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[[Image:Yugoslavia.png|right|thumb|Flag of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]]

[[Image:Yugoslavia.png|right|thumb|Flag of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]]

The former state of '''Yugoslavia''' (literally "Land of the South Slavs") was created following the [[Paris Peace Talks]] of 1919-1920 as the "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes."  Since these were not the only ethnic groups existing in the country, the name was changed in 1929 to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia."  During the span of its existence it was the largest nation in the [[Balkan peninsula]]. While none of the countries created at the Peace Conference perfectly represented the [[Wilsonian]] ideal of national [[self-determination]], Yugoslavia was more of a repudiation of this idea than probably any other.  Most of its territory had previously been part of the recently destroyed kingdom of [[Serbia]]; the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]]; or prior to [[World War I]], the [[Ottoman Empire]].

The former state of '''Yugoslavia''' (literally "Land of the South Slavs") was created following the [[Paris Peace Talks]] of 1919-1920 as the "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes."  Since these were not the only ethnic groups existing in the country, the name was changed in 1929 to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia."  During the span of its existence it was the largest nation in the [[Balkan peninsula]]. While none of the countries created at the Peace Conference perfectly represented the [[Wilsonian]] ideal of national [[self-determination]], Yugoslavia was more of a repudiation of this idea than probably any other.  Most of its territory had previously been part of the recently destroyed kingdom of [[Serbia]]; the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]]; or prior to [[World War I]], the [[Ottoman Empire]].

Besides [[Britain]] and [[France]], Yugoslavia was the only European country to openly defy [[Nazi Germany]] after the [[Munich agreement of 1938]] but before being attacked or annexed.  It earned this distinction as a result of a [[coup d'etat]] in April 1941 triggered by [[Benito Mussolini]]'s unsuccessful invasion of neighboring [[Greece]].  The coup overthrew a pro-[[Nazi]] [[prime minister]] and was treated by [[Adolf Hitler]] as a [[casus belli]], although he typically didn't look for one of those too hard.

Following the Axis invasion and partition in 1941, Yugoslavia became the scene of numerous interrelated ethnic and ideological conflicts fought by insurgents, occupiers, and various local bands and militias--in effect, a civil war fought within the wider context of global war. This view, now widely accepted, contrasts with the communists' black-and-white interpretation of the postwar period, which held that the war in Yugoslavia was merely an extension of a global anti-fascist struggle.

[[Insurgent]]s in Yugoslavia caused the [[Nazi]]s more trouble than in any other country with the exceptions of the [[Soviet Union]] and perhaps [[Poland]].  They were in fact so effective that an actual [[invasion]] of Yugoslavia to eject the Nazis was considered wasteful by all of the principal Allied leaders and was not undertaken.  As became typical of [[civil war]]s in the [[20th century]], the insurgents also fought each other, sometimes making temporary alliances with the Nazis and [[Italy|Italians]] who later came to occupy the southern part of the country in order to concentrate more fully on destroying one another.  The Nazis also set up [[Croatia]] as a [[puppet state]] run by the [[fascist]] [[Ustashe]], providing yet another [[combatant]] to the ensuing [[anarchy]].

The Nazis also set up [[Croatia]] as a separate [[puppet state]] run by the fascist [[Ustashe]], providing yet another combatant to the ensuing confusion.

An anti-fascist Croat, [[Josip Broz Tito]], emerged as the leader of the [[communist]] arm of the resistance and, after the Nazi defeat in 1945, as the new leader of Yugoslavia overall. In 1949, he adopted a policy of armed [[neutrality]] in the [[Cold War]] between the Soviet Union and the [[United States]]. Yugoslavia prospered considerably from this policy and was able to trade on favorable terms with both [[superpowers]] and their economic blocs.  Shortly after Tito's death in 1980, the state industrial ministry began marketing the last new European car brand, the [[Yugo]], to the United States.  The Yugo suffered, however, from the same quality deficiencies as the state-made cars of other communist countries and never caught on.

During the war a bitter struggle was waged between two anti-Nazi forces, the Chetniks and the Communsit partisans under Tito. The defeat of the royalist and Serb nationalist forces, known collectively as the Chetniks, resulted from chronic disunity as well as their lacking appeal to non-Serbs. By contrast, their great rivals, Josip Broz Tito's Communists and the partisan movement they led, realized that they had to appear as a broader patriotic movement in order to acquire and retain the support of non-communist followers, all the while focused on establishing communist rule in postwar Yugoslavia. The Chetniks and their nominal leader, Draa Mihailović, had been the first to take up the insurgency against the Axis occupiers. But they never developed either an effective central command structure or an ideological appeal that could transcend the boundaries of nationality, and thereby attract non-Serbs to their cause in significant numbers, even though they enjoyed official legitimacy for much of the war. In some regions there was a high degree of passive and sometimes even active cooperation of Chetnik forces--and others as well--with the Axis occupiers and their regional satrapies, such as "Serbian Residual State." The facts and

perception of resistance and collaboration proved decisive not only to the military and diplomatic course of the war but also to the history of postwar Yugoslavia.

In 1991-1992 the internal republics comprising the country of '''Yugoslavia''' divided up and became five separate countries: [[Bosnia]] and [[Herzegovina]], [[Croatia]], [[Macedonia]], [[Slovenia]], and [[Yugoslavia]] ([[Serbia]] and [[Montenegro]]). In 2006 [[Montenegro]] became independent and in 2008 even [[Kosovo]], a former province of [[Serbia]], declared its independence.

In 1991-1992 the internal republics comprising the country of '''Yugoslavia''' divided up and became five separate countries: [[Bosnia]] and [[Herzegovina]], [[Croatia]], [[Macedonia]], [[Slovenia]], and [[Yugoslavia]] ([[Serbia]] and [[Montenegro]]). In 2006 [[Montenegro]] became independent and in 2008 even [[Kosovo]], a former province of [[Serbia]], declared its independence.

Serbia and Montenegro both claim to be the successor country to the former Yugoslavia so each use the name "Yugoslavia."

Serbia and Montenegro both claim to be the successor country to the former Yugoslavia so each use the name "Yugoslavia."

==Further reading==

==Further reading==

* Pavlowitch, Stevan K. ''Hitler's New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia.'' (2008).  352pp  

* Pavlowitch, Stevan K. ''Hitler's New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia.'' (2008).  352pp  

[[Category:Former Countries]]

[[Category:Former Countries]]