|currency =Yugoslav dinar
}}
'''Yugoslavia''' (literally "Land of the South Slavs") was a country in the [[Balkan peninsula]] that existed from 1918 to 1992, with a short break during [[World War II]], when it was occupied by [[Nazi Germany]]. It was a monarchy from its creation to 1945 and a [[communist]] country from 1945 to its dissolution.
==Origins==
The former state of '''Yugoslavia''' (literally "Land of the South Slavs") was created following the [[Paris Peace Conference]] of 1919-1920 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 and most important 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]].
==World War II==
Besides [[Britain]] and [[France]], Yugoslavia was the only [[Europe]]an 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'état]] in April 1941 triggered by [[Benito Mussolini]]'s unsuccessful invasion of neighboring [[Greece]]. The coup overthrew a pro-[[Nazi]] prime minister and led to war with Germany.
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, 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, 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.<ref>Walter R. Roberts, ''Tito, Mihailović, and the allies, 1941-1945,'' (1987) [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=43CbLU8FgFsC&dq=intitle:Mihailovi%C4%87&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=0 excerpt and text search]</ref>
All parties assumed—falsely—that sooner or later the Allies would invade. Many optimistic plans were based on the assumption of Western Allied support, and on its magical power to put everything right. Historians are unsure why there was such universal faith among all parties in Allied invasion or intervention. Was it Nazi disinformation? Faulty intelligence? [[Wishful thinking]]? Or a combination of all three? Meanwhile, there was an exiled royal government in London sponsored by Churchill.
* Gapinski, James H. ''The Economic Structure and Failure of Yugoslavia.'' (1993). 212 pp.
* Hehn, Paul N. ''The German Struggle Against Yugoslav Guerrillas in World War II: German Counter-Insurgency in Yugoslavia, 1941-1943.'' (1979). 153 pp.
* Jelavich, Barbara. ''History of the Balkans: Twentieth century'' (1983) 476 pages [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=Hd-or3qtqrsC&dq=intitle:history+intitle:balkans+inauthor:jelavich&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=0&as_pt=ALLTYPES excerpt and text search]
* Judah, Timothy. ''The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia.'' (1997). 347 pp.
* Lane, Ann. ''Britain, the Cold War and Yugoslav Unity, 1941-1949.'' (1996). 220 pp.
[[Category:Former Countries]]
[[Category:Balkans]]
[[Category:CommunismCommunist States]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Cold War]]