he region of Kosovo has been inhabited by Illyrian tribes since the Bronze Age. In ancient times the area has been known as Dardania and was settled by a tribe with the same name. The south of Kosovo was ruled by Macedonia since Alexander the Great's reign in the 4th century BC. The Dardani were of Illyrian or Thracian stock. Illyrians organised resistance against Greeks and Romans for hundreds of years but after the long wars of Illyrian tribes against intruders, the region was later occupied by the Roman Empire under Emperor Augustus. When the Roman Empire split in A.D. 395, the area of Kosovo came under the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire. Dardania gave numerous leaders to both Rome and Constantinopole. Justinian the Great was among them.
Slavs, or Serbs in precise, came to the territories of roughly modern-day Kosovo in the 6th-7th century. They were invited to settle in the area south of Danube as farmers by Byzantine emperor Heraclius to protect the area from invading Avars. The slavs were Christianized in several waves between the 7th and 9th century with the last wave taking place between 867 and 874. But by then Kosovo proper was ruled by the Bulgarians and Byzantines from the 850s until 1014, while Metohija became a part of the Principality of Rascia.
The Serbs begin the takeover of Kosovo in the 11th century under a branch of the House of Voislav as the Grand Princes of Rascia. In 1093, Prince Vukan advanced all the way to Lipljan, burned it down and raided the neighbouring areas. The Byzantine Emperor himself came to Zvečan for negotiations. A peace was concluded, but Vukan broke it and defeated the army of John Comnenus, the Emperor's nephew. His armies stormed Kosovo. Byzantine Emperor Alexius had to come to Ulpiana (today's Lypjan) in 1094 and negotiate again. Peace was concluded and Vukan gave hostages to the Emperor, including his nephews Uroš and Stefan Vukan. Prince Vukan renewed the warring in 1106, once again defeating John Comnenus' army, but Vukan's following death put a halt to a total conquest of Kosovo.
In 1166 - 1168, a Serbian nobleman from Zeta, Stefan Nemanja, the founder of the House of Nemanja asserted to the Rascian Grand Princely throne and conquered most of Kosovo in an uprising against the Byzantine Emperor. He defeated the previous Grand Prince, his brother, Tihomir's army at Pantino. Tihomir was drowned in the Sitnica river. Nemanja was eventually defeated and had to return some of his conquests, and vouched to the Byzantine Emperor that he would not raise his hand against him. In 1183, Nemanja embarked on a new offensive with the Hungarians after the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus death.
Nemanja's son, Stephen II the First-crowned of Nemanja, recorded Nemanja's conquests, as Nemanja restored Kosovo from the Greeks, the border of the Serbian realm reaching the river of Lab. Grand Prince Stephen II finished the inclusion of the Kosovo territories in 1208, by which time he had conquered Prizren and Lipljan, and moved the border of his realm to the Šar mountain.
In 1217, the Serbian Kingdom achieved recognition. In 1219, an autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church was created, with the Hvosno, Prizren and Lipljan Episcoprics on Kosovo. By the end of the 13th century, the centre of the Serbian Church was moved to Peć from Žiča.
In the 13th century, Kosovo becomes the heart of the Serbian political and religious life with the Šar mountain becoming the political center of the Serbian rulers. The main chatteu was that in Pauni. On an island was Svrčin and on the coast Štimlji, and in the mountains was the Castle of Nerodimlje. The Complexes were used for counciling, crowning of rulers, negotiating and as the rulers' living quarters. After 1291, the Tartars broke all the way to Peć. Serbian King Stefan Milutin managed to defeat them and then chase them further. He raised the Temple of the Mother of Christ of Ljeviška in Prizren around 1307, which became the seat of the Prizren Episcopric and the magnificent Gračanica in 1335, the seat of the Lipljan Episcopric. In 1331, Juvenille King Dušan attacked his father, Serbian King Stefan of Dechani at his castle in Nerodimlje. King Stefan closed in his neighbouring fortress of Petrič, but Dušan captures him and closed him with his second wife Maria Palailogos and their children in Zvečan, where the dethroned King died on 11 November 1331.
In 1327 and 1328, Serbian King Stefan of Dechani started forming the vast Dečani domain, although, Serbian King Dušan would finish it in 1335. Stefan of Dechani issued that Dechani Charter in 1330. Listing every single citizen in every household under the Church Land's demesne.
King and Tsar Stefan Dušan founded the vast Monastery of Saint Archaengel near Prizren in 1342-1352. King Dušan declared himself as Emperor of Serbs and Greeks in 1345, thereby starting the Serbian Empire. Stefan Dušan received John Cantakuzines in 1342 in his Castle in Pauni to discuss a joint War against the Byzantine Emperor. In 1346, the Serbian Archepiscopric at Peć was upgraded into a Patriarchate, but not recognized before 1370.
After the Serbian Empire fell into disarray prior to his death in 1355, feudal anarchy caught up with the country during the reign of Tsar Stefan Uroš V. Kosovo became a domain of the House of Mrnjavčević, but Prince Voislav Voinović expanded his demesne further onto Kosovo. The armies of King Vukašin Mrnjavčević from Priština and his allies defeated Voislav's forces in 1369, putting a halt to his advances. After the Battle of Marica on 26 September 1371 in which the Mrnjavčević brothers lost their lives, Đurađ I Balšić of Zeta took Prizren and Peć in 1372. A part of Kosovo became the demesne of the House of Lazarević.
The Ottomans invaded the Serbian Realm and met the coalition of South East European nobility on 28 June 1389, near Pristina, at Gazi Mestan. The Serbian Army was assisted by various allies. The epic Battle of Kosovo followed, in which Prince Lazar himself lost his life. Prince Lazar amassed 70,000 men on the battlefield and the Ottomans had 140,000. Through the cunning of Miloš Obilić Sultan Murad was murdered and the new Sultan Beyazid had, despite winning the battle, to retreat to consolidate his power. The Ottoman Sultan was buried with one of his sons at Gazi Mestan. Both Prince Lazar and Miloš Obilić were canonised by the Serbian Ortodox Church for their efforts in the battle. The local House of Branković came to prominence as the local lords of Kosovo, under Vuk Branković, with the temporary fall of the Serbian Despotate in 1439. Another great battle occurred between the Hungarian troops supported by (self-proclaimed King) Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, and Ottoman troops supported by the Brankovićs in 1448. Skanderbeg's troops which were going to help John Hunyadi were stopped by the Brankovic's troops, who was more or less a Turkish Vassal. Hungarian King John Hunyadi lost the battle after a 2-day fight, but essentially stopped the Ottoman advance northwards. Kosovo then became vassalaged to the Ottoman Empire, until its direct incorporation after the final fall of Serbia in 1459.
In 1455, new castles arise in Priština and Vučitrn, centres of the Ottoman vassalaged House of Branković.
The Ottomans brought Islamisation with them, particularly in towns, and later also created the Viyalet of Kosovo as one of the Ottoman territorial entities. This brought a great shift, as the Orthodox Serb population began to lose its majority when masses of Turks and Albanians (Muslims) moved to Kosovo. During the Islamisation many Churches and Holy Orthodox Christian places were raised to the ground or turned in to Mosques. The big Monastery of Saint Archangel near Prizren was teared down at the end of the 16th century and the material used to build the Mosque of Sinan-pasha, an Islamized Serb, in Prizren. Kosovo was taken by the Austrian forces during the Great War of 1683 - 1699 with help of 5,000 Albanians and their leader, a Catholic Archibishop Pjetër Bogdani. The archbishop died of plague during the war, and his grave was later reopened, with his body scattered and given to the dogs by the Ottomans because of his role in the rebellion. In 1690, the Serbian Patriarch of Peć Arsenije III, who previously escaped a certain death, led 37,000 families from Kosovo, to evade Ottoman wrath since Kosovo had just been retaken by the Ottomans. The people that followed him were probably mostly Serbs, but some Orthodox Albanians and others too. 20,000 Serbs abandoned Prizren alone. Due to the terror from the Ottomans, other migrations of Orthodox people from the Kosovo and Metohija area continued throughout the 18th century. It is also noted that some Serbs adopted Islam and some even gradually fused with the predominantly Albanian Moslems and adopted their culture and even language. By the 19th century, Albanians replaced the Serbs as the dominating nation of Kosovo.
Refugees from territories conquered in the 1876-1877 Serbo-Turkish war and 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war inhabited almost every Kosovo and Macedonian town escaping from the Serbian army and population were committing against unarmed civilians. These populations are now known as 'muhaxher' (which means 'refugee') and are the ancestors of many who are still known by their same surnames, Muhaxheri. It is also estimated that 200,000 to 400,000 Serbs were cleansed out of the Vilayet of Kosovo between 1876 and 1912, especially during the Greek-Ottman War in 1897. (see Demographic history of Kosovo)
Albanians formed the League of Prizren in Prizren in the 19th century. Hundreds of Albanian leaders from all over Albania gathered and discussed the urgent issues concerning them. They successfully opposed any Serbian invasion attempts. Serbia complained to the Western Powers that the promised territories were not being held because Ottomans were hesitating to do that. Western Powers put pressure to the Ottomans and in 1881, the Ottoman Army started the fighting against Albanians. The Prizren League created a Provisional Government with a President, Prime Minister (Ymer Prizreni) and Ministries of War (Sylejman Vokshi) and Foreign Ministry (Abdyl Frashëri). After three years of war, the Albanians were defeated. Many of the leaders were executed and imprisoned. In 1910, an Albanian uprising spread from Prishtina and lasted until the Ottoman Sultan's visit to Kosovo in June 1911. The Aim of the League of Prizren as to unite the four Albanian Vilayets by merging the majority of Albanian inhabitants within the Ottoman Empire into one Albanian State. However at that time Serbs have consisted about 40% of Kosovo's overall population and were opposing the Albanian nationalism along with other Slavs and Turks in Kosovo.
In 1912 during the Balkan Wars, most of Kosovo was conquered by Serbia while Metohija was captured by Montenegro. And exodus of the local Albaian population occured. This is best described by Leon Trotsky, who was the reporter for the 'Pravda' newspaper at the time. The Serbian authorities planned a recolonization of Kosovo[1]. In the winter of 1915-1916 Kosovo saw a large exodus of its Serbian population and army; hundreds of thousands soldiers have died of starvation, extreme weather and Albanian reprisals as they were approaching the Allies in Corfu and Thessaloniki.
The 1918-1929 period of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes witnessed a raise of the Serbian population in the region and decline in the non-Serbian. After the 1929-1941 Kingdom of Yugoslavia which introduced the Yugoslav nationality unifying all Kosovan Slavs, the Kingdom was invaded by the Axis forces. The greatest part of Kosovo became a part of Italian-controlled Fascist Albania, and smaller bits by the Nazi-Fascist Tsardom of Bulgaria and Nazi German-occupied Kingdom of Serbia. Since the Albanians had decided in the Conference of Bujan that Kosovo would remain Albanian, they have started immediately an ethnic cleansing of the non-Albanians in the occupied Kosovo. The infamous SS Division Skanderbeg is known to committed horrible crimes. Tens of thousands of Serbs lost their lives and around 75,000 Serbs fled Kosovo during the war. Hundreds of thousands more would leave in the following decades, following the shift of power in Kosovo. Around 10,000 Serbs died in Albanian extermination camps by the hand of military squadrons like the Vipurii. Prior to the surrender of Fascist Italy in 1943, the German forces took over direct control of their region. After numerious uprisings of the Serbian Chetniks and Yugoslav Partisans, Kosovo was liberated after 1944 with the help of the Red Army of the Comintern, and became a province of Kosovo and Metohija of one of the Republics of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, Serbia.