Balkans
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1350 Serbia began its expansion after the Battle of Velbuzd in 1330.
1389 Serbs lost a key battle against the forces of the invading Ottoman Empire on the fields of Kosovo. The defeat marked the beginning of the end of Serbia's Medieval Empire. Kosovo became part of the Ottoman Empire. In the centuries that followed, the battle became the key event in Serbian national history.
1529 The Ottoman Empire claimed Macedonia and southern Serbia after the Battle of Marica in 1371 and controlled most of the Balkan region by the early 1500s. Montenegro retained its autonomy.
17th & 18th Centuries During Ottomon domination, Serbs fled from northern Albania & began settling in Kosovo.
1815 Serbian uprisings secured a limited autonomy from the Ottoman Empire.
1830-1833 Serbia gained its formal autonomy.
1907 Ottoma Empire lost its foothold by the end of the 19th century. Serbs regained Kosovo in 1912 when Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria defeated the Ottoman Turks, ending more than 500 years of Turkish rule over the area.
1912 The Serbs gained control of Kosovo in a war against the Ottoman Empire. Fearing they, too, would be partitioned, Albanian leaders in Albania declared an independent state in November 1912. Borders for the new Albanian state were up drawn in 1913. The disputed region of Kosovo became part of Serbia.
November 1918 In the war's aftermath, both Albanians and Serbs lay claim to Kosovo. The newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes regained control of Kosovo. As a minority, Albanians are promised extensive rights by a minority rights treaties. The Albanians, however, claim the guarantees were never implemented and that the Serbs engage in widespread massacres and repression during the 1920s. The Serbs also accuse Albania of fomenting discontent in Kosovo.
April 1941 Germany attack Yugoslavia. Throughout the war there was strong cooperation between the Albanian and Yugoslav communist parties. Josip Broz Tito lead the communist partisans to victory in a war with German and Italian occupying forces, but also a civil war with non-communist opponents. With the victory of communist parties in Yugoslavia and Albania, there were hopes that the Kosovo question could finally be resolved. Albanian communists first called for the inclusion of Kosovo into a new Albania. However, under pressure from the stronger Yugoslav movement, the Albanian communists settle for Kosovo's re-inclusion into Yugoslavia.
1917-1941 After World War I, Austria-Hungary was dissolved and Independence was proclaimed under King Alexander of Serbia. The Kingdoms of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was established in 1918, although the name was later changed to Yugoslavia and ruled as a dictatorship.
1945 End World War II The new dictator, Josip Broz Tito reorganises the state and proclaims the People's Republic of Yugoslavia as a federation under Communist rule. Ethnic rivalries within the new state were brutally suppressed.
1946 The new constitution for the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. Six republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia) gained relative equality in the country. The Albanians in Kosovo hoped they too would be granted republic status. Instead, Kosovo became an autonomous region within Serbia.
1946 - 1966 The Albanians claimed widespread repression by the Yugoslav authorities. At the same time, Albanian numerical superiority increased, becoming roughly 70 per cent of Kosovo's population because of a higher birth rate and the migration of many Serbs from Kosovo.
1969 After riots in Kosovo and widespread discontent surfaced, Albanian gained greater control in Kosovo.
1974 A new Yugoslav constitution created the autonomous province of Kosovo. Albanians gain almost complete control over their affairs. The new constitution, however, fell short of making Kosovo a republic which would include the right of secession.
4 May 1980 The Yugoslavian dictator Marshal Tito died
1981 Wide scale demonstrations were reported in Kosovo.
1986 Slobodan Milosevic became leader of the Serbian Communist Party.
March 1989 Milosevic pushed through laws that eliminates Kosovo's autonomy. The Albanian population took to the streets.
May 1989 Slobodan Milosevic became president of the Republic of Serbia.
June 1989 The 600 year anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo. Milosevic delivered a threatening speech that warned that Serbs had fought for their rights in the past and a fight for them in the future should not be excluded.
December 1989 The ethnic Albanian Democratic League of Kosovo was formed led by the literary scholar Ibrahim Rugova.
1990 The country remained intact until several provinces declare themselves to be independent republics. A war broke out between Croatia and Serb-led Yugoslav government.
March - April 1991 Thousands (at least 10,000) of ethnic Albanians demonstrators demanded that Kosovo become a republic.
September 1991 Kosovo's clandestine parliament declared Kosovo a sovereign and independent state. A month later, a national referendum saw overwhelming approval from the Albanians for the decision.
1992 The Albanians organised multiparty elections which were declared illegal by the Serbs. The Democratic League won 96 out of 140 seats and Rugova was elected president. He opted for passive resistance to Serb rule warning his fellow citizens not to provide the Serbs with a pretext for a violent crackdown in Kosovo. Civil war came to Bosnia.
1995 The Dayton Peace Accord ended the war in Bosnia. Albanians had hoped the West would use the opportunity to impose a settlement for Kosovo.
1995 Bosnia suffered through 3 1/2 years of a brutal war which killed hundreds of thousands of people divided along ethnic and religious lines before a shaky peace was established.
1997 Growing frustrated with the pace of change under Rugova's rule, some Albanians choose violence to force concessions from Belgrade. A shadowy group calling itself the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) emerged.
February 1998 A full scale war came to Kosovo as Serbian forces launch a bloody crackdown against the KLA.
October 1998 After eight months of intense fighting, with more than 2000 reported dead and thousands made homeless, under the threat of NATO bombing, Serbia pulled back its troops and a cease-fire was proclaimed.
January 1999 Peace talks were held near Paris.
March 1999 NATO began the bombing of Yugoslavia, hundreds of thousands more ethnic Albanians fled Kosovo for neighbouring countries.
Source
atheism.about.com/library/Balkans
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