the northwest of present day Kosovo. Hapsburg-Serb tensions cooled in 1880, when Serbian Prince Milan Obrenovic signed a commercial agreement with Austria-Hungary. This move was intended to protect Serbia from the now not so friendly Russia, and Serbia’s enemy Bulgaria.

Serbia fell into something of a dark age of turmoil from 1889-1903, as the country changed rulers several times. In 1903, Petar Karadjordjevic brought order to chaos. When the Hapsburgs impeded Serbia's economy, Petar once again switched allies, signing a tariff agreement with Bulgaria. In response, Austria-Hungary imposed a tariff on Serb livestock, Serbia’s most productive export. This severely strained Serb-Hapsburg relations, and the road to World War One had begun. The Russians had to get involved to prevent the two sides from fighting. A decade later, the 1st Balkan War began (October 1912-May 1913). Once again, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia attacked the Turks in another effort to force them out of the Balkans. The allies were successful again, as Kosovo and western Macedonia were freed.

In June 1913, Bulgaria turned on its ally Serbia, and attacked Serb forces holding Macedonia, in the 2nd Balkan War. Little did the Balkan powers know that World War One was but a year away.

In 1914, a Serbian Black Hand assassin by the name of Gavrilo Princip murdered Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The irony of this was that Ferdinand was actually a supporter of South Slav equality with the rest of the Hapsburg Empire. The South Slavs included the Serbs. On July 23, 1914, the Hapsburgs ordered Serbia to assist in the murder investigation, but Serbia would not fully comply. World War One had begun. Croats, Slovenes, and Hungarian Serbs fought Serbia and Montenegro. By the end of the war, Serbia had lost 850,000 people, which was 25% of the population. In this weakened state of affairs, the framework of the future Yugoslavia was built.