Kosovo during the 20th century in history has largely been characterised by wars and major population displacements. The region formed a part of numerous entities, some internationally recognised, others not.
The onset of the 20th century At the turn of the century, Kosovo lay entirely within the Ottoman Empire. Its status was as a vilayet and it occupied a territory significantly larger than today's entity and with Üsküp (now Skopje) as provincial capital. Its own borders were internally expanded following a local administrations reorganisation by the Porte in 1882. The independence of Serbia and Montenegro in 1878 meant that Kosovo was the last line of defence for the Ottomans in Rumelia (Ottoman territory on the European continent). After Bosnia and Herzegovina were incorporated into Austria-Hungary in 1908, Kosovo shared a frontier with three countries: Serbia, Montenegro and Austria-Hungary.
This is how Kosovo remained until the Ottoman Empire was dragged into the First Balkan War in which the local non-Turkish population of Rumelia struggled for self-determination in addition to a joint attack by the Balkan League (all serving the interests of those nations while seeking to expand their own borders); during this time, the populous Albanian nation fought its own battle against both the Ottomans and the surrounding countries that attempted to deny the Albanians a national state.
Balkan Wars During the Balkan Wars of 1912, most of Kosovo was taken from the Ottoman Empire by the Kingdom of Serbia while the region of Metohija (known as the Dukagjini Valley to ethnic-Albanians) was taken by the Kingdom of Montenegro. Throughout the centuries, populations of ethnic Serbs and Albanians tended to shift following territorial handovers. As a result of the multi-ethnic composition of Kosovo, the new administrations provoked a mixed response from the local population. Whilst Albanians (with a slim majority of just over 50%) did not welcome Serbian rule, the non-Albanian population (mainly Bulgarian, Serb and Bosniak) considered this a liberation.
According to Noel Malcolm writing for The Guardian:
In 1918, Serbia became a part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later named Yugoslavia.
World War I
The Serbian Army (helped mainly by the Italian and French Army) was able to recuperate and the sick and injured soldiers received medical attention since they were away from the front lines. Once they were refreshed and regrouped, they returned to the battlefield.
In 1918, the Serbian Army pushed the Central Powers out of Kosovo. Following World War I, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed, shortly after retaking Kosovo, capturing Vojvodina from Austria-Hungary, and unifying with Montenegro to form a larger Kingdom of Serbia.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918–1941)
The peace treaties of 1919–1920 established a Yugoslav state named "The Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs", also called "Yugoslavia". The Kingdom comprised 12 million people, 400,000 were Albanian. Kosovo was split into four counties – three being a part of the entity of Serbia: Zvečan, Kosovo and southern Metohija; and one of Montenegro: northern Metohija. However, the new administration system since 26 April 1922 split Kosovo among three Areas of the Kingdom: Kosovo, Rascia and Zeta. In 1929, the Kingdom was transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The territories of Kosovo were split among the Banate of Zeta, the Banate of Morava and the Banate of Vardar.
By 1921 Albanian Kosovars asked the League of Nations to unite Kosovo with Albania. They alleged 12,000 Albanians had been killed and 22,000 imprisoned since 1918. A Kachak movement of armed Albanians seeking union with Albania developed. The government considered this subversive to the Yugoslav constitution.
Colonisation of Kosovo was a state project implemented by the Kingdom of Yugoslavia during the interwar period. During this colonisation, 60,000–65,000 people settled in KosovoM. Obradović, Agrarna reforma i kolonizacija na Kosovu 1918–1941 (pp. 153, 210, 215, 220), Priština 1981. colonists. Over 90% of the total number of colonists were Serbs (including Montenegrins).
Parallel with the colonization, the country carried out forced migration of Albanians from Kosovo. During the period 1918–1941 90,000 to 150,000 Albanians and other Muslims emigrated from Kosovo.Memorandum submitted by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, FRY/KOSOVO: SERBIAN PLANS FOR ETHNIC CLEANSING, HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND PRECEDENTS, 7 June 2000,
In 1919, Yugoslav forces slaughtered 600 Albanian women and children in the district of Gusinje.
World War II
Yugoslavia was conquered by the Axis in April 1941 and divided mainly between Italy and Germany. Kosovo was included mainly in the Italian controlled area, and was united to fascist Albania between 1941 and 1943.
After the Axis invasion, the greatest part of Kosovo became a part of Italian-controlled Greater Albania, and a smaller, Eastern part by the Bulgarian and Nazi-German-occupied Serbia. Since the Italian occupied Albanian political leadership had decided in the Conference of Bujan that Kosovo would remain a part of Albania, they started expelling and killing the Serbian and Montenegrin populations.
Mustafa Kruja, the then-Prime Minister of Albania, was in Kosovo in June 1942, and at a meeting with the Albanian leaders of Kosovo, he said: "We should endeavor to ensure that the Serb population of Kosovo be – the area be cleansed of them and all Serbs who had been living there for centuries should be termed colonialists and sent to concentration camps in Albania. The Serb settlers should be killed." It is estimated that approximately 10,000 Serbs were massacred and a further 70,000 to 100,000 expelled from Kosovo or sent to concentration camps during WW2. In the Nuremberg trials, it was established that the SS Skanderbeg committed crimes against humanity in Kosovo against ethnic Serbs, Jews, and Roma.
After the surrender of the Kingdom of Italy in September 1943, the German forces took over direct control of the region. In September 1944 the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria and occupied part of the country. A coup d'état on 9 September led to Bulgaria joining the Soviets. As result in the early October three Bulgarian armies, consisting of around 340,000-man, together with the Red Army entered occupied Yugoslavia and moved from Sofia to Niš, Skopje and Pristina to blocking the German forces withdrawing from Greece. The Bulgarians operated in conjunction with the Yugoslav and Albanian communist partisans. Kosovo was liberated by the end of November. It became a province of Serbia within the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia. The Kosovo Albanians, who had been promised self-determination if they joined the partisans, rebelled and martial law was declared. It took about six months for the area to be pacified after some 20,000 Albanians under Shaban Polluza resisted integration of Kosovo within Yugoslavia.
Jewish deportations during the Holocaust also occurred in the area.
Socialist Yugoslavia (1945–1989)
The province was first formed as a member of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia under the leadership of the Partisan leader. This was to be the first time in history that the name of Kosovo came to espouse its current borders; prior to this, its borders, along with its status had fluctuated with time. These borders were drawn carefully so as to incorporate an area with a heavy concentration of Albanians. One such explanation for Kosovo's lines of demarcation never having been properly defined is that its Slavic and Albanian populations have even disputed the origins of the name. As such, the imaginary borders have also been disputed; for example, Albanians are of the belief that the Preševo Valley constitutes eastern Kosovo, whilst Serbs have rendered regions within today's North Macedonia to be traditional Kosovo, such as Skopje, once capital of the Ottoman province, and with a Serb/Bulgarian (Slavic) ethnic majority. Josip Broz Tito initiated this new internal entity, however, in its first years, it was symbolic as it had no factual autonomy. After Yugoslavia's name change to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia's to the Socialist Republic of Serbia in 1953, Kosovo gained inner autonomy in the 1960s.
In the 1974 constitution, the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo's government received higher powers, including the highest governmental titles – President and Premier and a seat in the Federal Presidency which made it a de facto Socialist Republic within the Federation, but remaining as a Socialist Autonomous Province within the Socialist Republic of Serbia. Tito had pursued a policy of weakening Serbia, as he believed that a "Weak Serbia equals a strong Yugoslavia". To this end Vojvodina and Kosovo became autonomous regions and were given the above entitled privileges as de facto republics. Serbo-Croatian, Albanian were defined as official languages on the provincial level marking the two largest linguistic Kosovan groups: Albanians and Serbs. In fact, the Albanian people were able to open independent Albanian-speaking schools and universities.
In the 1970s, an Albanian nationalist movement pursued full recognition of the Province of Kosovo as another Republic within the Federation, while the most extreme elements aimed for full-scale independence. Tito's arbitrary regime dealt with the situation swiftly, but only giving it a temporary solution. This combined with a very high birth rate of Albanians, and emigrations of Serbs to other parts of Yugoslavia further tilted the ethnic balance of Kosovo. Their number tripled gradually rising from almost 75% to over 90%, but the number of Serbs barely increased and dropped in the full share of the total population from some 15% down to 8%.
Beginning in March 1981, Kosovar Albanian students organized protests seeking that Kosovo become a republic within Yugoslavia. Those protests rapidly escalated into violent riots "involving 20,000 people in six cities"New York Times 19 April 1981, "One Storm has Passed but Others are Gathering in Yugoslavia" that were harshly contained by the Yugoslav government. During the 1980s, ethnic tensions continued with frequent violent outbreaks against Serbs and Yugoslav state authorities resulting in increased emigration of Kosovo Serbs and other ethnic groups.Reuters 27 May 1986, "Kosovo Province Revives Yugoslavia's Ethnic Nightmare"Christian Science Monitor 28 July 1986, "Tensions among ethnic groups in Yugoslavia begin to boil over" The Yugoslav leadership tried to suppress protests of Kosovo Serbs seeking protection from ethnic discrimination and violence.New York Times 27 June 1987, "Belgrade Battles Kosovo Serbs"
Although they were many reports of genocide and rape against the Serbian population in Kosovo, some civil rights groups dismissed them as untrue and that economical situation (with Kosovo being the poorest area) was the catalyst for many Serb and Albanian migrations: "There were genuine grievances by both Serbs and Albanians in Kosova, and both groups felt threatened. But Serb independent journalists and human rights workers found the more inflammatory charges to be total fabrications. A study of police records in Kosova showed only one rape of an ethnic Serb by an Albanian in an entire year. Similarly, the alleged destruction of Serb shrines turned out to involve isolated cases of vandalism, graffiti, and cutting of trees on church property – hate crimes, perhaps, but surely not the organized, genocidal annihilation that was claimed."
In fact, crime, and especially rape, was lower in Kosovo than in the rest of Serbia.