Histories

Notes

Books

Letters

Named Photos

Un-named Photos

French Docs.

Russian Docs

Unknown Lang. Docs

Apendix 3

The Land of the Southern Slavs :

Yugoslavia.

An historical sketch.

Four-fifths of the country is mountainous,of limestone mountains, the Dinaric Alps.

The coastal region was referred to from earliest times as Illyria. There is Iron Age reference to the Hallstadt culture covering the area. The land was believed to

have been visited by Phoenician traders. Apollonia was the Greek name for the coastal region. There was Greek colonisation from 750 — 550 B.C.

Alexander of Macedon,also known as Alexander the Great (336— 323 BC) decisively defeated the Persians. His Empire stretched eastwards to the Indus valley.

From 27 B.C. onwards the region of the coast was also known as Dalmatia.

In the middle of the 4th century A.D. the spheres of influence of the western Roman Empire based on Rome (Diocletian) and the eastern Roman Empire based on Constantinople (former Byzantium) (Constantine).

Diocletian was born in this land. He became Roman Emperor in 302 A.D. Also he built a great palace at Split to which he later retired. There were various other Roman Emperors who were born in Macedonia. The Romans found gold and silver in the area. Ragusa (Dubrovnik) was a Roman town.

The Ostrogoths overwhelmed Rome in the 4th century and also occupied this land.

Also the Avars occupied part of the Balkans in the 6th century.

The Hungarian kingdom of Croatia lasted from 1089 - 91.

The route of the First Crusade, led by the French knight Raymond of Toulouse, travelled over land, via Dalmatia to the Holy Land.

The Kingdom of Serbia or Servia became notable from 1169 onwards. The notable success of the Greater Serbian State was during the period 1355—1389.

In 1389 in a decisive battle against the strongly advancing Ottoman Turks the Servian Czar Lazar was defeated and killed. At this battle of Kosovo,on the field of the Blackbirds,the flower of Serbian aristocracy died.

After that Serbia existed as a tributary to the Ottoman Turks for around five hundred years.

Montenegro was autonomous from 1389 onwards.

Trade with the Lavant. The Venetian Republic was gradually rising in importance and was a great naval power as well as trading far and wide on an important scale.

Their power continued for some 1,200 years.

Ragusa increased greatly In importance as a trading city, its ships being described as Argosy.

It continued over very many years as an important trading Republic and

city state.

The Ottoman Turks had been increasing in power from the late14th century. The power of the Eastern Roman Empire mainly Greek in character had been waning over centuries. Finally in 1453 Constantinople,that great religious centre of the Christians and great centre of learning and of artistic and cultural wealth, was again attacked by the Turks. It was captured and overwhelmed, burnt and sacked.

Many of its artistic and cultural treasures were lost. This had a considerable effect upon the land of Yugoslavia over succeeding centuries.

The Ottoman Empire extended steadily through the Balkans effectively conquering and subduing wide areas under its control. Many parts of the Balkans then continued under Turkish control and rule for as much as five hundred years. This applied in particular to Serbia, Bosnia, Hercegovina and Macedonia.

The people never lost their love of freedom. For hundreds of year sthe

Montenegrins were not subdued by the Turks partly because of their spirit and partly because of the mountainous nature their country. There were many rebellions against the Turks throughout the occupied part of the land.

Russia was always a friendly power to the Southern Slavs. On many occasions the Russians were allied to the Serbs in fighting the Turks. At the Battle of the River Pruth the Russians and the Serbs under Czar Peter the Great were defeated by the Turks in 1711.

French Emperor Napoleon I sent his armies to conquer Illyria and occupied it from 1795 -1818.

There was a further Russian-Turkish War in the Balkans in 1875 -76.In 1878

Serbia at long last gained its independence from the Ottoman Turks.

The Illyrian Provinces were associated with the provinces of Italy from 1816 until 1859 during the long struggle of the Italians for freedom. Note: The Unification of Italy was substantially fulfilled by 1860 although this was not complete until1870.

The House of Habsberg, Austro—Hungarian Empire substantially dominated the northern Balkans from 1878 until1918.

In 1903 King Alexander of the Serbs Croatsand Slovenes was trusted by the Austrian overlords for some years.

Serbia was substantially involved in the two Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 against the Turks.

In 1914 (28th June) the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated at Sarajevo,Bosnia. This steadily led towards the beginning of the First World War, 1914 - 1918.The Serbs fought the Austrians. The Russians declared war on the Austrians,and so it continued.

In 1918 the Austro-Hungarian Empire was finally defeated and broke up. A Council of South Slavs was formed in December 1918. In 1918 the northern part of Dalmatia,part of the coastal belt, was ceded to Italy for some years.

In 1919 the State of Yugoslavia came into being with its six provinces and two territories as a Kingdom under King Alexander of the Serbs Croats and Slovenes.

This was achieved at the Peace Treaty of Versailles1919 following the conclusion of the First World War 1914 - 1918.

The new state consisted of Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia-Hercegovina with two autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina which were within Serbia.

In 1934 King Alexander was assassinated at Marseilles in France. Crown Prince Peter became King Peter I of Yugoslavia.

In 1941 during the Second World War Yugoslavia was invaded first by the Italians and then by the Germans.

The country people suffered severely during this war, one fifth of the population of Yugoslavia lost their lives.

Resistance to the invaders by Partisans was notably and successfully maintained until the end of the war in 1945.

From 1948 onwards the country became completely independent of the Communists of the Soviet Union which had dominated the country from 1945—48.

From 1941 to 1980 Yugoslavia was led by their leader who became its President as Marshal Tito (Josep Broz) who became in due course a wise and a notable ruler and statesman. He died in 1980. Government substantially in accord with the wishes of Marshal Tito continues to the present time.

Back