Karađorđe

Đorđe Petrović Karađorđe
Grand Vožd of Serbia
Reign	14 February 1804 – 21 September 1813
Predecessor	First Serbian Uprising none
Successor	Second Serbian Uprising Miloš Obrenović I
Consort	Jelena Jovanović
Issue	Alexander Karađorđević
House	House of Karađorđević
Religion	Orthodox Christian

Karađorđe Petrović (Serbian Cyrillic: Карађорђе Петровић; Anglicised: Karageorge Petrovitch), (3 November 1768 – 24 July, 1817) was a Serb leader of the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire, and the founder of the Serbian House of Karađorđević. He was born as Đorđe (George) Petrović, of Montenegrin Serb origin (Vasojevići tribe). Because of his bellicosity and commoner background he was nicknamed "Black George", kara meaning black in Turkish, in Serbian: Crni Đorđe.

Early life

Karađorđe was born in the village of Bioska, Ottoman Empire (today's Central Serbia), and in his youth he was a cattle-keeper. In 1787, Karađorđe and his family escaped to Syrmia, to avoid the Turkish kidnappings of Serbian boys ("blood tax"). Karađorđe lived and worked in the Krušedol monastery. At the end of the same year he fought in the failed Habsburg empire attack on Belgrade. During the Habsburg's war he fought in Southern Serbia, which is where he got the military experience that he later put to use during the First Serbian Uprising.

First Serbian Uprising

Ottoman repression in Serbia significantly increased in the beginning of 19th century when janissary leaders, the dahis, rebelled against the Sultan 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, Serbia, on 14 February 1804 (2 February on the Julian calendar), 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 Ivankovac in 1805 they started open combat to end the rule of the Ottoman Sultan. In March of the same year Karađorđe was officially appointed Military leader of Serbia, the self-proclaimed Vožd (old Serbian for vođa, "leader").

Karađorđe insisted that the dahis leave Belgrade, and in achieving this he abolished Feudalism in the liberated areas of Serbia 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 Belgrade.) The Ottoman 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 Ivankovac 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 Mišar in 1806, and the Battles of Deligrad and Belgrade in 1806. At the end of 1806 Belgrade was freed from Ottoman rule. In 1807 Šabac and Užice were also freed.

In 1806-1807 a Serbian envoy to the Ottoman government in Constantinople Peter Ichko managed to obtain a favourable 'Ichko's Peace'. However, Karađorđe disavowed the agreement and aligned with the Russian Empire in a war against the Ottoman Empire.

In 1812, threatened by Napoleon's French Empire, 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 river Drina, and Karađorđe, along with other rebel leaders, fled to the Austrian Empire on 21 September 1813.

Exile

After some time, Karađorđe moved on to Bessarabia, where he encountered members of the Filiki Eteria, a Greek secret society which planned the liberation of all Christians from the Ottomans. Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria decided to unite to fight off Ottoman rule. Karađorđe was chosen as the leader of this uprising.

Death and aftermath

Monument commemorating Karađorđe in front of Cathedral of Saint Sava in Belgrade

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 Obrenović, Vujica Vulićević and Nikola Novaković.

This happened on orders of the Ottomans, 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 Obrenović and Karađorđević, which would last until the demise of the former family in 1903.

See also

• Karađorđe (film)

References

• Karađorđe Petrović Biografia Template:Sr icon