The tribal designation Serboi first appears in the 1st century in the works of the Tacitus (c. AD 50) and Pliny (AD 69-75), and also in the 2nd century in the Geography of Ptolemy (book 5, 9.21) to designate a tribe dwelling in Sarmatia, probably on the Lower Volga River.
The Slavs (including Serbs) came to the Balkans from a broad region in central and Eastern Europe, which extended from the rivers Elbe in the west to the Dnieper in the east, and from a point which touched the Carpathian mountains in the south and the river Niemen in the north. Different tribes settled in different parts of the Balkan peninsula, subsequently developing their distinct identities after displacing the Romanized Vlach population which already was in the area. The Balkan Vlachs were descendants of Romanized Thracians and Dacians and over time these Vlachs mixed with Slavic tribes; thus present-day Slavic nations of the Balkans, including Bosnian Serbs, have both Slavic and Vlach ancestors.
The Serb settlement in the Balkans appears to have taken place between 610 and 640. Some of the old Ostrogoths had settled with the Serbs, & decided to join their clans. The first certain data on the state of the Serboi, Serbia, dates to the 9th century. The Serbs were Christianized in several waves between the 7th and 9th century, with the last wave taking place between 867 and 874.
During and after that period, Serbs struggled to gain independence from the Byzantine Empire. The first Serb states were Rascia or Raška and Zeta. Their rulers had varying degrees of autonomy, until virtual independence was achieved under Saint Sava, who became the first head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and his brother Stefan Prvovenčani of Serbia, who became the first Serb king. Serbia did not exist as a state of that name, but was rather the region inhabited by the Serbs; its kings and tsars were called the "King of the Serbs" or "Tsar of the Serbs", not "King of Serbia" or "Tsar of Serbia". The medieval Serbian state is nonetheless often (if anachronistically) referred to as "Serbia".
Serbia reached its golden age under the House of Nemanjić, with the Serbian state reaching its apogee of power in the reign of Tsar Stefan Uroš Dušan. Serbia's power subsequently dwindled arising from interminable conflict among the nobility, rendering the country unable to resist the steady incursion of the Ottoman Empire into south-eastern Europe. The Battle of Kosovo in 1389 is commonly regarded in Serbian national mythology as the key event in the country's defeat by the Turks, although in fact, Ottoman rule was not fully imposed until some time later. After Serbia fell, Tvrtko Kotromanić, the king of Bosnia used the title "King of Bosnia, the Serbs, the West-ends and the Primorje" from 1389 to 1390.
As Christians, the Serbs were regarded as a "protected people" under Ottoman law. Some of them converted to Islam in order to be client or governor in Ottoman Empire. Beginning from period of Mehmed II most of the grand viziers are chosen from Serbs[citation needed].
At the beginning of the 19th century, the First Serbian Uprising succeeded in liberating at least some Serbs for a limited time. The Second Serbian Uprising was much more successful, resulting in Ottoman recognition of Serbia as autonomous principality within the Empire. Serbia acquired international recognition as an independent kingdom at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. However, many Serbs remained under foreign rule – that of the Ottomans in the south, and of the Habsburgs in the north and west. The southern Serbs were liberated in the First Balkan War of 1912, while the question of the Habsburg Serbs' independence was the spark that lit World War I two years later. During the war, the Serbian army fought fiercely, eventually retreating through Albania to regroup in Greece, and launched a counter-offensive through Macedonia. Though they were eventually victorious, the war devastated Serbia and killed a huge proportion of its population – by some estimates, over half of the male Serbian population died in the conflict, influencing the region's demographics to this day.
After the war, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later called Yugoslavia) was created. Almost all Serbs finally lived in one state. The new state had its capital in Belgrade and was ruled by a Serbian king; it was, however, unstable and prone to ethnic tensions.
During the Second World War, the Axis Powers occupied Yugoslavia, dismembering the country. Serbia was occupied by the Germans, while in Bosnia and Croatia, Serbs were put under the rule of the Italians and the fascist Ustaša regime in the Independent State of Croatia. Under Ustaša rule in particular, Serbs and other non-Croats were subjected to systematic genocide, known as the Serbian genocide, when hundreds of thousands were killed. The Hungarian and Albanian fascists, who occupied northern and southern parts of the country, also performed persecutions and genocide against the Serb population from these regions.
After the war, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was formed. As with pre-war Yugoslavia, the country's capital was at Belgrade. Serbia was the largest republic. There were also two established autonomous provinces within Serbia - Kosovo (with an Albanian majority) and Vojvodina (with a Serb majority and a large number of different minorities). Besides Serbia, the large Serb populations were concentrated in Bosnia and Herzegovina (where they were largest ethnic group until 1971) and Croatia as well Montenegro with a sizable Serb population.
Communist Yugoslavia collapsed in the early 1990s, with four of its six republics becoming independent states. This led to several bloody civil wars, as the large Serbian communities in Croatia and Bosnia attempted to remain within Yugoslavia, then consisting of only Serbia and Montenegro. Serbs in Croatia formed their state of Republika Srpska Krajina, but they were later military defeated by the Croatian army (expelling hundreds of thousand of Serbian civilians) a shuttering reminder of events in World War 2. Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina formed their state of Republika Srpska, currently one of the two political entities that form the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Another war broke out in Kosovo (see Kosovo War) after years of tensions between Serbs and Albanians. Up to 250,000 Serbs expelled from Croatia during the "Operation Storm" in 1995, and 300,000 left until 1993, and another 200,000 were expelled from Kosovo after the Kosovo War, and settled mostly in Central Serbia and Vojvodina as refugees.
[edit] Subgroups
The subgroups of Serbs are commonly based on regional affiliation. Some of the major subgroups of Serbs include: Šumadinci, Ere, Vojvođani, Bačvani, Banaćani, Bokelji, Sremci, Semberci, Krajišnici, Hercegovci, Torlaks, Shopi,etc.
Montenegrins were/are considered a subgroup of Serbs for a long time by themselves, as well as by Serbs outside Montenegro. In the late 20th century, an independence movement in Montenegro gained ground, resulting in a split among Montenegrins on the issue. Now some consider themselves to belong to a separate Montenegrin nation, however world wide the presence of Serb Montenegrins is prevailing.
