![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Countries-Recognizing-Kosovo-Independence-300x136.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geographically defined in an area of 10,887 km2 (4,203 sq mi), Kosovo is landlocked in the center of the Balkans and bordered by the uncontested territory of Serbia to the north and east, North Macedonia<\/a> to the southeast, Albania<\/a> to the southwest and Montenegro<\/a> to the west. It possesses remarkable varied and diverse landscapes for its size by climate along with geology and hydrology. Most of central Kosovo is dominated by the vast plains and fields of Metohija and Kosovo. The rugged Prokletije and \u0160ar Mountains rise in the southwest and southeast, respectively.<\/p>\n Inhabited since Neolithic times, Kosovo fell under the control of first the Roman Empire<\/a> and then remained part of the eastern Roman, or Byzantine<\/a>, empire for over a thousand years before being absorbed into the Ottoman Empire<\/a>. The fall of the Ottomans in Europe left Kosovo divided between Serbia and Montenegro until the end of World War II and its incorporation into Yugoslavia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Tensions between the Albanian and Serbian communities continued throughout the Yugoslav years and the breakup of Yugoslavia brought matters to a state of war in 1998 and 1999<\/a> which resulted in the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army. This was followed by United Nations administration<\/a> and the declarations of independence in 2008. Serbia continues to not recognize the independence of Kosovo, instead considering it to be an autonomous province.<\/p>\n Human settlement during the Paleolithic<\/a> has not yet been confirmed by archaeological expeditions. The earliest archaeological evidence of organized settlement, which have been found in Kosovo, belong to the Neolithic<\/a> Star\u010devo<\/a> and Vin\u010da cultures. Vlashnj\u00eb<\/a> and Runik<\/a> are important sites of the Neolithic era. The rock art paintings at Mrrizi i Kobaj\u00ebs, near Vlashnj\u00eb are the first find of prehistoric art in Kosovo. Among the finds of excavations in Neolithic Runik is a baked-clay ocarina<\/a>, which is the first musical instrument to ever be recorded in Kosovo. The beginning of the Bronze Age coincides with the presence of tumuli burial grounds<\/a> in western Kosovo as in the site of Romaj\u00eb.<\/p>\n The Dardani<\/a> were the most important Paleo-Balkan tribe<\/a> in the region of Kosovo. A wide area which consists of Kosovo, parts of Northern Macedonia and eastern Serbia was named Dardania<\/a> after them in classical antiquity. Their identification as either an Illyrian or Thracian tribe has been a subject of debate. The Dardani retained an individuality and succeeded to maintain themselves as a community after Roman conquest and they played an important role in the formation of new groupings in the Roman era.<\/p>\n The Roman state annexed Dardania by the first century CE. The importance of the area lay in its mining potential (metalla Dardana) which was heavily exploited in the CE centuries as highlighted by the large mining complex of Municipium Dardanorum<\/a> and the designation of part of the region as an imperial mining district. Kosovo was part of two provinces, Praevalitana<\/a> and Dardania<\/a>. Ulpiana<\/a> is the most important municipium which developed in Kosovo. It was refounded as Justiniana Secunda under Justinian<\/a> in the 6th century CE.<\/p>\n In the next centuries, Kosovo was a frontier province of the Byzantine Empire. The region was exposed to an increasing number of ‘barbarian’ raids from the 4th century AD onwards, culminating with the Slavic migrations of the 6th and 7th centuries<\/a>. The First Bulgarian Empire<\/a> acquired Kosovo by the mid 9th century, but Byzantine control was restored by the late 10th century.<\/p>\n The zenith of Serbian power was reached in 1346, with the formation of the Serbian Empire(1346-1371)<\/a>. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Kosovo became a political, cultural and religious center of the Serbian Kingdom<\/a>. In the late 13th century, the seat of the Serbian Archbishopric<\/a> was moved to Peja<\/a>, and rulers centered themselves between Prizren<\/a> and Skopje<\/a>, during which time thousands of Christian monasteries and feudal-style forts and castles were erected. When the Serbian Empire fragmented into a conglomeration of principalities in 1371, Kosovo became the hereditary land of the House of Brankovi\u0107<\/a>. In the late 14th and the 15th centuries parts of Kosovo, the easternmost area of which was located near Pristina, were part of the Principality of Dukagjini<\/a>, which was later incorporated into an anti-Ottoman federation of all Albanian principalities, the League of Lezh\u00eb<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the 1389 Battle of Kosovo<\/a>, Ottoman forces defeated a coalition led by Lazar Hrebeljanovi\u0107<\/a>. Soon after, Lazar’s son accepted Turkish nominal vassalage (as did some other Serbian principalities) and Lazar’s daughter was married to the Sultan to seal the peace. By 1459, Ottomans conquered the new Serbian capital of Smederevo, leaving Belgrade<\/a> and Vojvodina<\/a> under Hungarian<\/a> rule until second quarter of the 16th century.<\/p>\n Kosovo was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1455 to 1912, at first as part of the eyalet<\/a> of Rumelia, and from 1864 as a separate province (vilayet). During this time, Islam was introduced to the population. The Vilayet of Kosovo<\/a> was an area much larger than today’s Kosovo with the city of Skopje (then \u00dcsk\u00fcp), as its capital.<\/p>\n Although initially stout opponents of the advancing Turks, Albanian chiefs ultimately came to accept the Ottomans as sovereigns. The resulting alliance facilitated the mass conversion of Albanians to Islam. Given that the Ottoman Empire’s subjects were divided along religious (rather than ethnic) lines, Islamization greatly elevated the status of Albanian chiefs. Prior to this, they were organized along simple tribal lines, living in the mountainous areas of modern Albania (from Kruje to the \u0160ar range). Soon, they expanded into a depopulated Kosovo, as well as northwestern Macedonia, although some might have been autochthonous to the region.<\/p>\n Many Albanians gained prominent positions in the Ottoman government. In the 19th century, there was an awakening of ethnic nationalism throughout the Balkans. The underlying ethnic tensions became part of a broader struggle of Christian Serbs against Muslim Albanians. The ethnic Albanian nationalism movement was centered in Kosovo. In 1878 the League of Prizren (Lidhja e Prizrenit) was formed. This was a political organization that sought to unify all the Albanians of the Ottoman Empire in a common struggle for autonomy and greater cultural rights, although they generally desired the continuation of the Ottoman Empire. The League was dis-established in 1881 but enabled the awakening of a national identity among Albanians.<\/p>\n The modern Albanian-Serbian conflict has its roots in the expulsion of the Albanians in 1877\u20131878<\/a> from areas that became incorporated into the Principality of Serbia<\/a>. During and after the Serbian\u2013Ottoman War of 1876\u201378<\/a>, between 30,000 and 70,000 Muslims, mostly Albanians, were expelled by the Serb army from the Sanjak of Ni\u0161<\/a> and fled to the Kosovo Vilayet. According to Austrian data, by the 1890s Kosovo was 70% Muslim (nearly entirely of Albanian descent) and less than 30% non-Muslim (primarily Serbs). At the turn of the century in 1901, widespread massacres were committed against the Serbian population by the Albanian population across the Kosovo Vilayet.<\/p>\n The Young Turk<\/a> movement took control of the Ottoman Empire after a coup in 1912 which deposed Sultan Abdul Hamid II<\/a>. The movement supported a centralized form of government and opposed any sort of autonomy desired by the various nationalities of the Ottoman Empire. An allegiance to Ottomanism was promoted instead. An Albanian uprising in 1912 exposed the empire’s northern territories in Kosovo and Novi Pazar<\/a>, which led to an invasion by the Kingdom of Montenegro<\/a>. The Ottomans suffered a serious defeat at the hands of Albanians in 1912, culminating in the Ottoman loss of most of its Albanian-inhabited lands.<\/p>\n A wave of Albanians in the Ottoman army ranks also deserted during this period, refusing to fight their own kin. In September 1912, a joint Balkan force made up of Serbian, Montenegrin, Bulgarian and Greek forces drove the Ottomans out of most of their European possessions. The rise of nationalism hampered relations between Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo<\/a>, due to influence from Russians, Austrians and Ottomans. After the Ottomans’ defeat in the First Balkan War<\/a>, the 1913 Treaty of London<\/a> was signed with Western Kosovo (Metohija) ceded to the Kingdom of Montenegro and Eastern Kosovo ceded to the Kingdom of Serbia<\/a>. Soon, there were concerted Serbian colonization efforts in Kosovo during various periods between Serbia’s 1912 takeover of the province and World War II<\/a>. So the population of Serbs in Kosovo fell after World War II, but it had increased considerably before then.<\/p>\n In the winter of 1915\u201316, during World War I<\/a>, Kosovo saw the retreat of the Serbian army as Kosovo was occupied by Bulgaria<\/a> and Austria-Hungar<\/a>y. In 1918, the Allied Powers pushed the Central Powers out of Kosovo. After the end of World War I, the Kingdom of Serbia was transformed into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians<\/a> on 1 December 1918.<\/p>\n After the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia<\/a> in 1941, most of Kosovo was assigned to Italian-controlled Albania, with the rest being controlled by Germany and Bulgaria.<\/p>\n The province as in its outline today first took shape in 1945 as the Autonomous Kosovo-Metohian Area. Until World War II, the only entity bearing the name of Kosovo had been a political unit carved from the former vilayet which bore no special significance to its internal population. In the Ottoman Empire, it had been a vilayet with its borders having been revised on several occasions. When the Ottoman province had last existed, it included areas which were by now either ceded to Albania, or found themselves within the newly created Yugoslav republics of Montenegro, or Macedonia (including its previous capital, Skopje) with another part in the Sand\u017eak region of southwest Serbia.<\/p>\n Tensions between ethnic Albanians and the Yugoslav government were significant, not only due to ethnic tensions but also due to political ideological concerns, especially regarding relations with neighboring Albania. Harsh repressive measures were imposed on Kosovo Albanians due to suspicions that there were sympathizers of the Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha of Albania<\/a>.<\/p>\n Islam in Kosovo at this time was repressed and both Albanians and Muslim Slavs were encouraged to declare themselves to be Turkish and emigrate to Turkey. At the same time Serbs and Montenegrins dominated the government, security forces, and industrial employment in Kosovo. Albanians resented these conditions and protested against them in the late 1960s, accusing the actions taken by authorities in Kosovo as being colonialist, as well as demanding that Kosovo be made a republic, or declaring support for Albania.<\/p>\n After the ouster of Rankovi\u0107 in 1966, the agenda of pro-decentralization reformers in Yugoslavia, especially from Slovenia and Croatia, succeeded in the late 1960s in attaining substantial decentralization of powers, creating substantial autonomy in Kosovo and Vojvodina, and recognizing a Muslim Yugoslav nationality. As a result of these reforms, there was a massive overhaul of Kosovo’s nomenklatura<\/a> and police, that shifted from being Serb-dominated to ethnic Albanian-dominated through firing Serbs in large scale. Further concessions were made to the ethnic Albanians of Kosovo in response to unrest, including the creation of the University of Pristina<\/a> as an Albanian language<\/a> institution. These changes created widespread fear among Serbs that they were being made second-class citizens in Yugoslavia. By the 1974 Constitution of Yugoslavia, Kosovo was granted major autonomy, allowing it to have its own administration, assembly, and judiciary; as well as having a membership in the collective presidency and the Yugoslav parliament, in which it held veto power.<\/p>\n Inter-ethnic tensions continued to worsen in Kosovo throughout the 1980s. In 1989, Serbian President Slobodan Milo\u0161evi\u0107<\/a>, employing a mix of intimidation and political maneuvering, drastically reduced Kosovo’s special autonomous status within Serbia and started cultural oppression of the ethnic Albanian population. Kosovar Albanians responded with a non-violent separatist movement, employing widespread civil disobedience and creation of parallel structures in education, medical care, and taxation, with the ultimate goal of achieving the independence of Kosovo.<\/p>\n In July 1990, the Kosovo Albanians proclaimed the existence of the Republic of Kosova<\/a>, and declared it a sovereign and independent state in September 1992. In May 1992, Ibrahim Rugova<\/a> was elected its president in an election in which only Kosovo Albanians participated. During its lifetime, the Republic of Kosova was only officially recognized by Albania. By the mid-1990s, the Kosovo Albanian population was growing restless, as the status of Kosovo was not resolved as part of the Dayton Agreement of November 1995<\/a>, which ended the Bosnian War.<\/a> By 1996, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)<\/a>, an ethnic Albanian guerrilla paramilitary group that sought the separation of Kosovo and the eventual creation of a Greater Albania, had prevailed over the Rugova’s non-violent resistance movement and launched attacks against the Yugoslav Army and Serbian police in Kosovo, resulting in the Kosovo War. The situation escalated further when Yugoslav and Serbian forces committed numerous massacres against Kosovo Albanians.<\/p>\n By 1998, international pressure compelled Yugoslavia to sign a ceasefire and partially withdraw its security forces. Events were to be monitored by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)<\/a> observers according to an agreement negotiated by Richard Holbrooke<\/a>. The ceasefire did not hold and fighting resumed in December 1998, culminating in the Ra\u010dak massacre, which attracted further international attention to the conflict. Within weeks, a multilateral international conference was convened and by March had prepared a draft agreement known as the Rambouillet Accords<\/a>, calling for the restoration of Kosovo’s autonomy and the deployment of NATO peacekeeping forces.<\/p>\n The Yugoslav delegation found the terms unacceptable and refused to sign the draft. Between 24 March and 10 June 1999, NATO intervened by bombing Yugoslavia<\/a> aimed to force Milo\u0161evi\u0107 to withdraw his forces from Kosovo, though NATO could not appeal to any particular motion of the Security Council of the United Nations<\/a> to help legitimize its intervention.<\/p>\n On 10 June 1999, the UN Security Council passed UN Security Council Resolution 1244<\/a>, which placed Kosovo under transitional UN administration (UNMIK) and authorized Kosovo Force<\/a> (KFOR), a NATO-led peacekeeping force. Resolution 1244 provided that Kosovo would have autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and affirmed the territorial integrity of Yugoslavia, which has been legally succeeded by the Republic of Serbia.<\/p>\n International negotiations began in 2006 to determine the final status of Kosovo, as envisaged under UN Security Council Resolution 1244. The UN-backed talks, led by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari<\/a>, began in February 2006. While progress was made on technical matters, both parties remained diametrically opposed on the question of status itself.<\/p>\n In February 2007, Ahtisaari delivered a draft status settlement proposal to leaders in Belgrade and Pristina, the basis for a draft UN Security Council Resolution which proposed ‘supervised independence’ for the province. A draft resolution, backed by the United States, the United Kingdom and other European members of the Security Council, was presented and rewritten four times to try to accommodate Russian concerns that such a resolution would undermine the principle of state sovereignty. Russia, which holds a veto in the Security Council as one of five permanent members, had stated that it would not support any resolution which was not acceptable to both Belgrade and Kosovo Albanians.<\/p>\n After many weeks of discussions at the UN, the United States, United Kingdom and other European members of the Security Council formally ‘discarded’ a draft resolution backing Ahtisaari’s proposal on 20 July 2007, having failed to secure Russian backing. Beginning in August, a “Troika” consisting of negotiators from the European Union (Wolfgang Ischinger<\/a>), the United States (Frank G. Wisner<\/a>) and Russia (Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko) launched a new effort to reach a status outcome acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina.<\/p>\n Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. As of 4 September 2020, 113 UN states recognized its independence<\/a>, including all of its immediate neighbors, with the exception of Serbia. However, 15 states have subsequently withdrawn recognition of the Republic of Kosovo. Russia and China didn’t recognize Kosovo’s independence. Since declaring independence, it has become a member of international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank<\/a>, though not of the United Nations.<\/p>\n The Serb minority of Kosovo, which largely opposes the declaration of independence, has formed the Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija<\/a> in response. The creation of the assembly was condemned by Kosovo’s President Fatmir Sejdiu, while UNMIK has said the assembly is not a serious issue because it will not have an operative role. On 8 October 2008, the UN General Assembly resolved, on a proposal by Serbia, to ask the International Court of Justice to render an advisory opinion on the legality of Kosovo’s declaration of independence. The advisory opinion, which is not binding over decisions by states to recognise or not recognise Kosovo, was rendered on 22 July 2010, holding that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was not in violation either of general principles of international law, which do not prohibit unilateral declarations of independence, nor of specific international law \u2013 in particular UNSCR 1244 \u2013 which did not define the final status process nor reserve the outcome to a decision of the Security Council.<\/p>\n Some rapprochement between the two governments took place on 19 April 2013 as both parties reached the Brussels Agreement<\/a>, an agreement brokered by the EU that would allow the Serb minority in Kosovo to have its own police force and court of appeals. The agreement is yet to be ratified by either parliament.<\/p>\n Defined in a total area of 10,887 square kilometres (4,203 square miles), Kosovo is landlocked and located in the center of the Balkan Peninsula<\/a> in Southeastern Europe<\/a>. The highest point is Velika Rudoka<\/a> at 2,658 metres (8,720 ft) above sea level, and the lowest is the White Drin<\/a> at 297 metres (974 ft).<\/p>\n Most of the borders of Kosovo are dominated by mountainous and high terrain. The most noticeable topographical features are the Prokletije<\/a> and the \u0160ar Mountains<\/a>. The Prokletije, are a geological continuation of the Dinaric Alps<\/a>. The mountains run laterally through the west along the border with Albania and Montenegro. The southeast is predominantly the \u0160ar Mountains, which constitute the border with North Macedonia. Besides the mountain ranges, Kosovo’s territory consists mostly of two major plains, the Kosovo Plain<\/a> in the east and the Metohija Plain<\/a> in the west.<\/p>\n Kosovo’s hydrological resources are relatively small. The longest rivers of Kosovo include the White Drin, the South Morava<\/a> and the Ibar<\/a>. Sitnica<\/a>, a tributary of Ibar, is the largest river lying completely within Kosovo’s territory.<\/p>\n The economy of Kosovo is a transitional economy. It suffered from the combined results of political upheaval, the Serbian dismissal of Kosovo employees and the following Yugoslav Wars<\/a>. Despite declining foreign assistance, the GDP has mostly grown since its declaration of independence. This was despite the financial crisis of 2007\u20132008<\/a> and the subsequent European debt crisis<\/a>. Additionally, the inflation rate has been low. Most economic development has taken place in the trade, retail and construction sectors. Kosovo is highly dependent on remittances from the diaspora, FDI<\/a> and other capital inflows. Kosovo is one of the poorest countries in Europe. In 2018, the International Monetary Fund<\/a> reported that approximately one-sixth of the population lived below the poverty line and one-third of the working age population was unemployed, the highest rate in Europe.<\/p>\n Kosovo’s largest trading partners are Albania, Italy, Switzerland, China, Germany and Turkey. The Euro<\/a> is its official currency. The Government of Kosovo has signed free-trade agreements with Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and North Macedonia. Kosovo is a member of CEFTA<\/a>, agreed with UNMIK<\/a>, and enjoys free trade with most nearby non-European Union<\/a> countries.<\/p>\n Currently, there are two main motorways in Kosovo: the R7 connecting Kosovo with Albania<\/a> and the R6 connecting Pristina with the Macedonian border<\/a> at Elez Han<\/a>. The construction of the new R7.1 Motorway<\/a> began in 2017.<\/p>\n The R7 Motorway<\/a> (part of Albania-Kosovo Highway) links Kosovo to Albania’s Adriatic coast in Durr\u00ebs<\/a>. Once the remaining European route (E80)<\/a> from Pristina to Merdare<\/a> section project will be completed, the motorway will link Kosovo through the present European route (E80) highway with the Pan-European corridor X <\/a>(E75<\/a>) near Ni\u0161<\/a> in Serbia. The R6 Motorway<\/a> is currently under construction. Forming part of the E65<\/a>, it is the second motorway constructed in the region and it links the capital Pristina with the border with North Macedonia at Elez Han, which is about 20 km (12 mi) from Skopje<\/a>. Construction of the motorway started in 2014 and it is going to be finished in 2018.<\/p>\n Pristina International Airport<\/a> is located southwest of Pristina. It is Kosovo’s only international airport and the only port of entry for air travelers to Kosovo.<\/p>\n The Assembly of Kosovo adopted the flag of the Republic of Kosovo immediately following the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo<\/a> from Serbia of 17 February 2008. The flag design emerged from an international competition, organized by the United Nations-backed Kosovo Unity Team<\/a>, which attracted almost one thousand entries. The current design was proposed by Muhamer Ibrahimi. It shows six white stars in an arc above a golden map of Kosovo, all on a blue field. The stars symbolize Kosovo’s six major ethnic groups: Albanians<\/a>, Serbs<\/a>, Bosniaks<\/a>, Turks<\/a>, Romani<\/a>, and Gorani<\/a>.<\/p>\n Before the declaration of independence, Kosovo had come under the administration of the United Nations<\/a> and used the UN flag<\/a> for official purposes. The Serb and Albanian populations had used their own national flags since the 1945-1992 Socialist Yugoslavia period<\/a>. The Serbs use a red, blue and white tricolor, which also forms the basis of the current flag of Serbia<\/a>. The Albanian population have used the flag of Albania<\/a> since the 1960s as their ethnic flag. Both these flags can still be seen in use within Kosovo.<\/p>\n Serbia has not recognized the independence of Kosovo and claims the area as the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija<\/a>. Unlike the case of the autonomous province of Vojvodina<\/a>, the Serbian authorities have not adopted a unique flag to represent this claimed province, using the flag of Serbia instead.<\/p>\n The flag of Kosovo has a blue background, charged with a map of Kosovo and six stars. The stars are officially meant to symbolize Kosovo’s six major ethnic groups: Albanians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Turks, Romani, and Gorani. Unofficially, the stars are sometimes said to represent the six regions, which according to Albanian ultra nationalist ideology, make up Greater Albania<\/a>: Albania, Kosovo, western parts of North Macedonia<\/a>, parts of northern Greece<\/a>, parts of Montenegro<\/a> and Pre\u0161evo Valley<\/a> in southern Serbia. The flag of Kosovo resembles that of Bosnia and Herzegovina<\/a> in terms of colors and shapes used (white stars and yellow shape of the country on a blue field). The flag is unusual among national flags in using a map as a design element; the flag of Cyprus<\/a> is the only other to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The flag of Kosovo has a blue background, charged with a map of Kosovo and six stars. The stars are officially meant to symbolize Kosovo’s six major ethnic groups: Albanians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Turks, Romani, and Gorani. Unofficially, the stars are sometimes said to represent the six regions, which according to Albanian ultra nationalist ideology, make up Greater Albania: Albania, Kosovo, western parts of North Macedonia, parts of northern Greece, parts of Montenegro and Pre\u0161evo Valley in southern Serbia. The flag of Kosovo resembles that of Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of colors and shapes used (white stars and yellow shape of the country on a blue field). The flag is unusual among national flags in using a map as a design element; the flag of Cyprus is the only other to do so. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[154,59,26,5,55,6,7,18,17,20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Kosovo-in-Europe-300x252.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Early Development:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Goddess-on-the-Throne-300x199.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Middle Ages:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Southeastern-Europe-850-300x247.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Ottoman Rule:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Prince-Lazar-Hrebeljanovic.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Map-of-Kosovo-Vilayet-Ottoman-Empire-1900-300x207.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/The-City-of-Prizren-was-the-Cultural-and-Intellectual-Center-of-Kosovo-During-the-Ottoman-period-300x212.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Kingdom of Yugoslavia:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Sultan-Abdul-Hamid-II-206x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Invasion-of-Yugoslavia-300x216.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Communist Yugoslavia:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Enver-Hoxha-300x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Aleksandar-Rankovic-219x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Breakup of Yugoslavia and Kosovo War:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Slobodan-Milosevic-216x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/US-Marines-Set-Up-a-Road-Block-in-Kosovo-300x188.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Post-War:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Martti-Ahtisaari-200x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Independence:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/NEWBORN-Monument-in-Pristina-300x166.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Topo-Map-of-Kosovo-300x287.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Grapes-from-the-Orahovac-Valley-300x199.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Road-Map-of-Kosovo-270x300.gif\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Prishtina-International-Airport-300x200.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of Kosovo:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/11\/Flag-of-Kosovo-300x214.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>