The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—TurkeyHogarth, D. G. (David George)
History
The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—Turkey
Hogarth, D. G. (David George)
Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
Towards the end of the eighth century, after the decline of the power
of the Avars, Charlemagne extended his conquests eastwards (he made a
great impression on the minds of the Slavs, whose word for king, _kral_
or _korol_, is derived directly from his name), and his son Louis
conquered the Serbs settled in the country between the rivers Save and
Drave. This is commemorated in the name of the mass of hill which lies
between the Danube and the Save, in eastern Slavonia, and is to this
day known as _Fruška Gora_, or French Hill. The Serbs and Bulgars
fought against the Franks, and while the Bulgars held their own, the
Serbs were beaten, and those who did not like the rule of the
new-comers had to migrate southwards across the Save; at the same time
the Serbs between the rivers Morava and Timok (eastern Serbia) were
subjected by the Bulgars. With the arrival of the Magyars, in the ninth
century, a wall was raised between the Serbs and central and western
Europe on land. Croatia and Slavonia (between the Save and the Drave)
were gradually drawn into the orbit of the Hungarian state, and in
1102, on the death of its own ruler, Croatia was absorbed by Hungary
and has formed part of that country ever since. Hungary, aiming at an
outlet on the Adriatic, at the same time subjected most of Dalmatia and
parts of Bosnia. In the west Venice had been steadily growing in power
throughout the tenth century, and by the end of it had secured control
of all the islands off Dalmatia and of a considerable part of the
coast. All the cities on the mainland acknowledged the supremacy of
Venice and she was mistress of the Adriatic.
In the interior of the Serb territory, during the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, three political centres came into prominence and shaped
themselves into larger territorial units. These were: (1) Raska, which
had been Caslav’s centre and is considered the birth-place of the
Serbian state (this district, with the town of Ras as its centre,
included the south-western part of the modern kingdom of Serbia and
what was the Turkish _sandjak_ or province of Novi-Pazar); (2) Zeta, on
the coast (the modern Montenegro); and (3) Bosnia, so called after the
river Bosna, which runs through it. Bosnia, which roughly corresponded
to the modern province of that name, became independent in the second
half of the tenth century, and was never after that incorporated in the
Serbian state. At times it fell under Hungarian influence; in the
twelfth century, during the reign of Manuel Comnenus, who was
victorious over the Magyars, Bosnia, like all other Serb territories,
had to acknowledge the supremacy of Constantinople.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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