The Ottoman Empire recognizes Serbia as a principality under Turkish control, with Miloš Obrenović as hereditary prince, in 1830.

The sultan also grants the Serbian Orthodox Church autonomy and reaffirms Russia's right to protect Serbia.

Poor administration, corruption, and a bloody rivalry between the Karadordjevic and Obrenovic clans ma Serbian political life from its beginning.

After the sultan begins allowing foreign governments to send diplomats to Serbia in the 1830s, foreign intervention further complicates the situation.

Despite these obstacles and his autocratic manner, however, Milos Obrenovic stimulates trade, opens schools, and guides development of peasant lands.

He abdicates in 1838 when Turkey imposes a constitution to limit his powers.

The quest for Serbian independence had begun during the Serbian national revolution (1804-1817), the easternmost bourgeois revolutions in the nineteenth-century world, and is to last for several decades.

During the First Serbian Uprising led by Karadjordje Petrovic, Serbia had been independent for almost a decade before the Ottoman army was able to reoccupy the country.

Shortly after this, the Second Serbian Uprising had begun.

Led by Milos Obrenovic, it had ended in 1815 with a compromise between the Serbian revolutionary army and the Ottoman authorities.

The famous German historian Leopold von Ranke had published his book The Serbian revolution in 1829).

Following the Convention of Ackerman (1828), the Treaty of Adrianople (1829) and finally, the Hatt-i Sharif of 1830, the Sublime Porte recognizes Serbia as a principality under Turkish control, with Milos Obrenovic as hereditary prince.

Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II also grants the Serbian Church autonomy and reaffirms the Russian right to protect Serbia.

Serbian political life has been marred from its beginning by poor administration, corruption, and a bloody rivalry between the Karadjordjevic and Obrenovic clans.

Milos Obrenovic, who had participated in the First Serbian Uprising to its very end in 1813, had been one of the few leaders of the rebellion who stayed in Serbia to face the vengeful returning Turks.

Accordingly, in April 1815 he had instigated the Second Serbian Uprising, becoming Serbia's absolute leader.

After the death of Karadjordje Petrovic, Obrenovic had become leader of Serbia.

By 1817, the Turks had defeated Milos's armies, but not before he negotiated with Marashli-pasha.

Milos's diplomacy had achieved Serbia's autonomy under the Ottomans leaving him in power, as prince Milos, though recognizing the Ottoman state.

After the sultan begins allowing foreign governments to send diplomats to Serbia in the 1830s, foreign intervention further complicates the situation.

Despite these obstacles and his autocratic manner, however, Milos stimulates trade, opens schools, and guides development of peasant lands.

Following a rebellion of Serb citizens against his autocratic and often brutal methods of rule, Milos is compelled to grant a constitution in 1835.

The Turkish sultan promulgates another constitution for Serbia in December 1838, Russia and Turkey having forced Prince Milos Obrenovic to repeal the constitution of 1835 (regarding it as too liberal).

In accordance with it, the Serbian prince, his powers now limited, appoints a council of seventeen senators, who immediately demand his abdication.

Miloš Obrenovic, naming his son Milan as his successor to the Serbian principality (June 13, 1839), retires to his estates in Wallachia.

Serbian culture makes significant strides in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Dositej Obradovic, Vuk Karadzic, and other scholars accelerate a national renaissance.

Through his translations  and autobiography, Obradovic spreads the Enlightenment to the Serbs.

Collections of Serbian folk songs and poems edited by Karadzic awake pride in national history and traditions.

Karadzic also overcomes clerical opposition to reform the Cyrillic alphabet and the Serbian literary language, and he translates the New Testament.

His work widens the concept of Serbian nationhood to include language as well as religious and regional identifications.

Serbian culture has made significant strides in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Dositej Obradovic, Vuk Karadzic (1787-1864), and other scholars have accelerated a national renaissance.

Obradovic had spread the Enlightenment to the Serbs through his translations and autobiography.

Collections of Serbian folk songs and poems edited by Karadzic in the 1820s and 30s have awakened pride in national history and traditions.

Karadzic, having also overcome clerical opposition to reform the Cyrillic alphabet and the Serbian literary language, translates the New Testament in 1847.

His work widens the concept of Serbian nationhood to include language as well as religious and regional identifications.

The Serbs nearly declare war, but Russian and Turkish diplomacy restrains them.

Prince Mihajlo Obrenovic (1860-68), son of Milos, is an effective ruler who further loosens the Turkish grip on Serbia.

Western-educated and autocratic, Mihajlo liberalizes the constitution and in 1867 secures the withdrawal of Turkish garrisons from Serbian cities.

Industrial development begins at this time, although eighty percent of Serbia's one and a quarter million people remain illiterate peasants.

Mihajlo seeks to create a South Slav confederation, and he organizes a regular army to prepare for liberation of Turkish-held Serbian territory.

Scandal undermines Mihajlo's popularity, however, and he is eventually assassinated.

Western-educated and autocratic, Mihajlo has liberalized the constitution and in 1867 secures the withdrawal of Turkish garrisons from Serbian cities.

Industrial development begins at this time, although eighty percent of Serbia's one-and-a-quarter million people remain illiterate peasants.

The feud that had erupted in 1817 between the Karadjordjevic and Obrenovic families continues to divide Serbian society between supporters of the rival clans.