Serbia (sûr'bēə) , Serbian Srbija (sŭr'bēä), officially Republic of Serbia, republic (1995 est. pop. 10,394,000), 34,116 sq mi (88,361 sq km), W central Balkan Peninsula; formerly the chief constituent republic of Yugoslavia and of its short-lived successor, Serbia and Montenegro. It is bounded in the northwest by Croatia, in the north by Hungary, in the northeast by Romania, in the east by Bulgaria, in the south by Macedonia, and in the west by Albania, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Belgrade is the capital of both Serbia.

Land and People

Landlocked and largely mountainous in the west and south, Serbia lies within several mountain systems: the Dinaric Alps in the west, the North Albanian Alps and Sar Mts. in the southwest, and the Balkan Mts. in the east. Much of Serbia slopes generally north toward the Danube and Sava rivers and is drained chiefly by the Drina (which forms part of the western border), Kolubara, Morava, and Timok rivers and their tributaries. The northeast is part of the fertile Danubian plain; it is drained by the Danube, Sava, Tisa (Tisza), and Morava rivers. Politically, the country consists of Serbia proper with the cities of Belgrade, Niš, and Kragujevac, Vojvodina province with Subotica and Novi Sad, and Kosovo province with Priština. The population consists primarily of Serbs, with Albanian, Magyar (Hungarian), Croat, Montenegrin, and Macedonian minorities. The Serbs are very closely related to the Montenegrins and closely related to the Croats. but have been marked by different historical experiences. The Serbs also distinguish themselves culturally from the Croats through their membership in the Orthodox Eastern rather than Roman Catholic church and through the differences between Serbian and Croatian (forms of Serbo-Croatian), most obviously the use of the Cyrillic rather than the Roman alphabet. There are universities in Belgrade, Niš, and Novi Sad.

Economy

Wheat, corn, hemp, sugar beets, and flax are the chief crops; the fertile plains of Vojvodina prov. are the most productive agricultural areas. Serbia proper has extensive vineyards and is one of Europe's major regions for fruit growing (notably plums). Mining and manufacturing are the largest contributors to the economy; manufactures include steel, iron, transport vehicles, and plastics. Serbia's mineral wealth includes coal and lignite, copper, gold, antimony, marble, and millstone. Kosovo is the poorest and least developed region, although it does have large coal reserves. The political turmoil of the 1990s (see under History) greatly exacerbated Serbia's already severe economic problems.

Government

On 4 February 2003 the parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia agreed to a weaker form of cooperation between Serbia and Montenegro within a commonwealth called Serbia and Montenegro. The union ceased to exist following Montenegrin and Serbian declarations of independence in June 2006.

After the ousting of Slobodan Milošević on 5 October 2000, the country was governed by the Democratic Opposition of Serbia. Tensions gradually increased within the coalition until the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) left the government, leaving the Democratic Party (DS) in overall control. Nevertheless, in March 2004 the DSS gathered enough support to form the new Government of Serbia, together with G17 Plus and coalition SPO-NS, and the support of the Socialist Party of Serbia, who do not take part in the government, but in exchange for the support hold minor government and justice positions and influence policies. The Prime Minister of Serbia is Vojislav Koštunica, leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia.

The current President of Serbia is Boris Tadić, leader of the Democratic Party (DS). He was elected with 53% of the vote in the second round of the Serbian presidential election held on 27 June 2004, following several unsuccessful elections since 2002.

Serbia held a two-day referendum on October 28-29, 2006, that ratified a new constitution replacing the Milošević-era constitution with a majority victory. As a result Serbia will hold new national elections on January 21, 2007.

Administrative subdivisions

Serbia is divided into 29 districts plus the City of Belgrade. The districts are further divided into municipalities. Serbia has two autonomous provinces: Kosovo (called Kosovo i Metohija, often abbreviated to Kosmet in Serbian) in the south (5 districts, 30 municipalities), which is presently under the administration of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, and Vojvodina in the north (7 districts, 46 municipalities).

The part of Serbia that is neither in Kosovo nor in Vojvodina is called Central Serbia. Central Serbia is not an administrative division, unlike the two autonomous provinces, and it has no regional government of its own. In English this region is often called "Serbia proper" to denote "the part of the Republic of Serbia not including the provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo", as the Library of Congress puts it [14]. This usage was also employed in Serbo-Croatian during the Yugoslav era (in the form of "uža Srbija", literally: "narrow Serbia"). Its use in English is purely geographical, without any particular political meaning being implied.

Negotiations are currently underway to determine the final status of Kosovo. The Contact Group has postponed the completing of the status process until after Serbian parliamentary elections in January 2007.

History

Consolidation of a People

Serbs settled in the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th and 7th cent. and accepted Christianity in the 9th cent. Their petty principalities were theoretically under a grand zhupan, who usually recognized Byzantine suzerainty. Civil strife and constant warfare with their Bulgarian, Greek, and Magyar neighbors characterized the early history of the Serbs. Rascia, the first organized Serbian state, was probably founded in the early 9th cent. in the Bosnian mountains; it steadily expanded from the 10th cent. Bulgaria, meanwhile, challenged Byzantium for suzerainty over the Serbs.

Stephen Nemanja, whom the Byzantine emperor recognized as grand zhupan of Serbia in 1159, founded a dynasty that ruled for two centuries. His son and successor assumed the title king of all Serbia in 1217 with the pope's blessing. However, the king's brother, Sava, archbishop of Serbia, succeeded in having papal influence eliminated from the kingdom; in 1219 he won recognition from the patriarch of Constantinople of an autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church. The Serbian kingdom was at first overshadowed by the rapid rise of the Bulgarian empire under Ivan II (Ivan Asen), but under Stephen Dušan, who became king in 1331 and czar in 1346, Serbia became the most powerful empire in the Balkan Peninsula, much of which it absorbed. Its might contrasted sharply with the decadent Byzantine Empire.

Even among European states, Serbia was noted for its high economic, social, and cultural level. After Stephen's death in 1355, however, the empire decayed and fell victim to the onslaught of the Ottoman Turks. The Serbs suffered defeat at the Maritsa River in 1371; that same year the last czar, Stephen Urosh V, died without male issue. His successor, Lazar, contented himself with the title prince of Serbia. Lazar was slain in 1389 during the battle of Kosovo Field (see under Kosovo), in which the cream of Serbian nobility was massacred and the fate of independent Serbia sealed. For Serbs, Kosovo retains its symbolic significance, hence Serbia's opposition in the late 20th cent. to Kosovo's separatist movement.

Lazar's son, Stephen, was allowed to rule (1389–1427) over a diminished and divided Serbia by Sultan Beyazid I, to whom he paid tribute. Although he and his successor, George Brankovich (reigned 1427–56), received the title despots (lords) from the Byzantine Empire, the Turks gradually absorbed their lands. The quarrel over the Brankovich succession facilitated the complete annexation of Serbia by Sultan Muhammad II in 1459. Belgrade, then held by Hungary, fell to the Turks in 1521. During the centuries-long Turkish occupation of Serbia, national traditions and the memory of the Dušan's empire were preserved by the Serbian Orthodox Church.