Serbia/Serbs:
Development of a Nation
How Serbia became
Serbia,
and how the Serbs became Serb.
 How
Serbs as a people, and the country of Serbia as a nation-state,
evolved and materialized into current form, in terms of ancestral
bloodlines, the Serbian language, borders, culture, and even how they
received their name.
Ancestral Background
Development of Language
Formation of Borders
Etymology (How Name Received)
Culture
Serbia in 2008
 Serbian
Ancestral Background:
- 3000 BC – People along the Baltic coast
centered around modern Lithuania begin speaking the
Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a branch off from
Proto-Indo-European. This serves as the genesis of the Slavic
and Baltic languages/peoples.
- 1000 BC – A group splinters from the
Proto-Balto-Slavic people, migrating southeast into modern Ukraine.
This branch off group were the predecessors to Slavs, who would
ultimately extend outward in all directions.
- In the 6th century, as Germanics
migrated westward, a group of Slavs expanded southward to fill the
void, inhabiting the northern border of the Byzantine Empire
(continuation of the Roman Empire in the Greek world).
- 558 – Avars, a central Asian Turkic people,
driven west into Europe (through modern Ukraine) by Persians and
more powerful Turkic empires, came into contact with the Byzantines.
They were paid off by the Byzantines to settle the area north of the
Danube River, and to subdue barbarian Germanics remaining in the
territory. The Avars succeeded in driving the Germans out of area,
including the Lombards, who were driven into Italy, where they
become the ruling class. At this time, large groups of Slavic
peoples were settled north of the Danube as well. The Avar raids
forced them
 south into the Balkan peninsula, where they settled
lands abandoned by Germanic peoples, including modern Romania and
Hungary. Slavic peoples would inhabit the entire Balkan region north
of the Greek-inhabited lands at the very southern portion of the
peninsula by 700. The Illyrians would be driven into a remote
mountainous region in modern Albania, becoming forefathers to modern
Albanians, which would also include a Slavic component from
intermixing.
- By the
7th century, Serbs would begin to come under Bulgarian
control, and then under Byzantine control in 10th
century. Byzantines were the continuation of the Roman Empire among
the Greeks and those under their rule. By the 7th
century, the Serbs had already developed into a distinct
nationality, as they were just far enough beyond the main body of
surrounding kingdoms to materialize as a cohesive yet differentiated
group. By this point, the genetic composition of Serbs was largely
set.
- 1389 –
Battle of Kosovo. The Muslim Ottoman Turks defeated the Serbs,
taking control of the southeast portion of the Serbian Empire.
 By
1459, virtually all of Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.
The Serbs
remained a distinct nation under Muslim Ottoman rule,
maintaining their Christian heritage, resisting Islamization unlike
other Slav nations swallowed into the Ottoman Empire, such as Bosnia
and Albania, further cementing the sectarian lines between these two
bordering nations of people. Serbs were instead able to further
consolidate their identity through the Serbian Orthodox Church,
insulated Serbs from other the original Orthodox church in Greece,
which was also under Ottoman rule, but unable to project influence
abroad due to its vassal status.- Serbia would eventually be conquered by
Austria (1817), before achieving independence (1882). It would
become the dominant ethnogroup in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which
consolidated South Slavs after the break-up of the Austria-Hungary
Empire following its defeat in 1918. The Serbs would fervently
protect its preferential status, perpetuating sectarian jealousies
and rivalries within Yugoslavia, which would eventually devolve into
the Yugoslavia Wars, and the subsequent fragmentation of Yugoslavia
along nationalistic lines. It was this sectarianism that served to
keep nationalistic divisions in place.
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Development of Serbian Language:
 3000 BC – People along the Baltic coast
centered around modern Lithuania begin speaking the
Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a branch off from
Proto-Indo-European. This serves as the genesis of the Slavic
and Baltic languages/peoples.- 1000 BC – A group splinters from the
Proto-Balto-Slavic people, migrating southeast into modern Ukraine.
This branch off group were the predecessors to Slavs, who would
ultimately extend outward in all directions. Their language evolves
into the original Slav language, a sub-branch of Proto-Balto-Slavic,
and the ancestral language to all Slav sub-branches, including
Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian and others.
- South Slav Language begins to separate from
Western Slav Language in the 9th to 10th
century, after Magyars settled into modern Hungary, separating the
West Slavs (in modern Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia) from the
South Slavs (territory roughly approximating the former Yugoslavia).
- By 10th
century, Serbian begins to become a distinct language, having
sufficiently diverged from other South Slav languages. It remains
mutually intelligible with Bosniak and Croat.
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Formation
of Serbian Borders:
 In the 6th century, as Germanics
migrated westward, a group of Slavs expanded southward to fill the
void, inhabiting the northern border of the Byzantine Empire
(continuation of the Roman Empire in the Greek world).- 558 – Avars, a central Asian Turkic people,
driven west into Europe (through modern Ukraine) by Persians and
more powerful Turkic empires, came into contact with the Byzantines.
They were paid off by the Byzantines to settle the area north of the
Danube River, and to subdue barbarian Germanics remaining in the territory.
The Avars succeeded in driving the Germans out of area, including
the Lombards, who were driven into Italy, where they become the
ruling class. At this time, large groups of Slavic peoples were
settled north of the Danube as well. The Avar raids forced them
south into the Balkan peninsula, where they settled lands abandoned
by Germanic peoples, including modern Romania and Hungary. Slavic
peoples would inhabit the entire Balkan region north of the
Greek-inhabited lands at the very southern portion of the peninsula
by 700.
- By the
7th century, Serbs would begin to come under Bulgarian
control, and then under Byzantine control in 10th
century. Byzantines were the continuation of the Roman Empire among
the Greeks and those under their rule. By the 7th
century, the Serbs had already developed into a distinct
nationality, as they were just far enough beyond the main body of
surrounding kingdoms to materialize as a cohesive yet differentiated
group.
- In the late 12th century, the Serbs
were still officially under control of Byzantine, but essentially
operating independently. They went on to conquer Albania, Kosovo,
northern Macedonia, and eastern modern Serbia. Their independence
was formally recognized in 1217.
- 1282 – As dowry for a dynastic marriage,
Hungary gives its northern Serbia holdings to the monarch of Serbia,
along with territory in northeast Bosnia.
- 1389 –
Battle of Kosovo. The Muslim Ottoman Turks defeated the Serbs,
taking control of the southeast portion of the Serbian Empire.
- By
1459, virtually all of Serbia was conquered by the Ottoman Empire.
The Serbs remained a distinct nation under Muslim Ottoman rule,
maintaining their Christian heritage, resisting Islamization unlike
other Slav nations swallowed into the Ottoman Empire, such as Bosnia
and Albania, further cementing the sectarian lines between these two
bordering nations of people, laying the foundation for future
divisions.
 1718 – Austria-Ottoman War: The Serbs were
persuaded to join their fellow
Christians from Austria in a revolt
against the Muslim Ottoman Empire, gaining Northern Serbia for
themselves.- 1817 – A Serb uprising against the Ottomans
frees most of Serbia from Ottoman rule, with the exception of the
capital city of Belgrade. Serbia then became a principality within
the Austrian Empire.
- 1867 – The Ottoman Empire finally withdraws
from Belgrade, its last foothold in Serbia.
- 1882 – Serbs gain independence from the
Austrian Empire, establishing the Kingdom
of Serbia. The northern
region of Vojvodina remains an autonomous region within
Austria-Hungary.
- 1913 – Balkan Wars: Serbia captured Macedonia,
while also gaining territory to the east at the expense of Bulgaria.
- 1918 – Serbia, fighting on the Allied side,
was awarded Austrian territories of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, to
form the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes at the conclusion
of WWI in 1918. Vojvodina (Northern Serbia) was unified with Serbia.
- In 1929, the name of the kingdom was changed
to Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was conquered and sub-divided among the
Axis Powers during WWII, but restored to its former borders after
the war.
- Serbia-dominated Yugoslavia remained intact
until the beginning of the Yugoslavia Wars in 1990, when President
Milosevic attempted to consolidate power among Serbs in lands
outside of Serbia, resulting in wars of independence, and the
subsequent
 break up of Yugoslavia. Serbia and Montenegro was one of
the successor states, a union based on the traditional nations of
Serbian and Montenegro.
- 2006 – Montenegro declares independence,
leaving Serbia as a stand-alone nation-state.
- 2008 – Kosovo declares independence. Kosovo is
an Albanian-majority nation that has traditionally existed within
Serbian borders.
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Etymology (How
Name Received):
Serb is of
unknown origin, likely from the Serbian language, or at least Slav
family language.
Serbian
Culture:
Serbian art, architecture,
music and other cultural aspects have traditionally been influenced by
Eastern Orthodoxy, first under Byzantine Greek Orthodox influence.
Later, the Serb Orthodox Church supplanted the Greek Orthodox as the
leading influence of Serbian culture.
Serbian culture would survive
the longstanding Muslim domination under the Ottoman Empire. During the
existence of Yugoslavia, Serb culture was influenced by Soviet communist
idealism. Since the break down of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia,
western influence has been on the rise.
Serbia in 2008:
Economy: Still recovering from
frequent warfare during the 1990s, along with UN economic sanctions, as
it was seen as the aggressor during the Yugoslavian Wars. Unemployment
(18%) and national debt remain significant problems. But in the past few
years, the economy has really begun to grow. Serbia is traditionally a
dominant force in the Balkans, indicating the room it had to grow after
suffering a low point during the Yugoslavia Wars, where the world
essentially teamed against it.
Government: Democratic Republic
Religion: Serbian Orthodox 85%, Roman Catholic 6%.
Demographics: Serb 83%, Hungarian 4% (Northern Serbia
historically under Hungarian rule).
Foreign Policy: Engaged in law suit filed by Bosnia & Herzegovina
for war crimes and charges of genocide during Bosnian War from 1992 –
95. Currently engaged in minor border disputes with Croatia and Bosnia.
Through diplomatic and other non-military means, trying to retain Kosovo
province, which seceded from Serbia in 2008. Trying to gain entry into
EU, as it attempts to shed its label as menace in region after the
Yugoslavia Wars.
Population: 10,159,046 (2008)
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