Ottoman conquest (1371–1552) by
Uroš Predić The
Ottoman Turks defeated Serbian armies at the
battle of Maritsa in 1371, where Serbian king
Vukašin and despot
Jovan Uglješa were killed, and again at the
Battle of Kosovo in 1389, where Serbian prince
Lazar and Ottoman sultan
Murad I were killed. During that period, several regional lords were forced to became Ottoman vassals: king
Marko, despot
Jovan Dragaš and lord
Konstantin Dejanović in 1371 and prince
Stefan Lazarević in 1389. Already in 1386, Ottomans took
Niš, and in 1392 they also took
Skopje from Serbian lord
Vuk Branković, who also became Ottoman vassal. In 1395, at the
battle of Rovine, king Marko and lord Konstantin Dejanović were killed, and Ottomans annexed their domains, excluding the region of
Vranje, that was held by
Uglješa Vlatković, who also became Ottoman vassal. The Battle of Kosovo defined the long-term fate of Serbia, because now it had no force capable of standing up to the Ottoman Turks directly. This was followed by an unstable period marked by the rule of Prince Lazar's son — despot
Stefan Lazarević, who was at first a vassal of Sultan
Bayezid I, distinguishing himself at the
Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 and at
Ankara in 1402, and later gaining independence after the death of Bayezid. His cousin and heir
Đurađ Branković moved the capital of the
Serbian Despotate to the newly built fortified town of
Smederevo. The Turks continued their conquest until they finally seized remaining southern regions in 1455, establishing there the
Sanjak of Vučitrn and the
Sanjak of Prizren, and then proceeded by
conquering all of northern territory of the Serbian Despotate by 1459, establishing there the
Sanjak of Kruševac and the
Sanjak of Smederevo. The only free Serbian territories remained as parts of
Bosnia and Zeta. After the fall of the
Duchy of Saint Sava in 1481-1482, and
Principality of Zeta in 1496, Serbian lands were ruled by the Ottoman Empire for almost three centuries. Traditions of the Serbian Despotate were continued in southern parts of the
Kingdom of Hungary by exiled members of the
Branković dynasty and their successors until 1537. during the
Siege of Belgrade (1456). Since the 15th century, an increasing number of Serbs began migrating from the Ottoman-held parts of Serbia towards various northern and western territories, mainly to the southern parts of the
Kingdom of Hungary (the region today known as
Vojvodina). The Hungarian kings encouraged the immigration of Serbs to the kingdom, and hired many of them as soldiers and border guards. Therefore, the Serb population of this region highly increased. In 1521, Ottomans
took Šabac and
captured Belgrade, thus completing the conquest of central Serbian regions, and incorporating them into the
Sanjak of Smederevo. During the struggle between the Ottoman Empire and Hungary, this Serb population attempted a restoration of the Serbian state. In the
battle of Mohač on 29 August 1526, Ottoman forces destroyed the army of the Hungarian king
Louis II, who was killed on the battlefield. After the battle, Hungary broke up into three parts, and much of its former territory became part of the Ottoman Empire. Soon after the Battle of Mohač the leader of Serbian mercenaries in Hungary,
Jovan Nenad, called "The Black", established his rule in
Bačka, northern
Banat, and a small part of
Srem (these three regions are now parts of
Vojvodina). He created a short-lived independent state with the city of
Subotica as its capital. At the peak of his power Jovan Nenad crowned himself in Subotica as the Serbian emperor. Taking advantage of the extremely confused military and political situation, the Hungarian noblemen from the region joined forces against him and defeated the Serbian troops in the summer of 1527. Emperor Jovan Nenad was assassinated and his state collapsed. By 1552, Ottomans completed the conquest of
Banat and
Bačka, and created the
Temeşvar Eyalet and the
Sanjak of Segedin, thus incorporating the entire territory of modern Serbia under their rule. In 1557, Ottomans allowed the reestablishment of the
Serbian Patriarchate of Peć, that existed until 1766, when it was abolished by the sultan.
Between Ottomans and Habsburgs of local Serbian and Romanian Christians in the
Temeşvar Eyalet (1594) Christan powers, the
Habsburg monarchy and the
Venetian republic in particular, fought several wars against the Ottoman Empire during the early modern period, from the 16th to the 18th century, relying on the help of the Serbs who lived under Ottoman rule. In 1594, during the
Habsburg-Ottoman War (1593–1606), local Serbs staged an
uprising in the
Temeşvar Eyalet (modern
Banat). Ottoman commander
Sinan Pasha retaliated by burning the remains of
Saint Sava, the most notable Serbian saint. In the same time, Serbs created another center of
resistance in the
Sanjak of Herzegovina, but when
peace was reached between Habsburgs and Ottomans (1606), they were abandoned to Turkish retaliation. During the 16th and the 17th centuries, several Serbian uprisings against Ottoman rule broke out in various regions. In the
Banat region, which then formed part of the Ottoman
Eyalet of Temeşvar, in the area around
Vršac, a large
uprising began against the Ottoman Empire in 1594. It was the largest uprising of Serbian people against Ottoman rule till then. The leader of this uprising was
Teodor Nestorović, the
Bishop of Vršac. Other leaders were
Sava Ban and
voivode Velja Mironić. For a short time, the Serb rebels captured several cities, including
Vršac,
Bečkerek, and
Lipova, as well as
Titel and
Bečej in
Bačka. The size of this uprising is illustrated by the verse from one Serbian national song: "Sva se butum zemlja pobunila, Šest stotina podiglo se sela, Svak na cara pušku podigao!" ("The whole land has rebelled, six hundred villages arose, everybody pointed his gun against the emperor"). The rebellion had the character of a
holy war, the Serb rebels carrying flags with the image of
Saint Sava.
Sinan Pasha, who led the Ottoman army, ordered the green flag of
Muhammad brought from
Damascus to counter the Serbian flag, and burned the remains of Saint Sava in Belgrade. The
Serb Uprising of 1596-97 in the region of
Hercegovina and surrounding areas was organized by Serbian Patriarch
Jovan Kantul and led by voyvode
Grdan. The
Great War between Ottomans and the
Holy League took place from 1683 to 1699. The Holy League was created with the sponsorship of the Pope and included the Habsburg monarchy, Poland and
Venice. These three powers incited the Serbs to rebel against the Ottoman authorities, and soon uprisings and
guerrilla warfare spread throughout the western Balkans, ranging from
Montenegro and the
Dalmatian coast to the
Danube basin and the
Vardarian Macedonia. In 1688, Habsburg forces
captured Belgrade, and advanced into the
Old Serbia (regions of
Raška,
Kosovo,
Metohija) in 1689, but soon retreated from those regions and
lost the city of Belgrade already in 1690. However, when the Habsburg forces started to pull out of Serbia, they invited the Serbian people to come north with them to the Austrian territories. Having to choose between Ottoman reprisal and living in a Christian state, Serbs abandoned their homesteads and headed north, led by Serbian Patriarch
Arsenije III.
Ottoman Serbia in the XVIII century captures
Belgrade, 1717 Borders established by the
Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 were stable until the breakout of the new
Habsburg-Ottoman war (1716–1718), that ended with the
Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718. Habsburg gained the region of lower
Syrmia, the
Banat of Temeswar, and Belgrade with central Serbian regions, that were organized, from 1718 to 1739, as the Habsburg
Kingdom of Serbia (1718–1739). The fall of Habsburg Serbia during the next
Habsburg-Ottoman war (1737–1739) was followed by the
Second Great Migration of the Serbs from regions that fell under the Ottoman rule, into regions still held by the Habsburg Empire. In the meanwhile, a Serbian-Russian noble, count
Sava Vladislavich maintained contacts with Ottoman Serbs and was under the impression that they would rise in revolt against the Sultan as soon as Russians invaded the
Danubian Principalities.
Having launched the invasion in 1711, Tsar Peter sent him on a mission to
Moldavia and
Montenegro, whose population Vladislavich was expected to incite to rebellion. Little came of these plans, despite the assistance of a pro-Russian colonel, Michael Miloradovich (the ancestor of
Count Miloradovich). Much later,
Petar I Petrović-Njegoš, the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro (Serbian Orthodox Bishop of Cetinje), conceived a plan to form a new
Serbian Empire out of Bosnia, central Serbia, Herzegovina and Montenegro with Boka, with
Dubrovnik as its Imperial Capital. In 1807, he sent a letter to the Russian General of the Danube Army regarding this subject: "
The Russian Czar would be recognized as the Tsar of the Serbs and the Metropolitan of Montenegro would be his assistant. The leading role in the restoration of the Serbian Empire belongs to Montenegro." In the latter half of the XVIII century, officer
Koča Anđelković led a successful Serbian rebellion against the Ottomans, during the last
Habsburg-Ottoman war (1788–1791), hoping to place central Serbia under the Habsburg rule. The liberated territory was thus known as ''
Koča's Frontier''. The rebellion ended with the
Treaty of Sistova and the withdrawal of Habsburgs in 1791-1792. In the same tame, a prominent Serbian nobleman
Sava Tekelija from the Habsburg Monarchy, conceived a plan for liberation of Serbian regions and recreation of national statehood. In the assembly of Serbian representatives, that was held in
Temišvar (1790), he made a speech pleading for the legal inclusion of Serbian privileges into Hungarian state laws, and during the First Uprising (1804-1813) against the Ottoman rule, he made a map of Serbian lands that served as a political manifest. He sent letters to
Napoleon proposing the establishment of a South Slavic political unit with Serbia at its core. To achieve that goal, he suggested that France should help the Serbs in order to suppress Russian influence in these territories. He sent a similar letter to Austrian Emperor Francis I in 1805. His project implied an establishment of a Serbian state, or more generally, a South Slavic state.
Ottoman Serbia 1791–1804 The withdrawal of the Austrians from Serbia in 1791 marked the end of the
Serbian rebellion, which had been supported by Austria since 1787-1788. However Austria needed to settle the war, and returned the Belgrade region to the Ottoman Empire. Despite guarantees that Austria had insisted on, many of the participants in the uprising and their families went into exile in Austria. Reforms made by the
Porte to ease the pressure on Serbs were only temporary; by 1799 the
Janissary corps had returned, suspended Serb autonomy and drastically increased taxes, enforcing
martial law in Serbia. In 1802, renegade Janissary leaders, known as
dahias, imprisoned and murdered
Hadji Mustafa Pasha, sultan's governor in Belgrade, and imposed the rule of terror. Serbian leaders from both sides of the Danube began to conspire against the dahias. When they were found out in 1804, dahias rounded up and murdered 70 prominent Serbian leaders and priests, many of them being tortured and publicly executed in a spree of terror, known as the
Slaughter of the Knezes.
First Serbian Uprising , plate from 1802 The
Slaughter of the Knezes at the beginning of 1804 outraged the Serbian people and incited the revolt across the
Pashaluk of Belgrade. Within days, in the small
Šumadija village of
Orašac, the Serbs gathered on February 14th to proclaim the uprising, electing
Đorđe Petrović, known as Kara-Đorđe (
Black George) as the leader. That afternoon, a Turkish inn (
caravanserai) in Orašac was burned and its residents fled or were killed, followed by similar actions country-wide. Soon the cities
Valjevo and
Požarevac were liberated, and the siege of Belgrade launched. Initially fighting to restore their local privileges within the Ottoman system (until 1807), the rebels – supported by the wealthy Serbian community from the southern regions of the Austrian Empire (present-day
Vojvodina) and Serbian officers from the Austrian
Military Frontier – offered themselves to be placed under the protection of
Habsburg,
Russian and
French Empires respectively, entering, as a new political factor, into the converging aspirations of the Great Powers during the
Napoleonic Wars in Europe. During the almost 10 years of the
First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813), Serbia perceived itself as an independent state for the first time, after more than 300 years of continuous Ottoman and short periods of Habsburg occupations. Encouraged by the
Russian Empire, demands for self-government within the Ottoman Empire in 1804 developed into a war for independence by 1807. Combining patriarchal peasant democracy with modern national goals, the Serbian revolution was attracting thousands of volunteers among Serbs from across the Balkans and Central Europe. The Serbian Revolution ultimately became a symbol of the nation-building process in the Balkans, provoking peasant unrest among Christians in both Greece and
Bulgaria. Following a successful siege with 25,000 men, on 8 January 1807 the charismatic leader of the revolt, Karađorđe Petrović, proclaimed Belgrade the capital of
Serbia. Serbian rebels also decided to establish their separate institutions:
Governing Council (Praviteljstvujušči Sovjet) and other administrative bodies, as well as educational institutions such as the
Grand School (Velika škola) and the Theological Seminary (Bogoslovija). Karađorđe and other revolutionary leaders sent their children to the Grand School, which also had among its students Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (1787–1864), the famous reformer of the
Serbian alphabet. Belgrade was repopulated by local military leaders, merchants and craftsmen, but also by an important group of enlightened Serbs from the Habsburg Empire who gave a new cultural and political framework to the egalitarian peasant society of Serbia.
Dositej Obradović, a prominent figure of the Balkan
Enlightenment, the founder of the Great Academy, became the first
Minister of Education in modern Serbia in 1811. Following the French invasion in 1812 the Russian Empire withdrew its support for the Serb rebels. Unwilling to accept anything less than independence, the revolutionaries were fought into submission following the Ottoman incursion into Serbia. One quarter of Serbia's population (at that moment around 100,000 people) were exiled into the Habsburg Empire, including the leader of the Uprising, Karađorđe Petrović. Recaptured by the Ottomans in October 1813, Belgrade became a scene of brutal revenge, with hundreds of its citizens massacred, and thousands
sold into slavery as far away as Asia. Direct Ottoman rule also meant the abolition of all Serbian institutions, including the
Grand School (Velika škola) and the return of Ottoman Turks to Serbia.
Hadži-Prodan's rebellion (1814) Despite the Ottoman reconquest, tensions nevertheless persisted. In 1814 the unsuccessful ''
Hadži-Prodan's rebellion'' was launched by
Hadži Prodan Gligorijević, a veteran of the
First Serbian Uprising. He knew the Turks would arrest him, so he thought it best to resist the Ottomans.
Milos Obrenović, another veteran, felt the time was not right for an uprising and did not provide assistance. Turkish authorities responded to the rebellion by massacring the local population and publicly impaling 200 prisoners at Belgrade. Hadži Prodan's uprising soon failed and he fled to Austria.
Second Serbian Uprising The
Second Serbian Uprising (1815) was a second phase of the national revolution of the Serbs against the Ottoman Empire, which erupted shortly after the brutal annexation of the country to the Ottoman Empire and the failed Hadži Prodan's revolt. The revolutionary council proclaimed an uprising in
Takovo on April 23, 1815, with Milos Obrenović chosen as the leader (while Karađorđe was still in exile in Austria). The decision of Serbian leaders was based on two reasons. First, they feared a general massacre of
knezes. Second, they learned that Karađorđe was planning to return from exile in Russia. The anti-Karađorđe faction, including Miloš Obrenović, was anxious to forestall Karađorđe and keep him out of power. Fighting resumed at Easter in 1815, and Milos became the supreme leader of the new revolt. When the Ottomans discovered this they sentenced all of its leaders to death. The Serbs fought in battles at
Ljubić,
Čačak,
Palez,
Požarevac and
Dublje and managed to reconquer the
Pashaluk of Belgrade. Milos advocated a policy of
restraint: captured Ottoman soldiers were not killed and civilians were released. His announced goal was not independence but to put an end to abusive misrule. Wider
European events now helped the
Serbian cause. Political and diplomatic means in negotiations between the
Prince of Serbia and the
Ottoman Porte, instead of further war clashes coincided with the political rules within the framework of
Metternich's Europe.
Prince Miloš Obrenović, an astute politician and able diplomat, in order to confirm his hard-won loyalty to the Porte in 1817 ordered the assassination of Karađorđe Petrović. The final defeat of Napoleon in 1815 raised Turkish fears that Russia might again intervene in the Balkans. To avoid this the sultan agreed to make Serbia suzerain – a semi-independent state nominally responsible to the Porte.
Ottoman Serbia from 1815 to 1912 Since 1815, Ottoman Serbia was politically divided between the autonomous
Principality of Serbia that was under sultans suzerainty, and the rest of Serbian regions that were under direct Ottoman rule. In 1833, a sultans charter (
Hatt-i sharif) was issued, granting the expansion of the Principality towards six bordering regions. In 1841, the
Niš rebellion broke out, but it was suppressed by Ottoman authorities. During the
Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878), southern regions were liberated and incorporated into the Principality, that was recognized as an independent state at the
Congress of Berlin (1878), thus ending Ottoman suzerainty over the Serbian state, that was risen to the rank of
Kingdom in 1882. Remaining Serbian regions under Ottoman rule were known as the
Old Serbia. Those territories were liberated during the
Balkan Wars (1912-1913) and incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia, thus ending the Ottoman rule in Serbian lands. ==Ottoman Serbs==