The Historical Background of the Serb-Kossovo Crisis

A Primer on Balkan History

The New York Times has a cite devoted to current reports as well as previous stories. For access click here. For similar coverage from the Los Angeles Times cite, choose from the following: current reports and links to background, and previous stories.

An index of email postings from what appears to be an ordinary Serb citizen reporting on the impact of NATO bombing in Novi Sad.

An index of sites pertaining to the legal aspects of the conflict in Kossovo, including a conversation between the Law faculty of the University of Pittsburg and the Law Faculty of the University of Belgrade.

An excellent source of maps for this area and in general is the University of Texas cite. Click here.

1. The Land and Peoples: The roots of this conflict rest more with history, religion, and the concepts of nation and nationality than with ethnicity. My remarks here will focus on these as a background to the current crisis.
   1. The region in question here is the Balkan penninsula. See Map
      1. Danube and Sava rivers. (Rumania is considered a part of Balkan history, but is not geographically part of the Balkans.
      2. Dinaric Alps separate the Sava-Morava plain from the Adriatic
      3. Balkan (Turkish for mountains) Mountains crisscross the area between the Morava Plain and Bulgaria. Click here for an ethno-linguistic map of the region.
   2. The cultural diversity of the peoples of the region is enormous. An intersection between Germanic Central Europe and Slavic southeastern Europe, Roman Catholicism-Orthodox Christianity-Islam, historical fault line between Germans and South Slavs and Greeks and Russians
      1. The Serbs are one of a group of ethnically similar peoples speaking variations of a basic South Slavonic language. As a consequence of their historical experience, they are divided by religion. Contemporary journalist usage identifies the Orthodox Serbs as just the Serbs or the Bosnian Serbs and Herzegovinian Serbs. There are also the Muslims of Bosnia, most of whom are ethnic Serbs who converted during the long Turkish rule of the region. They all use a variation of the Cyrillic alphabet. See map.
      2. The modern Macedonians are a mixture of South Slavs, whose language is closely related to Serbian and is written with the Cyrillic alphabet, with the classical Macedonians. For a web history of Macedonia from the Greek perspective click here. The Macedonians are also Orthodox and some of their monasteries and churches are among the most important in the Serb Orthodox religion. Two slides. See map.
      3. The Bulgarians are also South Slavs with a somewhat different language, but are mostly Orthodox and also use the Cyrillic alphabet. Have contested the Serbs and Greeks for Macedonia. See map.
      4. The Croats use the same language as the Serbs (Serbo-Croatian). They had an independent medieval Kingdom in the 10th and 11th centuries, but came definitively under Hungarian control 1089-91. Roman Catholicism became the dominant religion and their branch of the language has thus subsequently been written with the Latin alphabet. See map.
      5. The Slovenes are the descendents of those South Slavs who had established an early medieval Kingdom in the 700's in what is today Austria and Slovenia. Charlemagne's Bavarian knights conquered the region inplanting Catholicism and bringing those who region remained under the rule of the Holy Roman Empire, later Austria. Because of their history ofalmost 1200 years under Catholic-German influence, the language is somewhat different language from Serbo-Croatian and writen with the Latin alphabet. See map.
      6. Albanians are NOT South Slavs. They are the only significant modern remnants of the Illyrians who dominated the Balkans in ancient times and comprise the Albanian nation-state and had come to constitute 90% of the population of the Serbian province of Kossovo. See map.
      7. Greeks are not South Slavs contest the right of Macedonia to that name.
2. The foundation of the medieval nations --- significant for justifying modern nation-states.
   1. 6th-7th centuries, South Slavs became established in the central Balkans, conquered by the Asiatic Bulgars, who were in turn assimilated as South Slavs
   2. Bulgarian Empire carved out of the Byzantine Empire, occupying all of modern Bulgaria, much of Serbia, all of Kossovo and parts of Macedonia and Albania. 808-927
      1. Converted to Orthodoxy.
      2. Weakened after the death of Simeon in 927 and reabsorbed by the Byzantine Empire by 1025. See Centennia.
      3. Serbs had converted to Orthodoxy under Bulgarian rule and were the reabsorbed into a resurgent Byzantine Empire.
      4. But as the Seljuk Turks in the late 12th century diverted the attention of the Byzantines and and the Crusaders then conquered them early in the 13th century the Serbs consolidated into two political units.
         1. Bosnia and Herzegovina fell under Hunargian rule and then in the 13th century became an independent kingdom which survived until conquered by the Turks, definitively in 1463. Click here for a web-history of the area by Andreas Riedlmayer of Harvard University. .
         2. The Serbs of what is today Serbia and Montenegro began to unify what had been separate principalities in the last quarter of the 12th century.
   3. The Serbian Empire

   1. Stefan Nemanja (1196-1228) established the first Serb Empire unifying Zeta (Montenegro today) and Rashka in the Morava Valley.

   2. First as vassal state to Byzantium.

      1. After Crusaders' defeat of Byzantium in 1204, declared independence.
      2. Pope sought to convert the Serbs by granting them the title of King, the Byzantine Emperor tried to woo them back by making the Serbian Church independent with a Patriarch at Pec (slides) in north-western Kossovo. Show 2 minute video.
   3. Under their storied Emperor, Stefan Dushan in 1330 Serbia became the dominant power in the Balkans. See Centennia for 1355 to see the extent of control.
      1. March on Constantinople --- died en route.
      2. Weakness thereafter and susceptibility to outside conquest.
      3. Fortified Churches to provide refuge in a time of uncertainty.
   4. Slovenes, pushed West by the Avars, established their own Kingdom (Carantania) in the North, but came under the rule of the Kingdom of the Franks in 745, later Austrian rule --- conversion to Roman Catholicism.
   5. Croats --- Kingdom recognized by the Pope in 924, came under Hungarian rule in 1102 and likewise became Roman Catholics.
   6. Macedonians had no medieval nation to justify their identity, but look back to Alexander the Great, et. al., basis for squabble with the Greeks.
   7. Albanians ---no medieval nation. Illyrians, preceeded the Greeks and the Slavs ---- nominally under the control of the Greeks, Macedonians, later Venetian Empire --- bckward, relatively little impact from conquerors.

3. The Legacy of the Ottoman Turks
   1. Conquest of the old Byzantine Empire and the Balkans after 1350's --- see Centennia. By 1526, all the South Slavs, plus the Greeks, Rumanians and Hungarians were conquered.
   2. Serbs --- defeated at the Battle of Kosovo Pole, 28. June 1389 --- warriors died to a man --a day of national mourning and vow for revenge.
      1. By 1485 only Dubrovnik survived as part of Venetian Empire and the impregnable Black Mountain (Montenegro).
      2. Central Serbia including Kossovo --- heavy taxes and slave levy, but Orthodoxy tolerated
      3. Bosnia, conquered in 1463 and Herzegovina 1483 ---on the divide between the Catholic and Orthodox world no dominant religion --- strength of the Bogomilian heresy.
         1. Expedient conversion to Islam of nobility and a significant numbers of peasants.
         2. Source of modern hostilities --- religious and social-economic, not ethnic.
   3. Albanians: conquered gradually from about 1385-1480
      1. Converted to Islam, seeing the Turks as protectors against the Serbs.
      2. Tribal hierarchy preserved as chieftans and landowning classes were integrated into the Turkish administeration.
      3. Under Turkish umbrella, they flooded into Kossovo beginning at the end of the 17th century, becoming the predominant population there.
   4. The beginning of outside intervention 1683-1815..
      1. The Habsburg reconquest 1683-1718 returned not only the ancient holdings in Krain (Slovenes and some Croats) and Hungary including its holdings in Transylvania (Rumania today), but also its South Slav claims (much of the rest of Croatia and Slavonia). See Centennia 1739. This line held until the success of the national wars of liberation of the 19th century.
      2. The Russian expansion: Drive to the Black Sea capped by the victories of Catherine the Great.
         1. See Centennia, 1792.9
         2. Right of intervention guaranteed by treaty, 1774 and reaffirmed in 1792.
      3. Napoleonic conquest of the Italian states and of Austria in 1809 brought French rule to Dalmatia (See Centennia, 1810) and sowed the seeds of an Illyrian nationalism, brought the French concept of nation and the idea of liberty from outside control.
4. Revolutions of national liberation and the intervention of outside powers ("The Eastern Question") to World War I.
   1. The Greeks were the first to revolt and establish an independent state 1821. Not directly relevant here, but illustrates foreign interest and involvement.
      1. Phil-Hellenism --- impact on art architecture, literature.
      2. Joint British-French-Russian naval demonstration against the Turkish-Egyptian forces at Navarino, 1827.
      3. Russo-Turkish War 1828-29. See Centennia, 1829.8 created the circumstances for:
         1. Greek Independence, Treaty of London, 1830. Guaranteed by Britain, France and Russia --- note the limits of its territory.
         2. Russian protectorate over Moldavia and Wallachia --- kernel of modern Rumania.
         3. Serbia given autonomy and their own heredetary prince under the Sultan
   2. Serbia: From Indepenence to World War I.
      1. The Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878 which totally revised the map of the Balkans actually began with a revolt in Bosnia-Herzegovina. See Centennia, 1875.
         1. Serb-Orthodox peasants (42%), oppressed for centuries by Muslim-Serb aristocracy and privileged peasant-landholders (40%) - remainder Catholic peasants.
         2. Supported by
            1. Pan-Serbism of Serbia population based on religious, social-economic anger against centuries of Turkish rule matured into a sense of modern nationalism.
            2. Pan-Slavism of Russia ---- cover for drive to the Mediteranean
            3. Habsburg-based Jugoslavism.
         3. Serbia declared war in 1876 and rebellion spread to Bulgarians.
            1. "Bulgarian Horrors" brought attention of Britain to to the "Breakfast War."
            2. Russia invaded in the Spring of 1877.
            3. Treaty of San Stefano (March 3, 1878) too favorable to Russia-- Bismarck offered to "broker" a settlement. Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878) See Centennia, 1879.5
      2. Unresolved problems and the Road to World War I.
         1. Bosnia-Herzegovina given to Austria-Hungary to administer.
            1. Serb-Orthodox (43%) backward to the other nationalities because of 400 years of discrimination by the Turks.
            2. Croats (22%) favored by Austrian administration.
            3. Muslims (33%) the aristocrats and political and economic elites had been favored by the Turks --- resented Austrian ruyle at first, but then were able to take advantage of being integrated into the more advanced, Central European infrastructure.
            4. ---1908 --- Pan-Serbism into Jugoslavism --- backed by Russia.
         2. Bulgaria unified 1885-86 --- dispute and war with Serbia over territory. This 1908 political cartoon from the French Parisian Petit Journal shows Franz Josef grabbing Bosnia-Herzogovina (formal annexation) and an independent Bulgaria being torn away from Turkey. Turkey looks on dismayed. For a sense of nationalist hostility of Serbs against Austria, See War Fever in Serbia.
         3. Unresolved nationalist claims of the new Balkan States backed by the Russians led to the First Balkan War, October-December 1912. See Centennia from 1912.6-1913. Note Serb-Greek-Bulgarian expansion into Macedonia; Serb expansion into Kossovo and Albania
         4. The Albanian Question
            1. Growth of national consciousness, particularly among immigrants in U.S. and Italy.
            2. Not initially hostile to Turks, but when the Young Turk revolutionaries pushed Ottomanization, those in Kossovo revolted on behalf of autonomy.
            3. In the wake of the Turkish collapse in the First Balkan War, Albania declared independence, while Kossovo was occupied by the Serbs.
            4. Serb attempt to conquer Albania prompted the protest of Italy and Austria-Hungary and the Treaty of London creating an independent Albania to the outrage of the Serbs aimed at Austria-Hungary and her ally, Italy.
         5. Compare the political and ethno-linguistic maps of Europe on the eve of World War I. Click on each map to cycle through and return to this page.
         6. Sarajevo, June 28, 1914.
         7. The Arch Duke Franz-Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was a known proponent of autonomy for the South Slavs within the Empire. This photo shows him and his wife minutes before they were shot by a Serb nationalist who represented Serb interests that feared the South Slav problem would be solved within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Click on the photo for more.
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