The Serbian Kingdom was recognised by both Rome and Constantinople in 1217. Most of Vojvodina, the region along the present-day Hungarian border, became part of the Kingdom of Hungary between the 10th and 12th centuries and remained under Hungarian administration until the 16th century. By the mid-16th century, the entire territory of present-day Serbia had been annexed by the Ottoman Empire, every now and then being ceded to the Habsburgs.  In the early 19th century, Serbia became the region's first constitutional monarchy.

Golubačka tvrđava (the Golubač fortress) A mediæval fortified town located on the right bank of the Danube River where it narrows to form the Iron Gate gorge. Its strategic position allowed for the regulation and taxation of traffic across and along the Danube.

In 1918, after the First World War, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed ; it was renamed Jugoslavija (land of the south Slavs, or Yugoslavia) in 1929.  During the Second World War Nazi Germany's occupied and divided Yugoslavia, resisted by partisan groups from 1941 to 1945. The military and political partisan movement headed by Marshal Tito (Josip Broz) took full control of Yugoslavia after German and separatist Croat forces had been defeated in 1945. Nominally communist, Tito's government maintained a balance between the Soviet bloc nations and the West for some forty years.

From 1989, when Slobodan Milošević became president, extremist nationalism aimed for Serb domination throughout Yugoslavia precipitating breakup along ethnic lines and civil war. In 1991, Hrvatska (Croatia), Slovenija, and Macedonija declared independence, followed by Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992.  In 1998, the ethnic Albanian majority in the Serbian province of Kosovo revolted against Serb domination, leading to extensive conflict until NATO and UN intervention.  In June 2006, Montenegro seceded from the Yugoslav federation and declared itself an independent nation. In February 2008, after nearly two years of inconclusive negotiations, the UN-administered province of Kosovo unilaterally declared itself independent of Serbia - an action not recognised by all EU states.