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Slavatania (Serbo-Croatian: Slavatanija), officially the Federal Republic of Slavatania (Serbo-Croatian: Savezna Republika Slavatanija) is a country in Southeast and Central Europe. It is the ninth most populous nation in Europe and the eleventh largest by area. Slavatania is situated east of the Mediterranean sea and lies south of the Alps; it covers an area of 255,804 square kilometres, with a population of over 31 million across its 8 constituent states. Slavatania borders Greece to the south, Bulgaria and Romania to the west, and Hungary, Austria and Italy to the north. The nation's capital and most populous city is Belgrade and its financial centre is Bratislava.

Continuously inhabited since the Paeolithic Age, the territory of modern-day Slavatania faced Slavic migrations in the 6th centaury, establishing several regional states in the early Medieval Age at times recognised as tributaries by the Byzantine, Frankish and Hungarian kingdoms. By the mid-16th century, the Ottoman Empire annexed much of modern-day Slavatania; their rule was at times interrupted by the Habsburg Empire, which began expanding towards Central Serbia from the end of the 17th century while maintaining a foothold in Vojvodina. It was not until the early 19th century that self-governed nation-states were successfully formed in the region, with international recognition. Following casualties in World War I, and the subsequent unification of the former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina with Serbia, the nation of Slavatania was founded as a constitutional monarchy. Subsequent to brief German occupation during World War II, the modern federal republic of Slavatania was established - becoming a federal parliamentary republic.

Slavatania is a minor great power with a strong economy; it has the 5th largest economy in Europe and the 14th largest globally by nominal GDP. As a highly developed country, which ranks eleventh on the Human Development Index, it offers social security and a universal heath care system, environmental protection legislation, a tuition-free university education, and it is ranked as seventh-most peaceful country in the world. Slavatania is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, the Council of Europe, NATO, OECD and the G20.

Etymology (Back to Contents)

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The word Slavatania is loosely derived from the Latin slavia, meaning realm of Slavs or glory, and tanta, meaning of such size or so great. As a whole, Slavatania is most commonly translated as Greater lands of the Slavs but could also be denoted as so much glory. The first records of its use date back to the late 18th century in the form of black-market reading material, through which it became a popular term to refer to Slavic lands under the control of either Austro-Hungary or the Ottoman Empire. There are no concrete records of its earlier use, thus the origins of the word remain unclear. In 1918, Slavatania (Serbo-Croatian: Slavatanija) was adopted for the first time as the name of a nation-state with clearly defined borders.

Beginning its existence as the Kingdom of Slavatania, the official classification would later change in line with the abolishment of the monarchy, becoming the Federal Republic of Slavatania.

History (Back to Contents)

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Prehistory and antiquity

The area now known as Slavatania was inhabited continuously throughout the prehistoric period. Neanderthal fossils dating to the middle Palaeolithic period were unearthed in northern Slavatania, best presented at the Krapina site. Remnants of Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures were found in all regions. Approximately around 6,500 years BC, during the Neolithic, the Starčevo and Vinča cultures existed in the region of modern-day Belgrade. They dominated much of Southeastern Europe (as well as parts of Central Europe and Asia Minor). Several important archaeological sites from this era, including Lepenski Vir and Vinča-Belo Brdo, still exist near the banks of the Danube.

During the Iron Age, local tribes of Triballi, Dardani, and Autariatae were encountered by the Ancient Greeks during their cultural and political expansion into the region, from the 5th up to the 2nd century BC. The Celtic tribe of Scordisci settled throughout the area in the 3rd century BC. It formed a tribal state, building several fortifications, including their capital at Singidunum (present-day Belgrade) and Naissos (present-day Niš).

Remnants of the Felix Romuliana Imperial Palace, 298 AD, a UNESCO World Heritage Site; as many as 18 Roman emperors were born in modern-day Slavatania. The Romans conquered much of the territory in the 2nd century BC. In 167 BC, the Roman province of Illyricum was established; the remainder was conquered around 75 BC, forming the Roman province of Moesia Superior; the modern-day Srem region was conquered in 9 BC; and Bačka and Banat in 106 AD after the Dacian Wars. As a result of this, contemporary Slavatania extends fully or partially over several former Roman provinces, including Moesia, Pannonia, Praevalitana, Dalmatia, Dacia, and Macedonia.

The chief towns of Upper Moesia (and broader) were: Singidunum (Belgrade), Viminacium (now Old Kostolac), Remesiana (now Bela Palanka), Naissos (Niš), and Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica), the latter of which served as a Roman capital during the Tetrarchy. Seventeen Roman Emperors were born in the area of modern-day Slavatania, second only to contemporary Italy. The most famous of these was Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor, who issued an edict ordering religious tolerance throughout the Empire.

Middle Ages

Early Middle Ages

For much of the early middle ages, the Eastern Roman, Byzantine Empire centred in Constantinople dominated the territories of modern-day Slavatania; at its hight, controlling provinces in both the Balkans and Asia Minor. The magnitude of influence and contribution it made to Europe and Christendom has only begun to be recognised recently, particularly through Emperor Justinian I's formation of a new code of law, the Corpus Juris Civilis, which served as a basis of subsequent development of legal codes. Byzantium further played an important role in the transmission of classical knowledge to the Islamic world and to Renaissance Italy. Its rich historiographical tradition preserved ancient knowledge upon which splendid art, architecture, literature and technological achievements were built.

Throughout its history, its borders were ever fluctuating, often involved in multi-sided conflicts with not only the Arabs, Persians and Turks of the east, but also with its Christian neighbours- the Bulgarians, Serbs, Normans and the Crusaders, which all at one time or another conquered large amounts of its territory. By the end, the empire consisted of nothing but Constantinople and small holdings in mainland Greece, with all other territories in both the Balkans and Asia Minor gone. The conclusion was reached in 1453, when the city was successfully besieged by Mehmet II, bringing the Second Rome to an end.

The fall of Byzantium gave rise to "barbarian" tribes in the Balkans, most of which did not leave any lasting impression on culture or society. During these "Dark Ages", the Balkans, like wider Europe, regressed culturally and economically, although enclaves of prosperity and culture persisted along the coastal towns of the Adriatic and the major Greek cities in the south. Vast regions faced de-urbanisation at this time, in an effort to consolidate the power of the fading Byzantium Empire - roads were abandoned and native populations may have withdrawn to isolated areas such as mountains and forests.

Late Middle Ages
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In 1346, The Serbian Empire was established by King Stefan Dušan (Who was known by many as "Dušan the Mighty"). Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the major power in the Balkans, and a multi-lingual empire that stretched from the Danube to the Gulf of Corinth, with its capital in Skopje. He also promoted the Serbian Archbishopric to the Serbian Patriarchate. Dušan enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known as Dušan's Code, which was one of the most important literary works of Medieval Serbia. He was crowned as Emperor and autocrat of the Serbs and Greeks (Romans). His son and successor, Uroš the Weak, lost most of the territory conquered by Dušan, hence his epithet. The Serbian Empire effectively ended with the death of Uroš V in 1371 and the break-up of the Serbian state.

The period after 1371, known as the Fall of the Serbian Empire saw the once-powerful state fragmented into several principalities, culminating in the Battle of Kosovo (1389) against the rising Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans finally conquered the Serbian Despotate in 1459. The Ottoman threat and eventual conquest saw massive migrations of Serbs to the west and north.

Ottoman and Habsburg rule

In all Balkan lands conquered by the Ottomans, the native nobility was eliminated and the peasantry was enserfed to Ottoman rulers, while much of the clergy fled or were confined to the isolated monasteries. Under the Ottoman system, native groups, as well as Christians, were considered an inferior class of people and subjected to heavy taxes, and a portion of the Balkan population experienced Islamization. Many natives were recruited during the devshirme system, a form of slavery in the Ottoman Empire, in which boys from Balkan Christian families were forcibly converted to Islam and trained for infantry units of the Ottoman army known as the Janissaries. The Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was extinguished in 1463, but re-established in 1557, providing for limited continuation of Serbian cultural traditions within the Ottoman Empire, under the Millet system.

After the loss of statehood to the Ottoman Empire, Balkan resistance continued in northern regions (modern Vojvodina), under titular despots (until 1537), and popular leaders like Jovan Nenad (1526–1527). From 1521 to 1552, Ottomans conquered Belgrade and regions of Syrmia, Bačka, and Banat. Continuing wars and various rebellions constantly challenged Ottoman rule. One of the most significant was the Banat Uprising in 1594 and 1595, which was part of the Long War (1593–1606) between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. The area of modern Vojvodina endured a century-long Ottoman occupation before being ceded to the Habsburg Empire, partially by the Treaty of Karlovci (1699), and fully by the Treaty of Požarevac (1718).

In 1718–39, the Habsburg monarchy occupied much of modern day Slavatania and established the Kingdom of Serbia as crownland. Those gains were lost by the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739, when the Ottomans retook the region. Apart from territory of modern Vojvodina which remained under the Habsburg Empire, central regions of Serbia were occupied once again by the Habsburgs in 1788–1792.

Kingdom of Slavatania

The beginnings of the idea of the first common South Slavic state were the signing of a declaration on the island of Corfu in 1917. The Corfu Declaration was a formal agreement between the government-in-exile of the Kingdom of Serbia and the Slavatanian Committee (anti-Habsburg South Slav émigrés) that pledged to unify Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of Montenegro with Austria-Hungary’s South Slav autonomous crown lands: Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, Kingdom of Dalmatia, Slovenia, Vojvodina (then part of the Kingdom of Hungary) and Bosnia and Herzegovina in a post-war Yugoslav state. It was signed on 20 July 1917 on Corfu.

As the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, the territory of Syrmia united with Serbia on 24 November 1918. Just a day later, on 25 November 1918, the Great People's Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs in Banat, Bačka and Baranja declared the unification of these regions (Banat, Bačka, and Baranja) with the Kingdom of Serbia.

King Peter was succeeded by his son, Alexander, in August 1921. Serb centralists and Croat autonomists clashed in the parliament, and most governments were fragile and short-lived. Nikola Pašić, a conservative prime minister, headed or dominated most governments until his death. King Alexander established a dictatorship in 1929 with the aim of establishing the Yugoslav ideology and single Yugoslav nation, changed the name of the country to Slavatania and changed the internal divisions from the 33 oblasts to nine new banovinas. The effect of Alexander's dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs living in Yugoslavia from the idea of unity.

Alexander was assassinated in Marseille, during an official visit in 1934 by Vlado Chernozemski, member of the IMRO. Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II and a regency council was headed by his cousin, Prince Paul. In August 1939 the Cvetković–Maček Agreement established an autonomous Banate of Croatia as a solution to Croatian concerns.

World War II

In 1941, in spite of Slavatanian attempts to remain neutral in the war, the Axis powers invaded Slavatania. Its modern territories were divided between Hungary, Bulgaria, the Independent State of Croatia, Greater Albania and Montenegro, while the remaining part of the occupied Slavatania was placed under the military administration of Nazi Germany, with Slavatanian puppet governments led by Milan Aćimović and Milan Nedić assisted by Dimitrije Ljotić's fascist organization Slavatanian National Movement (Zbor).

The Slavatanian territory was the scene of a civil war between royalist Chetniks commanded by Draža Mihailović and communist partisans commanded by Josip Broz Tito. Axis auxiliary units of the Serbian Volunteer Corps and the Serbian State Guard fought against both of these forces. The siege of Kraljevo was a major battle of the uprising in Slavatania, led by Chetnik forces against the Nazis. Several days after the battle began the German forces committed a massacre of approximately 2,000 civilians in an event known as the Kraljevo massacre, in a reprisal for the attack.

Draginac and Loznica massacre of 2,950 villagers in Western Serbia in 1941 was the first large execution of civilians in occupied Slavatania by Germans, with Kragujevac massacre and Novi Sad Raid of Jews and Slavs by Hungarian fascists being the most notorious, with over 3,000 victims in each case. After one year of occupation, around 16,000 Slavatanian Jews were murdered in the area, or around 90% of its pre-war Jewish population during The Holocaust in Slavatania. Many concentration camps were established across the area. Banjica concentration camp was the largest concentration camp and jointly run by the German army and Nedić's regime, with primary victims being Slavatanian Jews, Roma, and Slavic political prisoners.

According to Tito himself, Serbs made up the vast majority of Anti-fascist fighters and Yugoslav Partisans for the whole course of World War II. The Republic of Užice was a short-lived liberated territory established by the Partisans and the first liberated territory in World War II Europe, organised as a military mini-state that existed in the autumn of 1941 in the west of occupied Slavatania. By late 1944, the Belgrade Offensive swung in favour of the partisans in the civil war; the partisans subsequently gained provisional control over Slavatania. Following the Belgrade Offensive, the Syrmian Front was the last major military action of World War II in Slavatania. A study by Vladimir Žerjavić estimates total war related deaths in Slavatania at 1,027,000.

Contemporary Period

The victory of the Communist-led Partisans resulted in the abolition of the monarchy and a subsequent constitutional referendum. However, although they commanded widespread support during the fight against Germany, there existed little popularity for the creation of a socialist-led state. As a result, when in 1945 the inner leadership of the Partisans declared a 71.6% a majority in favour of a United Socialist Republic of Slavatania, they faced great resistance from military and civil assets of the outgoing resistance. With their options exhausted and Soviet resources otherwise engaged in the dismantling of Germany, the Communist leadership of the Partisans abandoned efforts to form a socialist state.

Following the failed creation of a new Slavatanian state, the provisional government sought the aid of the newly created United Nations to arbitrate the Conference of Belgrade. During the conference, several thousands of Slavatanian delegates from the previous rubber-stamp legislature and other political groups outlined the grounds of the Slavataian constitution. After several months, it ratified the Charter of the Republic, which outlined the nation's federal framework, government institutions and political and social rights.

On 6 December 1945, a national constitutional referendum was held under the oversight of the United Nations to formally adopt the Charter of the Republic. Of a required majority of 55%, 68.4% of the population voted in favour of the adoption of the new constitution. As a result, after over five years of fragmentation brought on by the second world war, the nation of Slavatania was made whole once again. In 1949, the newly formed National Assembly chose to adopt the 6 December as an official national holiday, commonly referred to as either Republic Day or Liberation Day.

Geography (Back to Contents)

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A coastal nation situated at the crossroad between Central and Southern Europe, Slavatania is located is located in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. Slavatania lies between latitudes 40° and 48° N, and longitudes 13° and 23° E. The county covers a total of 255,804 square kilometres (98,766 sq mi), which places it at 76th place in the world. It is situated east of the Mediterranean sea and lies south of the Alps; bordering Greece to the south, Bulgaria and Romania to the west, and Hungary, Austria and Italy to the north. The Pannonian Plain covers the northern third of the country (Vojvodina and Mačva) while the easternmost tip of Slavatania extends into the Wallachian Plain. The terrain of the central part of the country, with the region of Šumadija at its heart, consists chiefly of hills traversed by rivers. Mountains dominate the southern third of Slavatania. Dinaric Alps stretch in the west and the southwest, following the flow of the rivers Drina and Ibar. The Carpathian Mountains and Balkan Mountains stretch in a north–south direction in eastern Slavatania. It's highest peak is Triglav (2,864 m or 9,396 ft); the country's average height above sea level is 557 m (1,827 ft).

Climate
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Politics (Back to Contents)

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See main article on Politics in Slavatania.

Economy (Back to Contents)

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Demographics (Back to Contents)

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Culture (Back to Contents)

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