Federated country, west-central Balkan Peninsula , southern Europe.
It consists of two republics: Serbia and Montenegro . Area: 39,449 sq mi (102,173 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 10,663,806. Capital: Belgrade . The population comprises Serbian, Albanian, Montenegrin, Hungarian, and other ethnic groups. Languages: Serbian (Serbo-Croatian; official), Albanian. Religions: Serbian Orthodoxy, Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism. Currencies: Serbian dinar (Serbia); euro (Montenegro). The southern two-thirds of Serbia and Montenegro is mountainous, with the Dinaric Alps in the west and the Balkan Mountains in the east. Rivers include the Morava , Timiş , and Tisza . The country has oil, gas, coal, copper, lead, zinc, and gold deposits. Its industries include machine building, metallurgy, mining, electronics, and petroleum products, while its agricultural products include corn, wheat, potatoes, and fruit. The country is a federation with a president and a unicameral legislature, but most power resides with the governments of the two republics. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was created after the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I. The country signed treaties with Czechoslovakia and Romania in 1920–21, marking the beginning of the Little Entente . In 1929 an absolute monarchy was established, the country's name was changed to Yugoslavia, and it was divided without regard to ethnic boundaries. Axis powers invaded Yugoslavia in 1941, and German, Italian, Hungarian, and Bulgarian troops occupied it for the rest of World War II. In 1945 the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was established; it included the republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia , Macedonia , Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia . Its independent form of communism under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito provoked the Soviet Union and led to its expulsion from the {{link=Cominform">Cominform in 1948. Internal ethnic tensions flared up in the 1980s, causing Yugoslavia to collapse. In 1991–92 independence was declared by Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina; the new Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (containing roughly 45% of the population and 40% of the area of its predecessor) was proclaimed by Serbia and Montenegro. Still fueled by long-standing ethnic tensions, hostilities continued into the 1990s (see Bosnian conflict ; Kosovo conflict ). In 2003, after the ratification of an accord by the governments of Serbia, Montenegro, and Yugoslavia, the country was renamed Serbia and Montenegro.