"This year is the 200th anniversary of the Second Serbian Uprising that led to autonomy from the Ottomans for Serbs living in the Belgrade Pashalik.
By the early 19th Century Ottoman rule in the Balkans had declined to the extent that local governors became the real rulers in their localities, paying lip service to the commands of the Sublime Porte in Istanbul.
In 1801, janissary commanders murdered the reformist governor of the Belgrade province, Haci Mustafa, known as the ‘Mother of the Serbs'. Unusually, Serbs were allowed to carry weapons and had a relatively enlightened feudal system by the standards of the day. However, after the murder relations deteriorated, not only with the Serbian peasants, but also with the Sipahi landlords who also hated the janissaries.
In 1804 the janissaries slaughtered hundreds of local Serbian chieftains, known as Knez, in what they regarded as a pre-emptive strike. Trade in pigs across the border into Habsburg territory had grown despite the 1789-92 war, and weapons crossed the border into the hands of bandit groups known as Hajduk. The slaughter led to the First Serbian Uprising led by a former Habsburg volunteer and pig farmer, Karadjordje. While the uprising started with limited aims, it soon became a brutal conflict on both sides, forcing the Sultan, Selim, to dispatch an army that was defeated at Nis in the summer of 1805…"
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