History of Kosovo
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The history of
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 ...
dates back to pre-historic times when the
Starčevo culture The Starčevo culture is an archaeological culture of Southeastern Europe, dating to the Neolithic period between ''c.'' 6200 and 4500 BCE. It originates in the spread of the Neolithic package of peoples and technological innovations including far ...
,
Vinča culture The Vinča culture (), also known as Turdaș culture or Turdaș–Vinča culture, is a Neolithic archaeological culture of Southeast Europe, dated to the period 5700–4500 BC or 5300–4700/4500 BC.. Named for its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo ...
, Bubanj-Hum culture, and
Baden culture The Baden culture was a Chalcolithic archaeological culture, culture from 3520–2690 BC. It was found in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, and is in particular known from Moravia (Czech Republic), Hungary, southern Poland, Slovakia, ...
were active in the region. Since then, many archaeological sites have been discovered due to the abundance of natural resources which gave way to the development of life. In antiquity, Dardania covered the area, which formed part of the larger Roman province of
Moesia Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; el, Μοισία, Moisía) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River, which included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Alban ...
in the 1st century AD. In the
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, the region became part of the
Bulgarian Empire In the medieval history of Europe, Bulgaria's status as the Bulgarian Empire ( bg, Българско царство, ''Balgarsko tsarstvo'' ) occurred in two distinct periods: between the seventh and the eleventh centuries and again between the ...
, the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
and the Serbian mediaeval states. In 1389 the
Battle of Kosovo The Battle of Kosovo ( tr, Kosova Savaşı; sr, Косовска битка) took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan ...
was fought between a coalition of Balkan states and 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) ...
, resulting in a Serbian decline and eventual Ottoman conquest in 1459. Kosovo's modern history can be traced to the Ottoman
Sanjak of Prizren The Sanjak of Prizren or Priştine ( tr, Prizren Sancağı, sq, Sanxhaku i Prizrenit, sr, Призренски санџак / ''Prizrenski sandžak'') was one of the sanjaks in the Ottoman Empire with Prizren as its administrative centre. It was ...
, of which parts were organised into Kosovo Vilayet in 1877. This was when Kosovo was used as the name of the entire territory for the first time. In 1913 the Kosovo Vilayet was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia, which in 1918 formed
Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
. Kosovo gained autonomy in 1963 under
Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
's direction. This autonomy was significantly extended by Yugoslavia's 1974 Constitution, but was lost in 1990. In 1999
UNMIK The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is the officially mandated mission of the United Nations in Kosovo. The UNMIK describes its mandate as being to "help the United Nations Security Council achieve an overall ...
stepped in. On 17 February 2008, representatives of the people of Kosovo unilaterally declared Kosovo's independence and subsequently adopted the Constitution of Republic of Kosovo, which came into effect on 15 June 2008.


Prehistory

In prehistory, the succeeding Starčevo culture, Vinča culture, Bubanj-Hum culture, Baden culture were active in the region.. The area in and around Kosovo has been inhabited for nearly 10,000 years. During the
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
age, Kosovo lay within the areal of the Vinča-Turdaş culture which is characterised by West Balkan black and grey pottery.
Bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
and
Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...
tombs have been found in
Rrafshi i Dukagjinit Metohija ( sr-Cyrl, Метохија, ) or Dukagjin ( sq, Rrafshi i Dukagjinit, ) is a large basin and the name of the region covering the southwestern part of Kosovo. The region covers 35% (3,891 km2) of Kosovo's total area. According ...
. Djordje Janković
Middle Ages in Noel Malcolm's "Kosovo. A Short History" and Real Facts
The favourable Geo-strategic position, as well as abundant natural resources, were ideal for the development of life since the prehistoric periods, proven by hundreds of archaeological sites discovered and identified throughout Kosovo, which proudly present its rich archaeological heritage.Milot Berisha, ''Archaeological Guide of Kosovo'', Prishtinë, Kosovo Archaeological Institute and Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, 2012, p. 7. The number of sites with archaeological potential is increasing, this as a result of findings and investigations that are carried out throughout Kosovo but also from many superficial traces which offer a new overview of antiquity of Kosovo. The earliest traces documented in the territory of Kosovo belong to the
Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...
Period, namely there are indications that cave dwellings might have existed like for example the Radivojce Cave set near the spring of the Drin river, then there are some indications at Grnčar Cave in the
Vitina Viti ( sq-definite, Vitia) or Vitina ( sr-Cyrl, Витина), is a town and municipality located in the District of Gjilan in Kosovo. According to the 2011 census, the town of Viti has 4,924 inhabitants, while the municipality has 46,987 inhabita ...
municipality, Dema and Karamakaz Caves of
Peja Peja ( Indefinite Albanian form: ''Pejë'' ) or Peć ( sr-Cyrl, Пећ ) is the fourth largest city of Kosovo and seat of Peja Municipality and Peja District. It is situated in the region of Rugova on the eastern section of the Accursed Mount ...
and others. However, life during the
Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
or Old Stone Age is not confirmed yet and not scientifically proven. Therefore, until arguments of Paleolithic and
Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymous ...
man are confirmed, Neolithic man, respectively the Neolithic sites are considered as the chronological beginning of population in Kosovo. From this period until today Kosovo has been inhabited, and traces of activities of societies from prehistoric, ancient and up to mediaeval time are visible throughout its territory, whereas, in some archaeological sites, multilayer settlements clearly reflect the continuity of life through centuries.
Vlashnjë Vlashnjë (definite Albanian: ''Vlashnja'', sr, Vlašnja, Влашња) is a village in the Prizren municipality of Kosovo. It has 1,700 inhabitants as of 2011. Vlashnjë is a multi-layered settlement and site area. Archaeological excavations have ...
and
Runik Runik (definite Albanian: ''Runiku'') is a village in the Skenderaj municipality of Kosovo. It is located in the Drenica region and has 1,585 inhabitants as of 2011. The village has a football club, KF Përparimi Runik. Runik is the site of an im ...
are two of the most significant Neolithic sites which have been found and excavated in a series of expeditions. Vlashnjë is a multi-layered settlement and site area. Archaeological excavations have identified habitation and use of the area since the Neolithic era. The rock art paintings at ''Mrrizi i Kobajës'' (late Neolithic-early Bronze Age) are the first find of prehistoric rock art in Kosovo. In late antiquity, Vlashnja was a fortified settlement part of the fortification network which
Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
rebuilt along the
White Drin The White Drin or White Drim ( sq, Drini i Bardhë,/ ''Beli Drim'') is a river in Kosovo and northern Albania, a ca. -long headstream of the Drin. Course Kosovo The Kosovo section of the White Drin flows entirely in the semi-karst part of ...
in Dardania. Crkvina near Miokovci, Serbia and Runik have been identified as the two oldest settlements of the Starčevo culture. They are statistically indistinguishable to each other and have been dated to ca. 6238 BC (6362–6098 BC at
95% CI In frequentist statistics, a confidence interval (CI) is a range of estimates for an unknown parameter. A confidence interval is computed at a designated ''confidence level''; the 95% confidence level is most common, but other levels, such as 9 ...
) and ca. 6185 BC (6325–6088 BC at 95% Cl)..


Antiquity

During the Neolithic age, Kosovo lay within the area of the Vinča-Turdaş culture, Starčevo and Baden culture, which is characterised by West Balkan black and grey pottery. Bronze and Iron Age tombs have been found only in Rrafshi i Dukagjinit which is located in Kosovo. In classical antiquity, the area of Kosovo was part of Dardania. The name comes from the Dardani, a tribe that lived in the region and formed the
Kingdom of Dardania The Kingdom of Dardania was a polity formed in the central Balkans in the region of Dardania during classical antiquity. It is named after the Dardani, a Paleo-Balkan tribe which formed its population and formed the core of the Dardanian polity. ...
in the 4th century BC. In archaeological research, Illyrian names are predominant in western Dardania (present-day Kosovo), while Thracian names are mostly found in eastern Dardania (present-day south-eastern Serbia). The eastern parts of the region were at the
Thraco-Illyrian The term Thraco-Illyrian refers to a hypothesis according to which the Daco-Thracian and Illyrian languages comprise a distinct branch of Indo-European. Thraco-Illyrian is also used as a term merely implying a Thracian- Illyrian interference, m ...
contact zone. Thracian names are absent in western Dardania; some Illyrian names appear in the eastern parts. The correspondence of Illyrian names – including those of the ruling elite – in Dardania with those of the southern Illyrians suggests a "thracianisation" of parts of Dardania. The
Dardani The Dardani (; grc, Δαρδάνιοι, Δάρδανοι; la, Dardani) or Dardanians were a Paleo-Balkan people, who lived in a region that was named Dardania after their settlement there. They were among the oldest Balkan peoples, and their ...
became one of the most powerful Illyrian states of their time under their king
Bardylis Bardylis (also Bardyllis ; grc, Βάρδυλις; 448 – c. 358 BC) was an Illyrian king, and the founder of the first attested Illyrian dynasty. During his reign, Bardylis aimed to made Illyria a regional power interfering with Macedon. He ...
.Hammond, Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière (1967). Epirus: the Geography, the Ancient Remains, the History and Topography of Epirus and Adjacent Areas. Clarendon Press. . Under the leadership of Bardylis, the Dardani defeated the Macedonians and
Molossians The Molossians () were a group of ancient Greek tribes which inhabited the region of Epirus in classical antiquity. Together with the Chaonians and the Thesprotians, they formed the main tribal groupings of the northwestern Greek group. On t ...
several times, reigning over upper Macedonia and
Lynkestis Lynkestis, Lyncestis, Lyngistis, Lynkos or Lyncus ( grc, Λυγκηστίς or Λύγκος la, Lyncestis or ''Lyncus'') was a region and principality traditionally located in Upper Macedonia. It was the northernmost mountainous region of Upper ...
. Bardylis also led raids against
Epirus sq, Epiri rup, Epiru , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = Historical region , image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg , map_alt = , map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinrich ...
. Along with the
Ardiaei The Ardiaei were an Illyrian people who resided in the territory of present-day Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia between the Adriatic coast on the south, Konjic on the north, along the Neretva river and its right ...
and
Autariatae The Autariatae or Autariatai (alternatively, Autariates; grc, Αὐταριᾶται, ''Autariatai''; la, Autariatae) were an Illyrian people that lived between the valleys of the Lim and the Tara, beyond the Accursed Mountains, and the val ...
, the Dardani are mentioned in Roman times by ancient Greek and Roman sources as one of the three strongest "Illyrian" peoples In addition, an ancient funeral inscription of the
Albanoi The Albanoi ( grc, Ἀλβανοί, ''Albanoi''; la, Albani) were an Illyrian tribe. They were possibly first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus (550-476 BCE) under the name ''Abroi''. Ptolemy (200-118 BCE) is the first authors who mentions them ...
was found near
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 ...
, corresponding to the ancient Dardania region. In 1854,
Johann Georg von Hahn Johann Georg von Hahn (11 July 1811 – 23 September 1869) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian and later Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian diplomat, Philology, philologist and specialist in History of Albania, Albanian history, Albanian language, lan ...
was the first to propose that the names
Dardanoi The Dardanoi ( el, Δάρδανοι; its anglicized modern terms being Dardanians or Dardans) were a legendary people of the Troad, located in northwestern Anatolia. The Dardanoi were the descendants of Dardanus, the mythical founder of Dard ...
and Dardania were related to the
Albanian Albanian may refer to: *Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular: **Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans **Albanian language **Albanian culture **Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
word
dardhë Dardhë (; sq-definite, Dardha, literally "pear") is a community in the former municipality of Drenovë in Korçë County, Albania. After local government reform in 2015, it became part of the municipality Korçë. It is a well known ski area of ...
("pear, pear-tree"), stemming from
Proto-Albanian The Proto-Albanian language is the unattested language from which Albanian later developed. Albanian evolved from an ancient Paleo-Balkan language, traditionally thought to be Illyrian, or otherwise a totally unattested Balkan Indo-European ...
''*dardā'', itself a derivative of derdh, "to tip out, pour", or ''*derda'' in Proto-Albanian. A common Albanian toponym with the same root is Dardha, found in various parts of Albania, including Dardha in
Berat Berat (; sq-definite, Berati) is the ninth most populous city of Albania and the seat of Berat County and Berat Municipality. By air, it is north of Gjirokastër, west of Korçë, south of Tirana, and east of Fier. Berat is located in th ...
, Dardha in Korça, Dardha in
Librazhd Librazhd ( sq-definite, Librazhdi) is a town and a municipality in Elbasan County, eastern Albania. The municipality was formed at the 2015 local government reform by the merger of the former municipalities Hotolisht, Librazhd, Lunik, Orenjë, Poli ...
, Dardha in Puka, Dardhas in Pogradec, Dardhaj in Mirdita, and Dardhës in Përmet. Dardha in Puka is recorded as Darda in a 1671 ecclesiastical report and on a 1688 map by a Venetian cartographer. Dardha is also the name of an Albanian tribe in the northern part of the District of Dibra. The region of Illyria was conquered by Rome in 168 BC, and made into the Roman province of Illyricum in 59 BC. The Kosovo region probably became part of
Moesia Superior Moesia (; Latin: ''Moesia''; el, Μοισία, Moisía) was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans south of the Danube River, which included most of the territory of modern eastern Serbia, Kosovo, north-eastern Alban ...
in AD 87, although archaeological evidence suggests that it may have been divided between
Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...
and Moesia. After 284
Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...
further divided Upper Moesia into the smaller provinces of Dardania, Moesia Prima, Dacia Ripensis, and Dacia Mediterranea. Dardania's capital was Naissus, previously a Celts settlement. The Roman province of Dardania included eastern parts of modern Kosovo, while its western part belonged to the newly formed Roman province of Prevalitana with its capital Doclea. The Romans colonised the region and founded several cities. The Hunnic invasions of 441 and 447–49 were the first barbarian invasions that were able to take Eastern Roman fortified centres and cities. Most Balkan cities were sacked by Attila, and recovered only partially if at all. While there is no direct written evidence of Hunnic invasion of Kosovo, its economic hinterland will anyway have been affected for centuries.
Justinian I Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
, who assumed the throne of the Byzantine Empire in 527, oversaw a period of Byzantine expansion into former Roman territories, and re-absorbed the area of Kosovo into the empire.


Slavic Invasions and migrations

Slavic migrations Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group. They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, main ...
to the Balkans took place between the 6th to 7th centuries. The region had been part of the Roman and the Byzantium until the first major Slav raids took place in the middle of Justinian's reign. In 547 and 548 the Slavs invaded the territory of modern Kosovo, and then got as far as Durrës on the Northern Albanian coast and reached all the way down to Greece. The overwhelming number of municipalities in modern-day Kosovo being Slavic in their toponymy suggests that these Slavic raiders either assimilated, or expelled the local non-Slavic populations inhabiting the region of Kosovo prior to their arrival. According to some historians, although some Slavs did spread out through these areas, there is one intriguing argument that suggests Slavic settlement in Kosovo and the Southern Morava Valley was weak in the first one or two centuries of Slavic settlement. According to some historians and linguists, if Slavs had spread evenly in this part of the Balkans it would be hard to explain the clear linguistic division that occurred between the Bulgarian-Macedonian and Serbo-Croat language. The scholar who first proposed this theory also noticed in the area that divided the early Serbs and the Bulgarians many Latin place-names in these areas survived long enough to be eventually adapted into Slavic ones, such as Naissus (Nis), Lypenion (Lipljan), Scupi (Skopje) etc. The
plague of Justinian The plague of Justinian or Justinianic plague (541–549 AD) was the first recorded major outbreak of the first plague pandemic, the first Old World pandemic of plague, the contagious disease caused by the bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. The dis ...
had killed millions of native Balkan people and as a result many regions had become depopulated and neglected by the government, this gave the Slavs a chance into raiding and settling in the Balkans. According to De Administrando Imperio, the ancestors of Serbs and Croats were part of the Slavic migrations into the Balkans, the Croats settled in modern Croatia and Western Bosnia whereas the Serbs in the rest of
Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...
,
Travunija Travunia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Travunija, Травунија; el, Τερβουνία, Tervounía; grc, Τερβουνία, Terbounía; la, Tribunia) was a South Slavic medieval principality that was part of Medieval Serbia (850–13 ...
,
Zahumlje Zachlumia or Zachumlia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Zahumlje, Захумље, ), also Hum, was a medieval principality located in the modern-day regions of Herzegovina and southern Dalmatia (today parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia ...
and
Duklja Duklja ( sh-Cyrl, Дукља; el, Διόκλεια, Diokleia; la, Dioclea) was a medieval South Slavic state which roughly encompassed the territories of modern-day southeastern Montenegro, from the Bay of Kotor in the west to the Bojana Ri ...
, lands situated North-West of Kosovo. The
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 ...
settled in the Rasca region.


Middle Ages

According to historian
Noel Malcolm Sir Noel Robert Malcolm, (born 26 December 1956) is an English political journalist, historian and academic. A King's Scholar at Eton College, Malcolm read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and received his doctorate in history from Trinity Col ...
the
Vlach "Vlach" ( or ), also "Wallachian" (and many other variants), is a historical term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate mainly Romanians but also Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians, Istro-Romanians and other Eastern ...
-
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...
and Aromanian languages originated in the region and surrounding areas from Romanised
Illyrians The Illyrians ( grc, Ἰλλυριοί, ''Illyrioi''; la, Illyrii) were a group of Indo-European languages, Indo-European-speaking peoples who inhabited the western Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. They constituted one of the three main Paleo ...
and
Thracians The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. ...
, possibly a contact zone between the Albanian and Romanian language.Endre Haraszti; (1977) Origin of the Rumanians (Vlach Origin, Migration and Infiltration to Transylvania) p. 60-61; Danubian Press.


Bulgarian Period

The region of Kosovo was incorporated into the Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Khan
Presian Presian ( bg, Пресиян, Персиян, Пресиан) was the khan of Bulgaria in 836–852. He ruled during an extensive expansion in Macedonia. Origin The composite picture of the Byzantine sources indicates that Presian I was the son o ...
(836–852). Numerous churches and monasteries were constructed after the
Christianisation Christianization (American and British English spelling differences#-ise.2C -ize .28-isation.2C -ization.29, or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of ...
in 864. It remained within the borders of
Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
for 150 years until 1018, when the country was overrun by the Byzantines after half-century bitter struggle. According to ''
De Administrando Imperio ''De Administrando Imperio'' ("On the Governance of the Empire") is the Latin title of a Greek-language work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII. The Greek title of the work is ("To yown son Romanos"). It is a domes ...
'' of the 10th century Byzantine Emperor
Constantine VII Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Kar ...
, the Serbian-populated lands lay to the north-west of Kosovo and the region was Bulgarian. During the Uprising of Peter Delyan (1040–1041), Kosovo was briefly liberated and during the
Uprising of Georgi Voiteh The Uprising of Georgi Voyteh ( bg, Въстание на Георги Войтех, sr, Словенски устанак у Поморављу - ''Slav Uprising in Pomoravlje'') was a Bulgarian uprising in the Byzantine theme of Bulgaria in 10 ...
in 1072, Peter III was proclaimed Emperor of Bulgaria in
Prizren ) , settlement_type = Municipality and city , image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg , imagesize = 290px , image_caption = View of Prizren , image_alt = View of Prizren , image_flag ...
from where the Bulgarian army marched to Skopje. In the beginning of the 13th century, Kosovo was reincorporated in the restored Bulgarian Empire but the Bulgarian control faded after the death of Emperor
Ivan Asen II Ivan Asen II, also known as John Asen II ( bg, Иван Асен II, ; 1190s – May/June 1241), was Emperor (Tsar) of Bulgaria from 1218 to 1241. He was still a child when his father Ivan Asen I one of the founders of the Second Bulgarian Empi ...
(1218–1241).


Byzantine Period

Around the 11th century, after the Byzantine Empire fully re-established itself, the region became part of the Byzantine Empire again and stayed under Byzantine rule until the 12th century.


Serbian Period

Kosovo was fully conquered by the
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 ...
n state of Rascia in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, and was part 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 ...
from 1346 to 1371. In 1389, the
Battle of Kosovo The Battle of Kosovo ( tr, Kosova Savaşı; sr, Косовска битка) took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan ...
occurred, which ended in a stalemate (both rulers,
Murad I Murad I ( ota, مراد اول; tr, I. Murad, Murad-ı Hüdavendigâr (nicknamed ''Hüdavendigâr'', from fa, خداوندگار, translit=Khodāvandgār, lit=the devotee of God – meaning "sovereign" in this context); 29 June 1326 – 15 Jun ...
and
Lazar Hrebeljanović Lazar Hrebeljanović ( sr-cyr, Лазар Хребељановић; ca. 1329 – 15 June 1389) was a medieval Serbian ruler who created the largest and most powerful state on the territory of the disintegrated Serbian Empire. Lazar's state, ...
, were killed). During the rule of the Nemanjić dynasty (c. 1160–1355), many
Serbian Orthodox The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the population in ...
churches and monasteries were built throughout Serbian territory. From the mid-13th century to the end of the century, the Nemanjić rulers had their main residences in Kosovo. Large estates were given to the monasteries in Western Kosovo (
Metohija Metohija ( sr-Cyrl, Метохија, ) or Dukagjin ( sq, Rrafshi i Dukagjinit, ) is a large basin and the name of the region covering the southwestern part of Kosovo. The region covers 35% (3,891 km2) of Kosovo's total area. According ...
). The most prominent churches in Kosovo – the
Patriarchate Patriarchate ( grc, πατριαρχεῖον, ''patriarcheîon'') is an ecclesiological term in Christianity, designating the office and jurisdiction of an ecclesiastical patriarch. According to Christian tradition three patriarchates were esta ...
at Peja, the church at
Gračanica Gračanica () may refer to: Places Bosnia and Herzegovina *Gračanica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a town and municipality in Tuzla *Gračanica (Bugojno), a village in Central Bosnia *Gračanica, Gacko, a village in Republika Srpska *Gračanica, Proz ...
and the monastery at
Visoki Dečani The Visoki Dečani Monastery ( sr, Манастир Високи Дечани, Manastir Visoki Dečani, sq, Manastiri i Deçanit) is a medieval Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery located near Deçan, Kosovo. It was founded in the first half of ...
near
Deçan Deçan, or Dečani sr-cyr, Дечани ; also in use Dečane sr-cyr, Дечане is a town and municipality in Kosovo. According to the 2011 census, the town of has 3,803 inhabitants, while the municipality has 40,019 inhabitants. Geog ...
– were all founded during this period. Kosovo was economically important, as the modern Kosovo capital
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 ...
was a major trading centre on routes leading to ports on the
Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) to t ...
. Also, mining was an important industry in
Novo Brdo Novo Brdo ( sr-Cyrl, Ново Брдо), or Novobërda and Artana ( sq-definite, Novobërdë or ''Artanë''), is a municipality located in the Pristina district of Kosovo. According to the 2011 census, it has a population of 6,729 inhabitants. Th ...
and
Janjevo Janjevo () or Janjevë (in Albanian) is a village or small town in the Lipljan municipality in eastern Kosovo. The settlement has a long history, having been mentioned for the first time in 1303 as a Catholic parish. The town was prior to the K ...
which had its communities of émigré Saxons, Saxon miners and Republic of Ragusa, Ragusan merchants. In 1450 the mines of Novo Brdo were producing about 6,000 kg of silver per year. The ethnic composition of Kosovo's population during this period included Serbs, Albanians, and Vlachs along with a token number of Greeks, Croats, Armenians, Saxons, and Bulgarians, according to Serbian monastic charters or ''chrysobulls''. In the 14th century in two chrysobulls or decrees by Serbian rulers, in the villages of modern-day Kosovo area, we find Serbs living alongside Albanians and Vlachs, who are cited in the first as being between the White Drin and Lim rivers (1330). In the second Serbian golden bull (1348) a total of nine Albanian villages are cited within the vicinity of Prizren. In one of Nemanja's charters giving property to Hilandar, 170 Vlachs are mentioned, located in villages around Prizren. When Dečanski founded his monastery of Dečani in 1330, he referred to ‘villages and katuns of Vlachs and Albanians’ in the area of the white Drin. King Stefan Dečanski granted the Visoki Dečani monastery with pasture land along with Vlach and Albanian katuns around Drim and Lim rivers. Vlachs and Albanians had to carry salt and provide serf labour for the monastery. Dušan's Code included a prohibition of intermarriage between Serbs and Vlachs. The protection of Slav peasants by the Dušan's Code forced many Vlachs to migrate from Serbia. According to some scholars, during this period one can see a process of Serbianisation, including Albanians bearing Serbian names or mixed Albanian-Serbian names. Since there are many examples of both Slavic and Albanian names occurring within the same family, name evidence must be treated with caution; giving children "foreign" names can occur through inter-marriage, through imitation of a socially superior class from a different ethnic group, or simply through fashion. Ethnic identity in the Middle Ages was somewhat fluid throughout Europe, and most people at that time do not appear to have defined themselves rigidly by ethnicity. Serbian-speakers were the major linguistic group in this period. In 1355, the Serbian state fell apart on the death of Tsar Stefan Dušan and dissolved into squabbling fiefdoms. The timing fell perfectly within the Ottoman expansion. This enabled Albanian chieftains to create small principalities who had revolted several times with the aid of the Catholic Western powers. This was however short-lived as the Ottoman Empire took the opportunity of this vacuum to expand its power, just as the Nemanjićs had exploited periods of Byzantine weakness or division in their major expansions.


Battle of Kosovo


First Battle of Kosovo

The Battle of Kosovo, First Battle of Kosovo occurred on the field of Kosovo Polje on June 28, 1389, when the ruling ''Knez (title), knez'' (prince) of Serbia,
Lazar Hrebeljanović Lazar Hrebeljanović ( sr-cyr, Лазар Хребељановић; ca. 1329 – 15 June 1389) was a medieval Serbian ruler who created the largest and most powerful state on the territory of the disintegrated Serbian Empire. Lazar's state, ...
, marshalled a coalition of Christian soldiers led by Serbs that also included Bosnians, Albanians, Bulgarians, Magyars and a troop of Saxon mercenaries. Sultan
Murad I Murad I ( ota, مراد اول; tr, I. Murad, Murad-ı Hüdavendigâr (nicknamed ''Hüdavendigâr'', from fa, خداوندگار, translit=Khodāvandgār, lit=the devotee of God – meaning "sovereign" in this context); 29 June 1326 – 15 Jun ...
also gathered a coalition of soldiers and volunteers from neighbouring countries in Anatolia and Rumelia. Exact numbers are difficult to come by, but most reliable historical accounts suggest that the Christian army was heavily outnumbered by the Ottomans. The combined numbers of the two armies are believed to be less than 100,000. According to a text written by John Musachi from 1515, many Lords from Albania, including the Albanian Teodor I Muzaka, Theodore Musachi with a large band of Albanians, took part in this battle on Lazar's side and where Theodore Musachi was slain. The Christian army was defeated and Lazar was slain, although Murad I was killed, according to tradition by Miloš Obilić, or Kobilić as he was always called until the 18th century; according to Noel Malcolm he has been variously described as a Serb, an Albanian, and a Hungarian but most sources recognise him as a Serbian knight. Although the battle has been mythologised as a great Christian defeat, at the time opinion was divided as to whether it was a Christian defeat, a stalemate or possibly even a Christian victory. Serbian principalities continued their existence, usually as vassals of the Ottomans, and maintained sporadic control of Kosovo, until the final extinction of the Despotate of Serbia in 1459, following which Serbia became part 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) ...
. The fortress of Novo Brdo, important at the time due to its rich silver mines, came under siege for forty days by the Ottomans during that year, capitulating and becoming occupied by the Ottomans on June 1, 1455.


Second Battle of Kosovo

The Battle of Kosovo (1448), Second Battle of Kosovo was fought over two days in October 1448, between a Hungarian force led by John Hunyadi and an Ottoman army led by Murad II. Significantly larger than the first battle, with both armies numbering twice that of the first battle, the ending was the same, and the Hungarian army was defeated in the battle and pushed from the field. Although the loss of the battle was a setback for those resisting the Ottoman invasion of Europe at that time, it was not a 'crushing blow to the cause'. Hunyadi was able to maintain Hungarian resistance to the Ottomans during his lifetime. John Hunyadi joined forces with Albania's Skanderbeg. The Albanian army under Skanderbeg was delayed as it was prevented from linking with Hunyadi's army by the Ottomans and their allies. It is believed that the Albanian army was delayed by Serbian despot Đurađ Branković. The Serbs had declined joining Hunyadi's forces following an earlier truce with the Turks. As a result, Skanderbeg ravaged Brankovic's domains as punishment for the Serbian desertion of the Christian cause.


Significance

The overall significance of these battles (within their mediaeval context) remains disputed, although the First Battle of Kosovo has become, for Serbians since their independence at least, a national symbol for heroism and an admirable 'fight against all odds', and may therefore have assumed a significance that it lacked. It seems unlikely that single battles could seriously have affected the rise of Ottoman power. In the First Battle of Kosovo, Sultan Murat I was the first Ottoman ruler to lose his life in combat; his successor Sultan Bayazid I went on to expand Ottoman territories significantly despite defeats in Wallachia, in his siege of Constantinople, and his crushing defeat in the battle of Ankara, in which he was captured and which resulted in a civil war for the succession. Despite these defeats, Ottoman power continued to expand. The Second Battle of Kosovo might have had more significance in that there were two powers simultaneously resisting the Ottomans (the Hungarians under Hunyadi and the Albanians under Skanderbeg), with Skanderbeg only narrowly missing joining Hunyadi for the battle. While the resistance of the Byzantines, Serbians, Hungarians, Albanians and Wallachians should have given the Austrians (and Italians) more time to prepare for an Ottoman threat against them, it is by no means clear that they believed the threat to be serious or consciously prepared for it.


Kastrioti and Dukagjini

The Battle of Kosovo of 1389 had completely disorganised the Serb state, and left the field open to the most dynamic local lords, including among them the Albanian princes of the North and the Northeast. One of them was Jon Kastriot, the father of Skanderbeg, from the high region of Mati. At the end of the fourteenth and the start of the fifteenth century he managed to carve a principality from Ishmi to
Prizren ) , settlement_type = Municipality and city , image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg , imagesize = 290px , image_caption = View of Prizren , image_alt = View of Prizren , image_flag ...
at the heart of region of Kosovo. Around the 15th century, the region of modern Kosovo became also part of the Albanian principality of Dukagjini. Leke Dukagjini ruled what is today large parts of Northern Albania and Kosovo, with Lezha in Northern Albania as its capital city and Ulpiana near modern Prishtina in Kosovo as its second capital.


Ottoman Period

Western Kosovo had a significant reservoir of a native Albanian population by the time of the full Ottoman take over. According to Malcolm, a major part of the Albanian demographic growth was the expansion of an indigenous Albanian population within Kosovo itself. While Serbian scholars may have come to the conclusion that the defter from 1455 indicates an overwhelmingly Serbian local population, other scholars have other views. Madgearu instead argues that the series of defters from 1455 onward "shows that Kosovo... was a mosaic of Serbian and Albanian villages", while Prishtina and Prizren already had significant Albanian Muslim populations. The Ottoman officials noted which heads of families were new arrivals in their places of residence; in the Sanjak of Prizren in 1591 only five new arrivals out of forty-one bore Albanian names. In the nahiye of Pec in 1485, the majority of new arrivals had Slavic names. In several Kosovo towns in the 1580s and 1590s; twenty five new Albanian immigrants were recorded and 133 immigrants with Slav names, several of them described coming from Bosnia. In 1557 the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was re-established and many new Orthodox churches were built. Orthodox Serbs gained the status of Millet (Ottoman Empire), Millet, a religious community that enjoyed high levels of autonomy. By the time the Patriarchate had been re-established in 1557 at Peja, the town of Peja may have gained a majority Muslim population. The growth of Islam in early Ottoman Kosovo was mostly urban and from native people in the region converting to Islam. According to Frederick Anscombe, the town of Gjakova was Albanian since its founding in the late 1500s. Antonio Bruni (merchant), Antonio Bruni, writing in the late 1500s, stated that part of
Dardani The Dardani (; grc, Δαρδάνιοι, Δάρδανοι; la, Dardani) or Dardanians were a Paleo-Balkan people, who lived in a region that was named Dardania after their settlement there. They were among the oldest Balkan peoples, and their ...
a was inhabited by Albanians. Lazaro Soranzo wrote of Albanians who lived as Catholics in the 1500s and noted that they inhabited the city of
Prizren ) , settlement_type = Municipality and city , image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg , imagesize = 290px , image_caption = View of Prizren , image_alt = View of Prizren , image_flag ...
. Historian Selami Pulaha noted that most Christians in Opoja in 1591 had Albanian names. Catholic bishop Pjetër Mazreku noted in 1624 that the Catholics of Prizren were 200, the Serbs (Orthodox) 600, and Muslims, almost all of whom were Albanians, numbered 12,000. In his 1662 work, Ottoman traveller Evliya Çelebi noted that the residents of Vushtrri were mostly Albanians. Evlyia Celebi described Western and parts of Central Kosovo as inhabited by Albanians. According to sources from 17th century Kosovo, those in Western Kosovo spoke Albanian while those in Eastern Kosovo spoke Serbo-Croatian. Around the 17th century, there is a mention of some Catholic Albanians moving from the mountains of Northern Albania and into the plains of Kosovo. These families moved because they had fled blood feuds or they had been punished under the Kanun of Lek Dukagjin. However, the number of these people migrating into the area was, compared to the already existing Albanian population in Kosovo, extremely small. Albanian Catholic Gregor Mazrreku reported in the year 1651 that in Western Kosovo there had previously been many Catholics but converted to Islam in order to avoid taxes and impositions.. In Suha Reka where there had been previously 160 Catholic households, all the men had gone over to Islam. Many Catholics in Kosovo also converted to Islam due to lack of priests, pressure from Ottoman authorities and the Orthodox church. The Catholic church in Kosovo was poor and Catholics were pressured to pay taxes to the Orthodox Church. According to Malcolm, compared to the Catholic church, the Serbian Orthodox church was larger, richer, more established and more privileged which led to less conversion to Islam.


Kosovo in the Great Turkish War (1683-1699)

In 1689 during the Austrian-Ottoman wars, the Albanian Catholic Pjeter Bogdani organised a pro-Austrian movement and a resistance against the Ottomans in Kosovo together with the Albanian Catholic Toma Raspasani that included both Muslims and Christians. An English embassy in Istanbul in 1690 reported of Austrians having made contact with 20,000 Albanians in Kosovo that had turned their weapons against the Turks. A great deal of Albanians and Serbs alike joined the Austrians, while others fought on the side of the Ottomans. Ultimately the Austrians were driven back through the Danube, resulting in an influx of refugees and atrocities against the civilian population. Toma Raspasani, writing in 1693 about the Catholics of Kosovo, observed that many of them had gone to Budapest where most of them died, some of hunger, others of disease.


Aftermath

Serbian Patriarch Arsenije III Crnojević travelled to Belgrade which had been under Austrian rule and led 30,000 - 40,000 refugees to Hungary. According to Malcolm, most of the refugees that had gathered were from Niš and Belgrade area, along with a smaller number of Serb refugees from Eastern Kosovo that had managed to escape. This event is known as the Great Migrations of the Serbs. Malcolm believes that the historical evidence does not support a sudden mass exodus of Serbs out of Kosovo in 1690. If the Serb population was depleted in 1690, it looks as if it must have been replaced by inflows of Serbs from other areas. Such flows did happen and from many different areas.. There was also a migration of Albanians from the Accursed Mountains, Malsi but these were slow, long-term processes rather than involving sudden surges of population into a vacuum.


Modern

The territory of today's Kosovo was for centuries ruled by the Ottoman Empire. During this period several administrative districts known as sanjaks ("banners" or districts) each ruled by a ''sanjakbey'' (roughly equivalent to "district lord") have included parts of the territory as parts of their territories. Despite the imposition of Muslim rule, large numbers of Christians continued to live and sometimes even prosper under the Ottomans. A process of Islamisation began shortly after the beginning of Ottoman rule but it took a considerable amount of time – at least a century – and was concentrated at first on the towns. A large part of the reason for the conversion was probably economic and social, as Muslims had considerably more rights and privileges than Christian subjects. Christian religious life nonetheless continued, while churches were largely left alone by the Ottomans, but both the Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox and Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic churches and their congregations suffered from high levels of taxation. From the Establishment in 1757 until its dissolution following a War with the Ottomans in 1831, most of Kosovo was ruled by the Pashalik of Scutari and its Albanian dynasty under Kara Mahmud Pasha. He conquered parts of Southern Albania and much of Kosovo. In 1877 the Vilayet of Kosovo was formed by the Ottoman administration. This was when Kosovo was used as the name of the entire territory for the first time, a derivation from the Serbian language, Serbian word "Kos" (which means black bird). It is shortened from Kosovo field, Kosovo Polje meaning "Field of the Blackbirds", where the Battle of Kosovo of 1389 was fought. The vilayet was one of four with Albanian inhabitants that formed the League of Prizren. The League's purpose was to resist both Ottoman rule and incursions by the newly emerging Balkan nations. In 1910, an Albanian insurrection, which was possibly aided surreptitiously by the Young Turks to put pressure on the Ottoman Porte, Sublime Porte, broke out in
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 soon spread to the entire vilayet of Kosovo, lasting for three months. The Sultan visited Kosovo in June 1911 during peace settlement talks covering all Albanian-inhabited areas.


Albanian National Movement

The Albanian national movement was inspired by various factors. Besides the National Renaissance that had been promoted by Albanian activists, political reasons were a contributing factor. In the 1870s the Ottoman Empire experienced a tremendous contraction in territory and defeats in wars against the Slavic monarchies of Europe. During and after the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78), Serbian–Ottoman War of 1876–78, between 30,000 and 70,000 Muslims, mostly Albanians, were expelled by the Armed forces of the Principality of Serbia, Serb army from the Sanjak of Niš, Sanjak of Niș and fled to the Kosovo Vilayet. Furthermore, the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano marked the beginning of a difficult situation for the Albanian people in the Balkans, whose lands were to be ceded from Turkey to Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Fearing the partitioning of Albanian-inhabited lands among the newly founded Balkan kingdoms, the Albanians established their League of Prizren on June 10, 1878, three days prior to the Congress of Berlin that would revise the decisions of San Stefano.Г. Л. Арш, И. Г. Сенкевич, Н. Д. Смирнова «Кратая история Албании» (Приштина: Рилиндя, 1967) 104–116. Though the League was founded with the support of the Sultan who hoped for the preservation of Ottoman territories, the Albanian leaders were quick and effective enough to turn it into a national organisation and eventually into a government. The League had the backing of the Arbëreshë people, Italo-Albanian community and had well developed into a unifying factor for the religiously diverse Albanian people. During its three years of existence the League sought the creation of an Albanian vilayet within the Ottoman Empire, raised an army and fought a defensive war. In 1881 a provisional government was formed to administer Albania under the presidency of Ymer Prizreni, assisted by prominent ministers such as Abdyl Frashëri and Sulejman Vokshi. Nevertheless, military intervention from the Balkan states, the Great Powers as well as Turkey divided the Albanian troops in three fronts, which brought about the end of the League. Kosovo was yet home to other Albanian organisations, the most important being the League of Peja, named after the city in which it was founded in 1899. It was led by Haxhi Zeka, a former member of the League of Prizren and shared a similar platform in quest for an autonomous Albanian vilayet. The League ended its activity in 1900 after an armed conflict with the Ottoman forces. Zeka was assassinated by a Serbian agent in 1902 with the backing of the Ottoman authorities.


Balkan Wars

The demands of the Young Turks in early 20th century sparked support from the Albanians, who were hoping for a betterment of their national status, primarily recognition of their language for use in offices and education. In 1908, 20,000 armed Albanian peasants gathered in Ferizaj to prevent any foreign intervention, while their leaders, Bajram Curri and Isa Boletini, sent a telegram to the sultan demanding the promulgation of a constitution and the opening of the parliament. The Albanians did not receive any of the promised benefits from the Young Turkish victory. Considering this, an unsuccessful uprising was organised by Albanian highlanders in Kosovo in February 1909. The adversity escalated after the takeover of the Turkish government by an oligarchic group later that year. In April 1910, armies led by Idriz Seferi and Isa Boletini rebelled against the Turkish troops, but were finally forced to withdraw after having caused many casualties amongst the enemy. A further Albanian rebellion in 1912 was the pretext for Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria beginning the First Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire. Most of Kosovo was incorporated into the History of Serbia, Kingdom of Serbia, while the region of
Metohija Metohija ( sr-Cyrl, Метохија, ) or Dukagjin ( sq, Rrafshi i Dukagjinit, ) is a large basin and the name of the region covering the southwestern part of Kosovo. The region covers 35% (3,891 km2) of Kosovo's total area. According ...
( sq, Dukagjini Valley) was taken by the History of Montenegro, Kingdom of Montenegro. Kosovo was split into four counties: three being a part of the entity of Serbia (Zvečan, Kosovo and southern Metohija); one of Montenegro (Northern Metohija). The Albanian revolt of 1912 weakened the Ottoman Empire and resulted in an Albanian victory. This further persuaded other Balkan states that it was time for an anti-Ottoman war. The Ottomans had been so fatally weakened by the Albanian revolt of 1912 that the war was quickly won. Serbia took advantage of the Albanian rebellion after seeing a weakened Ottoman Empire and annexed Kosovo. The Albanians organised a resistance under the leadership of Isa Boletini. Serbia eventually managed to fight through and suppress the rebels. During the conflicts a number of Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars, massacres took place by the Serbian army and paramilitaries. Almost half of Albanian inhabited lands, including Kosovo, were left outside of what then formed as Albania and which were annexed by Montenegro and Serbia. During this period, the majority of the population of Kosovo was Albanian and did not welcome Serb rule. According to historian
Noel Malcolm Sir Noel Robert Malcolm, (born 26 December 1956) is an English political journalist, historian and academic. A King's Scholar at Eton College, Malcolm read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and received his doctorate in history from Trinity Col ...
, the region was conquered, but not legally annexed, by
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 ...
in 1912 and remained occupied territory until 1918 when it became part of a Yugoslav kingdom Many Albanians still kept resisting Serbian army and fought for the unification of Kosovo with Albania. Both Isa Boletini and Idriz Seferi continued fighting. Other well known rebels at the time were Azem Galica, also known as Azem Bejta, and his wife Shote Galica.


Interbellum Period

The 1918–1929 period of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians witnessed a rise of the Serbian population in the region and a decline in the non-Serbian. In 1929, Kosovo was split between the Zeta Banovina in the west with the capital in Cetinje, Vardar Banovina in the southeast with the capital in Skopje and the Morava Banovina in the northeast with the capital in Niš. Serbian troops attempted to alter the region's demographic structure through murders and mass expulsions. Between 1918 and 1945, over 100,000 Albanians left Kosovo. Political parties of Eastern Europe: a guide to politics in the post-Communist era
p. 448-449.
Anna Di Lelli
The Case for Kosova
p. 61.
Albanian schools and language were prohibited. Tens of thousands of Serbs were settled in the region and land was confiscated from Albanian villagers. In 1938, more than 6000 people, in 23 villages, in the Drenica region of Kosovo were deprived of their landAnna Di Lellio - The Case for Kosova, p. 61. The colonisation had put the Serb population at less than 24% in the start to 38%. It was proposed to bring another 470,000 Serbs and expel 300,000 Albanians but the outbreak of World War II prevented it from being put into effect.


Second World War

After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941, most of Kosovo was assigned to Italian-controlled Albania, with the rest being controlled by Germany and Bulgaria. A three-dimensional conflict ensued, involving inter-ethnic, ideological, and international affiliations, with the first being most important. Nonetheless, these conflicts were relatively low-level compared with other areas of Yugoslavia during the war years, with one Serb historian estimating that 3,000 Albanians and 4,000 Serbs and Montenegrins were killed, and two others estimating war dead at 12,000 Albanians and 10,000 Serbs and Montenegrins. "We should endeavor to ensure that the Serb population of Kosovo should be removed as soon as possible ... All indigenous Serbs who have been living here for centuries should be termed colonialists and as such, via the Albanian and Italian governments, should be sent to concentration camps in Albania. Serbian settlers should be killed." Mustafa Kruja, the then Prime Minister of Albania, June 1942. During the New Year's Eve between 1943 and 1944, Albanian and Yugoslav partisans gathered at the town of Bujan, near Kukës in northern Albania, where they held a conference in which they discussed the fate of Kosovo after the war. Both Albanian and Yugoslav communists signed the agreement, according to which Kosovo would have the right to democratically decide whether it wants to remain in Albania or become part of Serbia. This was seen as the marxist solution for Kosovo. The agreement was not respected by Yugoslavia, since Tito knew that Serbia would not accept it. Some Albanians, especially in the region in and around Drenica in central Kosovo revolted against the Yugoslav communists for not respecting the agreement. In response, the Yugoslavs called the rebels Nazi and Fascist collaborators and responded with violence. The Albanian Kosovar military leader Shaban Polluzha, who first fought with Yugoslav partisans but then refused to collaborate further, was attacked and killed. Between 400 and 2,000 Kosovar Albanian recruits of the Yugoslav Army were Bar massacre, shot in Bar.


Yugoslavian Period

Following the end of the war and the establishment of Yugoslav Communist Party, Communist Yugoslavia, Kosovo was granted the status of an autonomous region of Serbia in 1946 and became an autonomous province in 1963. The Communist government did not permit the return of all of the refugees. With the passing of the 1974 Yugoslavia constitution, Kosovo gained virtual self-government. The province's government has applied Albanian curriculum to Kosovo's schools: surplus and obsolete textbooks from Enver Hoxha's Albania were obtained and put into use. Throughout the 1980s tensions between the Albanian and Serb communities in the province escalated.Reuters 1986-05-27, "Kosovo Province Revives Yugoslavia's Ethnic Nightmare"Christian Science Monitor 1986-07-28, "Tensions among ethnic groups in Yugoslavia begin to boil over" The Albanian community favoured greater autonomy for Kosovo, whilst Serbs favoured closer ties with the rest of Serbia. There was little appetite for unification with Albania itself, which was ruled by a Stalinist government and had considerably worse living standards than Kosovo. Beginning in March 1981, Kosovar Albanian students organised 1981 protests in Kosovo, protests seeking that Kosovo become a republic within Yugoslavia. Those protests rapidly escalated into violent riots "involving 20,000 people in six cities"New York Times 1981-04-19, "One Storm has Passed but Others are Gathering in Yugoslavia" that were harshly contained by the Yugoslav government. The demonstrations of March and April 1981 were started by Albanian students in Priština, protesting against poor living conditions and the lack of prospects (unemployment was rampant in the province and most of the university educated ended up as the unemployed). In addition, calls for a separate Albanian republic within Yugoslavia were voiced. Serbs living in Kosovo were discriminated against by the provincial government, notably by the local law enforcement authorities failing to punish reported crimes against Serbs.New York Times 1982-07-12, "Exodus of Serbians Stirs Province in Yugoslavia" The increasingly bitter atmosphere in Kosovo meant that even the most farcical incidents could become ''causes célèbres''. When a Serbian farmer, Djordje Martinović, Đorđe Martinović, turned up at a Kosovo hospital with a bottle in his rectum after claiming to have been assaulted in his field by masked men (he later admitted the bottle ended up in his rectum through a mishap during masturbation),Sabrina P. Ramet, Angelo Georgakis. ''Thinking about Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates about the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo'', pp. 153, 201. Cambridge University Press, 2005; 216 prominent Serbian intellectuals signed a petition declaring that "the case of Đorđe Martinović has come to symbolise the predicament of all Serbs in Kosovo." Perhaps the most politically explosive complaint levelled by the Kosovo Serbs was that they were being neglected by the Communist authorities in Belgrade.New York Times 1987-06-27, "Belgrade Battles Kosovo Serbs" In August 1987, Slobodan Milošević, then a rising politician, visited Kosovo. He appealed to Serb nationalism to further his career. Having drawn huge crowds to a rally commemorating the Battle of Kosovo, he pledged to Kosovo Serbs that "No one should dare to beat you", and became an instant hero of Kosovo's Serbs. By the end of the year Milošević was in control of the Serbian government. In 1988 and 1989, dominant forces in Serbian politics engaged in a series of moves that became known as the anti-bureaucratic revolution. The leading politicians of Kosovo and the northern province of Vojvodina were sacked and replaced, and the level of autonomy of the provinces started to be unilaterally reduced by the Serbian federal authority. In protest, the Kosovo Albanians engaged in mass demonstrations, and Trepča miners 1989 Kosovo miners' strike, began a hunger strike. The new constitution significantly reduced the provinces' rights, permitting the government of Serbia to exert direct control over many previously autonomous areas of governance. In particular, the constitutional changes handed control of the police, the court system, the economy, the education system and language policies to the Serbian government. It was strongly opposed by many of Serbia's national minorities, who saw it as a means of imposing ethnically based centralised rule on the provinces. The Albanian representatives in provincial government largely opposed the constitutional changes and abstained from ratification in the Kosovo assembly. In March 1989, preceding a final push for ratification, the Yugoslav police rounded up around 240 prominent Kosovo Albanians, apparently selected based on their anti-ratification sentiment, and detained them with complete disregard for due process. When the assembly met to discuss the proposals, tanks and armoured cars surrounded the meeting place. Though the final vote failed to reach the required two-thirds majority threshold, it was declared as having passed.


Kosovo War

After the constitutional changes, the parliaments of all Yugoslavian republics and provinces, which until then had MPs only from the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, were dissolved and multi-party elections were held for them. Kosovo Albanians refused to participate in the elections and held their own, unsanctioned elections instead. As election laws required turnout higher than 50%, the parliament of Kosovo could not be established. The new constitution abolished the individual provinces' official media, integrating them within the official media of Serbia while still retaining some programmes in Albanian. The Albanian-language media in Kosovo was suppressed. Funding was withdrawn from state-owned media, including that in Albanian in Kosovo. The constitution made creating privately owned media possible, however their functioning was very difficult because of high rents and restricting laws. State-owned Albanian-language television or radio was also banned from broadcasting from Kosovo. However, privately owned Albanian media outlets appeared; of these, probably the most famous is "Koha Ditore", which was allowed to operate until late 1998 when it was closed after it published a calendar which was claimed to be a glorification of ethnic Albanian separatists. The constitution also transferred control over state-owned companies to the Serbian government (at the time, most of the companies were state-owned). In September 1990, up to 12,000 Albanian workers were fired from their positions in government and the media, as were teachers, doctors, and workers in government-controlled industries, provoking a general strike and mass unrest. Some of those who were not sacked quit in sympathy, refusing to work for the Serbian government. Although the sackings were widely seen as a purge of ethnic Albanians, the government maintained that it was simply getting rid of old communist directors. The old Albanian educational curriculum and textbooks were revoked and new ones were created. The curriculum was basically the same as Serbian and that of all other nationalities in Serbia except that it had education on and in Albanian. Education in Albanian was withdrawn in 1992 and re-established in 1994. At the Pristina University, which was seen as a centre of Kosovo Albanian cultural identity, education in Albanian was abolished and Albanian teachers were also sacked en masse. Albanians responded by boycotting state schools and setting up an unofficial parallel system of Albanian-language education. Kosovo Albanians were outraged by what they saw as an attack on their rights. Following mass rioting and unrest from Albanians as well as outbreaks of inter-communal violence, in February 1990, a state of emergency was declared, and the presence of the Yugoslav Army and police was significantly increased to quell the unrest. Unsanctioned elections were held in 1992, which overwhelmingly elected Ibrahim Rugova as "president" of a self-declared Republic of Kosovo; however these elections were not recognised by Serbian nor any foreign government. In 1995, thousands of Serb refugees from Croatia settled in Kosovo, which further worsened relations between the two communities. Albanian opposition to sovereignty of Yugoslavia and especially Serbia had surfaced in rioting (1968 and March 1981) in the capital Pristina. Ibrahim Rugova initially advocated non-violent resistance, but later opposition took the form of separatist agitation by opposition political groups and armed action from 1996 by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA; Alb. ''Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës'' or ''UÇK''). The KLA launched a guerrilla warfare, guerrilla war and terrorism, terror campaign, characterised by regular bomb and gun attacks on Yugoslav security forces, state officials and civilians known to openly support the national government, this included Albanians who were non-sympathisers with KLA motives. In March 1998, Yugoslav army units joined Serbian police to fight the separatists, using military force. In the months that followed, thousands of Albanian civilians were killed and more than 10,000 fled their homes; most of these people were Albanian. Many Albanian families were forced to flee their homes at gunpoint, as a result of fighting between national security and KLA forces leading to expulsions by the security forces including associated paramilitary militias. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that 460,000 people had been displaced from March 1998 to the start of the NATO bombing campaign in March 1999. There was violence against non-Albanians as well: UNHCR reported (March 1999) that over 90 mixed villages in Kosovo "have now been emptied of Serb inhabitants" and other Serbs continue leaving, either to be displaced in other parts of Kosovo or fleeing into central Serbia. The Yugoslav Red Cross estimated there were more than 130,000 non-Albanian displaced in need of assistance in Kosovo, most of whom were Serb. Following the breakdown of negotiations between Serbian and Albanian representatives, under North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) auspices, NATO intervened on March 24, 1999, without United Nations authority. NATO launched a campaign of heavy bombing against Yugoslav military targets and then moved to wide range bombings (like bridges in Novi Sad). A full-scale war broke out as KLA continued to attack Serbian forces and Serbian/Yugoslav forces continued to fight KLA amidst a massive displacement of the population of Kosovo, which most human rights groups and international organisations regarded as an act of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the government forces. A number of senior Yugoslav government officials and military officers, including President Milošević, were subsequently indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, ICTY) for war crimes. Milošević died in detention before a verdict was rendered. The United Nations estimated that during the Kosovo War, nearly 40,000 Albanians fled or were expelled from Kosovo between March 1998 and the end of April 1999. Most of the refugees went to Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, or Montenegro. Government security forces confiscated and destroyed the documents and licence plates of many fleeing Albanians in what was widely regarded as an attempt to erase the identities of the refugees, the term "identity cleansing" being coined to denote this action. This made it difficult to distinguish with certainty the identity of returning refugees after the war. Serbian sources claim that many Albanians from Macedonia and Albania – perhaps as many as 300,000, by some estimates – have since migrated to Kosovo in the guise of refugees.


Independence

The war ended on June 10, 1999, with the Serbian and Yugoslav governments signing the Kumanovo Agreement which agreed to transfer governance of the province to the United Nations. A NATO-led Kosovo Force (Kosovo Force, KFOR) entered the province following the Kosovo War, tasked with providing security to the UN Mission in Kosovo (United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK). Before and during the handover of power, an estimated 100,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians, mostly Serbs, fled the province for fear of reprisals. In the case of the non-Albanians, the Roma in particular were regarded by many Albanians as having assisted the Serbs during the war. Many left along with the withdrawing Serbian security forces, expressing fears that they would be targeted by returning Albanian refugees and KLA fighters who blamed them for wartime acts of violence. Thousands more were driven out by intimidation, attacks and a wave of crime after the war as KFOR struggled to restore order in the province. Large numbers of refugees from Kosovo still live in temporary camps and shelters in Serbia proper. In 2002, Serbia and Montenegro reported hosting 277,000 internally displaced people (the vast majority being Serbs and Roma from Kosovo), which included 201,641 persons displaced from Kosovo into Serbia proper, 29,451 displaced from Kosovo into Montenegro, and about 46,000 displaced within Kosovo itself, including 16,000 returning refugees unable to inhabit their original homes. Some sources put the figure far lower; the European Stability Initiative estimates the number of displaced people as being only 65,000, with another 40,000 Serbs remaining in Kosovo, though this would leave a significant proportion of the pre-1999 ethnic Serb population unaccounted-for. The largest concentration of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo is in the north of the province above the Ibar river, but an estimated two-thirds of the Serbian population in Kosovo continues to live in the Albanian-dominated south of the province. On March 17, 2004, serious 2004 unrest in Kosovo, unrest in Kosovo led to 19 deaths, and the destruction of 35 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries in the province, as Albanians started pogroms against the Serbs. Several thousand more Kosovo Serbs have left their homes to seek refuge in Serbia proper or in the Serb-dominated north of Kosovo. Since the end of the war, Kosovo has been a major source and destination country in the trafficking of women, women forced into prostitution and sexual slavery. The growth in the sex trade industry has been fuelled by NATO forces in Kosovo. International negotiations began in 2006 to determine the final status of Kosovo, as envisaged under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 which ended the Kosovo War, Kosovo conflict of 1999. Whilst Serbia's continued sovereignty over Kosovo was recognised by the international community, a clear majority of the province's population sought independence. The United Nations-backed talks, led by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, began in February 2006. Whilst progress was made on technical matters, both parties remained diametrically opposed on the question of status itself. In February 2007, Ahtisaari delivered a draft status settlement proposal to leaders in Belgrade and Pristina, the basis for a draft UN Security Council Resolution which proposes 'supervised independence' for the province. As of early July 2007 the draft resolution, which is backed by the United States, United Kingdom and other European members of the Security Council, had been rewritten four times to try to accommodate Russian concerns that such a resolution would undermine the principle of state sovereignty. Russia, which holds a veto in the Security Council as one of five permanent members, has stated that it will not support any resolution which is not acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina. On 17 February 2008 Kosovo unilaterally declared Kosovo's independence and subsequently adopted the Constitution of Republic of Kosovo, which came into effect on 15 June 2008. Some Kosovo Serbs opposed to secession have boycotted the move by refusing to follow orders from the central government in Pristina and attempting to seize infrastructure and border posts in Serb-populated regions. There have also been sporadic instances of violence against international institutions and governmental institutions, predominantly in Northern Kosovo (see 2008 unrest in Kosovo). On July 25, 2011, Kosovan Albanian police wearing riot gear 2011 Kosovo-Serbia border clashes, attempted to seize several border control posts in Kosovo's Serb-controlled north trying to enforce the ban on Serbian imports imposed in retaliation of Serbia's ban on import from Kosovo. It prompted a large crowd to erect roadblocks and Kosovan police units came under fire. An Albanian policeman died when his unit was ambushed and another officer was reportedly injured. Nato-led peacekeepers moved into the area to calm the situation and Kosovan police pulled back. The US and EU criticised the Kosovan government for acting without consulting international bodies. Though tensions between the two sides eased somewhat after the intervention of NATO's KFOR forces, they continued to remain high. Some rapprochement between the two governments took place on 19 April 2013 as both parties reached the Brussels Agreement (2013), Brussels Agreement, an agreement brokered by the EU that allowed the Serb minority in Kosovo to have its own police force and court of appeals. The accord was ratified by the Kosovo assembly on 28 June 2013. In April 2021, Kosovo parliament elected Vjosa Osmani as new president for a five-year term. She was Kosovo's seventh president, and the second female president, in the post-war period. Osmani had the backing of the left-wing Self-Determination Movement (Vetëvendosje, Vetevendosje) of Prime Minister Albin Kurti, which won the February 2021 parliamentary 2021 Kosovan parliamentary election, election. In September 2021, Serbs from Kosovo's north North Kosovo crisis (2021), had blocked two main roads, protesting a ban on cars with Serbian licence plates entering Kosovo without temporary printed registration details. Two interior ministry buildings in northern Kosovo, including a car registration office, were attacked. Serbia began military manoeuvres near the border and started flying military jets above the border crossing. Kosovo's NATO mission stepped up patrols near border crossings. On September 30, 2021, an agreement between Kosovo and Serbia was reached to end the stand-off. Kosovo agreed to withdraw police special forces. In late July 2022 2022 North Kosovo crisis, tensions flared up again when the Kosovo government declared that Serb-issued identity documents and vehicle licence plates would be invalid, prompting Serbs in North Kosovo to protest by blocking roads. The decision on the part of Kosovo authorities was seen as a reciprocal move given that Kosovo documents are rejected in Serbia. In August, EU-mediated talks resulted in an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo whereby Serbia would abolish special document requirements for Kosovo ID holders and Kosovo would not introduce them for Serbian ID holders.


See also

* Demographic history of Kosovo * Albanian nationalism in Kosovo * Rulers of Kosovo * History of Albania * History of Serbia * History of Ottoman Albania * History of Yugoslavia * History of the Balkans * History of Europe * Serbian historiography * Destruction of Serbian heritage in Kosovo


Notes


References


Sources

* Baker, Catherine. "Between the round table and the waiting room: Scholarship on war and peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo after the ‘Post-Cold War’." ''Contemporary European History'' 28.1 (2019): 107–119
online
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External links

*
Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo – Human Rights Watch (Online book)

Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan War (1914)


* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/kosovo/110492.stm Tim Judah: Kosovo History, bloody history]
Dušan T. Bataković: The Kosovo Chronicles


*[https://web.archive.org/web/20121215051137/http://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/552554 Bloody Struggles] from th
Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Kosovo History of Kosovo, History of Albania by location History of Serbia by location