Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast

Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Serbia is landlocked
and borders Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; Macedonia to the south; and
Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro to the west; it also claims to border Albania through the disputed
territory of Kosovo.
The capital of Serbia, Belgrade, is among Europe's oldest cities and one of the largest in Southeast
Europe.
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President

Tomislav Nikolic

Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic

88,361 km2

Population
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2011 census

7,186,862[2]

Density 92.8/km2

83.3% Serbs
3.5% Hungarians
2.0% Roma
2.0% Bosniaks
9.0% others

Currency

Serbian dinar (RSD)

The territory of what is now the Republic of Serbia was once a part of the Ottoman Empire throughout
the Early Modern period. Ottoman culture significantly influenced the region, in architecture, cuisine,
linguistics, and dress, especially in arts, and Islam.
The Turks defeated the Serbian army in two crucial battles: on the banks of the river Maritsa in 1371,
where the forces of Serbian nobleman Mrnjavcevic from today's Macedonia were defeated, and the
Battle of Kosovo in Kosovo Polje (Kosovo Field) in 1389. This battle pitted vassal troops commanded by
Prince Lazar against the Turkish Sultan Murad I. According to Serbian folk tradition, the contest ended
with the legendary "sudden departure" of Brankovic's Serbian troops. Sultan Murad I, though victorious

at the battle, was later stabbed and assassinated by a Serbian nobleman named Milo Obilic who was
taken as a prisoner inside his tent, where the Turks expected him to show his respect to the sultan.
Obilic himself was immediately executed by the sultan's Janissary bodyguards as a response.
The First Serbian Uprising (18041813)
Serb leaders began to conspire about starting an uprising against the dahias. When the dahias found out
about this, they captured and killed many of the Serbian leaders on February 4, 1804 in an event known
today as the Slaughter of the knezes. This action by the Janissaries incited the uprising, as it angered the
people and the leaders had nothing to lose.
Though ultimately unsuccessful, the First Serbian Uprising paved the way for the Second Serbian
Uprising of 1815 - 1817, which eventually succeeded in securing Serbian autonomy.
The national council proclaimed open revolt against the Ottoman Empire in Takovo on April 24, 1815.
Milo Obrenovic was chosen as the leader and famously spoke, "Here I am, here you are. War to the
Turks!" When the Ottomans discovered the new revolt they sentenced all of its leaders to death.
The First Balkan war which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, comprised actions of the Balkan
League (Serbia, Greece, Montenegro and Bulgaria) against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of
the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies
and achieved rapid success.
As a result of the war, the allies captured and partitioned almost all remaining European territories of
the Ottoman Empire. Ensuing events also led to the creation of an independent Albanian state. Despite
its success, Bulgaria was dissatisfied over the division of the spoils in Macedonia, which provoked the
start of the Second Balkan War.
The Second Balkan War 29 June 1913 10 August 1913. Serbian and Greek armies repulsed the
Bulgarian offensive and counter-attacked, entering Bulgaria. With Bulgaria also having previously
engaged in territorial disputes with Romania, this war provoked Romanian intervention against Bulgaria.
The Ottoman Empire also took advantage of the situation to regain some lost territories from the
previous war. When Romanian troops approached the capital Sofia, Bulgaria asked for an armistice,
resulting in the Treaty of Bucharest, in which Bulgaria had to cede portions of its First Balkan War gains
to Serbia, Greece and Romania.

World War I
On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student and member of multi-ethnic organisation
of national revolutionaries called Young Bosnia, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian
throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Sarajevo, Bosnia.
he Kingdom of Serbia lost more than 1,100,000 inhabitants during the war (both army and civilian
losses), which represented over 27% of its overall population and 60% of its male population.

in April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers