• A former federal republic in south-eastern Europe, in the Balkans.

Yugoslavia was formed as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in the peace settlements at the end of the First World War. It comprised Serbia, Montenegro, and the former South Slavic provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and assumed the name of Yugoslavia in 1929; its capital was Belgrade. After the Second World War, during which Yugoslavia was invaded by Germany, the country emerged as a non-aligned Communist federal republic under Marshal Tito. In 1990 Communist rule was formally ended. Four of the six constituent republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia) then seceded amid serious civil and ethnic conflict. The two remaining republics, Serbia and Montenegro, declared a new federal republic of Yugoslavia in 1992. This was dissolved in 2003, being replaced by the Union of Serbia and Montenegro. In 2006 Serbia and Montenegro voted to become independent republics