Former federated country situated on the west-central Balkan Peninsula of southern Europe.
Between 1929 and 2003, three federations bore the name Yugoslavia ("Land of the South Slavs"). After the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 ended Turkish rule in the Balkan Peninsula and Austria-Hungary was defeated in World War I, a Kingdom of Serbia and Montenegro (including Serbian-held Macedonia ), as well as Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Austrian territory in Dalmatia and Slovenia , and Hungarian land north of the Danube River. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia, officially proclaimed in 1929 by King Alexander I and lasting until World War II, covered 95,576 sq mi (247,542 sq km). The postwar Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia covered 98,766 sq mi (255,804 sq km) and had a population of about 24 million by 1991. In addition to Serbia and Montenegro, socialist Yugoslavia included four other republics now recognized as independent states: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia. The "third Yugoslavia," inaugurated on April 27, 1992, had roughly 45% of the population and 40% of the area of its predecessor and consisted of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, which in 2003 abandoned the name Yugoslavia and renamed the country Serbia and Montenegro .