Serbia

Serbia (Serbian: Република Србија / Republika Srbija), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Србија / Srbija), is a country in Southeastern Europe, and a part of the Balkans. The capital city is Belgrade. To the north of Serbia is the country Hungary. To the east of Serbia are the countries Bulgaria and Romania. To the south of Serbia is the country North Macedonia and Kosovo. To the west of Serbia are the countries Montenegro (the country that was once united with Serbia), Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.

Politics

Serbia is trying to join the European Union. According to the European Commission report in 2023 it is doing too little to settle its differences with Kosovo. Its foreign policy is too close to Russia. There is too much corruption and organised crime. Media independence is weak. Aleksandar Vulin, the head of the state security agency, has been sanctioned by the USA for his links to crime, Russia and “promoting ethno-nationalist narratives that fuel instability in Serbia and the region”.

History

An ancient civilization which inhabited Serbia is called the Vinča culture and used symbols that are called the Vinča script Some people think they are the first writing system. Serbia is also home to the earliest known copper smelting sites and the birth of the Copper Age when people left the Stone Age and went into regular use of metallurgy. The same culture contains the earliest evidence of tin alloy bronze which replaced the much weaker arsenic bronze.

Medieval history

White Serbs, an early Slavic tribe from Northern Europe, came to Northern Greece in the 6th century. By the 8th century they had created the Serbian Principality, a Serbian country, in the Balkans. The Serbs became Christian around the 10th century. For 200 years, the Nemanjić dynasty ruled. They made Serbia a kingdom, built new towns, monasteries, and forts, and made Serbia bigger. In 1371 the Nemanjic Dynasty died out. Serbia became unsafe and local leaders fought each other for control. After the Battle of Kosovo 1389 the Ottoman Empire fought the Serbs for 70 years until in 1459 the Ottoman Turks conquered Serbia and other Balkan countries.

Ottoman period

Once the Ottomans conquered Serbia, they got rid of the Serbian upper class. Most Serbs worked as farmers on land owned by Turks. They had to pay high taxes to the Turks. Some Serbs became Muslims. Serbs had their own laws in the Ottoman Empire through the millet system. The Christian Austrian Empire fought the Turks many times, including in the Great Turkish War of the late 17th Century. In 1718 Austria took northern Serbia and some other places. The last Austro-Turkish war was in 1781-1791.

During the 19th century Serbia gradually became independent. During World War I Austria conquered Serbia but lost the bigger war. Serbia joined other Balkan countries to form Yugoslavia.

Geography

Serbia is found in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. The Danube passes through Serbia. Over 31% of Serbia is covered by forest. National parks take up 10% of the country’s territory. Serbia has 5 national parks and 22 nature reserves.

Birds

Serbia is on the Vardar-Morava Flyway of bird migration, so many birds fly across Serbia when going to Africa and back. Golden Eagle, Nutcracker and Coal Tit live high in the mountains. Nightingale, Chaffinch and Greater Spotted Woodpecker live in the forests in the hills. Saker Falcon, Whinchat and Quail live in steppe and fields in the northern lowland part of Serbia which is called Vojvodina. Syrian Woodpecker, Common Redstart and Collared Dove live in the orchards and farmyards. Black Redstart, Kestrel and Common Swift live in the city center. The Hooded Crow lives everywhere.

The town of Kikinda is known for Long-eared Owls that form flocks in trees at the city squares. Tourists come from other countries to see them. In winter you can see Pygmy Cormorants in Belgrade, at the rivers Sava and Danube.

Economy

Serbia is classed as an upper-middle income economy.

The major processed vegetable crops in Serbia are potatoes, tomatoes and pepper. Serbia is one of the biggest world producers and exporters of raspberries. They are a leading exporter of frozen fruit.

There are four international airports in Serbia: Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, Niš Constantine the Great Airport, Morava International Airport, and Vršac International Airport.

89% of households in Serbia have fixed telephone lines. There are over 9.60 million cell-phones users. This is larger than the number of the total population of Serbia itself by 30%.

Culture

Serbia has a total of eight sites on the UNESCO World Heritage list: The Early Medieval capital Stari Ras and the 13th-century monastery Sopoćani, and the 12th-century monastery Studenica, and the endangered Medieval Monuments in Kosovo group, comprising the monasteries of Visoki Dečani, Our Lady of Ljeviš, Gračanica and Patriarchate of Peć (former seat of the Serbian Church, mausoleum of Serbian royalty) and finally the Roman estate of Gamzigrad–Felix Romuliana. There are two literary memorials on UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme: The 12th-century Miroslav Gospel, and scientist Nikola Tesla’s valuable archive.

The most prominent museum in Serbia is the National Museum of Serbia. It was founded in 1844. It houses a collection of more than 400,000 exhibits, over 5,600 paintings and 8,400 drawings and prints, and includes many foreign masterpiece collections, including Miroslav Gospel.

The official language, Serbian, is written in both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.

Composer and musicologist Stevan Stojanović Mokranjac is said to be one of the most important founders of modern Serbian music.

In the 1990s and the 2000s, many pop music performers rose to fame. Željko Joksimović won second place at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest. Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. Serbia was the host of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008.

Sports

The most popular sports in Serbia are football, basketball, volleyball, handball, water polo and tennis.

The three main football clubs in Serbia are Red Star and Partizan, both from the capital city of Belgrade, and Vojvodina from Novi Sad.

Novak Djokovic, a multiple Grand Slam-winning tennis player and current number one, is from Serbia. Other tennis players from Serbia include Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic.