Principality of Serbia
The Principality of Serbia (Serbian: Књажество Србија, romanized: Knjažestvo Srbija) was an autonomous state in the Balkans that came into existence as a result of the Serbian Revolution, which lasted between 1804 and 1817.[2] Its creation was negotiated first through an unwritten agreement between Miloš Obrenović, leader of the Second Serbian Uprising, and Ottoman official Marashli Pasha. It was followed by the series of legal documents published by the Sublime Porte in 1828, 1829 and finally, 1830—the Hatt-i Sharif. Its de facto independence ensued in 1867, following the evacuation of the remaining Ottoman troops from the Belgrade Fortress and the country; its independence was recognized internationally in 1878 by the Treaty of Berlin. In 1882 the country was elevated to the status of kingdom.
For other uses, see Principality of Serbia (disambiguation).
Principality of SerbiaКняжество Сербіа
Књажество Србија
Књажество Србија
- Belgrade (1841–1882)
- Kragujevac (1818–1841)
- Gornja Crnuća (1815–1818)
Absolute monarchy (1815–1838)
Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy (1838–1882)
None (rule by decree)
(1815–1838)
National Assembly
(1838–1882)
1815
15 February 1835
1867
13 July 1878
1882
24,440 km2 (9,440 sq mi)
37,511 km2 (14,483 sq mi)
322,500–342,000
702,000
1,353,000
The Principality of Serbia in 1817
The Principality of Serbia in 1833
The Principality of Serbia from 1833 to 1878
In the first decades of the principality, the population was about 85% Serb and 15% non-Serb. Of those, most were Vlachs, and there were some Muslim Albanians, which were the overwhelming majority of the Muslims that lived in Smederevo, Kladovo and Ćuprija. The new state aimed to homogenize of its population. As a result, from 1830 to the wars of the 1870s in which Albanians were expelled from the country, it has been estimated that up to 150,000 Albanians that lived in the territories of the Principality of Serbia had been expelled.[6] In 1862 more than 10,000 Muslims were expelled to Ottoman Bulgaria and Ottoman Bosnia.[7] During the Serbian–Ottoman Wars of 1876–1878, the Muslim population was expelled from the Sanjak of Niš.
