History of Ottoman Serbia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Two powerful Serbian barons, the brothers Uglješa and Vukašin Mrnjavčević, gathered a great army to drive back the Turks from Europe. They marched into Turkish territory in 1371 to attack the enemy, but they were too confident in themselves. They set up camp near the river Marica in today's Turkey and started celebrating and getting drunk. During the night Turkish advance forces attacked the drunk Serbian knights and drive them to the river. Many of them drowned, others were killed, and so the complete Serbian army gathered from southern states was annihilated.
Contents |
[edit] Battle of Kosovo
The Turks defeated the Serbian army in two crucial battles: on the banks of the river Marica in 1371, where the forces of Serbian noblemen Mrnjavčević from today's Macedonia were defeated, and the Battle of Kosovo on Kosovo Polje (Kosovo Field) in 1389. This battle pitted vassal troops commanded by Prince Lazar against the Turkish Sultan Murat. Murat was slain in battle, however the contest ended with the legendary "sudden departure" of Branković's Serbian troops.
The Battle of Kosovo defined the fate of Serbia, because after that it had no force capable of standing up to the Turks. This was an unstable period marked by the rule of Prince Lazar's son — despot Stefan Lazarević — a true European-style knight, a military leader, and even poet. Along with his cousin Đurađ Branković, he moved the capital north to the newly built fortified town of Smederevo. The Turks continued their conquest until they finally seized all of northern Serbian territory in 1459 when Smederevo fell into their hands. The only free Serbian territories were parts of Bosnia and Zeta. After the fall of the Bosnian kingdom in 1496, Serbia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for almost four centuries.
[edit] Hungaria and Serbia
From the 14th century onward an increasing number of Serbs began migrating north to the region today known as Vojvodina, which was then under the rule of the Kingdom of Hungary. 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. 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 August 29, 1526, Ottoman Turkey destroyed the army of the Hungarian-Czech king Louis Jagellion, who was killed on the battlefield. After this battle Hungary ceased to be independent state, 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, established his rule in Bačka, northern Banat, and a small part of Srem (These three regions are now parts of Vojvodina). He created an independent state, with city Subotica as its capital. At the pitch of his power Jovan Nenad crowned himself in Subotica as the Serb 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.
[edit] Austria and Serbia
European powers, and Austria in particular, fought many wars against the Ottoman Empire, relying on the help of the Serbs that lived under Ottoman rule. During the Austrian–Turkish War (1593–1606), in 1594, the Serbs staged an uprising in Banat, the Pannonian part of Turkey. Sultan Murad III retaliated by burning the remains of St Sava the most sacred saint of all Serbs, honored even by Muslims of Serbian origin. Serbs created another center of resistance in Herzegovina, but when peace was signed by Turkey and Austria they were abandoned to Turkish vengeance. This sequence of events became usual in the centuries that followed.
[edit] The Great War between Ottomans and the Holy League
The Great War between Ottomans and the Holy League took place from 1683 to 1690. The Holy League was created with the sponsorship of the Pope and including Austria, 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 Old Serbia (Macedonia, Raška, Kosovo and Metohija). However, when the Austrians 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 lead by patriarch Arsenije Čarnojević.
[edit] Austrian-Ottoman War
Another important episode in Serbian history took place in 1716–18, when the Serbian ethnic territories ranging from Dalmatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgrade and the Danube basin became the battleground for a new Austrian-Ottoman war launched by Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Serbs sided once again with Austria. After a peace treaty was signed in Požarevac, Ottomans lost all its possessions in the Danube basin, as well as northern Serbia, northern Bosnia, and parts of Dalmatia and the Peloponnesus.
The last Austrian-Ottoman war was the so called Dubica War (1788–91), when the Austrians urged the Christians in Bosnia to rebel. No wars were fought afterwards until the 20th century, which marked the fall of both mighty empires.
