History UsefulNotes / Serbia

After the war, Serbia was merged with UsefulNotes/{{Montenegro}} and a collection of former Austrian possessions to create UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Yugoslavia, surrounded by hostile neighbours and boiling with internal tensions, started aligning itself with the Axis; however, in 1941, immediately after the government has signed a pact officially joining Yugoslavia with the Axis powers which would include allowing Germany to freely pass through Serbia and attack Greece, the military officials organized a coup, supported by the Serbian people, dethroning the pro-axis regency council and installing a new government which was technically headed by the underage King himself. Angered, the Axis attacked Yugoslavia and occupied it after a brief struggle; parts were annexed to UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}}, UsefulNotes/{{Bulgaria}}, UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} and (Independent State of) UsefulNotes/{{Croatia}} ; the rest of Serbia became a German puppet state. During the war, Croatian fascists called Ustaše along with Albanian collaborators [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_persecution_of_Serbs killed between 320 000 and 340 000 ]]'' ethnic Serbians (not counting Serbian Roma and Jews). This lead to forming of two resistance movements, capitalist Chetniks and communist Partisans. The Croats and Bosnians who were against the Ustaše's regime mostly joined the Partisans with Chetniks mostly consisting of conservative Serbians. However, Partisans got the upper hand during the war (with Allied forces shifting their support from Chetniks to them) and killed the remaining Chetniks. In 1945, after the partisans and the Red Army have liberated its territory, they reorganized Yugoslavia into a federation of six republics and two autonomous regions in Serbia (Kosovo and Vojvodina) under a communist government led by UsefulNotes/JosipBrozTito. Despite being Communist, however, it was not a Soviet satellite, remaining neutral throughout the Cold War and helping to found the Non-Aligned Movement.

* Catherine Oxenberg - Serbian-American actress. Best known for her role as [[{{Dynasty}} Amanda Carrington]].

Serbia, officially known as the Republic of Serbia ('''Serbian:''' ''Република Србија, Republika Srbija''), is a republic in the Balkan Peninsula. The official language is Serbian, and the capital is Belgrade.

* Peđa Stojaković - Another former NBA player.

* Novak Djokovic (Đoković) - [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATP_Rankings#Current_rankings One of the four players who have battled for #1 on the ATP ranking list]] during the 2010s.

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

* Constantine XI Palaiologos - Last emperor of the ByzantineEmpire. Born to a Greek father and a Serbian mother.

* Saint Sava - Monk and founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

* Miloš Obilić - Knight who assassinated the Turkish Sultan Murat I.

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 Nemanjić dynasty. At one point, Dušan Nemanjić, an extremely successful and capable ruler, managed to conquer a huge part of the Balkans and proclaim a Serbian Empire, aiming to create a strong state that would replace the [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantines]] as the dominant power in the region and as the main obstacle to the impending Turkish invasion, but the plan never came to fruit as he died relatively young and was succeeded by an incompetent son.

->''"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'''

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.

* StanaKatic Actress - half-Serbian but was born in Canada

* The films of EmirKusturica (e.g. ''Film/{{Underground}}'')

* The films of EmirKusturica

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 Nemanjić dynasty. At one point, Dušan Nemanjić, an extremely successful and capable ruler, managed to conquer a huge part of the Balkans and proclaim a Serbian Empire, aiming to create a strong state that would replace the [[ByzantineEmpire Byzantines]] as the dominant power in the region and as the main obstacle to the impending Turkish invasion, but the plan never came to fruit as he died relatively young and was succeeded by an incompetent son.

----

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/map_serbia_9835.gif]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Unattended kebabs will be [[WebComic/{{Polandball}} removed.]] ]]

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/serbia_flag_5996.png

* NikolaTesla - Scientist and inventor.

* Vuk Stefanović Karadžić - Linguist and creator of the modern Serbian language.

* Actress StanaKatic is half-Serbian but was born in Canada

* The "Dragon Shooter" arc of ''Manga/{{Jormungand}}'' takes place in [[BrandX Republic T]], which is so ''obviously'' Serbia it's not even funny. The plot of the arc itself involves Koko's trying to muscle in on the arms market of a local war criminal [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial who is absolutely not a thinly veiled]] {{Expy}} of Željko Ražnatović.

* The plot of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sniper_2 Sniper 2]]'' is supposed to take place [[CaliforniaDoubling the Serbian capital of Budapest]] with [[CriticalResearchFailure Serbs speaking Hungarian]].

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

[[caption-width-right:350:Unattended kebabs will be [[WebComic/{{Polandball}} removed.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Map includes Kosovo]]

!!Tropes about Serbia

* ApatheticCitizens: Sadly.
* ArchEnemy: The biggest enemy of the Serb has always been [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder his fellow Serb]].
** One of the biggest rivalries 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 almost appear like a minor disagreement.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Even in in their [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII darkest]] [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars moments]] Serbs would rather bicker, fight and even kill each other instead of uniting 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, turned out to be wishful thinking at best. The Serbs even have a dark parody version of it: ''Srbin Srbina sekirom seče (The Serb slices the Serb with an axe).''
** A lot of this has to do with HonorBeforeReason and RevengeBeforeReason.
* '''{{Determinator}}''': Given all the genocides and demographic disasters they have gone through it's almost a wonder the Serbs haven't gone extinct.
* FullCircleRevolution: In October 2000 one thuggish and cleptocratic regime that has been an annoyance to the West has been replaced by a series of thuggish and cleptocratic regimes that have been approved by them.
* GloryDays: Most consider either Emperor Dušan's empire of the 14th century and especially Serbia from 1815 - 1918 to be this. Given the major disappointment that followed the fall of Milošević most people [[NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe gush about the era of Tito's Yugoslavia]] while as of late some even start to [[RefugeInAudacity feel nostalgic about the Ottoman Empire]].
* SmallNameBigEgo: Everyone on the Balkan Peninsula isn't innocent in terms of an inflated ego though the Serbs may be the biggest offenders in this regard. Their leading role in the uprisings against the Ottoman Empire and their performance in WorldWarI might have something to do with this.
* WretchedHive: Ever since the takeover of Milošević in 1987 to this very day Serbia has been the Garden of Eden for corrupt, incompetent and outright criminal politicians, tycoons and other shady people.

* Mileva Marić; - Mathematician and AlbertEinstein's first wife.
* Gavrilo Princip - Teenage activist who assassinated Franz Ferdinand, helping to trigger World War I.

[[caption-width-right:318: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.''

<<|UsefulNotes/{{Europe}}|>>

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. At one point, Dushan Nemanjic, an extremely sucessfull and capable ruler, managed to conquer a huge part of the Balkans and proclaim a Serbian Empire, aiming to create a strong state that would replace the [[ByzantineEmpire Byzantines]] as the dominant power in the region and as the main obstacle to the impending Turkish invasion, but the plan never came to fruit as he died relatively young and was suceeded by an incompetent son.

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.

After the war, Serbia was merged with UsefulNotes/{{Montenegro}} and a collection of former Austrian possessions to create UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}. During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Yugoslavia, surrounded by hostile neighbours and boiling with internal tensions, started aligning itself with the Axis; however, in 1941, immediately after the government has signed a pact officially joining Yugoslavia with the Axis powers which would include allowing Germany to freely pass through Serbia and attack Greece, the military officials organized a coup, supported by the Serbian people, dethroning the pro-axis regency council and installing a new government which was techically headed by the underage King himself. Angered, the Axis attacked Yugoslavia and occupied it after a brief struggle; parts were annexed to UsefulNotes/{{Hungary}}, UsefulNotes/{{Bulgaria}}, UsefulNotes/{{Germany}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Italy}} and (Independent State of) UsefulNotes/{{Croatia}} ; the rest of Serbia became a German puppet state. During the war, Croatian fascists called Ustaše along with Albanian colaborators [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_persecution_of_Serbs killed between 320 000 and 340 000 ]]'' ethnic Serbians (not counting Serbian Roma and Jews). This lead to forming of two resistance movements, capitalist Chetniks and communist Partisans. The Croats and Bosnians who were against the Ustaše's regime mostly joined the Partisans with Chetniks mostly consisting of conservative Serbians. However, Partisans got the upper hand during the war (with Allied forces shifting their support from Chetniks to them) and killed the remaining Chetniks. In 1945, after the partisans and the Red Army have liberated its territory, they reorganized Yugoslavia into a federation of six republics and two autonomuos regions in Serbia (Kosovo and Vojvodina) under a communist government led by UsefulNotes/JosipBrozTito. Despite being Communist, however, it was not a Soviet satellite, remaining neutral throughout the Cold War and helping to found the Non-Aligned Movement.

The two remaining republics (Serbia and Montenegro) formed a new state, which was also called Yugoslavia. When violence between local Yugoslav law enforcement and Albanian seperatist militias and terrorists in Serbia's troubled province of Kosovo escalated in 1998 into an all-out war, NATO intervened on March 1999 for the second time (the first being NATO's assistance to Bosnia and Croatia in the Bosnian War) on behalf of the Albanians ending the war after a 78 day long bombing campaign of both Serbia and Montenegro. 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 held a referendum supported by the West and narrowly voted to leave (passing the required 55% margin by just 2,300 votes), rendering Serbia an independent nation again after nearly 90 years. UsefulNotes/{{Kosovo}} declared independence a second time in 2008 (the first time being 1990 which was recognized only by UsefulNotes/{{Albania}}), which was not resisted like before, but has not been recognized by a majority of the world's nations (only over 85 so far).

* Mileva Marić - Mathematician and AlbertEinstein's first wife.
* Gavrilo Princip - National activist who assassinated Franz Ferdinand, helping to trigger World War I.

* Catherine Oxenberg - Serbo-American actress. Best known for her role as [[{{Dynasty}} Amanda Carrington]].

* Peja Stojaković - Another former NBA player.

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

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 UsefulNotes/{{Slovenia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Croatia}}, UsefulNotes/{{Bosnia}}, and UsefulNotes/{{Macedonia}} to secede. The remainder of Yugoslavia [[TheYugoslavWars retaliated by attacking]] Slovenia and Croatia and supporting Serb nationalists in Bosnia's civil war.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Even in in their [[WorldWarII darkest]] [[YugoslavWars moments]] Serbs would rather bicker, fight and even kill each other instead of uniting 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, turned out to be wishful thinking at best. The Serbs even have a dark parody version of it: ''Srbin Srbina sekirom seče (The Serb slices the Serb with an axe).''