Located
in South East Europe, Serbia has a rich
but violent history that stretches back
to the days of castles and Kingdoms. Starting
in the 9th century, Serbia was inhabited
by tribes of semi-nomadic peoples until
the Arrival of the Romans. During the
10th Century a man named Caslav Klonimirovic
began to hammer out a permanent nation-state
and sometime during the 11th century the
Kingdom was officially established. For
the next two hundred years powerful families
such as the Vojislavljevics and the Nemanjics
held power in one form or another, until
the arrival of the Ottoman Turks arrived
in the mid-14th century. The Turkish invaders
subjugated the Serbian peoples and animosity
between the two still exists to this day.
The Ottoman Turks would hold power in
the country until a war alongside Russia
against the Turks and in 1877 broke their
hold over the region. The center city
of Belgrade once again served as a capital,
and the population began to rise. The
early 17th century sees the various power
structures of Serbia move from one pair
of hands to the next, until it became
part of the 19th century.
As
Serbia moves into the 19th century we
see it playing a major role in history,
In June of 1914 the Archduke Francis Ferdinand,
heir to the Habsburg throne, is shot by
a Serbian in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo.
This starts a chain of events that leads
to the First World War. The result is
that Serbia is invaded by the Austria-Hungarian
Empire. After World War One is becomes
part of Yugoslavia, which is then invaded
by the Germans in World War Two. By the
end of World War Two Serbia (as part of
Yugoslavia) becomes a part of the Warsaw
Pact, and remains behind the Iron Curtain
until the end of the Cold War in 1989-1990.
After 1990 Yugoslavia splits into its
component states, with conflicts of various
sorts resulting from the division. Since
2003 Serbia refers to itself as a member
state in the union with Montenegro.
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