History UsefulNotes / Serbia

* ArchEnemy: You might expect either the Albanians or the Croats to be this, but the biggest rivalry of the entire Balkan peninsula has always been between [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Star_Belgrade Red Star Belgrade]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FK_Partizan Partizan Belgrade]]. The animosity between their respective fandoms sometimes made even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appear like a minor disagreement.

* Lazar Hrebeljanović - Prince knwon for his LastStand against the Ottomans in the Battle of Kosovo.

* Marko Mrnjavčević aka Marko Kraljević - Serb king who ever since medieval times became a Chuck Norris level MemeticBadass in Serb mythology.
* Constantine XI Palaiologos - Last emperor of the ByzantineEmpire. Born to a Greek father and a Serb mother.
* Đorđe Petrović AKA Karađorđe - Leader of the First Serb Uprising against the Ottoman Turks.

* Mileva Marić - Mathematichian and AlbertEinstein's first wife.

* MillaJovovich - Actress. Born to a Serb father and a Russian-Ukrainian mother.

[[caption-width-right:318:Just to clear it up, this map includes Kosovo]]

* ASerbianFilm (even though many Serbians regret this)
* The plot of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper_2 Sniper 2]]'' is supposed to take place [[CaliforniaDoubling the Serb capital of Budapest]] with [[CriticalResearchFailure Serbs speaking Hungarian]].

* ApatheticCitizens: So much...
* ArchEnemy: Some may expect either the Albanians or the Croats in this entry but the biggest antagonism on the entire Balkan peninsula has always been between [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Star_Belgrade Red Star Belgrade]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FK_Partizan Partizan Belgrade]]. The animosity between their respective fandoms sometimes made even the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appear like a minor disagreement.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Even in in the [[WorldWarII darkest]] [[YugoslavWars moments]] Serbs would rather prefer to bicker and even kill each other rather then to unite against a common enemy. The crest that is seen on the white double-headed eagle has a cross with four cyrillic "S" which stands for ''Samo sloga Srbina spašava (only unity saves the Serbs)'' which sadly, as history has shown far too often, this slogan turned out to be wishful thinking at best. As a matter of fact the Serbs even have a parody version of it which goes ''Srbin Srbina sekirom seče (The Serb cuts the Serb with an axe).''

-->- ''Nikolaj Velimirović''

* Gavrilo Princip - National activist who assassinated Franz Ferdinand.
* Mladen Sekulović AKA Karl Mladen - actor.

* Vlade Divac - Fromer NBA basketball player.

* Novak Đoković - [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATP_Rankings#Current_rankings Currently the 1st on the ATP ranking list]].

[[caption-width:328:Just to clear it up, this map includes Kosovo]]


-->"We sinned and we paid the price for it. We insulted the almighty God and we were punished for it. We fouled ourselves with every wickedness, washed ourselves with blood and tears. We crushed everything that was holy to our ancestors, for which we have been crushed. We had a school without faith, a policy without honesty, an army without patriotism and a state without God's blessing. From there came the ruination of the school, the policy, the army and the state. We tried not to be ourselves for which others have coincided us with their darkness. For decades we have mocked our ancestors for pursuing the Celestial Empire, for which the leprous Earthly Empire is our loss. The way we measured God and our ancestors, is the way we have been measured.
-->- Nikolaj Velimirović

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/map_serbia_9835.gif

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: In in the [[WorldWarII darkest]] [[YugoslavWars moments]] Serbs would rather prefer to bicker and even kill each other rather then to unite against a common enemy. The crest that is seen on the white double-headed eagle has a cross with four cyrillic "S" which stands for ''Samo sloga Srbina spašava (only unity saves the Serbs)'' which sadly, as history has shown far too often, this slogan turned out to be wishful thinking at best. As a matter of fact the Serbs even have a parody version of it which goes ''Srbin Srbina sekirom seče (The Serb cuts the Serb with an axe).''

* ChronicBackstabbigDisorder: In in the [[WorldWarII darkest]] [[YugoslavWars moments]] Serbs would rather prefer to bicker and even kill each other rather then to unite against a common enemy. The crest that is seen on the white double-headed eagle has a cross with four cyrillic "S" which stands for ''Samo sloga Srbina spašava (only unity saves the Serbs)'' which sadly, as history has shown far too often, this slogan turned out to be wishful thinking at best. As a matter of fact the Serbs even have a parody version of it which goes ''Srbin Srbina sekirom seče (The Serb cuts the Serb with an axe).''

==Serbia in fiction==

The two remaining republics (Serbia and Montenegro) formed a new state, which was also called Yugoslavia. When violence in Serbia's renegade province of Kosovo in 1998 into an all-out war, NATO interfered for the second time (the first being NATO's assistance to Bosnia and Croatia in the Bosnian War), to launch a military operation. Yugoslavia subsequently lost control of Kosovo, which was still considered to be a Serbian province but was under UN administration.

The two remaining republics (Serbia and Montenegro) formed a new state, which was also called Yugoslavia. When the province of Kosovo declared independence in 1998, Yugoslavia invaded, prompting NATO, for the second time (the first being NATO's assistance to Bosnia and Croatia in the Bosnian War), to launch a military operation and intervene. Yugoslavia subsequently lost control of Kosovo, which was still considered to be a Serbian province but was under UN administration.

The state was reorganized again in 2003, creating an extremely loose union between Serbia and Montenegro creatively named Serbia and Montenegro. Montenegro left the union three years later, rendering Serbia an independent nation again after nearly 90 years. Kosovo declared independence a second time in 2008, which was not resisted like before, but has not been recognized by a majority of the world's nations (only over 60 so far).

The Serbs were a Slavic tribe who migrated from somewhere in the Proto-slavic homeland-first briefly stopping in an area at the border of today's Germany and Poland, and then finally settling in the Balkans.

Soon after the son's death, Serbia was no longer an Empire even on paper, but rather an extremely loose conglomeration of noble realms and fiefdoms. Prince Lazar, along with several other nobles, sucessfully fought back against the Ottoman invasion,
but after he was killed at the Battle of Kosovo, the Serbian state lost all hope of ever returning to its original power and stability. It remained independent, in some capacity, for the first half of the fifteenth century, before the Ottomans conquered it for good.

There were several early Serbian medieval states, which had to defend themselves from both Eastern Roman and Bulgarian attempts at subjugating them. The most long-lasting and powerful incarnation of a Serbian medieval state rose in 1217, and was led into a golden age of prosperity and slow territorial increase by the Nemanjic dynasty. King Dushan Nemanjic waged an extremely sucessful military campaign against the Byzantines and managed to expand the borders of the Serbian Kingdom so that it covered all or most of today's Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, and Greece, and smalll parts of modern Bosnia, Croatia, and Bulgaria. He proclaimed an Empire in 1346, and kept it relatively strong and unified for the rest of his reign, but after his death it fell apart quickly, his son proving himself unable to impose his authority on the resident nobles.

Soon Serbia was no longer an Empire even on paper, but rather an extremely loose conglomeration of noble realms and fiefdoms. Prince Lazar, along with several other nobles, sucessfully fought back against the Ottoman invasion,

Serbia was a part of the Ottoman Empire until the early 19th century, when it became an independent state. During this period, Russia and Austria competed to include Serbia in their respective spheres of influence, which led to one of the main causes of World War One.

After the war, Serbia was merged with Montenegro and a collection of former Austrian possessions to create Yugoslavia. In 1945, Yugoslavia was reorganized into a federation of six republics under a communist government led by Josip Broz Tito. Despite being Communist, however, it was not a Soviet satellite, remaining neutral throughout the Cold War and helping to found the Non-Aligned Movement.

While Tito was not a benevolent leader by any stretch of the imagination, he was at least able to keep ethnic tensions from bubbling to the surface. The combination of Tito’s death and economic collapse stoked nationalist fervor in the Yugoslav republics, leading Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia to secede. The remainder of Yugoslavia retaliated by attacking Slovenia and Croatia and supporting Serb nationalists in Bosnia’s civil war.

The state was reorganized again in 2003, creating an extremely loose union between Serbia and Montenegro creatively named Serbia and Montenegro. Montenegro left the union three years later, rendering Serbia an independent nation again after nearly 90 years. Kosovo declared independence a second time in 2008, which was not resisted like before, but has not been recognized by a majority of the world’s nations (only over 60 so far).