Abstract
At the beginning of the twentieth century, Belgrade only had about 69,100 inhabitants, while today it has around 1.6 million inhabitants, which is 23% of Serbia’s population. Belgrade has been the scene of social revolutions which have triggered frequent changes in its social and economic stratification, reflected in international relationships that have often broken down in frequent political crises, wars, and migrations. Immediately upon the city gaining autonomy, Belgrade’s history saw great changes in the nineteenth century. Belgrade, within a span of only several decades, significantly changed its appearance: from a derelict, poorly arranged small town with winding, narrow streets, it started to become the principal economic, cultural, and governmental center of the young Serbian state. In the aftermath of WWI, in 1918, Belgrade became the capital of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but changed its name in 1929 to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Socialist Yugoslavia was formed from the remains of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the aftermath of WWII. After Tito rejected making Yugoslavia dependent on the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia left the Soviet bloc in 1948 and changed its political course by establishing a new position between the two blocs. The country took part in establishing the Non-Aligned Movement, which positioned Yugoslavia in the major global political arena. The collapse of the Yugoslav federation in the 1990s was a result of complex internal and external geostrategic circumstances, culminating in violent political conflict. Belgrade arrived in the twenty-first century in a worse state than anyone could have ever possibly predicted in the time of its glory after WWII. This chapter analyzes the urban, political, and socioeconomic rise and fall of Belgrade through its long history. This extensive overall study of Belgrade is divided into five periods: Development of Belgrade to 1914, Belgrade between two World Wars, Belgrade from the end of WWII until 1991, Belgrade from 1991 to 2000, and Belgrade at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Antić Č (2019) Srbija i sprski narod u 21. stoleću [Serbia and the Serbain nation in the 21st century]. Nedeljnik 21 februar 2019 54–55
Arandelovic B et al (2017) Belgrade: imaging the future and creating a European metropolis. Cities 63:1–19
Armenski T et al (2009) Perception of foreign tourists on the image of Serbia. Bull Serb Geogr Soc 89(1):39–63
Arsić M (2013) Da li je privatizacija glavni krivac za gubitak radnih mesta u Srbiji? [Is privatization the main culprit for the loss of jobs in Serbia?]. Kvartni Monit 34:71–73
Blagojević L (2003) Modernism in Serbia: the elusive margins of Belgrade architecture, 1919–1941. MIT Press, Cambridge
Bojović B (2003) Urbanizam Beograda u XIX i XX veku [Town planning in Belgrade in the XIX and XX century]. Godišnjak grada Beograda XLIX-L 109–130
Čomić Đ, Vićić S (2013) National and tourist identity of cities. The case study of Belgrade. Quasteus 2:15–27
Dimić Lj (1997) Kulturna politika Kraljevine Jugoslavije 1918–1941 [Cultural policy of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia]. Politika Beograd 24
Djurić-Zamolo D (1977) Beograd kao orijentalna Varos pod Turcima 1521–1867 [Belgrade as an oriental town under the Turks from 1521–1867]. Muzej Grada Beograda, Belgrade
GaWC (2018) Globalization and world cities (Research network). https://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/world2018t.html
Grčić M (1993) Razvoj industrije u suburbanoj zoni Beograda The development of industry in the suburban area of Belgrade. Zbornik radova PMF Beograd 41:259–268
Hadžić M (2002) Rethinking privatization in Serbia. East Eur Econ 40(6):6–23
Howard L, Allen D (2008) Visitor and non-visitor images of Central and Eastern Europe: a qualitative analysis. Int J Tour Res 10:27–40
Hirt S (2009) City profile: Belgrade, Serbia. Cities 26(5):293–303
https://zis.beograd.gov.rs/images/ZIS/Files/Publikacije/BUB_2018_E.pdf
Institute for Informatics and Statistics (2018) Belgrade in figures. Secretariat for Administration Sector for Statistics, City of Belgrade
Jakovina T (2011) The third side of the cold war. Faktura, Zagreb
Kulić V (2009) Land of in-between: modern architecture and the state in socialist Yugoslavia, 1945–65. PhD thesis, University of Texas at Austin
Kulić V (2014a) New Belgrade and socialist Yugoslavia’s three globalisation. Int J Hist Cult Mod 2(2):125–153
Kulić V (2014b) East? West? Or both? Foreign perceptions of architecture in Socialist Yugoslavia. J Arch 14(1):129–147
Lex specialis—The Law Establishing the Public Interest and Special Procedures of Expropriation and the Issuance of Construction Permit for the Project Belgrade Waterfront. Official Gazette of RS, No. 34/2015
Lukić V, Anđelković-Stoilković M (2017) Interrelation of spatial disparities in development and migration patterns in transition economy: Serbia—case study. Hum Geogr J Stud Res Hum Geogr 11(1):65–76
Madžar Lj (2017) Geopolitical constraints on development policies of small countries. Acta Economica XV(26):9–54
Maksimović B (1983) Ideje i stvarnost urbanizma Beograda 1830–1941 [Belgrade urbanism ideas and reality]. Zavod za zaštitu spomenika kulture grada Beograda
Marković P (1992) Beograd i Evropa 1918–1941, Evropski uticaji na proces modernizacije Beograda [Belgrade and Europe 1918–1941, European influences on the process of modernization of Belgrade]. Savremena administracija
Marković JJ (2017) The image of Belgrade and Novi Sad as perceived by foreign tourists. J Geogr Inst Jovan Cvijić 66(1):91–104
Meriage LP (1978) The first Serbian uprising (1804–1813) and the nineteenth-century origins of the Eastern Question. Slavic Review 37(3):421–439
Mitrović M (2012) Arhitektura Beograda 1950–2012. Službeni Glasnik Beograd
Perović M, Žegarac Z (2000) The destruction of an architectural culture: the 1999 bombing of Belgrade. Cities 17(6):395–408
Petrović D (2001) Industrija i urbani razvoj Beograda [Industry and urban development of Belgrade]. Industrija 1–4:87–94
Petrović D (2006) Istorija industrije Beograda: razvoj i razmestaj industrije Beograda u XIX i XX veku [History of Belgrade industry: development and distribution of industry in Belgrade in the XIX and XX century]. Srpsko Geografsko drustvo Beograd
Petrović et al (2017) Urban geosites as an alternative geotourism destination—evidence from Belgrade. Open Geosci 9:442–456
Piljević Dj (2001) Beograd u XX veku: levica 1. Institut za noviju istoriju Srbije
Ratkaj I (2002) Saobraćajno-geografski položaj Srbije. Zbornik radova Geografskog fakulteta 50:33–46
Samardžić N (2015) Belgrade 1714–2014: Utopianism and Urbicide. In: Doytchinov G, Đukić A, Ioniță C (eds) Planning capital cities: Belgrade, Bucharest, Sofia. Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, pp 212–224
Šuvaković M (2003) Impossible histories. In: Djurić D, Šuvakovic M (eds) Impossible histories: historical avant-gardes, neo-avant-gardes, and post-avant-gardes in Yugoslavia, 1918–1991. The MIT, Cambridge, Mass, pp 2–36
Taylor J, Aranya R (2008) A global ‘urban roller coaster’? Connectivity changes in the world city network, 2000–04. Reg Stud 42(1):1–16
The Amendments on the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 (2014) Official Gazette of the City of Belgrade, No. 70/2014
Topalović M (2011) Brick and gold: the urbanism and architecture of informal Belgrade, in Belgrade—formal/informal: a research on urban transformation. ETH Studio Basel Zürich, Verlag Scheidegger and Spiess
Vučetić-Mladenović R (2003) Evropa na Kalemegdanu: Cvijeta Zuzorić i kulturni zivot Beograda 1918–1941 [Europe on Kalemegdan. Cvijeta Zuzorić and cultural life in Belgrade 1918–1941]. Institut za noviju istoriju Beograd
Vujačić I, Petrović Vujačić J (2016) Privatization in Serbia—an assessment before the last round. Econ Ann LXI(209)
Willets P (1978) The non-aligned movement: the origins of a Third World alliance. Pinter Publishers
Weiss S (2007) Belgrade: Where subversion is normal. Perspecta 38; Yale Arch J (The MIT Press) (39):48–57
Weiss S (2013) National un-national. Natl Pap: J Natl Ethn 41(1):90–108
Zec M, Radonjić O (2012) Ekonomski model socijalističke Jugoslavije: saga o autodestrukciji [The economic model of socialist Yugoslavia: the saga of self-destruction]. Sociologija 54(4):695–720
Zegarac Z (1999) Illegal construction in Belgrade and the prospects of urban development planning. Cities 16(5):365–370
Zeković S et al (2015) Spatial regularization, planning instruments and urban land market in a post-socialist society: the case of Belgrade. Habitat Int 48:65–78
Zekovic S, Maricic T and Vujošević M (2018) Megaprojects as an instrument of urban planning and development: example of Belgrade waterfront. In: Hostettler S et al (eds) Technologies for development, pp 153–164
Zurnić M (2019) Confronting corruption in Post-Milošević Serbia: discourse and institutions. Corruption and democratic transition in Eastern Europe. Political corruption and governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, pp 75–106
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Arandelovic, B. (2020). The Urban, Political, and Socioeconomic Rise and Fall of Belgrade Through Its History. In: Belgrade. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35070-3_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35070-3_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-35069-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-35070-3
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)