Karađorđe Petrović (Serbian Cyrillic: Карађорђе Петровић;
AnglicisedAnglicisation or Anglicization is a process of conversion of verbal or written elements of any other language into a more comprehensible English form for an English speaker....
:
Karageorge Petrovitch), (3 November 1768 – 24 July, 1817) was a
SerbSerbs are a South Slavic people living in the Central Europe and the Balkans , between the Balkan- and Carpathian mountains in the east and the Adriatic sea in the west. They are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia...
leader of the
First Serbian UprisingThe First Serbian Uprising was the first stage of the Serbian revolution which lasted for nine years and approximately nine months , during which Serbia perceived itself as an independent state for the first time after 400 years of Ottoman and short-lasting Austrian occupations...
against the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, and the founder of the
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
n House of Karađorđević. He was born as Đorđe (George) Petrović,Because of his bellicosity and commoner background he was nicknamed "
Black George",
kara meaning black in
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
(in Serbian: Црни Ђорђе,
Crni Đorđe).
Karađorđe was born in the village of Viševac,
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
(today's Central
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
), and in his youth he was a cattle-keeper.
Karađorđe Petrović (Serbian Cyrillic: Карађорђе Петровић;
AnglicisedAnglicisation or Anglicization is a process of conversion of verbal or written elements of any other language into a more comprehensible English form for an English speaker....
:
Karageorge Petrovitch), (3 November 1768 – 24 July, 1817) was a
SerbSerbs are a South Slavic people living in the Central Europe and the Balkans , between the Balkan- and Carpathian mountains in the east and the Adriatic sea in the west. They are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, to a lesser extent, in Croatia...
leader of the
First Serbian UprisingThe First Serbian Uprising was the first stage of the Serbian revolution which lasted for nine years and approximately nine months , during which Serbia perceived itself as an independent state for the first time after 400 years of Ottoman and short-lasting Austrian occupations...
against the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, and the founder of the
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
n House of Karađorđević. He was born as Đorđe (George) Petrović,Because of his bellicosity and commoner background he was nicknamed "
Black George",
kara meaning black in
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
(in Serbian: Црни Ђорђе,
Crni Đorđe).
Early life
Karađorđe was born in the village of Viševac,
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
(today's Central
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
), and in his youth he was a cattle-keeper. In 1787, Karađorđe and his family escaped to
SyrmiaSyrmia is a fertile region of the Pannonian Plain in Europe, between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia in the east and Croatia in the west....
, to avoid the
TurkishThe Ottoman Turks were the subdivision of the Ottoman Muslim Millet that dominated the ruling class of the Ottoman Empire. Reliable information about the early history of the Ottomans is scarce. According to some sources , the leader of the Kayi tribe of the Oguz Turks, Ertugrul, left Persia in...
kidnappingsDevşirme or devshirme was the practice by which the Ottoman Empire conscripted boys from Christian families, who were taken from their families by force, converted to Islam, trained and enrolled in one of the four royal institutions: the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious and the Military.The...
of Serbian boys ("blood tax"). Karađorđe lived and worked in the
Krušedol monasteryThe Krušedol monastery is a Serb Orthodox monastery on the Fruška Gora mountain in the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina. The monastery is the legacy of the last Serbian despot family of Srem - Branković. It was built between 1509 and 1514...
. At the end of the same year he fought in the failed
Habsburg empireThe Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The capital was mainly Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when the capital was Prague...
attack on
BelgradeBelgrade Belgrade Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic: Београд, Serbian Latin: Beograd (meaning "White City" in Serbian) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe's Pannonian Plain meets...
. During the Habsburg's
warWar is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
he fought in Southern Serbia, which is where he got the military experience that he later put to use during the
First Serbian UprisingThe First Serbian Uprising was the first stage of the Serbian revolution which lasted for nine years and approximately nine months , during which Serbia perceived itself as an independent state for the first time after 400 years of Ottoman and short-lasting Austrian occupations...
.
First Serbian Uprising
Ottoman repression in Serbia significantly increased in the beginning of 19th century when
janissaryThe Janissaries comprised infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards...
leaders, the
dahis, rebelled against the
SultanSultan is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. Originally it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", or "rulership", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power"...
and seized the rule of the Belgrade Pashaluk. It culminated in January 1804, when
dahis prepared executions of popular leaders, gentry, priests, former rebels and wealthy traders, called the Execution of the Dukes (
Seča knezova in Serbian). Being notified of the ongoing executions last minute, Karađorđe escaped execution by ambushing the assassins with his men and killing them all.
As the response to the executions, Serbs rallied in Orašac, a village near modern Aranđelovac,
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
, on 14 February 1804 (2 February on the
Julian calendarThe Julian calendar, a reform of the Roman calendar, was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC, and came into force in 45 BC . It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus...
), and Karađorđe was chosen to be the leader of the uprising. The rebels managed to quickly incite revolt, firstly under the pretext of liberation from
dahis, but after the
Battle of IvankovacThe Battle of Ivankovac was the first full-scale confrontation between the Serbian rebels and the official forces of the Ottoman Empire, during the First Serbian Uprising...
in 1805 they started open combat to end the rule of the Ottoman
SultanSultan is an Islamic title, with several historical meanings. Originally it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", or "rulership", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power"...
. In March of the same year Karađorđe was officially appointed Military leader of
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
, the self-proclaimed
Vožd (old
SerbianSerbian is a South Slavic language, spoken chiefly in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, and in the Serbian diaspora...
for
vođa, "leader").
Karađorđe insisted that the
dahis leave
BelgradeBelgrade Belgrade Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic: Београд, Serbian Latin: Beograd (meaning "White City" in Serbian) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe's Pannonian Plain meets...
, and in achieving this he terminated
FeudalismFeudalism is a decentralized sociopolitical structure in which a weak monarchy attempts to control the lands of the realm through reciprocal agreements with regional leaders...
in the liberated areas of
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
and installed his military commanders and local leaders as governors of
nahis (Turkish administrative units). (The
dahis, however, refused to leave and were captured and executed after the Serbian liberation of
BelgradeBelgrade Belgrade Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic: Београд, Serbian Latin: Beograd (meaning "White City" in Serbian) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe's Pannonian Plain meets...
.) The
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
government did welcome the rebellion against the
dahis and decided to install a new governor in Belgrade. Karađorđe and the Serbs, after tasting the fruits of liberty decided to not let the new
pasha enter the liberated area and defeated his army in the
Battle of IvankovacThe Battle of Ivankovac was the first full-scale confrontation between the Serbian rebels and the official forces of the Ottoman Empire, during the First Serbian Uprising...
of 1805. This battle signified a turn of events, since the uprising was not a rebellion against the
dahi terror anymore, but a war of liberation against the Ottoman rule. The rebels achieved several victories, including in the
Battle of MišarThe battle of Mišar took place from 12 to 15 August 1806, with a crushing Serbian victory being inflicted upon the Ottomans. Much of the Ottoman commanding core was killed during the battle....
in 1806, and the
Battles of Deligrad-The Battle:The First Serbian Uprising had begun in 1804 with the expulsion of the ruling janissary elite and the proclamation of an independent Serbian state by the revolution's leader, Karageorge. The Ottoman Sultan, Selim III sent a huge Turkish force to quell the uprising...
and Belgrade in 1806. At the end of 1806
BelgradeBelgrade Belgrade Belgrade (Serbian Cyrillic: Београд, Serbian Latin: Beograd (meaning "White City" in Serbian) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on two international waterways, at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where Central Europe's Pannonian Plain meets...
was freed from Ottoman rule. In 1807
ŠabacŠabac is a city and municipality located in Serbia at 44.76° North, 19.69° East along the Sava river in the historic region of Mačva. It is the administrative center of the Mačva District of Serbia. The city has a population of 55,163 , while population of the municipality is 122,893...
and
UžiceUžice is a town and municipality located in Serbia at 43.87° North, 19.84° East. The 2002 Census Data records that the town has a total population of 55,025. Including the suburban settlements of Buar and Sevojno, the Užice city proper has 63,577 inhabitants. It is the administrative center of the...
were also freed.
In 1806-1807 a Serbian envoy to the Ottoman government in
ConstantinopleConstantinople was the imperial capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire...
Peter IchkoPeter Ichko , was a Serbian and Ottoman diplomat of Bulgarian background.- Biography :Peter Ichko was born in the South Macedonian village of Katranitsa, then in the Ottoman Empire , a place with developed merchant traditions. He resettled to the North, managing his own commercial business...
managed to obtain a favourable 'Ichko's Peace'. However, Karađorđe disavowed the agreement and aligned with the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in a war against the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
.
In 1812, threatened by Napoleon's
French EmpireThe French Empire
, also known as the Greater French Empire or First French Empire, but more commonly known as the Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I in France...
, Russia had to quickly sign a peace treaty with the Ottomans. In 1813, the Ottoman Empire launched a big assault on Serbia taking land all up to the rivers Morava and the
riverA river is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, a sea or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water...
DrinaThe Drina is a river in Serbia and Republika Srpska, Serbian entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Balkan Peninsula, and it is largest karst river in the Dinaric Alps which belongs to the Danube river watershed. It is a 346 kilometer long tributary of the Sava River, and it forms most of the...
, and Karađorđe, along with other rebel leaders, fled to the
Austrian EmpireThe Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire founded on a remnant of the Holy Roman Empire centered on what is today's Austria that officially lasted from 1804 to 1867...
on 21 September 1813.
Exile
After some time, Karađorđe moved on to
BessarabiaBessarabia is a historical term for the geographic entity in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west...
, where he encountered members of the
Filiki EteriaThe Filiki Eteria, , was a secret 19th century organization, whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece and to establish an independent Greek state. Etairia members were mainly young Phanariot Greeks from Russia and local chieftains from Greece...
, a
GreekThe Greeks , also known as Hellenes, are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions, who can also be found in diaspora communities around the world....
secret society which planned the liberation of all
ChristiansChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
from the Ottomans.
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
, Greece and
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
decided to unite to fight off
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
rule. Karađorđe was chosen as the leader of this uprising.
Death and aftermath
On 24 July 1817, days after he secretly crossed into Serbia to try and spearhead a new uprising, Karađorđe was assassinated in Radovanjski Lug by the men of
Miloš ObrenovićMiloš Obrenović was Prince of Serbia from 1815 to 1839, and again from 1858 to 1860. He participated in the First Serbian Uprising, led Serbs in the Second Serbian Uprising, and founded the House of Obrenović...
, Vujica Vulićević and Nikola Novaković.
This happened on orders of the
OttomansThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, who feared the possibility of a new uprising, while Miloš feared competition by the enormously popular Karađorđe.
Some have speculated that Karađorđe had no political ambitions and simply wanted to return home from the exile and informed Miloš of this in advance, who however did not believe such protestations and had Karađorđe killed.
The assassination sowed seeds of hatred between the rival dynasties
ObrenovićThe House of Obrenović ruled Serbia from 1815 to 1842, and again from 1858 to 1903. They came to power through the leadership of their progenitor Miloš Obrenović in the Second Serbian uprising against the Ottoman Empire, which led to the formation of the Principality of Serbia...
and Karađorđević, which would last until the demise of the former family in 1903.