The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

the despot George Brankovic, chose for his capital Smederevo, which was fortified according to the best rules of contemporary military science. But nothing availed. Bulgaria succumbed silently in 1393, and after the fall of Constantinople, in 1453, the Turks prepared a fresh and terrible onslaught on Serbia. After a prolonged siege, during which the all-powerful cannons of Soliman the Magnificent wrought havoe in the walls and ranks of the defenders, Smederevo was taken in 1459, and Serbia ceased to exist. Other Serbian States continued a precarious life for a while. Bosnia was conquered in 1463, Hercegovina 1476, and Zeta in 1499. Thus in the second half of the fifteenth century, one by one the Serbian States were conquered and their independence completely extinguished. Only a small part of Zeta, impregnable Montenegro, like a fortress on the rocks through centuries braved the Turkish onslaughts and resisted them successfully. Montenegro remained the stronghold of Serbian liberty and the guardian of the ever-living tradition of the ancient glory of the Serbian Empire. No wonder that the historical tradition of the Serbo-Croat nation was nowhere more alive than in Montenegro. The tradition of the Montenegrins and the glorious battles they fought through centuries, evoked the admiration of Tennyson, who dedicated to them well-known immortal verses. Gladstone also strongly appreciated them when E 49