Unfinished capital – unfinished state: how the modernization of Belgrade was prevented, 1890–1914

Abstract

Today's pictures of Belgrade are not much different from late-nineteenth-century descriptions: messy streets, uncompleted infrastructure projects, lack of coordinated urban plans and strategies. No doubt all of this shows that the weak Serbian society never raised sufficient funds to invest in a glamorous-looking capital city. The most frequent excuse to justify the poor-looking conditions of the national capital has been found in the nation's struggle to fulfill an uncompleted project for national unification. For more than two centuries, the modern Serbian elite has remained unsatisfied with current national boundaries. This paper will address the question of how those unfulfilled national aspirations can be detected in the urban fabric of Belgrade.

Keywords:

• Belgrade
• nationalism
• urbanization

Notes

On Belgrade urbanization, see Čubrilović (1974), Nedić (1976), Nestorović (1954), and Maksimović (1978, 146).

About Prince Michael, see Istorija srpskog naroda (History of the Serbian People) (1983).

For more details, see Nedić (1976, 176) and Maksimović (1983, 35).

“Rezolucija udruženja srpskih inžinjera i tehničara,” qtd. in Maksimović (1983, 36).

On resistance to modernization, see Perović (1994, 1996, 2002, 2006).

On unfinished infrastructure, see Stojanović (2008 , 47–171).

Compare with the history of women's rights (Stojanović 1998, 239–252).

Nikola Pašić was prime minister for the first time in 1891; with minor breaks, he kept that post until he died, in 1926.

About continuities and discontinuities in Serbian history, see M. Jovanović (2005) .

On patriarchal national identity, see Stojanović (1998, 239–252).