Balkan Uprisings in the Ottoman Empire
In 1804, the first Serbian uprising resulted in the killing of local Ottoman officials in Belgrade. The leaders asked to negotiate with the Sultan in Turkey, but the request was turned down and brought about a popular uprising. With disorganization and infighting among the rebels, the Turks regaining control. A more organized uprising took place in 1815 that resulted in the Turkish Sultan giving the Serbs a more independent status as a principality. However the Turks kept a large garrison in Belgrade.
These early slave nationalist movements started with a nation-state concept called Illyria, which would lead to a federal union named Yugoslavia. In the 1840s, some countered the idea of a federation with the idea of reinstating the medieval Serbian empire that would have existed if the Turks had not invaded. This was in conflict with the desires of the other groups in the Balkans like the Croatians, Macedonians, and Montenegro, which all had their own national ambitions.
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