What was the relationship of Serbia with the Ottoman Empire?
Serbia was great middle age state. When Ottomans concored Byzantine, they started attacking Serbia empire. They defited Serbs at Marica river battle in 1371. The Battle of Kosovo (1389)defined the fate of Serbia, because after it no force capable of standing up to the Turks existed. The Turks continued their conquest until they finally seized the entire Serbian territory in 1459 when Smederevo fell into their hands. Serbia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for almost five centuries. The Turks persecuted the Serbian aristocracy, determined to physically exterminate the social elite. Since the Ottoman Empire was an Islamic theocratic state, Christian Serbs lived as virtual bond servants – abused, humiliated and exploited. European powers, and Austria in particular, fought many wars against Turkey, relying on the help of the Serbs that lived under Ottoman rule. During the Austrian-Turkish War (1593-1606) in 1594 the Serbs staged an uprising in Banat – the Pannonian part of Turkey, and the s
