yugoslavias implosion

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ChApter 1
The Nineteenth Century: The Načertanije
In the formative period of Serbia as a nation-state, the idea
of the resurrection of the medieval empire became the core of the
Serbian foreign policy program. This plan was formulated in 1844
as the “Načertanije” (or “Draft Plan”) of Ilija Garašanin, minister
of internal affairs in the government of Prince Aleksandar
Karađorđević.
In the Načertanije, Garašanin set out the goals of Serbia’s territorial
reconstruction as follows: “The state, which has got off to an
auspicious start but must yet spread and grow stronger, has its firm
foundations in the Serb empire of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries
and in the rich and glorious Serb history.” 6 The objective of
the Načertanije was to bring together in one state all territories in
which Serbs were living—whether as a majority or a minority of the
population—and to assimilate people belonging to other nations and
religions into the Serbian nation and the Orthodox Church. This
plan would become a major guideline for Serbia’s contemporary as
well as future foreign policy strategists and was used to justify modern
Serbia’s historical, national, and territorial claims, first as an
independent state and later as part of the Yugoslav Federation.
Serbia (together with Montenegro, Romania, and Greece) was
granted independence at the Congress of Berlin in 1878. The new
states were obliged to recognize their subjects’ freedom of religion
and guarantee their right to citizenship irrespective of their religion.
The recognition of the new states in the Balkans failed to eliminate
tensions in the region, however, because most local national movements
believed that their legitimate claims had been given scant
regard (Albanians, for instance, did not have a sovereign state of
their own until 1913).
6 Srpski nacionalni program, Dokumenti, Načertanije Ilije Garašanina [Serbian National
Program, Documents), (Beograd: DMP and Grafomark, Beograd 2000) p . 21 .