Serbia (German Heritage)

Kingdom of Serbia Краљевина Србија (Serbian) Kraljevina Srbija (Romanised) Timeline: German Heritage
Flag of Serbia Coat of arms
Motto:  “Only Unity Saves the Serbs”
Anthem:  "Боже правде" / "Bože pravde" (English: "God of Justice")
Location of Serbia
Capital		Belgrade
Largest city		Belgrade
Official languages		Serbian and Albanian (In Kosovo AR)
Regional languages		Romanian and Hungarian
Religion		Serbian Orthodox
Demonym		Serbian
Government		Unitary Parliamentary Monarchy
-	Monarch	Alexander III
-	Prime Minister	Nebojša Stefanović (SNS)
Population
-	2019 census	9,803,345
Currency		Serbian dinar (KSD)
Time zone		CET
Date formats		dd.mm.yyyy
Drives on the		right
Internet TLD		.ks

Serbia (Serbian: Србија, romanised: Srbija) officially the Kingdom of Serbia (Serbian: Краљевина Србија, romanised: Kraljevina Srbija), is a country situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe in the southern Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. It borders Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Yugoslavia to the west, and Albania to the southwest. Serbia's population numbers approximately ten million. Its capital, Belgrade, ranks among the longest inhabited and largest citiеs in southeastern Europe.

Following disastrous casualties in World War I, Peter II was overthrown, and Serbia returned to Obrenović rule under King George I. After the fall of Greater Austria, King George was overthrown by a group of nationalist officers loyal to the House of Karađorđević, who installed Crown Prince Alexander of Karađorđević as the new King. Alexander II ruled during a period of rearmament from 1932 to 1936, as part of his nationalist program to “renew Serbia”.

In 1936, Serbia, Romania and Greece invaded Bulgaria, starting the Third Balkan War, the fourth such conflict in 30 years. Serbia first pushed southward, into Bulgarian Vardar Macedonia, commanded by Danilo Kalafatović. After Hungary entered the conflict, Serbia conduced a invasion of Vojvodina, using the politically active Serbian community in Vojvodina as justification. To complete the unification of the Serbian People, Serbia invaded the Austrian-backed Kingdom of Montenegro, annexing the region into the Zeta Province.

History

Warlord Era (1919-1932)

Pictured: Chetniks in rural Serbia, c. 1925

Pictured: Flag flown by Chetnik Forces during the Warlord Era. Inscription reads: "For king and fatherland; freedom or death"

King George was immensely unpopular with the Serbian people, soldiers and politicians alike. The Obrenović Administration only sustained itself through the support of the Austro-Hungarian army, unlike previous monarchs, King George was guarded by Austrian and Hungarian Royal Guards. In the years after World War I, the Central Government effectively lost control of the rural areas - much of the villages and towns became controlled by Chetnik-aligned warlords known as “Voivodes”. The most influential voivode, Kosta Pećanac, controlled vast swathes of territory in the interwar period - at the height of his power, he controlled a quarter of Serbian territory - and later became the leader of the Serbian Chetnik Organisation, which unified the numerous Serbian guerrillas under one authority. Despite attempts by the Austrian Army to disperse the Chetniks, they remained a powerful force in Serbia, though never powerful enough to retake any major cities west of the Morava River.

Kosta Pećanac (1879–1958) ,
a influential Chetnik warlord during the 1920s.

Though Pećanac controlled the most territory, he was by no means the only warlord in Serbia - in the south-west, the mountains were divided into various regions controlled by prominent Chetniks, such as Jovan Babunski, Cene Marković and Jovan Dovezenski. Some areas were controlled by local communists - the largest in the areas surrounding Belgrade were led by Đuro Đaković. Though some warlords ruled benevolently, many committed campaigns of ethnic cleansing against minority populations. The Muslim and Turkish population suffered the brunt of the attacks, especially by the forces of Chetniks, who were mostly led by rebels who had fought against the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s. Many Muslims fled to Kosovo and then onto Albania in the 1920s, draining much of the South-West region’s Muslim population - which wouldn’t return.

Return to Karađorđević Rule (1932-1943)

On the 19th of September, 1939, Alexander II was travelling in a public parade in Belgrade. Vlado Chernozemski, a member of the pro-Bulgarian Internal Revolutionary Macedonian Organisation stepped in front of the car carrying Alexander and fired three shots. Two bullets hit Alexander (one fatally) while the other hit Vlada Ilić, the mayor of Belgrade.

Peter III’s Rule (1943-1970)

After Peter III came of age in 1943, he started a campaign of terror against the IRMO and initiated a program of Serbianisation in Macedonia. Bulgarian and Macedonia as languages was banned in school and replaced with Serbian. Using his authority as monarch, he also ordered the Serbian Secret Police to arrest or assassinate any suspected Bulgarian-sympathisers. Peter III’s rule was characterised by increasing authoritarianism - the communist party was banned and persecuted, and every party barring Nationalist and Conservative Parties were banned.

Federal Divisions

Autonomous Regions of Serbia.

Included in Serbia are the three Autonomous Regions of Montenegro, Kosovo and Metohija, and Vojvodina.

Kosovo and Metohija

Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija Аутономна Покрајина Косово и Метохиja Autonomna Pokrajina Kosovo i Metohija Krahina Autonome e Kosovës dhe Metohisë
Anthem: “Land of Bravery”
Capital		Pristina
Official languages		Albanian, Serbian
Recognised regional languages		Turkish, Bosnian
Demonym		Kosovar, Kosovan
Government		Autonomous Region of the Kingdom of Serbia
-	Minister-President	Ramush Haradinaj (AAK)
Legislature		Kosovo Regional Assembly
Population
-	2019 census	1,809,280
Time zone		UTC (UTC+9)
Drives on the		right

Kosovo and Metohija , officially the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija , known as short Kosovo, or Kosmet (from Kosovo and Metohija), refers to the region of Kosovo as defined in the Constitution of Serbia.