Republic of Serbia was incorporated in the Ottoman Empire (as eyalets or as vassal states) from the mid 15th century until the early 19th century. From the early 18th century, Vojvodina was no longer incorporated in the empire as it was ceded to the Habsburgs
.
In the 15th century, the
Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. The Ottomans defeated the Serbs at the Battle of Maritsa in 1371, making vassals of the southern governors. Soon thereafter, Serbian Emperor Stefan Uroš V died. As he was childless and the nobility could not agree on a rightful heir, the empire was subsequently ruled by semi-independent provincial lords, who often feuded with one other. The most powerful of these, Lazar of Serbia, Duke of a region that now encompasses central Serbia, had not yet fallen under Ottoman rule and confronted them at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. The outcome of the battle was the mutual annihilation of both armies, but Serbia did eventually fall to the Ottomans. Stefan Lazarević, son of Lazar, succeeded him as ruler but had by 1394 become an Ottoman vassal. In 1402 he renounced Ottoman rule and became an ally of Hungary, and the years that followed were characterized by the Ottomans and Hungary battling over the territory of Serbia. In 1453, the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, and in 1458 Athens
. In 1459, Serbia was annexed, followed by Greece a year later.
Several minor, unsuccessful and short-lived revolts broke out against Ottoman rule, mostly with the help of the
Slaughter of the Dukes. In retaliation, the Serbs took arms and by 1806 had killed or driven out all of the dahia, but the fight did not stop. When the Sultan sent the new Pasha into the province, the Serbs killed him. The revolt continued, in what would be known as the First Serbian Uprising, with the Serbs under Karađorđe defeating the Turks in several battles, liberating most of Central Serbia. An unsuccessful rebellion followed in 1814, and in 1815 the Second Serbian Uprising began. In 1817, Serbia was de facto independent as the Principality of Serbia
.
History
Wars for Serbia (1389–1540)
Kosovka devojka (The Kosovo Maiden), a picture by Uroš PredićStates that emerged after dissolution of Serbian Empire in the 14th century
The Turks defeated the Serbian army in one crucial battle: on the banks of the river
. Both Sultan Murad I and Prince Lazar lost their lives in this inconclusive bloodbath.
The Battle of Kosovo defined the long-term fate of Serbia, because now it had no force capable of standing up to the Turks directly. This was an unstable period marked by the rule of Prince Lazar's son — despot Stefan Lazarević — a true European-style knight, a military leader, and a poet. Stefan was at first a vassal of Sultan Bayezid I, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 and at Ankara in 1402, later gaining independence after the loss of Bayezid. His cousin and heir Đurađ Branković moved the capital to the newly built fortified town of Smederevo. The Turks continued their conquest until they finally seized all of northern Serbian territory in 1459 when Smederevo fell into their hands. The only free Serbian territories were parts of Bosnia and Zeta. After the fall of Principality of Zeta in 1496, Serbia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for almost three centuries. A Serbian principality under Hungarian protection was created, after the fall of the Serbian Despotate, by the Branković family (later other Serbian noblemen assumed the throne) in what is now Vojvodina, Slavonia, and Bosnia. The subordinate state spent its entirety fighting the Ottomans and represented the heritage of what was left of the Serbian Kingdom.
From the 14th century onward an increasing number of Serbs began migrated north to the region today known as
Srem (These three regions are now parts of Vojvodina). He created an independent state with the city of Subotica
as its capital. At the peak of his power Jovan Nenad crowned himself in Subotica as the 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.
European powers, and Austria in particular, fought many wars against the Ottoman Empire, relying on the help of the Serbs who lived under Ottoman rule. During the
Sinan Pasha retaliated by burning the remains of Saint Sava, the most sacred Serbian saint. Serbs created another center of resistance in Herzegovina
, but when peace was signed by Turkey and Austria, they were abandoned to Turkish retaliation. This sequence of events became usual in the centuries that followed.
War between Ottomans and the Holy League
The
Arsenije Čarnojević
.
Austrian-Ottoman War
Another important episode in Serbian history took place in 1716–1718, when the Serbian ethnic territories, ranging from river Drina, to Belgrade and the Danube basin, became the battleground for a new Austrian-Ottoman war launched by
Peloponnesus
.
The last Austrian-Ottoman war was known as the Dubica War (1788–1791), when the Austrians urged the Christians in Bosnia to rebel. No wars were fought afterwards until the 20th century, which marked the fall of both mighty empires (by this time, Austria had become Austria-Hungary).
For a short time, the Serb rebels captured several cities in Banat, including
Sinan Pasha, who led the Ottoman army, ordered the green flag of Muhammad brought from Damascus
to counter the Serbian flag, and burned the mortal remains of Saint Sava in Belgrade.
Serb Uprising of 1596–97
The
Serb Uprising of 1596-97 was organized by Patriarch Jovan Kantul and led by Grdan
.
Planned revolts with Russian aid
Serbian-Russian
Count Miloradovich
). There has been preserved an inscription from that time, in a chronicle:
In the year 1711 Mihailo Miloradovich came to Montenegro, to the great misfortune of the Monastery and of Montenegro.... [for Vizir Kiuprili in 1714] razed Montenegro and destroyed the church and the Monastery.
Petar I Petrović-Njegoš, the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro (Serbian Orthodox Episcop of Cetinje), conceived a plan to form a new Serbian Empire out of Bosnia, Serbia, Herzegovina and Montenegro with Boka, with Dubrovnik as its Imperial Capital. In 1807, he sent a letter to the Russian General of the Danube Army regarding this subject: "The Russian Czar would be recognized as the Tsar of the Serbs and the Metropolitan of Montenegro would be his assistant. The leading role in the restoration of the Serbian Empire belongs to Montenegro."
In the latter half of the century, officer Koča Anđelković led a successful rebellion against the Ottomans with the help of Austria and again put Serbia under the rule of the Habsburgs, so the territory was known as Koča's frontier. The rebellion ended with the Treaty of Sistova and the withdrawal of Austrians.
Tekelija's aim
Napoleon proposing the establishment of a South Slavic political unit with Serbia at its core, including the parts conquered by France – from which the Illyrian provinces would be formed. To achieve the goal of this political unit, he proposed that France help the Serbian Revolution, to prevent Russian penetration and influence in these territories. He sent a similar letter to Austrian Emperor Francis I in 1805 proposing other political alliances, also with the stated goal of preventing Russian influence. His project implied an establishment of a Serbian state, or more generally, a South Slavic state. His works show his view of the potential future of the South Slavic nations.[3]
1791–1804
Belgrade pashaluk (Sanjak of Smederevo) in 1791Ottoman Belgrade
The withdrawal of the Austrians from Serbia in 1791 marked the end of the
Porte to ease the pressure on Serbs were only temporary; by 1799 the Janissary corps had returned, suspended Serb autonomy and drastically increased taxes, enforcing martial law
in Serbia.
Serb leaders from both sides of the Danube began to conspire against the dahias. When they found out, they rounded up and murdered dozens of Serbian noblemen on the main square of
Slaughter of the Dukes
in 1804).
The massacre outraged the Serbian people and incited the revolt across the
Pashaluk of Belgrade. Within days, in the small Šumadija village of Orašac, the Serbs gathered to proclaim the uprising, electing Karađorđe Petrović as the leader. That afternoon, a Turkish inn (caravanserai) in Orašac was burned and its residents fled or were killed, followed by similar actions country-wide. Soon the cities Valjevo and Požarevac
were liberated, and the siege of Belgrade launched.
Initially fighting to restore their local privileges within the Ottoman system (until 1807), the revolutionaries – supported by the wealthy Serbian community from the southern Austrian Empire (present-day
During the almost 10 years of the First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813), Serbia perceived itself as an independent state for the first time, after 300 years of Ottoman and short Austrian occupations.
Encouraged by the Russian Empire, demands for self-government within the Ottoman Empire in 1804 developed into a war for independence by 1807. Combining patriarchal peasant democracy with modern national goals, the Serbian revolution was attracting thousands of volunteers among Serbs from across the Balkans and Central Europe. The Serbian Revolution ultimately became a symbol of the nation-building process in the Balkans, provoking peasant unrest among Christians in both Greece and Bulgaria.[4]
Following a successful siege with 25,000 men, on 8 January 1807 the charismatic leader of the revolt, Karađorđe Petrović, proclaimed Belgrade the capital of Serbia.
Revolutionary Serbia in 1809
Serbs responded to the
Minister of Education in modern Serbia in 1811.[4]
Following the French invasion in 1812 the Russian Empire withdrew its support for the Serb rebels. Unwilling to accept anything less than independence,[4] the revolutionaries were fought into submission following the Ottoman incursion into Serbia. One quarter of Serbia's population (at that moment around 100,000 people) were exiled into the Habsburg Empire, including the leader of the Uprising, Karađorđe Petrović.[5] Recaptured by the Ottomans in October 1813, Belgrade became a scene of brutal revenge, with hundreds of its citizens massacred, and thousands sold into slavery as far away as Asia. Direct Ottoman rule also meant the abolition of all Serbian institutions, including the University of Belgrade (Velika škola) and the return of Ottoman Turks to Serbia.[4]
Hadži-Prodan's Revolt (1814)
See also:
Hadži Prodanova buna
Despite the lost battle, tensions nevertheless persisted. In 1814 the unsuccessful Hadži Prodan's revolt was launched by Hadži Prodan Gligorijević, a veteran of the First Serbian Uprising. He knew the Turks would arrest him, so he thought it best to resist the Ottomans; Milos Obrenović, another veteran, felt the time was not right for an uprising and did not provide assistance.
Hadži Prodan's Uprising soon failed and he fled to Austria. After a riot at a Turkish estate in 1814, the Turkish authorities massacred the local population and publicly impaled 200 prisoners at Belgrade.[5] By March 1815, Serbs had held several meetings and decided upon a new revolt.[clarification needed]
Second Serbian Uprising
Principality of Serbia in 1817 after Second Serbian Uprising
The Second Serbian Uprising (1815–1817) was a second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, which erupted shortly after the brutal annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire and the failed Hadži Prodan's revolt. The revolutionary council proclaimed an uprising in Takovo on April 23, 1815, with Milos Obrenović chosen as the leader (while Karađorđe was still in exile in Austria).
The decision of the Serb leaders was based on two reasons. First, they feared a general massacre of knezes. Second, they learned that Karađorđe was planning to return from exile in Russia. The anti-Karađorđe faction, including Miloš Obrenović, was anxious to forestall Karađorđe and keep him out of power.[5]
Fighting resumed at Easter in 1815, and Milos became the supreme leader of the new revolt. When the Ottomans discovered this they sentenced all of its leaders to death. The Serbs fought in battles at
Pashaluk of Belgrade
.
Milos advocated a policy of restraint:[5] captured Ottoman soldiers were not killed and civilians were released. His announced goal was not independence but to put an end to abusive misrule.
Wider
Prince Miloš Obrenović, an astute politician and able diplomat, in order to confirm his hard-won loyalty to the Porte in 1817 ordered the assassination of Karađorđe Petrović. The final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 raised Turkish fears that Russia might again intervene in the Balkans. To avoid this the sultan agreed to make Serbia suzerain – a semi-independent state nominally responsible to the Porte.[4]
Serbian Orthodox Christian, belonged to the Rum Millet (millet-i Rûm, "Roman Nation"). Although a separate Serbian millet (Sırp Milleti) was not officially recognized during Ottoman rule, the Serbian Church was the legally confirmed representative organization of the Serbs in the Ottoman Empire.[6]
^Krkljuš, Ljubomirka, On Sava Tekelija's programme for the renewal of the Serbian state , Zbornik Matice srpske za istoriju 2010, iss. 81, pp. 7–22, DocumentArchived 2012-03-17 at the Wayback Machine
.jpg)
