The modern Serbian state (the Principality/Kingdom of Serbia) was created and its territory enlarged gradually during the 19th and early 20th century, in a process of emancipation from the Ottoman Empire, where specific agrarian relations existed based on Ottoman feudalism. Consequently the development of the modern Serbian state proceeded parallel to the replacement of Ottoman agrarian relations with a new type of land ownership, with formerly dependent peasants becoming private owners of the land that they had farmed under Ottoman rule. This led to deep-rooted social changes and even changes in the national culture. For this purpose the paper presents an overview of the creation and the territorial expansion of the modern Serbian state, in the context of the change in the international position of the Ottoman Empire and its social structure. A thorough analysis of the Ottoman agrarian relations in the Balkan regions of the Ottoman Empire is carried out, specifying the changes that occurred during the armed springs of the Serbian peasants - the First and Second Serbian Uprising (1804-1813, 1815). The process of abolishing Ottoman agrarian relations (with the constitution of private land ownership) is treated in detail in the territory of the Principality of Serbia, following the attainment of formal autonomy within the Ottoman Empire (1830) and after gaining independence (1878), including all the international implications.
The research into wedding and its diverse aspects is still topical, despite many studies and publications focused on that theme. It is a phenomenon that permanently changes, develops and adapts to various conditions. The contribution focuses on different forms of two selected wedding elements during one century. In 1942, the Slovak Matica carried out the first all-Slovakian survey within which a questionnaire was filled in the village of Veľké Rovné (north-west of Slovakia). The questionnaire served as a starting point to evaluate and compare wedding elements at the turn of the 20th century, which were supplemented with the author ́s research conducted since the 1940s. Erecting trees in bride ́s and bridegroom ́s yards is a certain regional specific feature which has survived from the oldest records to date. The questionnaire discovered an interesting fact that at the turn of the centuries the local version of one part of the wedding ceremony (making an apology to the parents) was not known within the contemporary Slovakia.