Fears over Albanian separatism and the need to secure Kosovo, a strategic territory for the country drove the state to pursue colonisation as a solution. The Serbian political elite held that Kosovo was a former late medieval Serb territory that following the Ottoman conquest was settled by Albanians. As such, the colonisation process along with the displacement of Albanians and purchasing of their property was understood as "a logical sequel to the liberation war", in which the four Balkan states defeated the Ottoman Empire.