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Old Serbia ( sr, Стара Србија, Stara Srbija) is a Serbian historiographical term that is used to describe the territory that according to the dominant school of Serbian historiography in the late 19th century formed the core of the
Serbian Empire The Serbian Empire ( sr, / , ) was a medieval Serbian state that emerged from the Kingdom of Serbia. It was established in 1346 by Dušan the Mighty, who significantly expanded the state. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the major power in the ...
in 1346-71. The term does not refer to a defined region but over time in the late 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century it came to include the regions of Raška,
Kosovo and Metohija The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija ( sr, Косово и Метохиja, Kosovo i Metohija; sq, Kosova dhe Metohija), commonly known as Kosovo and abbreviated to Kosmet or KiM, is an autonomous province defined by the constituti ...
and much of modern
North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
. The term Old Serbians ( sr, Старосрбијанци, Starosrbijanci, links=no) were used as designations by Serb authors and later governments for Slavic populations from regions such as
Vardar Macedonia Vardar Macedonia ( Macedonian and sr, Вардарска Македонија, ''Vardarska Makedonija'') was the name given to the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia (1912–1918) and Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) roughly corresponding to t ...
. In modern historiography, the concept of Old Serbia as it developed in the 19th century has been criticised as a historical myth, based often on invented or tendentiously interpreted historical events.


Terminology

Vuk Stefanović Karadžić referred to "Old Serbia" as a territory of the Serb people that was part of
medieval Serbia Serbia in the Middle Ages refers to the medieval period in the history of Serbia. The period begins in the 6th century with the Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe, and lasts until the Ottoman conquest of Serbian lands in the second half ...
prior to the Ottoman conquest. Milovan Radovanović claims that although the term was not attested until the 19th century it emerged in the colloquial speech of the Serb population who lived in territories of the
Habsburg monarchy The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
after the
Great Migrations ''Great Migrations'' is a seven-episode nature documentary television miniseries that airs on the National Geographic Channel, featuring the great migrations of animals around the globe. The seven-part show is the largest programming event in t ...
. The toponym first appeared in the public sphere during the 1860s, the time of the triumph of
Vuk Karadžić Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Вук Стефановић Караџић, ; 6 November 1787 (26 October OS)7 February 1864) was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the mode ...
's ideas. Until then the Serbs imagined the borders of their country spreading northwest. These ideas are grounded in the late-19th-century
Serbian nationalism Serbian nationalism asserts that Serbs are a nation and promotes the cultural and political unity of Serbs. It is an ethnic nationalism, originally arising in the context of the general rise of nationalism in the Balkans under Ottoman rule, und ...
and changed the goal of Serbia's territorial expansion from the west to the south and were important to Serbian nationalism during the
Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...
and the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.


History

In the early nineteenth century, Old Serbia as a concept was introduced by Vuk Karadžić in his ethnographic, geographic and historical publications. Karadžić defined Old Serbia as including the Morava-Vardar river valley. In particular, it comprised the Kriva Reka and Pčinja rivers, the area of the
Bregalnica Bregalnica (, ) is the second largest river in North Macedonia. It starts as a spring near the mountain city of Berovo and it passes near the cities of Makedonska Kamenica, Kočani, Vinica and Štip, before joining the river Vardar on its way t ...
river, the northern zone of the river
Vardar The Vardar (; mk, , , ) or Axios () is the longest river in North Macedonia and the second longest river in Greece, in which it reaches the Aegean Sea at Thessaloniki. It is long, out of which are in Greece, and drains an area of around . Th ...
, and a section of the Morava river. For Karadžić, the Slavic inhabitants of Macedonia were Serbian, detached from its Serb past due to Ottoman rule and propaganda activities undertaken by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. The term Old Serbia was used in literature and from the 1830s onward, its usage widened and denoted a particular area that was not part of the
Principality of Serbia The Principality of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Књажество Србија, Knjažestvo Srbija) was an autonomous state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Its creation was ...
. After its appearance during the 1860s, the term denoted only Raška. Following the
Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878) The Serbian–Ottoman Wars ( sr, Српско-османски ратови, Srpsko-osmanski ratovi), also known as the Serbian–Turkish Wars or Serbian Wars for Independence (), were two consequent wars (1876–1877 and 1877–1878), fought ...
, several authors began to represent the term Old Serbia as synonymous with the Ottoman Vilayet of Kosovo. From 1878 onward, the Serbian state started saying "Old Serbia" also included
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
. By 1912, the claims were narrowed to Kosovo only. The critical treatment of facts was damaged by the invocation of the past for the justification of present and future claims, and by the mixture of history and contemporary issues. The core myth of Serbian identity became the idea Kosovo was the cradle of the Serbian nation. Serbian rebels of the
First Serbian Uprising The First Serbian Uprising ( sr, Prvi srpski ustanak, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Први српски устанак; tr, Birinci Sırp Ayaklanması) was an uprising of Serbs in the Sanjak of Smederevo against the Ottoman Empire from 14 February 18 ...
and
Second Serbian Uprising The Second Serbian Uprising ( sr, Други српски устанак / ''Drugi srpski ustanak'', tr, İkinci Sırp Ayaklanması) was the second phase of the Serbian Revolution against the Ottoman Empire, which erupted shortly after the re ...
had no territorial ambitions over Kosovo. A plan made during that period to create a Slav-Serbian empire in the Serb-inhabited areas of the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
excluded Kosovo and Old Serbia. Serbian interest in the region of Macedonia was defined in a foreign policy program named
Načertanije The term Greater Serbia or Great Serbia ( sr, Велика Србија, Velika Srbija) describes the Serbian nationalist and irredentist ideology of the creation of a Serb state which would incorporate all regions of traditional significance to S ...
. It was a document whose author
Ilija Garašanin Ilija Garašanin ( sr-cyr, Илија Гарашанин; 28 January 1812 – 22 June 1874) was a Serbian statesman who served as the prime minister of Serbia between 1852 and 1853 and again from 1861 to 1867. Ilija Garašanin was conservati ...
, a Serb politician envisioned a Serbian state that included the
Principality of Serbia The Principality of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Књажество Србија, Knjažestvo Srbija) was an autonomous state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Its creation was ...
and territories such as Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro and Old Serbia. Garašanin in Načertanije was not clear about the southern confines of this larger state and neither was Kosovo nor Old Serbia mentioned directly. This program responded to the need to spread propaganda among
Serbs The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
within the Ottoman Empire. Serbian engagement with the region started in 1868 with the establishment of the Educational Council (Prosvetni odbor) that opened schools and sent Serb instructors and textbooks to Macedonia and Old Serbia. In May 1877 a delegation of Serbs of Old Serbia presented their request to 'liberate' and unite Old Serbia with the
Principality of Serbia The Principality of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Књажество Србија, Knjažestvo Srbija) was an autonomous state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817. Its creation was ...
to the government of Serbia. They also informed representatives of the
Great Powers A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power in ...
and the
Emperor of Russia The emperor or empress of all the Russias or All Russia, ''Imperator Vserossiyskiy'', ''Imperatritsa Vserossiyskaya'' (often titled Tsar or Tsarina/Tsaritsa) was the Absolute monarchy, monarch of the Russian Empire. The title originated in conn ...
about their demands. In the same year the Committee for the Liberation of Old Serbia and Macedonia was founded. Serbian nationalists envisioned Serbia as a "
Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...
of the Balkans" that would unify certain territories they interpreted as Serbian in the region into one state, like Old Serbia. In the 1877 peace after the
Serbian–Ottoman Wars (1876–1878) The Serbian–Ottoman Wars ( sr, Српско-османски ратови, Srpsko-osmanski ratovi), also known as the Serbian–Turkish Wars or Serbian Wars for Independence (), were two consequent wars (1876–1877 and 1877–1878), fought ...
, the Serbs hoped to gain the Kosovo Vilayet and
Sanjak of Novi Pazar The Sanjak of Novi Pazar ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Novopazarski sandžak, Новопазарски санџак; tr, Yeni Pazar sancağı) was an Ottoman sanjak (second-level administrative unit) that was created in 1865. It was reorganized in 1880 and ...
to the
Lim River The Lim (Serbian Cyrillic: Лим, ) is a river that flows through Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and is long.
. With the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, Serbia received full sovereignty and made territorial gains around this time, acquiring the districts of
Niš Niš (; sr-Cyrl, Ниш, ; names in other languages) is the third largest city in Serbia and the administrative center of the Nišava District. It is located in southern part of Serbia. , the city proper has a population of 183,164, while ...
,
Pirot Pirot ( sr-cyr, Пирот) is a city and the administrative center of the Pirot District in southeastern Serbia. According to 2011 census, the urban area of the city has a population of 38,785, while the population of the city administrative area ...
,
Vranje Vranje ( sr-Cyrl, Врање, ) is a city in Southern Serbia and the administrative center of the Pčinja District. The municipality of Vranje has a population of 83,524 and its urban area has 60,485 inhabitants. Vranje is the economical, polit ...
and . Following the
Great Eastern Crisis The Great Eastern Crisis of 1875–78 began in the Ottoman Empire's territories on the Balkan peninsula in 1875, with the outbreak of several uprisings and wars that resulted in the intervention of international powers, and was ended with the T ...
(1875-1878) and the emergence of the
Macedonian Question The region of Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since Paleolithic times. Еarliest historical inhabitants The earliest historical inhabitants of the region were the Pelasgians, the Bryges and the Thracians. The Pelasgians occupied E ...
, Serbs were dissatisfied that Bulgaria became a rival for the region of Macedonia or "Old Serbia". Kosovo formed part of the
Kosovo myth The Kosovo Myth ( sr, Косовски мит / ''Kosovski mit''), also known as the Kosovo Cult and the Kosovo Legend, is a Serbian national myth based on legends about events related to the Battle of Kosovo (1389). It has been a subject in Serb ...
that prior to those events was viewed in spiritual and ethical terms, and an important aspect of Serbian cultural and ordinary life. By the 1880s, Serbia saw those areas, referred to as Old Serbia, in territorial terms. The relationship with
Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
following 1881 considerably affected the Serbian state that moved it to concentrate its regional efforts toward a southerly direction. At this time, Old Serbia became integrated into the Serbian state's collective narrative about its own self identity. A process began in the same decade in Serbia, where diplomacy and foreign policy were deployed to expand Serb influence in Old Serbia, to gather data about the mainly unknown territory and make preparations for future armed conflict with the Ottoman Empire. As such, ''Guidelines for Establishing Serbia's Influence in Macedonia and Old Serbia'' were made part of the Serbian government platform in 1887. Over several years, a number of consulates were opened by the Serbian state in
Salonika Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
,
Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...
,
Bitola Bitola (; mk, Битола ) is a city in the southwestern part of North Macedonia. It is located in the southern part of the Pelagonia valley, surrounded by the Baba, Nidže, and Kajmakčalan mountain ranges, north of the Medžitlija-Níki ...
and
Pristina Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians and ...
and included consuls such as
Milan Rakić Milan Rakić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милан Ракић; 18 September 1876 – 30 June 1938) was a Serbian poet-diplomat and academic. He focused on dodecasyllable and hendecasyllable verse, which allowed him to achieve beautiful rhythm and rhyme ...
and
Branislav Nušić Branislav Nušić ( sr-cyr, Бранислав Нушић, ;  – 19 January 1938) was a Serbian playwright, satirist, essayist, novelist and founder of modern rhetoric in Serbia. He also worked as a journalist and a civil servant. Life Bra ...
who chronicled the difficult security circumstances of Serbs in the Ottoman Empire. Serbia also used education policy in Old Serbia to advance sentiments of a strong national identification among Orthodox inhabitants to the Serbian state. To bolster Serbian influence in Old Serbia, the St. Sava Society was established (1886) to educate aspiring teachers for the task, and later a department was created in the Serbian Education Ministry with a near identical objective. Starting from 1903, the Serbian political establishment altered the policy for Macedonia and Old Serbia. The focus switched from education propaganda toward providing Serbs in the region with arms resulting by 1904 in
Chetnik The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...
bands and armed irregulars operating in Macedonia. The majority of efforts to include Old Serbia into newer Serb discourses on Serbdom and the larger narrative about Serbia was undertaken by people outside the bounds of the Serb state, such as artists, composers, writers, scientists and other members of the intelligentsia. A prominent example was
Jovan Cvijić Jovan Cvijić ( sr-cyr, Јован Цвијић, ; 1865 – 16 January 1927) was a Serbian geographer and ethnologist, president of the Serbian Royal Academy of Sciences and rector of the University of Belgrade. Cvijić is considered the ...
, a Serb academic who made ethnographic maps depicting the Balkans that aimed to advance Serb claims to Kosovo and his publications influenced later generations of historiographers. Cvijić defined Old Serbia as including Kosovo and Metohija, spanning southward and encompassing
Debar Debar ( mk, Дебaр ; Albanian: ''Dibër''/''Dibra'' or ''Dibra e Madhe;'' ) is a city in the western part of North Macedonia, near the border with Albania, off the road from Struga to Gostivar. It is the seat of Debar Municipality. Debar has an ...
,
Kumanovo Kumanovo ( mk, Куманово ; also known by other #Etymology, alternative names) is a city in North Macedonia and the seat of Kumanovo Municipality, the List of municipalities in the Republic of Macedonia by population, largest municipali ...
,
Prilep Prilep ( mk, Прилеп ) is the fourth-largest city in North Macedonia. It has a population of 66,246 and is known as "the city under Marko's Towers" because of its proximity to the towers of Prince Marko. Name The name of Prilep appear ...
and
Tetovo Tetovo ( mk, Тетово, , sq, Tetovë/Tetova) is a city in the northwestern part of North Macedonia, built on the foothills of Šar Mountain and divided by the Pena River. The municipality of Tetovo covers an area of at above sea level, w ...
. In 1906–1907, Cvijić wrote the Macedonian Slavs were an "amorphous" and "floating mass", and lacked national identity. By regarding northern Macedonia as "Old Serbia", he sought to legitimize Serbia's territorial claims over the territory. Cvijić continuously changed his maps to include or exclude "
Macedonian Slavs Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Ma ...
", altering the location of the boundary between
Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely understo ...
and Serbs and readjusting the colour scheme to show Macedonia as nearer to Serbia. Ethnographic maps showing the Macedonian region and Old Serbia were part of a wider conflict involving similar competing maps of the region that was played out on the international scene. The ethnographic maps attempted to show and affirm various national perspectives and solutions offered by their authors, like mapping and classifying peoples according to their definitions or new borders, to geopolitical questions in the Balkans. Due to Greek and Serbian cooperation, northerly areas centred around Skopje were not shown in their maps as being part of Macedonia, as Serbia regarded those areas as Old Serbia. Serb authors viewed the Slavic inhabitants of Macedonia as Old Serbians or Southern Serbs, designations that were used more in the past than in modern times. Old Serbia as a term evoked strong symbolism and message regarding Serb historical rights to the land whose demographics were seen to have been altered in the Ottoman period to favour Albanians at the conclusion of the seventeenth century. Theories advanced at the time like those by Cvijić referred to the Albanians in the area as a result of metastasis and due to a "great Albanian campaign to the east". The more prominent theory stated that Ottoman aims were to split the Serbian principality from Old Serbia that involved installing Muslim Albanians into the area. It claimed that the evidence lay in the settlement pattern of Albanians as dispersed and not compact. The theory concluded that Serbian abilities were diminished for liberation wars of the future as Albanians formed a "living wall" spanning from Kosovo to the Pĉinja area, limiting the spread of Serb influence. As a result of the Serbian-Ottoman war, the Albanian inhabited area shrank after they were expelled from the Toplica and Morava valleys by the Serbian army in 1878. Before the events of the
Berlin Congress The Congress of Berlin (13 June – 13 July 1878) was a diplomatic conference to reorganise the states in the Balkan Peninsula after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, which had been won by Russia against the Ottoman Empire. Represented at th ...
, only a small number of Serbian accounts existed that described Old Serbia and Macedonia in the early nineteenth century. Old Serbia became a topic of focus (mid nineteenth - early twentieth centuries) in Serbian travelogues by Serb authors from Serbia and Austria-Hungary. In the aftermath of the
Serbo-Bulgarian War The Serbo-Bulgarian War or the Serbian–Bulgarian War ( bg, Сръбско-българска война, ''Srăbsko-bălgarska voyna'', sr, Српско-бугарски рат, ''Srpsko-bugarski rat'') was a war between the Kingdom of Serb ...
(1885), several travelogues were published on Old Serbia by politicians and intellectuals seeking to counter "Bulgarian propaganda". The travel accounts through use of geography, history, philology and ethnography sought to bolster nationalist claims that those lands were for the Serbs. Focusing on language and cultural aspects, the travellers sought to present and connect the Serbs of Serbia and Austria-Hungary to the inhabitants of Old Serbia as synonymous and one nation that lacked differences. Many realities of the day were bypassed such as interpreting demographics in an unclear or doubtful manner, or by digressing through subjects of geography and history. Travels through Old Serbia were presented as a movement through time and observations by writers focused on the medieval period and landscape geography, as opposed to the reality of the day. These accounts contained portrayals and metaphors about Serb travellers in danger encountering the national cultural extinction of local Serbs or biological threats. The links travelogues drew to Old Serbia with inhabitants under threat had an important impact through discourse in connecting an emerging Serb national identity with Kosovo. Serb travelogues defined Old Serbia in its minimum extent as being Kosovo and at its wider range as encompassing north western Macedonia and northern Albania. Travellers writing about Macedonia used cultural and socio-linguistic depictions to state that local Christian Slavic inhabitants were exposed to Bulgarian propaganda that inhibited their ability to become Serbian. Efforts were devoted to interpreting linguistic and cultural information to present Macedonians as nearer to the Serbs than Bulgarians. These included focusing on local customs in the area like family saint days and regarding them as part of similar traditions (
Slava Slava may refer to: Ships * ''Slava'' class cruiser, a modern Russian warship ** Soviet cruiser Slava (1979), now Russian cruiser ''Moskva'', a ''Slava'' class guided missile cruiser sunk during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine * Russian ba ...
) in Serbia. Local traditional songs and epic poetry were scrutinised to met the criteria of being classified Serbian, not Bulgarian, such as folklore about medieval
Prince Marko Marko Mrnjavčević ( sr-cyr, Марко Мрњавчевић, ;  – 17 May 1395) was the ''de jure'' Serbian king from 1371 to 1395, while he was the ''de facto'' ruler of territory in western Macedonia centered on the town of Prilep. He ...
were deemed as examples of Serbian culture. Due to competition from the Bulgarian national movement, efforts were devoted to delineate a boundary in areas where differences among religions were nonexistent. File:Iglesia de San Pedro, Novi Pazar, Serbia, 2014-04-15, DD 07.JPG, Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul of
Stari Ras Ras ( sr-Cyrl, Рас; lat, Arsa), known in modern Serbian historiography as Stari Ras ( sr-Cyrl, Стари Рас, "Old Ras"), is a medieval fortress located in the vicinity of former market-place of ''Staro Trgovište'', some 11 km west ...
in Raška, today a
UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for h ...
File:Свети Ѓорѓија Село Нагоричани.jpg, Church of St. George in North Macedonia, founded by
Stefan Milutin Stefan Uroš II Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Урош II Милутин, Stefan Uroš II Milutin; 1253 – 29 October 1321), known as Stefan Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Милутин, Stefan Milutin), was the King of Serbia between 1282&nd ...
,
King of Serbia This is an archontological list of Serbian monarchs, containing monarchs of the medieval principalities, to heads of state of modern Serbia. The Serbian monarchy dates back to the Early Middle Ages. The Serbian royal titles used include Knya ...
File:Kalaja e Novoberdes Qyteti Mesjetar i Novobërdës 1.jpg,
Novo Brdo Fortress Novo Brdo Fortress ( sr, Тврђава Ново Брдо / ''Tvrđava Novo Brdo''; sq, Kalaja e Novobërdës or ''Kalaja e Artanës'') is a medieval Serbian fortress in Kosovo. Its ruins are located near the town of Novo Brdo, about east of P ...
, a medieval Serbian fortress in Kosovo File:Patrikana e Pejës.jpg,
Patriarchal Monastery of Peć Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males a ...
in Kosovo, the seat of the
Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...
from the 14th century when its status was upgraded into a patriarchate, today a UNESCO World Heritage Site
In areas where the population was mainly Albanian, the appropriation undertaken by travel writers was reinforced through narratives of history, positions based on economic and geographic issues, at times that involved fabricating information and creating the room for discrimination on cultural and racial grounds toward non-Slavs. It would entail presenting non Orthodox Slavic inhabitants as either recent religious converts, immigrants or people who underwent a language shift. Peoples like the Turks, Turkifed inhabitants and Albanians (in several texts called "
Arnauts Arnaut ( ota, ارناود) is a Turkish ethnonym used to denote Albanians. ''Arvanid'' (), ''Arnavud'' (), plural: ''Arnavudlar'' (): modern Turkish: ''Arnavut'', plural: ''Arnavutlar''; are ethnonyms used mainly by Ottoman and contemporar ...
") were portrayed as converted inhabitants who were former Serbs. The process allowed the lands of Old Serbia to be denoted as Serbian and implied a future removal of political rights and ability for self determination from non-Slavic inhabitants such as Albanians, whom were viewed as the cultural and racial "other", unhygienic, and a danger. As travelogues were presented as firsthand accounts and truth, their contents aimed to get a reader to react and identify as a person with the imagined community of a nation. At the same time, songs from oral traditions, collected and catalogued from Macedonia and Kosovo (Old Serbia) began to be played in Serbia and were reworked by modern Serbian composers into Serb songs through the addition of then contemporary musical European styles. Kosovo, which was listed as "Old Serbia", was classified as an "unredeemed Serbian" region by the
Black Hand Black Hand or The Black Hand may refer to: Extortionists and underground groups * Black Hand (anarchism) (''La Mano Negra''), a presumed secret, anarchist organization based in the Andalusian region of Spain during the early 1880s * Black Hand (e ...
, a secret society formed by Serb officers that generated nationalist material and armed activity by bands outside Serbia. In
Serbian historiography Serbian historiography ( sr-Cyrl, српска историографија, srpska istoriografija) refers to the historiography (methodology of history studies) of the Serb people since the founding of Serbian statehood. The development can b ...
, the
First Balkan War The First Balkan War ( sr, Први балкански рат, ''Prvi balkanski rat''; bg, Балканска война; el, Αʹ Βαλκανικός πόλεμος; tr, Birinci Balkan Savaşı) lasted from October 1912 to May 1913 and invo ...
(1912-1913) is also known as ''War for Liberation of Old Serbia''. Later, in 1913 the
Sandžak Sandžak (; sh, / , ; sq, Sanxhaku; ota, سنجاق, Sancak), also known as Sanjak, is a historical geo-political region in Serbia and Montenegro. The name Sandžak derives from the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, a former Ottoman administrative dis ...
,
Kosovo and Metohija The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija ( sr, Косово и Метохиja, Kosovo i Metohija; sq, Kosova dhe Metohija), commonly known as Kosovo and abbreviated to Kosmet or KiM, is an autonomous province defined by the constituti ...
and
Vardar Macedonia Vardar Macedonia ( Macedonian and sr, Вардарска Македонија, ''Vardarska Makedonija'') was the name given to the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia (1912–1918) and Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941) roughly corresponding to t ...
became part of the Kingdom of Serbia. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Serb publications aiming to counter Albanian interests and to justify Serbian historical claims in Kosovo and Macedonia through the recreation of Old Serbia in those territories appeared. The acquisition of new lands was interpreted by individuals such as
Vaso Čubrilović Vaso Čubrilović ( sr-Cyrl, Васо Чубриловић; 14 January 1897 – 11 June 1990) was a Bosnian Serb scholar and politician. As a teenager, he joined the South Slav student movement known as Young Bosnia and was involved in the conspir ...
, a Serb intellectual, as the realisation of Garašanin's concept. In 1914, groups within the Serbian army expressed dissatisfaction with certain elements of civilian governance in Old Serbia (Macedonia) and sought to undermine the Serb government by aiding a plot to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. At the end of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Serbia became part of the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...
and the state placed its efforts toward speeding up the incorporation of newly acquired lands such as Kosovo, Macedonia and
Sandžak Sandžak (; sh, / , ; sq, Sanxhaku; ota, سنجاق, Sancak), also known as Sanjak, is a historical geo-political region in Serbia and Montenegro. The name Sandžak derives from the Sanjak of Novi Pazar, a former Ottoman administrative dis ...
. These areas deemed as Old Serbia were subsequently organised into a province (''pokrajina'') that was given the official name of South Serbia. To integrate the region after perceived centuries of "separation" between the area and Serbia, national, cultural and economic considerations were seen as a centre of focus in Old Serbia for some high ranking Serb officials. Institutions were founded to accelerate the regional economy such as a prominent bank in Skopje (1923) named "Old Serbia". The government of
Nikola Pašić Nikola Pašić ( sr-Cyrl, Никола Пашић, ; 18 December 1845 – 10 December 1926) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat who was a leading political figure for almost 40 years. He was the leader of the People's Radical P ...
treated the Slavic population of Vardar Macedonia as either Serbs or as Old Serbians (Starosrbijanci). Following the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
,
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
was reorganised as a federal state, with
Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
as one of six republics. Serbia was most affected by the internal territorial changes as it lost control of what had been defined as Old Serbia, which became the separate
republic of Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Yugoslavia. It ...
. The stances and opinions of the early twentieth century Serbian intelligentsia have left a legacy in the political space as those views are used in modern discourses of Serb nationalism to uphold nationalistic claims. Travelogues have been republished and often lack critical analysis of the period in which they were written. This also applies to some materials such as often inaccurate "ethnic maps", that have been re-proposed in some modern academic publications by Serbian authors.


See also

* Medieval history of Serbia *
Pomorje Pomorje ( sr-Cyrl, Поморје), also known (in plural) as the Lands of Pomorje ( sr, / ), is a medieval term, used to designate several maritime regions of Upper Dalmatia and its hinterland, that at the end of the 12th century, during the ...
*
Serbianisation Serbianisation or Serbianization, also known as Serbification, and Serbisation or Serbization ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", srbizacija, србизација or sh-Latn-Cyrl, label=none, separator=" / ", posrbljavanje, посрбљавање; ...
*
Slavo-Serbia Slavo-Serbia or Slaveno-Serbia ( uk, Слов'яносербія, Slov'ianoserbiia; russian: Славяносербия, Slavyanoserbiya; sr, Славеносрбија / or / ; Slavonic-Serbian: Славо-Сербія or Славено-Се ...
* New Serbia


Notes


References


Serb Travelogues and associated material

* (Public domain) * (Public domain) * * (Public domain) * * *


Further reading

* * * Jagodić, Miloš. "Планови o политици Србије према Старој Србији и Македонији (1878-1885)." Историјски часопис 60 (2011): 435–460. * * Црквене прилике у Старој Србији од укидања Пећке патријаршије до Велике источне кризе (1766-1878), у: Историја и значај Призренске богословије : (поводом 140 годишњице од оснивања). - Ниш : Филозофски факултет : Призренска богословија Св. Кирила и Методија : Центар за црквене студије, 2013, 9-29. * * Jagodić, Miloš. "Извештај Василија Ђорђевића о догађајима у Старој Србији из јула 1854." Мешовита грађа 36 (2015): 195–206. * * Šćekić, Radenko, Žarko Leković, and Marijan Premović. "Political Developments and Unrests in Stara Raška (Old Rascia) and Old Herzegovina during Ottoman Rule." Balcanica XLVI (2015): 79-106. * NEDELJKOVIĆ, SLAVIŠA. "BETWEEN THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT AND REBELS (Old Serbia during the rebellion of the Shkodra Pasha Mustafa Bushati and the Bosnian aristocracy 1830–1832)." Istraživanja: Journal of Historical Researches 26 (2016): 91-105.


External links

{{coord missing, Serbia Political history of Serbia History of Kosovo Historical regions in Serbia History of Macedonia (region) Medieval Serbia Serbian irredentism Principality of Serbia Kingdom of Serbia History of the Serbs Vardar Macedonia (1918–1941)