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A Sketch of Serbian, Montenegrin, and Yugoslavian History to 1990
Slavs settled (6th–7th cent.) in the Balkans and were Christianized in the 9th cent. A Serbian kingdom emerged (13th cent.) and under Stephen Dusan (r. 1331–55) became the most powerful Balkan state. Defeat (1389) at Kosovo Field (see under Kosovo) brought Serbia under Turkish domination from the 14th to 19th cent., with Serbia securely in Turkish hands by 1459. At the time of the defeat at Kosovo field the region now constituting Montenegro was the virtually independent principality of Zeta in the Serbian empire. The mountainous principality continued to resist the Turks, but by 1499 most of Montenegro was held by the Turks, while Venice held the port of Kotor and the Montenegrin princes ruled their remnant stronghold from Cetinje. Montenegro's independence was recognized by the Ottoman Empire in 1799, and in 1829 the Turks granted the Serbs autonomy under a hereditary prince. Montenegro and Serbia were formally recognized as independent states by the European powers at the Congress of Berlin (1878). Serbia was proclaimed a kingdom in 1882, and it emerged from the Balkan Wars (1912–13) as a major Balkan power. (See Serbia and Montenegro for greater detail.)
When a Serbian nationalist assassinated (1914) Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Austria declared war on Serbia, thus precipitating World War I. Serbia and Montenegro were overrun by the Central Powers, but Serbian troops were evacuated to Allied-held Corfu, Greece, where representatives of the South Slavic peoples proclaimed (July, 1917) their proposed union under Serbian king Peter I. Montenegro's last monarch, Nicholas I, was deposed in 1918, and Montenegro was united with Serbia. In Dec., 1918, the "Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes" was formally proclaimed.
The Paris Peace Conference recognized the new state and enlarged its territory (with Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia) at the expense of Austria and Hungary. Its name was changed to Yugoslavia (sometimes spelled Jugoslavia) in 1929. Yugoslavia faced disputes with Italy (over Fiume [see Rijeka] and Dalmatia), and was torn internally by Croat and Macedonian nationalist movements. Yugoslavia adhered (Mar., 1941) to the Axis Tripartite Pact, but two days later a coup ousted the regent, and the new government proclaimed its neutrality. The next month Axis forces invaded Yugoslavia and quickly won control, partitioning it among Germany, Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Croatian and Serbian puppet states. Two main resistance groups coalesced: the chetniks under Mihajlovic and an army under the Communist Tito. In 1943 civil war broke out between the two factions, and Tito, supported by the USSR and Britain, emerged the victor. In 1944 the Germans were driven from Yugoslavia, the Soviet army entered Belgrade, and Tito's national liberation council was merged with the royal government. The next year Tito became premier, the non-Communist members of the government resigned and were arrested, and national elections : from which the opposition abstained : resulted in a Communist victory. The constituent assembly proclaimed Yugoslavia a federal people's republic.
The constitution of 1946 gave wide autonomy to the six newly created republics (Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and Macedonia), but actual power remained in the hands of Tito and the Communist party. Under Tito and his "national communism," or "Titoism," Yugoslavs possessed greater freedom than the inhabitants of any other Eastern European country. although intellectual freedom was still restricted. In 1963 the country officially became the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the early 1970s, agitation among the nationalities revived, particularly among the Croats. Although controls over intellectual life were stiffened, the autonomy of the six republics and Serbia's two autonomous provinces increased through the 1970s. With the death of Tito in 1980, an unwieldy collective leadership was established. Ethnic divisions continued to deepen in the 1980s, as did economic problems. (See Yugoslavia for more detail.)
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