ancient

                           Ancient History until Early 21st Century

        The people in the Balkans have lived together in peace and in war, in alliances and coalitions against each other. They have killed each other and married one another. The two groups that most dominantly repel one another are the Serbs and the Albanians. This is the setting for Kosovo.   However, it was not always like this.
        Albanians claim that Kosovo forms parts of an ancient Illyrian homeland, and that it should still be part of Albania. The Illyrians were the people living at the time when the Greeks and Romans were at their peak, at about 2500 years ago. They occupied an extensive piece of land. It spread from the Adriatic to the west, to much of pre-breakup Yugoslavia and parts of Greece.
       This however changed about 1500 years ago when the Slavs spread into Eastern and Central Europe. When they moved into Kosovo, Albanians already lived there. The Greeks conquered most of the Serb territory in the eleventh century and forced them to convert into Greek Orthodox. A couple of centuries later the Serbs gained sovereignty over their territories and became a strong empire. It possessed similar territory as pre-breakup Yugoslavia. However, these "golden days" ended when a new threat was over the horizon. The ottomans had arrived.
       The Ottoman Empire was a formidable foe. The last strong stand that the Serbs made against them was on June 28, 1389. This happened just outside Prishtina, in a place called Kosovo Polje, in Serbo-Croatian meaning the Field of the Blackbirds. The whole Balkans rose against the Turks on this battle. Serbs Albanians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Bosnians, and other minorities, all fought side by side. They fought a much bigger threat than each other. Lazar, the leader of the army, a Serbian prince, lost to the forces of Sultan Murad and the Turks.
        Albanians also made many stands of their own. Gjergj Kastriot, an Albanian prince, taken away by the Turks at a young age, as it was custom for the boy princes to be taken away so no heir would be available for the kings, and so that they could commandeer the Turkish armies. Gjergj Kastriot was a bright child. He excelled in the Turk schools and became the commander of the Sultan's forces once of at a right age. His abilities earned him the title "Skanderbeg", meaning Alexander. When he was ordered to battle against the Hungarians, Skanderbeg saw his opportunity. Along with other Albanians serving in the Ottoman army, he switched sides and captured Kruje, his father's seat in middle Albania. He managed to unite all Albanian princes at the town of and united them under his command to fight against the Ottoman. Skanderbeg maintained guerrilla warfare against the Turks using the mountainous terrain to his advantage. During the next 25 years he fought, with forces rarely exceeding 20,000 against the most powerful army of that time and defeated it for 25 years. The Ottoman army was once led by the Sultan Murad, the winner of Kosovo Polje in person, who died after his defeat on the way back. Twice, Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, led the Ottoman army himself against Skanderbeg and failed too. The Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer Kruje 24 times and failed all 24 of them. After this he was acknowledged as the lord of Albania. His death however changed everything. The Albanians were disorganized again, and in a couple of decades, Albania fell to the Ottomans. At about the same time, most of Eastern Europe was conquered also.
       In the 1600s, no army in the Balkans was fighting with the Turks, just bands of tribesmen and warriors. Albanians, trying to avoid taxes, converted from Roman Catholic into Sunni Muslim. The Serbs, on the other hand, did not convert. This caused a greater gap between the two groups and caused more violence later on.
       As the Ottoman Empire was losing its old and mighty strength, Serbs and other people formed more resistance. A united Serbian kingdom was able to reclaim its territories including Kosovo. Albanians, too, were demanding their independence. Albanians wanted Kosovo, parts of present Montenegro, parts of Macedonia, and parts of Greece for its territories when it would become a state.