Country Information on Serbia 

Terrain

Most of the country is covered in mountains, which are characterised in the east by their limestone. The country's highest peak is Mount Daravica (2,656 metres) which is in the south-west of the country. The very fertile and well-irrigated Pannonian Plain stretches across northern Serbia, to the north of the river Sava. The country's main rivers are the Danube, Sava and Tisza.

Climate

Serbia has a very varied climate. In the south of the country, the climate is Mediterranean with hot summers and cooler winters. The north, on the other hand, has warm, humid and rainy summers and cold winters. The average temperature in summer (June to August) is 26°C on the plains - though it can be much hotter; the average in the mountains is 17°C. In winter, the temperature drops to -3°C in the mountains and 0°C on the plains.

Fauna/Flora

The lower mountainous regions are characterized by leafy trees such as oak, elm, maple, walnut, chestnut, ash, willow and lime trees. Woodland areas are a suitable habitat for bears, wolves, foxes, deer and roe deer.

History/Politics

Illyrians and Celts originally lived in Serbia. The Greeks lived there soon afterwards. In the middle of the 2nd century BC, the Romans created the region of Illyria, which was invaded by various Nomadic tribes from the 3rd century AD onwards. Soon after the fall of the Roman Empire, the region was incorporated into the Byzantine Empire. Feudal states began to form from the 7th century onwards. Raska (Serbia) and Zeta (Montenegro) formed at that time. In the middle of the 11th century, the Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja occupied Zeta, put an end to dependence on the Byzantine Empire and created the first independent kingdom of Serbia.

In the 15th century, despite Serbian resistance, the Ottomans conquered Serbia and incorporated it into their Empire. Serbia remained under the Turks until the 19th century. Throughout the 19th century, the Serbs fought for independence. They finally succeeded in regaining it in 1878 when the independence of Serbia was recognised at the Congress of Berlin. Serbia became a kingdom in 1882. From then onwards, relations between the Austro Hungarian Empire and Serbia became tense again as a result of border disputes, Austria's participation in the Balkan wars and the Austrian annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1914, a nationalist Bosnian Serb student assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the Habsburg heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary and his wife, which quickly led to World War I. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes formed in 1918, at the end of the war, with Alexander I as its king. Conflicts between the Croats and Serbs led to nationalist tensions and the assassination of King Alexander, who was succeeded by Peter II. During the Second World War, Peter II fled to London and Yugoslavia was occupied by the Nazis, which caused the Communists, under Josip Broz Tito, to organise a guerrilla resistance.

At the end of the war, Tito dethroned the king and created the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, which meant that the country remained a whole. Although Tito gave the different ethnic groups the status of independent ethnic groups, the union did not prevent conflicts from breaking out between them. Following the death of Tito in 1980, the conflicts escalated and in the 1990s led to the independence of Slovenia and independence wars between the republics of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the union of Serbia and Montenegro in the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and bloody wars between the people and other republics and the Serbs who had settled amongst them. After three terms as president of Serbia, Slobodan Milosevic became president of the new republic in 1997; the conflict between Yugoslavia and Kosovo intensified in 1998 and Albanian Kosovars were massacred. In 1999, as a result of international pressure, Milosevic agreed to withdraw the Yugoslav army from Kosovo; NATO peacekeepers moved in.

Vojislav Kostunica won the elections in October 2000. Milosevic was captured in April 2001 for the misuse of public funds and he was charged with crimes against humanity soon afterwards. He was put on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague. Serbia declared its independence after Montenegro voted for the dissolution of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro on 2 June 2006.

Economy

The collapse of Yugoslavia in 1991 and the intensity of the fighting that broke out caused the destabilisation of federal borders and a disruption to important trade flows between the various republics. The fighting also led to a loss of suppliers and markets and the destruction of facilities, which in turn caused a sharp drop in business output and meant that the republics faced serious economic problems. Economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations in 1992 and the subsequent naval blockade only made the situation worse. The sanctions were lifted in 1996 and the country has since, with international aid, actively tried to create an economic policy suited to the new circumstances and implement a reconstruction process. In 2003, inflation was 11.4% and the unemployment rate was 29.9%.

Culture

Serbia's cultural heritage shows influences of Balkan folk architecture, as well as Orthodox monasteries and churches that date back to the Middle Ages. Djordje Krstic is a well-known 19th century painter. Ivo Andric was one of the most famous poets of the 20th century, who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1961.