Army Group Mackensen
146-452: Serbian campaign (1915) Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation Serbian campaign (1914) Serbian campaign (1915) Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation Aegean Albania Greece ( National Schism ) Macedonian front The Serbian campaign was a series of military expeditions launched in 1914 and 1915 by the Central Powers against
292-527: A new constitution and relinquished his dictatorship in 1931. However, Alexander's policies later encountered opposition from other European powers stemming from developments in Italy and Germany, where Fascists and Nazis rose to power, and the Soviet Union , where Joseph Stalin became absolute ruler. None of these three regimes favored the policy pursued by Alexander I. In fact, Italy and Germany wanted to revise
438-567: A Kosovar republic. This angered Serbia's leadership which proceeded to use police force and later, federal police troops to restore civil order. In January 1990, the extraordinary 14th Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia was convened, where the Serbian and Slovenian delegations argued over the future of the League of Communists and Yugoslavia. The Serbian delegation, led by Milošević, insisted on
584-451: A close relationship between the two Communist countries, and enable Yugoslavia to start a civil war in Greece and use Albania and Bulgaria as bases. Stalin vetoed this agreement and it was never realised. The break between Belgrade and Moscow was now imminent. Yugoslavia solved the national issue of nations and nationalities (national minorities) in a way that all nations and nationalities had
730-577: A common state for all South Slavic peoples, emerged in the late 17th century and gained prominence through the Illyrian Movement of the 19th century. The name was created by the combination of the Slavic words jug ("south") and Slaveni / Sloveni (Slavs). Moves towards the formal creation of Yugoslavia accelerated after the 1917 Corfu Declaration between the Yugoslav Committee and
876-466: A declaration of war, Bulgaria started border attacks into Serbia. On 14 October, Bulgaria officially declared war; General Kliment Boyadzhiev 's Bulgarian First Army , under German orders, was to advance on Niš , the temporary capital of the Serbian government and link with German Eleventh Army; the Bulgarian Second Army under General Georgi Todorov was to proceed into Macedonia , to sever
1022-568: A delay in the transport of these troops to the Russian front for more than a week. Furthermore, the Austro-Hungarian defeats suffered during the first invasion of Serbia forced the AOK to permanently transfer two divisions from the 2nd Army to Potiorek's force. By 12 August, Austria-Hungary had amassed over 500,000 soldiers on Serbian frontiers, including some 380,000 operational troops. However on 16 August
1168-576: A dubious traffic incident after he started to complain about Tito's politics. Minister of the interior Aleksandar Ranković lost all of his titles and rights after a major disagreement with Tito regarding state politics. Some influential ministers in government, such as Edvard Kardelj or Stane Dolanc , were more important than the Prime Minister. First cracks in the tightly governed system surfaced when students in Belgrade and several other cities joined
1314-524: A federation (this date was celebrated as Republic Day after the war). The Yugoslav Partisans were able to expel the Axis from Serbia in 1944 and the rest of Yugoslavia in 1945. The Red Army provided limited assistance with the liberation of Belgrade and withdrew after the war was over. In May 1945, the Partisans met with Allied forces outside former Yugoslav borders, after also taking over Trieste and parts of
1460-640: A free fall and social programmes collapsed; creating within the population an atmosphere of social despair and hopelessness. This was a critical turning point in the events to follow. After Tito's death on 4 May 1980, ethnic tensions grew in Yugoslavia. The legacy of the Constitution of 1974 threw the system of decision-making into a state of paralysis, made all the more hopeless as the conflict of interests became irreconcilable. The Albanian majority in Kosovo demanded
1606-645: A military campaign carried out by the Central Powers , primarily Germany , Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria , against the Kingdom of Serbia during World War I . The campaign took place from October to November 1915. After Serbia successfully resisted Austria-Hungary's advances during the Serbian campaign of 1914 , the Central Powers launched a joint offensive against Serbia with a combined force of over 600,000 soldiers. They enjoyed numerical and technological superiority over
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#17328527311851752-533: A minimum: Serbia proper, then-loyal Montenegro, Vojvodina, and Kosovo. As a result of these events, ethnic Albanian miners in Kosovo organised the 1989 Kosovo miners' strike , which dovetailed into an ethnic conflict between the Albanians and the non-Albanians in the province. At around 80% of the population of Kosovo in the 1980s , ethnic-Albanians were the majority. With Milošević gaining control over Kosovo in 1989,
1898-628: A policy of "one person, one vote" which would empower the plurality population, the Serbs . In turn, the Slovenian delegation, supported by Croats, sought to reform Yugoslavia by devolving even more power to republics, but were voted down. As a result, the Slovene and Croatian delegations left the Congress and the all-Yugoslav Communist party was dissolved. The constitutional crisis that inevitably followed resulted in
2044-456: A quasi-protectorate over Albania, and Greece re-occupied Albania's southern part, which was autonomous under a local Greek provisional government (see Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus ), despite Albania's neutrality during the war. Before the war, the Kingdom of Serbia had 4,500,000 inhabitants. According to The New York Times , 150,000 people are estimated to have died in 1915 alone during
2190-584: A result of the costly Monastir Offensive , which brought stabilization of the front. French and Serbian troops finally made a breakthrough in the Vardar Offensive in 1918, after most German and Austro-Hungarian troops had withdrawn. This breakthrough was significant in defeating Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary, which led to the final victory of World War I. After the Allied breakthrough, Bulgaria capitulated on 29 September 1918. Hindenburg and Ludendorff concluded that
2336-528: A retreat across the Albanian mountains , suffering heavy casualties from combat, disease, and harsh weather, the retreat became known as the Great Retreat or the "Albanian Golgotha." By the end of the Serbian campaign of 1915, the Central Powers had effectively eliminated Serbia as a threat, secured their position in the region and opened up a land route to provide supplies to the embattled Ottoman Empire. Serbia
2482-502: A revival of greater Serbian hegemonism. Through a series of moves known as the " anti-bureaucratic revolution ", Milošević succeeded in reducing the autonomy of Vojvodina and of Kosovo and Metohija, but both entities retained a vote in the Yugoslav Presidency Council. The very instrument that reduced Serbian influence before was now used to increase it: in the eight-member Council, Serbia could now count on four votes at
2628-519: A rise of nationalism in all republics: Slovenia and Croatia voiced demands for looser ties within the federation. Following the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, each of the republics held multi-party elections in 1990. Slovenia and Croatia held the elections in April since their communist parties chose to cede power peacefully. Other Yugoslav republics—especially Serbia—were more or less dissatisfied with
2774-549: A significant part of the 2nd army was ordered to the Russian front, thus this number fell to some 285,000 active troops, including garrisons. Apart from land forces, Austria-Hungary also deployed its Danube River flotilla of six monitors and six patrol boats. Many Austro-Hungarian soldiers were not of good quality. About one-quarter of them were illiterate, and most of the conscripts from the empire's subject nationalities did not speak or understand German or Hungarian. In addition, most of
2920-473: A victory for Serbia. The Austro-Hungarians suffered heavy casualties with over 224,000 dead, wounded or prisoner and were unable to achieve their objectives but the victory also brought heavy losses to the Serbian army with 170,000 casualties a much higher percentage for the small kingdom, making further offensive operations impossible. In early 1915, following Ottoman defeats at the Battle of Sarikamish and during
3066-546: The First Suez Offensive , German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn attempted to persuade Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Conrad von Hötzendorf about the strategic importance of capturing Serbia . The rationale behind this proposition was to establish a direct rail connection from Germany through Austria-Hungary, ultimately reaching Istanbul and beyond. This proposed rail link would facilitate
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#17328527311853212-686: The Great Retreat through Montenegro and Albania , the evacuation to Greece , and the establishment of the Macedonian front . The defeat of Serbia gave the Central Powers temporary mastery over the Balkans , opening up a land route from Berlin to Constantinople , allowing the Germans to re-supply the Ottoman Empire for the rest of the war. Mackensen declared an end to the campaign on 24 November 1915. Serbia
3358-783: The Imperial and Royal Danube Flotilla . Having sent the Timok Group and the Second Army to defend the Bulgarian border, Putnik could only oppose four divisions to the Austro-Hungarian and German invading forces. On 8 October German troops managed to reach the south bank of the Sava, threatening the Serbian west flank and the north of Belgrade. That same day Austro-Hungarian troops enter Belgrade, hard hand to hand fighting ensued. Facing overwhelming artillery superiority, Serbian forces were forced back; during
3504-623: The Kingdom of Serbia and its patron, the Pan-Slavic and Orthodox Russian empire . Russian political manoeuvring in the region destabilized peace accords that were already unravelling in what was known as "the powder keg of Europe ." In 1912 and 1913, the First Balkan War was fought between the Balkan League of Greece , Bulgaria , Serbia , and Montenegro and the fracturing Ottoman Empire. The resulting Treaty of London further shrank
3650-481: The Kingdom of Serbia during the First World War . The first campaign began after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914 . The campaign, euphemistically dubbed " punitive expedition " ( German : Strafexpedition ) by the Austro-Hungarian leadership, was under the command of Austrian General Oskar Potiorek . It ended after three unsuccessful Austro-Hungarian invasion attempts were repelled by
3796-518: The New Territories , was replaced by Petar Bojović . On 25 October units of First Army captured Negotin and connected with German Eleventh Army. Facing encirclement from German and Austro- Hungarian troops only 6 miles from Kragujevac and Bulgarians 15 miles to the east near Niš, the Serbs only hope was to fight its way south to link up with Allies forces. After Greece chose to remain neutral, despite
3942-513: The Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, which remained the official affiliation of the country until it dissolved. On 7 April 1963, the nation changed its official name to Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Josip Broz Tito was named President for life . In the SFRY, each republic and province had its own constitution, supreme court, parliament, president and prime minister. At the top of
4088-682: The Serbian First Army , Voivode Stepa Stepanović commander of the Second Army while the Serbian Third Army was under Pavle Jurišić Šturm . The Serbian army had about 780 guns, most of them heavy, the Serbians were forced to spread their forces by the entry of Bulgaria on the side of the Central powers. The commander (Serdar) of the Montenegrin forces was Janko Vukotić . Against Serbia were
4234-546: The South Slavs ' ) was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 to 1992. It came into existence following World War I , under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from the merger of the Kingdom of Serbia with the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs , and constituted the first union of South Slavic peoples as a sovereign state , following centuries of foreign rule over
4380-487: The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Bosnian-Serb nationalist. This triggered a series of alliances and escalations among European powers, ultimately leading to the outbreak of World War I . In August 1914, Austria-Hungary launched an invasion of Serbia. Against all odds, the Serbian army, led by General Radomir Putnik managed to repel multiple offensives from a much larger and better-equipped enemy. The Serbian campaign of 1914 ended late on 14 December with
4526-493: The "Great Retreat", also known as the Albanian Golgotha, is regarded in Serbian history as one of the nation's greatest tragedies. The Army of Montenegro did not follow the Serbs into exile but retreated to defend their own country. The Austrian-Hungarians launched their Montenegrin campaign on 5 January 1916. Despite some success of The Montenegrins in the Battle of Mojkovac , they were defeated within two weeks. Serbia
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4672-433: The 1870s). Unlike the Austro-Hungarian and the Serbian armies, the Montenegrin army was a militia type without proper military training or a career officer's corps. Note: According to Austro-Hungarian military formation, the average war strength of the following units was: The strength of corresponding Serbian units was similar: Heavy artillery Additionally, Austro-Hungarian fortresses and garrisons near
4818-431: The 1912–13 Balkan wars. Artillery ammunition was sparse and only amounted to several hundred shells per unit. Because Serbia lacked a significant domestic military-industrial complex, its army depended entirely on imports of ammunition and arms from France and Russia, which were chronically short of supplies. The inevitable shortages of ammunition later would include a complete lack of artillery ammunition, which peaked during
4964-530: The 1974 constitution as weakening Serbia's influence and jeopardising the unity of the country by allowing the republics the right to separate. According to official statistics, from the 1950s to the early 1980s, Yugoslavia was among the fastest growing countries, approaching the ranges reported in South Korea and other countries undergoing an economic miracle . The unique socialist system in Yugoslavia, where factories were worker cooperatives and decision-making
5110-496: The 2nd army to Galicia to counter Russian forces. Due to the congestion of railroad lines towards Galicia, the 2nd Army could only start its departure on 18 August, which allowed the AOK to assign some units of the 2nd Army to take part in operations in Serbia before that date. Eventually, the AOK allowed General Oskar Potiorek to deploy a significant segment of the 2nd army (around four divisions) in fighting against Serbia, which caused
5256-550: The Adriatic coast. They then boarded Allied transport ships that took them to the island of Corfu , before eventually being sent to Salonika. The evacuation of the Serbian army was completed on 5 April 1916. Some survivors were in such weakened conditions that thousands of them died in the weeks following their rescue. Marshal Putnik, who had to be carried throughout the entire retreat, died fifteen months later in France. The period known as
5402-562: The Albanians of Kosovo and Hungarians of Vojvodina. Both provinces were afforded much of the same status as the six republics of Yugoslavia, though they could not secede. Vojvodina and Kosovo formed the provinces of the Republic of Serbia but also formed part of the federation, which led to the unique situation in which Central Serbia did not have its own assembly but a joint assembly with its provinces represented in it. Albanian and Hungarian became nationally recognised minority languages, and
5548-469: The Allied defeat in the Gallipoli campaign and the Russian setback at Gorlice , Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria signed a treaty with Germany and on 23 September 1915 started mobilisation for war. During the preceding nine months, the Serbs had tried and failed to rebuild their battered armies and improve their supply situation. Despite their efforts, the Serbian army was only about 30,000 men stronger than at
5694-556: The Allied forces following Greece's entry into the war. These Serbian units would ultimately play a pivotal role in the breakthrough of the Macedonian Front in September 1917 and the subsequent liberation of Serbia a year later when French and Serbian forces defeated Bulgarian and German forces at the Battle of Dobro Pole . Yugoslavia Yugoslavia ( / ˌ j uː ɡ oʊ ˈ s l ɑː v i ə / ; lit. ' Land of
5840-752: The Allies and the Central Powers attempted to persuade Bulgaria to align with their respective sides. Bulgaria and Serbia had a history of conflict, having engaged in two wars in the previous three decades: the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885 and the Second Balkan War in 1913. By aligning with the Central Powers, Bulgaria was promised not only disputed lands from Serbia but also additional territories in Macedonia and Thrace; in addition Germany and Austria-Hungary, offered Bulgaria military and economic support. Following
5986-501: The Austro-Hungarian Army to replace its losses regularly and keep units at their formation strength. According to some sources, there were an average of 150,000 men per month during 1914 sent to replace the losses in the field army. During 1915 these numbers rose to 200,000 per month. According to the official Austrian documents in the period from September until the end of December 1914, some 160,000 replacement troops were sent to
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6132-618: The Austro-Hungarian Empire, it also inadvertently triggered a chain of events that embroiled Russia and the major European powers. This began a period of diplomatic manoeuvring among Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, and Britain called the July Crisis . Austria-Hungary delivered the July Ultimatum to Serbia, a series of ten demands intentionally made unacceptable to provoke a war with Serbia. When Serbia agreed to only eight of
6278-605: The Austro-Hungarian Empire. Incited by anti-Serbian propaganda and collusion with the command of the Austro-Hungarian Army, soldiers committed numerous atrocities against the Serbs in both Serbia and Austria-Hungary. According to the German-Swiss criminologist and observer R.A. Reiss , it was a "system of extermination." In addition to executions of prisoners of war, civilian populations were subjected to mass murder and rape. Villages and towns were burned and looted. Fruit trees were cut down, and water wells were poisoned in an effort on
6424-592: The Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation administrations implemented stringent measures, subjecting the population to various forms of repression, including mass internment, forced labor, concentration camps for political opponents, famine, denationalisation, and policies aimed at cultural assimilation. Kosovo was divided into two Austro-Hungarian occupational zones and the Bulgarian Military Region of Macedonia. In 1916, over 110,000 Serbian troops were relocated to Salonika, where they subsequently joined
6570-522: The Austro-Hungarian part to discourage Serb inhabitants from ever returning. 1912–1913 1913 1914 1915 Serbian campaign (1915) Royal Serbian Army 600,000: 100,000 Germans 200,000 Austro-Hungarians 566 battalions and 273 guns (108 heavy) ~300,000: ~260,000 Serbians 275 battalions and 654 cannons Serbian campaign (1915) Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation The Serbian campaign of 1915 ( German : Der serbische Feldzug 1915 ) refers to
6716-553: The Balkan theatre of war, as well as 82,000 reinforcements as part of newly formed units. The prewar Austro-Hungarian plan to invade Serbia envisioned the concentration of three armies (2nd, 5th and 6th) on Serbia's western and northern borders to envelop and destroy the bulk of the Serbian army. However, with the beginning of the Russian general mobilization, the Armeeoberkommando (AOK, Austro-Hungarian Supreme Command) decided to move
6862-712: The Bulgarian 9th Infantry Division successfully established contact with the German Eleventh Army. On November 6, the Forty-Third Reserve Infantry Division secured the area south of Kraljevo . This allowed the Central Powers access to the Ibar River valley. Field Marshal Mackensen ordered a pursuit by the Bulgarians southwest toward Pristina , however, the First Army encountered challenges in crossing
7008-601: The Bulgarians. The French government and the War Office in London were both hesitant to advance too deep into Serbia, but Sarrail continued up the Vardar. This advance provided some limited assistance to the retreating Serbian army, as the Bulgarians had to concentrate larger forces on their southern flank to deal with the threat, which led to the Battle of Krivolak . The French and British soldiers, moving up in two columns on both sides of
7154-763: The Croatian Defence minister Martin Špegelj and two unidentified men. The video, filmed by the Yugoslav counter-intelligence ( KOS, Kontra-obavještajna služba ), showed Špegel announcing that they were at war with the army and giving instructions about arms smuggling as well as methods of dealing with the Yugoslav Army's officers stationed in Croatian cities. Serbia and JNA used this discovery of Croatian rearmament for propaganda purposes. Guns were also fired from army bases through Croatia. Elsewhere, tensions were running high. In
7300-426: The Croatian armed forces ("police") and civilians mark the beginning of the Yugoslav war that inflamed the region. Similarly, the attempt to replace Yugoslav frontier police by Slovene police forces provoked regional armed conflicts which ended with a minimal number of victims. A similar attempt in Bosnia and Herzegovina led to a war that lasted more than three years (see below). The results of all these conflicts were
7446-462: The Dalmatian coast towards the interior almost a year before Croatian leadership made any move towards independence. These uprisings were more or less discreetly backed by the Serb-dominated federal army (JNA). The Serbs in Croatia proclaimed "Serb autonomous areas", which were later united into the Republic of Serb Krajina . The federal army tried to disarm the territorial defence forces of Slovenia (the republics had their local defence forces similar to
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#17328527311857592-412: The French front, as well as the Austro-Hungarian 10th Mountain Brigade . In the south, the Bulgarian Second Army could not be stopped and managed to sever the train line on 16 October then reach the Vardar River on 19, Kumanovo on 20, Skopje on 22 and capturing the strategic Kačanik gorge on 26 October forcing the Serbians to retreat again. As a result Serbian General Damjan Popović , commander of
7738-444: The German Eleventh Army led by Generaloberst Max von Gallwitz , the Austro-Hungarian Third Army commanded by General der Infanterie Hermann Kövess and the Bulgarian First Army under Generalleutnant Kliment Boyadzhiev (comprising the Sixth, Eighth, Ninth and First Divisions); all under the supreme command of Field Marshal August von Mackensen . In addition, the Bulgarian Second Army commanded by Georgi Todorov (comprising
7884-400: The Home Guard) in 1990 but was not completely successful. Still, Slovenia began to covertly import arms to replenish its armed forces. Croatia also embarked upon the illegal importation of arms, (following the disarmament of the republics' armed forces by the federal army) mainly from Hungary. These activities were under constant surveillance and produced a video of a secret meeting between
8030-482: The Marshall plan. However, in 1948 Tito broke decisively with Stalin on other issues, making Yugoslavia an independent communist state. Yugoslavia requested American aid. American leaders were internally divided, but finally agreed and began sending money on a small scale in 1949, and on a much larger scale 1950–53. The American aid was not part of the Marshall plan. Tito criticised both Eastern Bloc and NATO nations and, together with India and other countries, started
8176-457: The Ottoman Empire by creating an independent Principality of Albania and enlarging the territorial holdings of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. When Bulgaria attacked both Serbia and Greece on 16 June 1913, it lost most of its Macedonian region to those countries, and additionally, the Southern Dobruja region to Romania and Adrianople (the present-day city of Edirne ) to Turkey in the 33-day Second Balkan War , which further destabilized
8322-428: The Serbian Army at Kragujevac via encirclement. Facing the oncoming German III Corps, Austro-Hungarian units to the west, and the Bulgarian 9th Infantry Division blocking the southern route through Niš, the Serbian army abandoned Kragujevac without a fight. They retreated into the mountains followed by large groups of civilians, escaping the trap, and leaving only rearguards to slow down the oncoming enemies. On 5 November,
8468-456: The Serbian and Montenegrin borders (Petrovaradin, Sarajevo, Kotor etc.) had about 40 companies of heavy fortress artillery of various models. August 1914: The Serbian army was evacuated to Greece and met with the Allied Army of the Orient . They then fought a trench war against the Bulgarians on the Macedonia Front, which was mainly static. French and Serbian forces re-took limited areas of Macedonia by recapturing Bitola on 19 November 1916 as
8614-431: The Serbian army to recruit under and over-aged men to make up for losses in the opening phase of the war. Because of the poor financial state of the Serbian economy and losses in the recent Balkan Wars, the Serbian army lacked much of the modern weaponry and equipment necessary to engage in combat with their larger and wealthier adversaries. Only 180,000 modern rifles were available for the operational army, which meant that
8760-434: The Serbian army, which was heavily outnumbered and lacked adequate supplies and equipment. The campaign began with a series of coordinated offensives aimed at breaking through Serbian defensive lines. The Serbian army, led by King Peter I and Field Marshal Radomir Putnik , fought valiantly but was ultimately overwhelmed by the Central Powers' forces. The Serbian army, along with a significant number of civilians, embarked on
8906-524: The Serbian forces with the X Reserve Corps, including the 107th Infantry Division, which had to navigate difficult terrain and mountain passes, on 13 November they were able to secure the passes against the Serbian Drina II Division. As the Central Powers advanced, the Serbian army managed to maintain its organisational integrity and hold off their pursuers despite the loss of key cities. The Serbian forces reached Pristina and Kosovo ahead of their pursuers and chose to continue retreating towards Prizren , escaping
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#17328527311859052-410: The Serbian military lacked between one-quarter to one-third of the rifles necessary to fully equip even their front-line units, let alone reserve forces. Although Serbia tried to remedy this deficit by ordering 120,000 rifles from Russia in 1914, the weapons did not begin to arrive until the second half of August. Only 1st ban troops had complete grey-green M1908 uniforms, with 2nd ban troops often wearing
9198-632: The Serbians and their Montenegrin allies. The victory of the Royal Serbian Army at the battle of Cer is considered the first Allied victory in World War I, and the Austro-Hungarian Army 's defeat by Serbia has been called one of the great upsets of modern military history. The second campaign was launched, under German command, almost a year later, on 6 October 1915, when Bulgarian , Austro-Hungarian, and German forces, led by Field Marshal August von Mackensen , successfully invaded Serbia from three sides, pre-empting an Allied advance from Salonica to help Serbia. This resulted in
9344-426: The Serbo-Croat of Bosnia and Montenegro altered to a form based on the speech of the local people and not on the standards of Zagreb and Belgrade. In Slovenia the recognized minorities were Hungarians and Italians. The fact that these autonomous provinces held the same voting power as the republics but unlike other republics could not legally separate from Yugoslavia satisfied Croatia and Slovenia, but in Serbia and in
9490-408: The Third and Seventh Divisions, a cavalry division and a group of volunteers), which remained under the direct control of the Bulgarian high command, was deployed in Macedonia to block any advance by the entente forces from Salonika. On 5 October after extensive aerial reconnaissance, Austro-Hungarian artillery began to fire on Serbian guns and known defensive positions. On 6 October, the offensive
9636-602: The Vardar River into Serbian Macedonia, comprised a total force of 60,000 men. They were stopped and forced to retreat after clashing with the leading elements of the Bulgarian Second Army. In a similar fashion, on December 7, at the Battle of Kosturino , the Second Army attacked the British 10th (Irish) Infantry Division, veterans of the Gallipoli campaign in poor physical condition, forcing it to retreat into Salonika by 12 December. The German High Command refused Bulgarian demands to advance into Greece. On October 31, 1915, Mackensen launched an attack intended to decisively defeat
9782-409: The West and South Morava Rivers. On 10 November the Bulgarian First Division managed to cross the South Morava at Leskovac , but a Serbian force consisting of the Timok I, Šumadija II, and Morava II Divisions launched a surprise counterattack driving the Bulgarians back. The Serbians continued their retreat toward Pristina while enemy aerial reconnaissance followed their movements. The Germans pursued
9928-565: The Yugoslav government were the President (Tito), the federal Prime Minister, and the federal Parliament (a collective Presidency was formed after Tito's death in 1980). Also important were the Communist Party general secretaries for each republic and province, and the general secretary of Central Committee of the Communist Party. Tito was the most powerful person in the country, followed by republican and provincial premiers and presidents, and Communist Party presidents. Slobodan Penezić Krcun, Tito's chief of secret police in Serbia, fell victim to
10074-456: The Yugoslav government, in 1914, Serbia lost 365,164 soldiers, or 26% of all mobilized personnel, while France suffered 16.8%, Germany 15.4%, Russia 11.5%, and Italy 10.3%. At the war's end, there were 114,000 disabled soldiers and 500,000 orphaned children. The assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg was followed by violent anti-Serb demonstrations of angry Croats and Muslims in
10220-403: The actual number of dead was about 1 million. On 11 November 1945, elections were held with only the Communist-led People's Front appearing on the ballot, securing all 354 seats. On 29 November, while still in exile, King Peter II was deposed by Yugoslavia's Constituent Assembly , and the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was declared. However, he refused to abdicate. Marshal Tito
10366-405: The adoption of 1974 Yugoslav Constitution were largely equal to the other members of the federation. After an economic and political crisis and the rise of nationalism and ethnic conflicts following Tito's death in 1980, Yugoslavia broke up along its republics' borders, at first into five countries, leading to the Yugoslav Wars . From 1993 to 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for
10512-605: The almost total emigration of the Serbs from all three regions, the massive displacement of the populations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the establishment of the three new independent states. The separation of Macedonia was peaceful, although the Yugoslav Army occupied the peak of the Straža mountain on Macedonian soil. Serbian uprisings in Croatia began in August 1990 by blocking roads leading from
10658-447: The camp graveyards were not fully surveyed and excavated, as well as poor record-keeping in the camps and the destruction of some of the record-keeping books in the camps. This number combines POWs and civilian casualties, as the camps were often mixed, as well as people from Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, since they would be mixed in together in the camps. The extent of the Serbian demographic disaster can be illustrated by
10804-496: The casualties number either at 45,000 military deaths and 650,000 civilian deaths or 127,355 military deaths and 82,000 civilian deaths. These numbers would appear to be a low estimate, given that according to a study by Vemić of the 10 biggest concentration camps (out of more than 300) in Austria-Hungary the number of Serb dead comes to at least 59,524. Vemić indicated that the number is likely higher than 64,597 victims, as some of
10950-535: The city during the evening of 28 June 1914 and for much of the following day. This happened because most Croats and many Muslims considered the archduke the best hope for establishing a South Slav political entity within the Habsburg Empire. The crowd directed its anger principally at shops owned by ethnic Serbs and the residences of prominent Serbs. Two ethnic Serbs were killed on 28 June by crowd violence. That night there were anti-Serb demonstrations in other parts of
11096-581: The civilian death toll is impossible to determine, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. According to estimates prepared by the Yugoslav government in 1924, Serbia lost 265,164 soldiers or 25% of all mobilized troops. By comparison, France lost 16.8%, Germany 15.4%, Russia 11.5%, and Italy 10.3%. Austria-Hungary precipitated the Bosnian crisis of 1908–09 by annexing the former Ottoman territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina , which it had occupied since 1878. This angered
11242-541: The constitution was heavily amended to replace the emphasis on democratic centralism with workers' self-management and decentralization . The Communist Party was renamed to the League of Communists and adopted Titoism at its congress the previous year . All the Communist European Countries had deferred to Stalin and rejected the Marshall Plan aid in 1947. Tito, at first went along and rejected
11388-520: The control of the Communist Party, and on recognition of the multiple nationalities. The flags of the republics used versions of the red flag or Slavic tricolor , with a red star in the centre or in the canton. Tito's regional goal was to expand south and take control of Albania and parts of Greece. In 1947, negotiations between Yugoslavia and Bulgaria led to the Bled agreement , which proposed to form
11534-470: The country and responded in a manner to appease both Croats and Serbs: he ordered the arrest of the Croatian Spring protestors while at the same time conceding to some of their demands. Following the 1974 Yugoslav Constitution , Serbia's influence in the country was significantly reduced, while its autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo were granted greater autonomy, along with greater rights for
11680-547: The country from 1944 as prime minister and later as president until his death in 1980. In 1963, the country was renamed for the final time, as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). The six constituent republics that made up the SFRY were the socialist republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia , Macedonia , Montenegro , Serbia , and Slovenia . Within Serbia were the two socialist autonomous provinces, Kosovo and Vojvodina , which following
11826-496: The country were occupied by Bulgaria , Hungary, and Italy. From 1941 to 1945, the Croatian Ustaše regime persecuted and murdered around 300,000 Serbs, along with at least 30,000 Jews and Roma; hundreds of thousands of Serbs were also expelled and another 200,000-300,000 were forced to convert to Catholicism . From the start, the Yugoslav resistance forces consisted of two factions: the communist-led Yugoslav Partisans and
11972-524: The decision, while all other republics, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, voted against. The tie delayed an escalation of conflicts, but not for long. Following the first multi-party election results, in the autumn of 1990, the republics of Slovenia and Croatia proposed transforming Yugoslavia into a loose confederation of six republics. By this proposal, republics would have right to self-determination. However Milošević rejected all such proposals, arguing that like Slovenes and Croats,
12118-532: The decisive moments of the Austro-Hungarian invasion. These figures detail the number of all Austro-Hungarian troops concentrated on the southern (Serbian) theatre of war at the beginning of August 1914 and the resources of the entire Serbian army (however, the number of troops available for the operations on both sides was somewhat less): Serbia's ally Montenegro mustered an army of about 45–50,000 men, with only 14 modern quick-firing field guns, 62 machine guns and some 51 older pieces (some of them antique models from
12264-488: The democratisation in two of the republics and proposed different sanctions (e.g. Serbian "customs tax" for Slovene products) against the two, but as the year progressed, other republics' communist parties saw the inevitability of the democratisation process. In December, as the last member of the federation, Serbia held parliamentary elections confirming the rule of former communists in the republic. Slovenia and Croatia elected governments oriented towards greater autonomy of
12410-490: The enemy's attempts to encircle them. On 20 November, Nikola Pašić sent a message asking the Allies for supplies to be sent to Adriatic ports. On 23 November Mitrovica and Pristina fell to the Central Powers. To escape the encirclement by the Central Powers, on 25 November 1915, the government and the supreme command made the decision to withdraw across the Accursed Mountains of Montenegro and Albania. The objective
12556-640: The exiled royal government and the Allies , but they soon focused increasingly on combating the Partisans rather than the occupying Axis forces. By the end of the war, the Chetnik movement transformed into a collaborationist Serb nationalist militia completely dependent on Axis supplies. The Chetniks also persecuted and killed Muslims and Croats , with an estimated 50,000-68,000 victims (of which 41,000 were civilians). The highly mobile Partisans, however, carried on their guerrilla warfare with great success. Most notable of
12702-466: The former Yugoslavia tried political and military leaders from the former Yugoslavia for war crimes , genocide, and other crimes committed during those wars. After the breakup, the republics of Montenegro and Serbia formed a reduced federative state, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). This state aspired to the status of sole legal successor to the SFRY, but those claims were opposed by
12848-492: The government of the Kingdom of Serbia . The country was formed in 1918 immediately after World War I as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes by union of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia . It was commonly referred to at the time as a " Versailles state". Later, King Alexander I renamed the country to Yugoslavia in 1929. On 20 June 1928, Serb deputy Puniša Račić shot at five members of
12994-762: The help of other allies. Serbia constantly had to worry about its hostile neighbour to the east, Bulgaria , with which it had fought several wars, most recently in the Second Balkan War of 1913. The standing peacetime Austro-Hungarian army had 36,000 officers, including non-commissioned officers and 414,000 enlisted personnel. During mobilization, this number could be increased to 3,350,000 men of all ranks. The operational army had over 1,420,000 men, while another 600,000 were allocated to support and logistic units (train, munition and supply columns, etc.). The rest (around 1,350,000) were reserve troops available to replace losses and form new units. This vast military power allowed
13140-618: The international treaties signed after World War I, and the Soviets were determined to regain their positions in Europe and pursue a more active international policy. Alexander attempted to create a centralised Yugoslavia. He decided to abolish Yugoslavia's historic regions, and new internal boundaries were drawn for provinces or banovinas. The banovinas were named after rivers. Many politicians were jailed or kept under police surveillance. During his reign, communist movements were restricted. The king
13286-541: The invading German forces. More than 300,000 Yugoslav officers and soldiers were taken prisoner. The Axis Powers occupied Yugoslavia and split it up. The Independent State of Croatia was established as a Nazi satellite state, ruled by the fascist militia known as the Ustaše that came into existence in 1929, but was relatively limited in its activities until 1941. German troops occupied Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as part of Serbia and Slovenia , while other parts of
13432-575: The late 1930s was marked by growing intolerance between the principal figures, by the aggressive attitude of the totalitarian regimes, and by the certainty that the order set up after World War I was losing its strongholds and its sponsors their strength. Supported and pressured by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany , Croatian leader Vladko Maček and his party managed the creation of the Banovina of Croatia (Autonomous Region with significant internal self-government) in 1939. The agreement specified that Croatia
13578-412: The line. The German high command responded by sending only seven infantry and one cavalry division, but these forces were far from enough for a front to be re-established. In September, Entente armies spearheaded by Serbian and French troops, broke through the remaining German and Bulgarians defense, forcing Bulgaria to exit the war and liberating Serbia two weeks before the ceasefire. The ramifications of
13724-644: The massive fight that started to unfold along Austria-Hungary's border with Russia. Though Serbia had an experienced army, it was exhausted from the conflicts of the Balkan Wars and poorly equipped, which led the Austro-Hungarians to believe it would fall in less than a month. Serbia's strategy was to hold on as long as it could and hope the Russians could defeat the main Austro-Hungarian Army , with or without
13870-414: The moment of liberation. The Serb sources claim that the Kingdom of Serbia lost 1,100,000 inhabitants during the war. Of 4.5 million people, there were 275,000 military deaths and 450,000 among the ordinary citizenry. The civilian deaths were attributable mainly to food shortages and the effects of epidemics such as Spanish flu . In addition to the military deaths, there were 133,148 wounded. According to
14016-454: The moment of liberation. The estimates of casualties are various: Original Serb sources claim that the Kingdom of Serbia lost more than 1,200,000 inhabitants during the war (including both military and civilian losses), which represented more than 29% of its overall population and 60% of its male population. More recent historical analysis has estimated that roughly 177,000 Serbian soldiers lost their lives or were not returned from captivity, while
14162-502: The new autonomous province of Kosovo, reaction was different. Serbs saw the new constitution as conceding to Croat and ethnic Albanian nationalists. Ethnic Albanians in Kosovo saw the creation of an autonomous province as not being enough, and demanded that Kosovo become a constituent republic with the right to separate from Yugoslavia. This created tensions within the Communist leadership, particularly among Communist Serb officials who viewed
14308-644: The night of 8–9 October General Mihailo Živković gave up the capital, pulling the Defence of Belgrade Group out to position south where it joined with the 2nd Timok Division. On 9 October Belgrade was occupied by Austro-Hungarian Third Army while German Eleventh Army had crossed the Danube with the III Corps at Smederevo and with the X Corps at Ram , successfully establishing two bridgeheads to serve as base for further operations. On 11 October, having mobilised but without
14454-418: The obsolete dark blue M1896 issue, and the 3rd ban had no proper uniforms at all and were reduced to wearing their civilian clothes with military greatcoats and caps. The Serbian troops did not have service issued boots at all, and the vast majority of them wore everyday footwear made of pig skin called opanak . Ammunition reserves were also insufficient for sustained field operations as most had been used in
14600-524: The operational army as well, bringing its strength up to around 250,000 men. Serbia was in a much more disadvantageous position when compared with Austria-Hungary concerning human reserves and replacement troops, as its only source of replacements were recruits reaching the age of military enlistment. Their maximum annual number was theoretically around 60,000 and was insufficient to replace the losses of more than 132,000 sustained during operations from August to December 1914. This shortage of military power forced
14746-490: The opposition Croatian Peasant Party in the National Assembly , resulting in the death of two deputies on the spot and that of leader Stjepan Radić a few weeks later. On 6 January 1929, King Alexander I got rid of the constitution , banned national political parties , assumed executive power , and renamed the country Yugoslavia. He hoped to curb separatist tendencies and mitigate nationalist passions. He imposed
14892-529: The original residency changed drastically leaving only a minimum number of Serbians in the region. The number of Serbs in Kosovo was quickly declining for several reasons, among them the ever-increasing ethnic tensions and subsequent emigration from the area. Meanwhile, Slovenia , under the presidency of Milan Kučan , and Croatia supported the Albanian miners and their struggle for formal recognition. Initial strikes turned into widespread demonstrations demanding
15038-486: The other former republics. Eventually, it accepted the opinion of the Badinter Arbitration Committee about shared succession and in 2003 its official name was changed to Serbia and Montenegro. This state dissolved when Montenegro and Serbia each became independent states in 2006, with Kosovo having an ongoing dispute over its declaration of independence in 2008. The concept of Yugoslavia , as
15184-541: The public protest and incarcerated the leaders, though many key Croatian representatives in the Party silently supported this cause. As a result, a new Constitution was ratified in 1974, which gave more rights to the individual republics in Yugoslavia and provinces in Serbia. After the Yugoslav Partisans took over the country at the end of WWII, nationalism was banned from being publicly promoted. Overall relative peace
15330-586: The rail line between Niš and Salonika and thus prevent Allied relief forces and ammunitions from reaching the Serbs. The Bulgarian First Army first made quick progress as the Serbs had moved troops north and the border units were of "low quality" but was stopped by the Serbian Second Army which made the German general staff request reinforcements, resulting in the German Alpine Corps brought in from
15476-625: The region under the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy . Peter I of Serbia was its first sovereign . The kingdom gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris . The official name of the state was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929. The kingdom was invaded and occupied by the Axis powers in April 1941. In 1943, Democratic Federal Yugoslavia
15622-468: The region. On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip , a Bosnian Serb student and member of an organization of national revolutionaries called Young Bosnia , assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria , the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo , Bosnia. Though the political objective of the assassination was the independence of the southern Austro-Hungarian provinces mainly populated by Slavs from
15768-511: The regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina was reduced by the 1974 Constitution. Because its two autonomous provinces had de facto prerogatives of full-fledged republics, Serbia found that its hands were tied, for the republican government was restricted in making and carrying out decisions that would apply to the provinces. Since the provinces had a vote in the Federal Presidency Council (an eight-member council composed of representatives from
15914-477: The regular Serbian Army (420,000 strong) perished during the conflict. According to the Serb sources, the total number of casualties is placed around 1,000,000: 25% of Serbia's prewar size, and an absolute majority (57%) of its overall male population. L.A. Times and N.Y. Times also cited early Serbian sources which claimed over 1,000,000 victims in their respective articles. Modern western and non-Serb historians put
16060-448: The republics (under Milan Kučan and Franjo Tuđman , respectively). Serbia and Montenegro elected candidates who favoured Yugoslav unity. The Croat quest for independence led to large Serb communities within Croatia rebelling and trying to secede from the Croat republic. Serbs in Croatia would not accept the status of a national minority in a sovereign Croatia since they would be demoted from
16206-468: The royalist Chetniks , with the former receiving Allied recognition at the Tehran conference (1943). The heavily pro-Serbian Chetniks were led by Draža Mihajlović , while the pan-Yugoslav oriented Partisans were led by Josip Broz Tito . The Partisans initiated a guerrilla campaign that developed into the largest resistance army in occupied Western and Central Europe. The Chetniks were initially supported by
16352-604: The same fate. In other words, in less than two years "the trigger mechanism" (under the Financial Operations Act) had led to the layoff of more than 600,000 workers out of a total industrial workforce of the order of 2.7 million. An additional 20% of the work force, or half a million people, were not paid wages during the early months of 1990 as enterprises sought to avoid bankruptcy. The largest concentrations of bankrupt firms and lay-offs were in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Kosovo. Real earnings were in
16498-533: The same month, the Army leaders met with the Presidency of Yugoslavia in an attempt to get them to declare a state of emergency which would allow for the army to take control of the country. The army was seen as an arm of the Serbian government by that time so the consequence feared by the other republics was to be total Serbian domination of the union. The representatives of Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Vojvodina voted for
16644-456: The same rights. However, most of the German minority of Yugoslavia, most of whom had collaborated during the occupation and had been recruited to German forces, were expelled towards Germany or Austria. The country distanced itself from the Soviets in 1948 (cf. Cominform and Informbiro ) and started to build its own way to socialism under the political leadership of Josip Broz Tito. Accordingly,
16790-481: The same time, Western economies went into recession, decreasing demand for Yugoslav imports thereby creating a large debt problem. In 1989, 248 firms were declared bankrupt or were liquidated and 89,400 workers were laid off according to official sources . During the first nine months of 1990 and directly following the adoption of the IMF programme, another 889 enterprises with a combined work-force of 525,000 workers suffered
16936-569: The six republics and the two autonomous provinces), they sometimes even entered into coalitions with other republics, thus outvoting Serbia. Serbia's political impotence made it possible for others to exert pressure on the 2 million Serbs (20% of the total Serbian population) living outside Serbia. After Tito's death, Serbian communist leader Slobodan Milošević began making his way toward the pinnacle of Serbian leadership. Milošević sought to restore pre-1974 Serbian sovereignty. Other republics, especially Slovenia and Croatia, denounced his proposal as
17082-417: The soldiers — ethnic Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Romanians and South Slavs — had linguistic and cultural links with the empire's various enemies. The Serbian military command issued orders to mobilize its armed forces on 25 July, and mobilization began the following day. By 30 July, mobilization was completed, and the troops began to be deployed according to the war plan. Deployments were completed by 9 August when
17228-575: The southern Austrian provinces of Styria and Carinthia . However, the Partisans withdrew from Trieste in June of the same year under heavy pressure from Stalin, who did not want a confrontation with the other Allies. Western attempts to reunite the Partisans, who denied the supremacy of the old government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , and the émigrés loyal to the king led to the Tito-Šubašić Agreement in June 1944; however, Marshal Josip Broz Tito
17374-535: The start of the war (around 225,000) and was still poorly equipped. The first Serbian Campaign had taken the lives of 100,000 soldiers and had been followed by an epidemy of typhus caused by the sick and wounded that the Austro-Hungarians had left behind. The disease claimed the lives of another 135,000 Serbs. The Serbian army was commanded by Voivode Radomir Putnik who had defeated the Austro-Hungarians in 1914, Putnik's main commanders were Voivode Živojin Mišić leading
17520-579: The statement of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov : "Serbia ceased to exist" ( New York Times , summer 1917). In July 1918, the U.S. Secretary of State Robert Lansing urged the Americans of all religions to pray for Serbia in their respective churches. The Serbian army suffered a staggering number of casualties. It was significantly destroyed near the war's end, falling from about 420,000 at its peak to about 100,000 at
17666-513: The status of a constituent nation. The war broke out when the new regimes tried to replace Yugoslav civilian and military forces with secessionist forces. When, in August 1990, Croatia attempted to replace police in the Serb-populated Croat Krajina by force, the population first looked for refuge in the Yugoslav Army barracks, while the army remained passive. The civilians then organised armed resistance. These armed conflicts between
17812-481: The status of a republic in the 1981 protests in Kosovo while Serbian authorities suppressed this sentiment and proceeded to reduce the province's autonomy. In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts drafted a memorandum addressing some burning issues concerning the position of Serbs as the most numerous people in Yugoslavia. The largest Yugoslav republic in territory and population, Serbia's influence over
17958-545: The strategic and operational balance had now shifted decidedly against the Central Powers and insisted on an immediate peace settlement during a meeting with government officials a day after the Bulgarian collapse. On 29 September 1918, the German Supreme Army Command informed Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Imperial Chancellor Count Georg von Hertling , that the military situation facing Germany
18104-518: The ten demands, Austria-Hungary declared war on 28 July 1914. The dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia escalated into what is now known as World War I, drawing in Russia , Germany , France, and the British Empire . Within a week, Austria-Hungary had to face a war with Russia, Serbia's patron, which had the largest army in the world at the time. The result was that Serbia became a subsidiary front in
18250-555: The terms of the treaty of alliance with Serbia, the Allies agreed to send a force to support the Serbs. After much delays imposed by Greece, the French 156th Division and the British 10th Division arrived in Salonika from Gallipoli early October. Under the command of French General Maurice Sarrail , two French divisions marched north towards Serbia, with the goal was of liberating Skopje, occupied by
18396-521: The transportation of military resources, and potentially troops, to support the Ottoman Empire . Russia posed a significant threat as an adversary, and the entry of Italy into the war on the side of the Allies further complicated the challenges faced by the Austro-Hungarian forces. On 8 September 1915, Erich von Falkenhayn and Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf signed a military convention in Pless . The conference called for an immediate attack on Serbia. Both
18542-782: The treaty and launched a coup d'état when the king returned on 27 March . Army General Dušan Simović seized power, arrested the Vienna delegation, exiled Prince Paul, and ended the regency, giving 17-year-old King Peter full powers. Hitler then decided to attack Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, followed immediately by an invasion of Greece where Mussolini had previously been repelled. At 5:12 a.m. on 6 April 1941, German , Italian and Hungarian forces invaded Yugoslavia . The German Air Force ( Luftwaffe ) bombed Belgrade and other major Yugoslav cities. On 17 April, representatives of Yugoslavia's various regions signed an armistice with Germany in Belgrade, ending eleven days of resistance against
18688-445: The trek across the mountains 77,455 soldiers and 160,000 civilians succumbed to freezing temperatures, starvation, diseases, or enemy actions. Austrian pilots employed new aerial bombardment technology, dropping bombs on the retreating columns, marking what has been described as 'the first aerial bombardment of civilians.' Out of the initial 400,000 people who began this journey, only 120,000 soldiers and 60,000 civilians managed to reach
18834-579: The troops had arrived at their designated strategic positions. During mobilization, Serbia raised approximately 450,000 men of three age-defined classes (or bans) called poziv , which comprised all capable men between the ages of 21 and 45. The operational army consisted of 11 + 1 ⁄ 2 infantry (six of 1st and five of the 2nd ban) and one cavalry division. Aged men of the 3rd ban were organized in 15 infantry regiments with about 45–50,000 men designated for use in rear and line of communications duties. However, some of them were by necessity used as part of
18980-561: The victories against the occupying forces were the battles of Neretva and Sutjeska . On 25 November 1942, the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia was convened in Bihać , modern day Bosnia and Herzegovina . The council reconvened on 29 November 1943, in Jajce , also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and established the basis for post-war organisation of the country, establishing
19126-482: The war were manifold. When World War I ended, the Treaty of Neuilly awarded Western Thrace to Greece, whereas Serbia received some minor territorial concessions from Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary was broken apart, and Hungary lost much land to Yugoslavia and Romania in the Treaty of Trianon . Serbia assumed the leading position in the new Kingdom of Yugoslavia , joined by its old ally, Montenegro . Meanwhile, Italy established
19272-642: The worldwide protests of 1968 . President Josip Broz Tito gradually stopped the protests by giving in to some of the students' demands and saying that "students are right" during a televised speech. However, in the following years, he dealt with the leaders of the protests by sacking them from university and Communist party posts. A more severe sign of disobedience was so-called Croatian Spring of 1970 and 1971, when students in Zagreb organised demonstrations for greater civil liberties and greater Croatian autonomy, followed by mass protests across Croatia. The regime stifled
19418-484: The worst typhus epidemic in world history. With the aid of the American Red Cross and 44 foreign governments, the outbreak was brought under control by the end of the year. The number of civilian deaths is estimated by some sources at 650,000, primarily due to the typhus outbreak and famine , but also direct clashes with the occupiers. Serbia's casualties accounted for 8% of the total Allied military deaths. 58% of
19564-497: Was assassinated in Marseille during an official visit to France in 1934 by Vlado Chernozemski , an experienced marksman from Ivan Mihailov 's Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization with the cooperation of the Ustaše , a Croatian fascist revolutionary organisation. Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council headed by his cousin, Prince Paul . The international political scene in
19710-499: Was divided by the Central Powers, between separate Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian military occupation zones. In the northern and central part of Serbia, which fell under Austro-Hungarian control, a Military General Governorate of Serbia was established, headquartered in Belgrade. The Bulgarian-occupied territory saw the formation of a military government with its center in Niš , with the area further divided into two administrative zones. Both
19856-490: Was hopeless . German Emperor Wilhelm II in his telegram to Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I stated: "Disgraceful! 62,000 Serbs decided the war!". The collapse of the Macedonian front meant that the road to Budapest and Vienna was now opened for the 670,000-strong Army of General Franchet d'Esperey as the Bulgarian surrender deprived the Central Powers of the 278 infantry battalions and 1,500 guns (the equivalent of some 25 to 30 German divisions) that were previously holding
20002-419: Was in control and was determined to lead an independent communist state, starting as a prime minister. He had the support of Moscow and London and led by far the strongest Partisan force with 800,000 men. The official Yugoslav post-war estimate of victims in Yugoslavia during World War II is 1,704,000. Subsequent data gathering in the 1980s by historians Vladimir Žerjavić and Bogoljub Kočović showed that
20148-612: Was launched when German Eleventh Army (GE Eleventh Army) and Austro-Hungarian Third Army (AH Third Army), some 300,000 men strong, started advancing towards the Danube and the Drina and Sava rivers. That day Bulgarian troops started sporadic attacks across various border crossing with Serbia. Early on 7 October crossing of the Sava by Austro-Hungarian Third Army, including the German XXII Reserve Corps, began supported by monitors from
20294-652: Was less centralized than in other socialist countries, may have led to the stronger growth. However, even if the absolute value of the growth rates was not as high as indicated by the official statistics, both the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia were characterized by surprisingly high growth rates of both income and education during the 1950s. The period of European growth ended after the oil price shock in 1970s. Following that, an economic crisis erupted in Yugoslavia due to disastrous economic policies such as borrowing vast amounts of Western capital to fund growth through exports. At
20440-474: Was now in full control, and all opposition elements were eliminated. On 31 January 1946, the new constitution of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia , modelled after the Constitution of the Soviet Union , established six republics , an autonomous province, and an autonomous district that were a part of Serbia. The federal capital was Belgrade. The policy focused on a strong central government under
20586-575: Was proclaimed by the Partisan resistance . In 1944, King Peter II , then living in exile , recognised it as the legitimate government. After a communist government was elected in November 1945, the monarchy was abolished, and the country was renamed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. It acquired the territories of Istria , Rijeka , and Zadar from Italy . Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito ruled
20732-412: Was retained under Tito's rule, though nationalist protests did occur, but these were usually repressed and nationalist leaders were arrested and some were executed by Yugoslav officials. However, the Croatian Spring protests in the 1970s were backed by large numbers of Croats who complained that Yugoslavia remained a Serb hegemony. Tito, whose home republic was Croatia, was concerned over the stability of
20878-648: Was then divided between the Austro-Hungarian occupied zone and the Bulgarian occupied zone . The Serbian government, along with the remnants of its army, evacuated to the Greek island of Corfu , where they regrouped and later played a crucial role in the ultimate Allied victory in the war. Regarding the Kingdom of Serbia as a threat to their territorial integrity and the stability of their multi-ethnic empire, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on 28 July 1914, following
21024-607: Was then occupied and divided between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Bulgaria . After the Allies launched the Vardar Offensive in September 1918, which broke through the Macedonian front and defeated the Bulgarians and their German allies, a Franco -Serbian force advanced into the occupied territories and liberated Serbia, Albania, and Montenegro . Serbian forces entered Belgrade on 1 November 1918. The Serbian army declined severely from about 420,000 at its peak to about 100,000 at
21170-536: Was to reach the Adriatic coast , where the Serbs could regroup and replenish. The retreat involved the remaining army forces, the King, hundreds of thousands of civilian refugees, and war prisoners. It was a perilous journey undertaken in the midst of winter, with severe weather conditions, difficult roads, and the constant threat of attacks by enemy forces and Albanian tribal bands. Between November 1915 and January 1916, during
21316-460: Was to remain part of Yugoslavia, but it was hurriedly building an independent political identity in international relations. Prince Paul submitted to fascist pressure and signed the Tripartite Pact in Vienna on 25 March 1941, hoping to continue keeping Yugoslavia out of the war. However, this was at the expense of popular support for Paul's regency. Senior military officers were also opposed to
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