2 - Empire (c.1170–1459)

Summary

The chapter begins with the emergence of the Serb kingdom of Raška in the early thirteenth century under the Nemanjić dynasty in the backdrop of a temporary collapse of Byzantium. At this time, Serbia was a de facto dual Orthodox-Catholic state, although the early thirteenth century saw the establishment of the autocephalous Serbian Orthodox church. Serbia’s territorial expansion over the next 150 years was facilitated by the crises in Byzantium and Bulgaria and by a bourgeoning economy due to exploitation of mines and trade with Dubrovnik and Venice. In the mid-fourteenth century, Serbia under Stefan Dušan sought to usurp Byzantium, but following Dušans death his short-lived Serb-Greek empire fragmented, as regional magnates fought for the supremacy in the region. This was before the Serbs suffered a fateful defeat against the Ottomans at the Field of Kosovo in 1389. A post-Kosovo Serb despotate, a key successor state to Stefan Dušans empire, prospered politically, economically and culturally for several decades. It was finally conquered in 1459, as the whole region came under the Ottoman control in the second half of the fifteenth century.