+OK 5992 octets Received: from smtp08.nwnexus.com (smtp08.nwnexus.com [206.63.63.42]) by mail3.halcyon.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id FAA09430 for ; Wed, 28 Apr 1999 05:44:37 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mu.egroups.com (m4.egroups.com [207.138.41.151]) by smtp08.nwnexus.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id FAA08027 for ; Wed, 28 Apr 1999 05:38:30 -0700 Received: from [10.1.1.22] by mu.egroups.com with NNFMP; 28 Apr 1999 13:38:29 -0000 Mailing-List: contact h-bd-owner@egroups.com X-Mailing-List: h-bd@egroups.com X-URL: http://www.egroups.com/list/h-bd/ Delivered-To: listsaver-egroups-h-bd@egroups.com Received: (qmail 17583 invoked by uid 7770); 28 Apr 1999 12:38:27 -0000 Received: from mail11.svr.pol.co.uk (195.92.193.23) by vault.egroups.com with SMTP; 28 Apr 1999 12:38:27 -0000 Received: from modem-84.flonase.dialup.pol.co.uk ([62.136.67.212] helo=oemcomputer) by mail11.svr.pol.co.uk with smtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 10cTbb-0005E1-00; Wed, 28 Apr 1999 13:38:24 +0100 Message-ID: <001201be9174$535a1900$02000003@oemcomputer> Reply-To: "Ian Pitchford" From: "Ian Pitchford" To: "HBE-L discussion list" , Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1999 13:39:58 +0100 Organization: http://www.human-nature.com/ MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2014.211 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2014.211 Subject: [h-bd] History of Kosovo Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Status: Kosovo (Albanian, Kosove), region in south-western Serbia which enjoyed autonomous status from 1946 to 1989. The province is predominantly hilly and mountainous. The rivers Bell, Drin, and Ibar flow through the province. The Sar Planina mountain range rises to 2,640 m (8,660 ft). Although Kosovo has important deposits of lead and zinc, as well as significant deposits of lignite, chromites, and magnesite, the province has long been one of the poorest regions in Europe. Major crops of Kosovo include grains (maize, wheat, and barley), potatoes, plums, grapes, and tobacco, and timber is an important product. There are also horticulture and viticulture industries. Cattle and sheep are raised in Kosovo's highlands. Principal manufactures include cement and sulphuric acid. There is also a small, nascent tourist industry in the province focused on skiing. Major cities are Pristina (the capital), Prizren, and Pec, the latter once serving (1557-1766) as the patriarchal seat of the Serbian Orthodox Church. More than 90 per cent of the population of Kosovo is ethnic Albanian. Most of the rest of the inhabitants are Serbs and Montenegrins. >From the second millennium BC, the Illyrians (ancestors of the present-day Albanians) inhabited the Balkan Peninsula, including what is now Kosovo. The Illyrian territory of Dardania, which comprised present-day Kosovo, part of what is now the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), and lands now in south-west Serbia, was eventually annexed by the Roman Empire. From the 8th to the 12th century, Kosovo was the centre of the medieval state of Raska (Rascia). Towards the end of the 12th century, the Serbian ruler Stefan Nemanja annexed Kosovo and, for a time, Prizren served as the capital of Serbian princes. During this period, the Serbian population in Kosovo increased. In 1389, an invading Ottoman Turkish army inflicted heavy casualties on a Serbian army in the Battle of Kosovo, leading to the subsequent conquest of all of Serbia (in 1459) by the Ottoman Empire. Kosovo was the scene of a numerous subsequent anti-Turkish uprisings, but only in mid-1912 were the Turks finally expelled, and an independent Albanian state proclaimed, which was to include Kosovo and portions of the western part of the region of Macedonia. However, at Russia's insistence, the Great Powers divided Kosovo between Serbia and Montenegro. In 1918, Kosovo was incorporated into the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later called Yugoslavia. Local Albanians staged uprisings between 1918 and 1919 which were ruthlessly crushed. The Belgrade government resorted to forced expulsions of Albanians, closure of Albanian schools, land confiscations, and importation of Serbian settlers. During World War II, Kosovo was appended to Italian-occupied Albania-a move generally welcomed by local Albanians-and local Serbs were forced out. Kosovo's Albanians resisted reincorporation into Yugoslavia, but by July 1945, the Partisan army of Josip Broz Tito succeeded in crushing Albanian resistance. Kosovo was organized as an administrative subunit of the Republic of Serbia-at first as an autonomous region, but later elevated to the status of an autonomous province after Albanian riots in 1968. Renewed riots in 1981 resulted in the purging of Albanians from positions of power and protests by local Serbs. In March 1989 Slobodan Miloseviç eliminated all vestiges of Kosovo's autonomy and extended anti-Albanian discrimination, placing the region under effective military occupation. A local underground resistance movement continues to struggle for independence or union with Albania. Area, about 10,887 sq km (4,203 sq mi); population (1991) 1,956,196. Ian Pitchford Centre for Psychotherapeutic Studies Department of Psychiatry University of Sheffield, S10 2TA, UK http://www.human-nature.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Does your free web site address contain more letters than the alphabet? Register a domain name with DomainDirect. A domain with NO hosting fees. Visit http://clickhere.egroups.com/click/49 for full details. eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/group/h-bd http://www.eGroups.com - Simplifying group communications .