Serbia

Lore & Background

Continuously inhabited since the Paleolithic age, the territory of modern-day Serbia, then part of the Roman Empire, faced Slavic migrations in the 6th century. Several regional states were founded in the Early Middle Ages and were at times recognised as tributaries to the Byzantine, Frankish and Hungarian kingdoms. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by the Holy See and Constantinople in 1217, reaching its territorial apex in 1346 as the Serbian Empire. By the mid-16th century, the Ottoman Empire annexed the entirety of modern-day Serbia; their rule was at times interrupted by the Habsburg Empire, which began expanding towards Central Serbia from the end of the 17th century while maintaining a foothold in Vojvodina. In the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. In 1918, in the aftermath of World War I, the Kingdom of Serbia united with the former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina; later in the same year, it joined with other South Slavic nations in the foundation of Yugoslavia, which existed in various political formations until the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro, which was peacefully dissolved in 2006, restoring Serbia's independence as a sovereign state. In 2008, representatives of the Assembly of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community while Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory.

In Their Own Story

In a modest stone hall in Belgrade, the scent of beeswax candles mingles with the damp cold seeping through the walls. A young voivode studies a map pinned to the floor—ink lines tracing the Serav, the Morava, the Vardar—while outside, the distant call to prayer drifts across the river from the Ottoman garrison. His advisor, an elderly archimandrite with ink-stained fingers, places a hand on the young man's shoulder. "The Sultan's road to Constantinople passes through our mountains," he says quietly. "They will need our pass. Or they will take it." The voivode folds the map, tucks it into his coat, and steps out into the grey morning. Somewhere to the north, a Habsburg envoy is waiting. Somewhere to the south, a Serbian boyar is gathering men. The game of the Balkans, as always, is about who blinks first.

Reader's Guide

Serbia is an upper-middle income economy and provides universal health care and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. It is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, member of the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE, PfP, BSEC, CEFTA, and is acceding to the WTO. Since 2014, the country has been negotiating its EU accession, with the possibility of joining the European Union by 2030. Serbia formally adheres to the policy of military neutrality.

Did You Know?

• The origin of the name Serbia is unclear; historically, authors have mentioned the Serbs and the Sorbs of Eastern Germany in a variety of ways, including Triballi, Cervetiis, Suurbi, Sorabi, and others.
• From 1815 to 1882, the official name for Serbia was the Principality of Serbia; from 1882 to 1918, it was the Kingdom of Serbia; from 1945 to 1963, the People's Republic of Serbia; from 1963 to 1990, the Socialist Republ
• Seventeen Roman Emperors were born in the area of modern-day Serbia, second only to contemporary Italy; the most famous was Constantine the Great.
• The Serbian Orthodox Church was organised as an autocephalous archbishopric in 1219 through the effort of Sava, the country's patron saint.