A Brief History of Kosovo

The Republic of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008 and has been recognized by 91 member states of the UN to date. It borders the Republic of Macedonia to the south, Albania to the west and Montenegro to the Northwest. On its north and East is Serbia, who still claims Kosovo to be part of its sovereign territory, albeit controlled by the United Nations. Further confusing the Balkans region is North Kosovo, a disputed area of Kosovo which both Kosovo and Serbia claim to be their own, but is primarily made up of Kosovar Serbs and runs like Serbia within Kosovo.

Ok to recap, we have Kosovo which is inside of Serbia and is de facto independent but still claimed by Serbia and within Kosovo is North Kosovo which is claimed by both Kosovo and Serbia but is run by Kosovar Serbs in conjuction with Serbia. Got it? Unfortunately, a brief look at this trouble filled Balkan nation doesn't offer any simpler understanding of its history.

Kosovo was occupied in its earliest times by prehistoric tribes, meaning people that didn't write their history down, not cavemen. Although, Kosovo did have a pretty cool prehistoric past. But, in the 1st century AD, the Roman Empire took over the region that would become Kosovo in the 1st Century AD and called it Moesia Superior. When the Western Roman Empire began to fall apart due to hoards of barbarians coming up against some pretty terrible rulers of the Late Western Empire a bunch of Slavic people began to migrate to the area. This was during the 6th and 7th centuries. After all this Slavic shifting the area became part of the Bulgarian Empire that arose to challenge Constantinople as a power in the region. But, the Byzantine Empire flexed their muscles and wrenched control of the region back from the Bulgarians.

The Kosovars however were not easily managed and had a penchant for bucking under Byzantine rule. They bounced back and forth allying themselves with Serbian rules and Bulgarian ones so long as they didn't have to pay homage to the Eastern Emperors. Finally this culminated in the powerful but short-lived Serbian Empire. It's patently unfair to call them short-lived but they're in roughly the same region as their contemporaries the Byzantines. Every one seems short-lived compared to them no? But, under the Serbian Empire, Kosovo became the spiritual center of the Serbian Kingdom. It was under this point in Kosovo history that the famous Battle of Kosovo pitted the Serbs against the burgeoning Ottoman Empire. The Serbs and Kosovars fought valiantly and decimated the Ottoman Army. Unfortunately the Serbs were also decimated and unlike the Ottomans did not possess massive reserves of fighting men to the east. Eventually because of the lack of manpower the Serbian Empire and thus, Kosovo would become part of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century.

The Ottomans brought many changes, especially the Islamic faith. Ethnic Serbs clung to Christianity but their neighbors the ethnic Albanians generally converted. (This is of course an over simplification but for the sake of brevity one that must be made). This created a tinderbox effect and would have extremely long and devastating consequences. In the late 19th century and early 20th century nationalism was added to the already present religious tensions of the region. Muslim Albanians fought against the Ottoman Empire for more autonomy while many Christian Serbs wanted out. As Kosovo had both of these parties the place was on eggshells to say the least. Then, World War I broke out. Eventually out of the ashes, Yugoslavia would take over the area once owned by the now defunct Ottoman Empire.

The confusing and muddled history of Kosovo continued into the Yugoslavian days as Yugoslavia moved from monarchy to communist state. Many parts of Yugoslavia got their own their own special status as a Socialist Republic within the nation. Serbia was one of them, but Kosovo (inside the SR Serbia) got its own autonomous position as a province. This kept tensions high and as Yugoslavia began to disintegrate Serbia tried to assert its authority over much of the dying nation. Slobodan Milosevic rose to power and in basic response to this Kosovo first declared itself a separate socialist republic within Yugoslavia and then its own independent state. This led to war in the 1990's that witnessed some horrific atrocities and ethnic cleansing in the war between primarily Muslim Albanians and the Christian Serbs. For much of the 1990's Kosovo called itself the Republic of Kosova, but it was only internationally recognized by Albania. In 2000 the region became controlled by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, the status which Serbia still recognizes it. But, The Republic of Kosovo declared its independence from both the UN and Serbia in 2008.

And that is a brief, probably far too brief, but basic understanding of where Kosovo stands in Modern European History. Unfortunately the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia seems to be still brewing under the surface. Just yesterday a story emerged that Serbia was blocking Kosovo in the neutral buffer zone because Serbia was unhappy with the commercial goods moving north out of Kosovo. It is minor incidents like these that could lead to a further escalation of the long standing crisis that could erupt into another confusing and unfortunately bloody war, rife with ethnic and religious divisions.

The Duplicitous Dubrovnikians

Today, I was in Cabarete, Dominican Republic. First, allow me to plug this delightful seaside town. Cabarete is among my favorite places that I have ever been. Even then it is a bit of a backwater, it is incredibly cosmopolitan. I stayed at the Kite Beach Inn, which was unbelievably affordable, well kept and fantastically run. The place is owned by someone from Chicago, but currently run by an Italian couple and they were delightful. We stayed there for two nights for under $65 in an air conditioned room. It is among the best places I've stayed in Cabarete. The only drawback is to the hotel is that it is a bit removed from the center of the town where our favorite places are. However, because of its boonies status, we found this incredible breakfast nook next to the Dare2fly Kite School. The breakfast nook was run by a Yugoslavian refugee that fled to the Dominican Republic after she and her family fled Belgrade after a bombing in 2000. 

The breakfast was excellent. It was the first good bagel I've had since I was in Brooklyn in 2011. As we were leaving the place though I mentioned that I might be going on a honeymoon to Split, Croatia because of its history. She however suggested that we go to Dubrovnik, as it was in her estimation, one of the most gorgeous cities in the world. Interested, I checked the place out and saw that it had a fascinating history. So without further ado, here is the brief history of Dubrovnik.

Dubrovnik is currently a Croatian city on the Adriatic coast. There are a couple of theories as to when it was founded. The older theory suggests that it was founded sometime in the 7^th century AD by some refugees. However, another theory suggests that the city is much older and was founded sometime prior to the BC/AD switchover by Greek sailors who would have likely made it a port between two other Greek settlements in the area, Budva and Korčula. This alternate theory is boosted by the presence of a Byzantine basilica from the 8^th century that was large enough to suggest that Dubrovnik was quite populous in its time. It would have been unlikely to grow so rapidly in an hundred years to warrant such a large church.

If the latter theory is to be believed the ancient Greek settlement would have fallen into the hands of the Roman Empire during the conquest of Dalmatia and then became part of the Ostrogothic kingdom upon the fall of the Western Empire. From there it seems to have been protected by the Byzantine Empire in the east and grew to a respectable maritime power in the region. But, another more famous maritime power decided that this little city could not be allowed to grow into a more serious threat. Venice began as early as 948 AD, though with no success. Venice wouldn’t give up on this though and eventually took over the city and its lands in 1205 during the fourth crusade.

Venice ruled over Dubrovnik for about 150 years. When the city finally broke free they became the Republic of Ragusa. Being a smallish kingdom they searched for a big brother to keep them safe. This led them into the hands of the Ottoman Empire. The Republic of Ragusa remained free, but paid some cash to the Ottomans for protection. This fended off the Venetians. It also paid off some dividends. Ragusa got special trade permissions in the Ottoman Empire and did all of the Ottoman’s business along the Adriatic Sea. The Republic became quite wealthy and was a viable alternative and fierce rival of Venice.

It was after it broke free from Venice when it tried its hands at the double game, playing both sides against the middle. Dubrovnik looked initially to the Hungarians for some muscle to back them up. Then, to make sure that Venice wouldn’t try any of its old tricks, the Republic of Ragusa cozied up to the Ottoman Empire, declaring their allegiance to the Sultan. This arrangement worked well for a while, but as the Ottomans pushed to far into Europe it made the Hapsburgs quite cantankerous. The Austrians got their crew together, including Venice and began to push back. For a little while the duplicitous Dubrovnikians found themselves paying homage both the Emperor of Austria and the Sultan of the Ottomans. After the Austrians and their allies defeated the Ottomans and the Ottomans had to give up a large chunk of their eastern European holdings Venice began to make a power play at Ragusa. Venice began to grab up all the land surrounding the republic, which would have given them a chance to attack Ragusa from both land and sea. But, Dubrovnik played another master stroke, giving some of their land to the defeated Ottomans to build a buffer between themselves and Venice. As much as the Austrians loved to quarrel with the Ottomans they weren’t about to start a new war so that Venice could snuff out their old rivals.

The double-dealings of the Ragusans could not save them forever though. After the end of the Austrian – Ottoman conflict simmered down a bit, the rest of Europe decided to duke it out over the 1700s. Ragusa however decided to stay neutral. They used their neutrality to trade between enemies and this somehow worked really well. Until of course Napoleon came along and screwed everything up for everyone. Napoleon pushed down into the Balkans and began to gobble up all of the cities and forts along the way. The Russians who were in the area came up to Dubrovnik and asked to use their very defensible city against the onslaught of Napoleon’s forces. Ragusa balked and the Russians besieged the city. But, it would be the French who eventually occupied the city. Dubrovnik would become a big fish in a small pond as a part of the Illyrian Provinces of the French Empire. But, Napoleon would have his Waterloo, which for Napoleon actually was Waterloo and the Republic of Ragusa would be folded into the Austrian-Hungarian Empire as the Kingdom of Dalmatia. The Hapsburgs decided however that Dubrovnik had been a seat of power for long enough. The capital of the newly created puppet kingdom would be Zadar. Dubrovnik would fall out of fashion and a number of the city’s noble families would move away. Dubrovnik would last in the Austrian Empire until 1918 when it was transferred into the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. This little political experiment wouldn’t last and the city would become a part of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia would go from kingdom to socialist republic to bloody civil war and in the end, Dubrovnik would wind up being in the modern state of Croatia.