Rafting, Caving, Hiking, Cycling, Adventure and leisure holidays, Serbia facts

c. 600
Between the years 626 and 641 the Slavic tribe of Serbs settles the grounds in central and west Balkans.

c. 850
The Serbs adopt Christianity and the Slavonic liturgy.

9th and 10th centuries
The first Serb states are created in the mountainous regions of present-day Montenegro and Herzegovina but struggle to maintain the independence from Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarians.

1034 to 1181
Duklja, led by Stefan Vojislav, emerges as the most powerful of Serb lands and manages to win its independence from Byzantium. Vojislav’s son Mihajlo (1055-92) is acknowledged as a king

1168 to 1371
Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the Nemanjic dynasty, ascends the throne of Raška and unites all the Serb lands except Bosnia under his rule. In 1217 his son Stefan “Prvovencani” secures the crown as the first king in the lineage while in 1219 Nemanja’s other son monk Sava (the future saint) organizes an independent church. The several kings that follow expand the state. Dušan the Mighty (1331-1355) is crowned emperor in 1345 and the archbishopric is raised to the status of patriarchate. Serbia reaches the height of its power during the middle Ages. The year 1371 sees both the death of emperor Uroš the Weak, the last ruler of the dynasty, and the defeat of the most powerful Serbian nobles from Macedonia by the Turks.

1386
The Battle of Plocnik was fought in 1386, at the village of Plocnik, near Prokuplje in today's southeastern Serbia, between the Serbian forces of prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic and the invading Ottoman Turks of sultan Murad I. The Serbian army used heavy knight cavalry charge with horse archers on the flanks. Milos Obilic was wounded by an arrow in the battle.The Serbian army emerged victorious, temporarily slowing down the Ottoman invasion of the Balkans, but it only set up the stage for the ill-fated battle of Kosovo.

1389
The battle of Kosovo: both the Turkish sultan Murad I and the leader of the Serb forces prince Lazar die. Lazar’s son, 11-year-old Stefan, is forced to pay tribute to the Turks.

1402 to 1499
After the defeat of the Turks at Angora by the Mongolians, Stefan Lazarevic (1389-1427) and his successor Djuradj Brankovic (1427-1456) bring Serbia to the new cultural and economic pinnacle. Squeezed between the Turks and the Hungarians, Serbia is the scene of many wars. After the fall of Constantinople, Mahomet the Conqueror attacks Serbia and in 1459 Smederevo, the last Serbian capital, is lost. In 1463 the Turks occupy Bosnia and execute its last king.

1557
In this year the Grand vizier Mehmed-pasha Soccolly, who was Serb by birth, restored the Patriarchy allowing the church to take place of the vanished state.

1683 to 1699
After the defeat at the gates of Vienna the Turkish power crumbles and in 1689 the Serbian state is briefly liberated but only to be lost again; tens of thousands flee the Turkish revenge and settle in the north. The peace of Karlowitz in 1699 leaves areas south of Sava and Danube under Turkish domination. In the18th c. Serbia is once again region disputed by two warring empires.

1804 to 1815
1804 sees the start of a full scale rising led by Djordje Petrovic, known as Karadjordje (“Black George”). After many significant successes the Serbs are eventually defeated in 1813. A renewed Turkish terror campaign results in one more uprising in 1815 by the Serbs, this time led by Miloš Obrenovic, but who soon decides to take the course of compromise with the Ottoman Empire and gradually introduces autonomous rights.

1815 to 1830
Miloš Obrenovic assures the autonomy of Serbia under the hereditary rule of his family. His autocratic rule is met with resistance though so that in 1835 Serbia receives its first short-lived constitution and abandons all feudalism. In the year 1840 the Obrenovics are expelled and Aleksandar Karadjorjdjevic, Karadjordje’s son, becomes king.

1848
The Hungarian revolution of 1848 brings Serbs and the Croats of the Habsburg Empire together against their neighbors the Hungarians. Bloody clashes devastate Vojvodina while its refugees bring European manners to still what was basically an oriental Serbia.

1867
The last six fortresses held by the Turks are returned to the Serbs.

1878
After the two wars against Turkey (1876 and 1877) Serbia expands its territory to the south-east. The Berlin congress grants it the status of an independent principality, and finally raised in 1882 to the status of kingdom, but leaves Bosnia-Herzegovina, to the Habsburgs. King Milan pursues an unpopular pro-Habsburg policy while his son Aleksandar shows a blatant disregard to the parliament and the constitutional rule.

1903 to 1912
Plotting army officers murder Aleksandar (1888-1903), the last king of Obrenovic dynasty and his wife, and Petar Karadjordjevic, a ruler ready to obey the democratic procedure, secures a decade of prosperity for Serbia. A rising nationalism follows and calls for South Slav unification.

1912 to 1918
Tired after the two Balkan wars the First World War Serbia is exhausted. Looted, desolate and with a third of the population dead, Serbia embraces areas with different law systems, and customs within the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

1929
This new state is torn within, faced with inter ethnic and political party struggles that eventually climax in the assassination of several Croatian MPs. King Aleksandar abandons the parliamentary system and assumes dictatorship, and the name of the state is changed to Yugoslavia. After king Aleksandar’s assassination in 1934 by the Croatian and Bulgarian nationalists the dictatorship gradually melts away.

1941 to 45
After war was declared against Germany, the enemy armies easily break all the resistance in just a couple of days. The Serbs find themselves in a number of hostile quisling states that start their revenge on civilians leaving hundreds of thousands killed. The struggle of the two movements, communist partisan and royalist cetnik, brings even more confusion and misery to the population. Helped by the Allies and the USSR, partisans, led by Josip Broz Tito, seize the power as they liberate the country in 1944-45. Afterwards the communists alter the soviet model abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the Federal Republic with Tito as a lifelong president.

1948
Unable to secure total obedience of the local communists the soviet president Stalin presses Yugoslavia accusing it of unorthodoxy. Tito and his party resist the threat by mercilessly purifying its own ranks and strengthening its connections with the West.

1950s to ‘60s
During this period Soviet dogma is abandoned and the new Yugoslav communism is called “workers’ self-management”. The international course is the one of non-alignment between two super blocks. Helped by the loans from the West a golden age follows but economic problems pile up.

1974
The new constitution grants wider rights to the federal units and to the autonomous provinces of Serbia that will eventually lead to a paralysis of the republic.

1980
In 1980 Tito dies, his death is followed by a rotating presidency. Without Tito’s guidance, the separate republics and autonomous provinces take a growingly independent course.

1987 to 1991
The last years of the socialist Yugoslavia are marked with the rising national. Slobodan Miloševic takes advantage of the poor treatment of the Serb minority in Kosovo and of the unequal status of Serbia to rise to the position of the president of Serbia. In 1989 the Communist party of Yugoslavia finally breaks up. In 1990 the first multi-party elections take place in all of the republics and the undisputed winners are the national parties.

1991 to 2003
The final break up of Yugoslavia starts with the secession of Slovenia and the short war designed to stop it. International recognition of Slovenia and Croatia soon follow. The Serbs in Croatia decide to stay in Yugoslavia and form their own republic. By the end of 1991 a brutal civil war rages in Serb areas of Croatia. In 1992 the fighting spreads into Bosnia-Herzegovina and lasts until 1995 when it is ended with the Dayton peace agreement. In the meantime, in 1992 Serbia and Montenegro form the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1993 Yugoslavia has one of the worst inflations ever recorded. Endless protests follow against Miloševic regime that brought the war; he retains his tight grip however. In 1998 the clashes start in Kosovo; the actions of army and police against the Albanian terrorists eventually provoke NATO bombing and forces Miloševic to turn over Kosovo, this is followed by another exodus of Serbs. Finally the Serbian opposition unites and, manages to defeat Miloševic in the elections of 2000 and on 5th of October mass demonstrations force him to hand over the power. Violence still erupts though and in an attempt to avoid justice, mafia and disbanded Special Forces unit assassinate Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic, a leading reformist figure, they are later captured and convicted.

2006
Following the vote for full independence on May 21, Montenegro declared independence on June 3, 2006. This was followed on June 5, 2006 by Serbia's declaration of independence. This marked the final dissolution of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, and the re-emergence of Serbia as an independent state for the first time since 1918.

2008
On February 17, 2008, Kosovo, an autonomous province of Serbia, proclaimed independence from Serbia. Serbia does not recognize its independence and considers Kosovo a part of its sovereign territory. The declaration was officially recognized by many countries around the world but many other countries opposed the declaration.