ABSTRACT
Located on the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe, the modern nation of Yugoslavia came into being in 1918 when a group of states joined together under the name of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the name was changed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1945, six primarily Slavic republics - Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro - agreed to come together to create a federation to be known as the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia (land area: 255,800 square kilometres or 98,800 square miles). This federation disintegrated into civil war in 1991 with declarations of independence by Slovenia and Croatia. These republics, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, were recognized as independent countries by the United Nations in 1992.
