The history of Kosovo is intertwined with the histories of its neighboring regions. The name "Kosovo" is derived from the Kosovo Plain,[citation needed] where the Battle of Kosovo was fought between Serbia and the Ottoman Empire. Kosovo's modern history can be traced to the Ottoman Sanjak of Prizren, of which parts were organized into Kosovo Vilayet in 1877. In antiquity, Dardania covered the area, which formed part of the larger Roman province of Moesia in the 1st century AD. In the Middle Ages, the region became part of the Bulgarian Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Serbian medieval states. It was then conquered by the Ottoman Empire an exact 70 years after the Battle of Kosovo. In 1913 the Kosovo Vilayet was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbia, which in 1918 became part of Yugoslavia. Kosovo gained autonomy in 1963 under Josip Broz Tito's direction, an autonomy which was significantly extended by Yugoslavia's 1974 Constitution, but lost its autonomous institutions in 1990. In 1999 UNMIK stepped.

On 17 February 2008 Kosovo's Parliament declared independence, as the Republic of Kosovo, with partial recognition of that declaration.