The first Serbian uprising began in 1804 under the leadership of Karadjordje Petrović, and soon grew into revolution marked by Karadjordje’s personality, himself becoming symbol of national-liberation process. After conquering Belgrade in 1806, the Serbs took over power in the city. The new government executed public sale of Turkish properties. The second Serbian uprising (1815), and especially the events that followed, such as obtaining national (1833) and social freedom (1835), emphasized diplomatic and state abilities of Miloš Obrenović. Marking the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising in 1865, Prince Mihailo Obrenović founded the Order of the Cross of Takovo, with it distinguishing living fellow fighters of his father prince Miloš.
Part of European Revolution – 1848
as commander of Serbian volunteers, who had the support of government in Belgrade. 8.000 volunteers were sent from principality and Belgrade gave shelter to numerous Serbian families from Banat, who fled the Hungarian army. For his credits with stifling revolution in 1848 Pavle Georgije Spirta, a member of a well-known family of Tzintzar merchants from Zemun, was enobled in 1853 by Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I.
Surrender of Tthe Towns
In 1862, Turks wounded a Serbian boy by the drinking fountain of Čukur, which incited a conflict between Serbian police and Turkish armed forces and culminated in the bombing of the city. Prince Mihailo made use of the incident and reopened the issue of Turkish army’s presence in Serbia. In April 1867, he managed to reach an agreement with the Turkish government (Porte), whereby Turkish garrisons left Belgrade, Užice, Soko, Šabac, Smederevo and Kladovo.
Milan Obrenović
Prince Mihailo was killed on 29th May 1868 in Košutnjak. On behalf of under-aged Milan Obrenović, governors were in charge of Serbia until 1872. They paid attention to organizing administration: in 1869 moderately liberal constitution was adopted. During Milan’s reign Serbia became a modern European kingdom (1882).
Cultural Identity
A fight for national language, literature based on it, and phonological orthography presented cultural segment of revolutionary activities in 1848. Vuk Stefanović Karadžić consistently and finally implemented Adelung’s principle “write as you speak”. When literary agreement was reached in Vienna in 1850 regarding common Serbian-Croatian literary language, Serbian as well as Croatian literates began to use it. After V. S. Karadžić had died, new orthography was officially introduced in 1868.
A period between the appearance of Vuk and first great victory of the national language in 1847 brought great progress in cultural life. A blossoming of political and literary periodicals had left a special influence.
By promoting political and cultural idea, which is the basis of a nation’s identity, women took part in renaissance.