SerbiaSerbia (ˈsɜːrbiə ; Србија, sř̩bija), officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија, repǔblika sř̩bija), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest, and claims a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo.
Breakup of YugoslaviaAfter a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart, but the unresolved issues caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav Wars. The wars primarily affected Bosnia and Herzegovina, neighbouring parts of Croatia and, some years later, Kosovo. After the Allied victory in World War II, Yugoslavia was set up as a federation of six republics, with borders drawn along ethnic and historical lines: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia.
YugoslaviaYugoslavia (ˌjuːɡoʊˈslɑːviə; Југославија juɡǒslaːʋija; Jugoslavija juɡɔˈslàːʋija; Југославија juɡɔˈsɫavija; Land of the South Slavs) was a country in Southeast and Central Europe which existed from 1918 to 1992. It came into existence in 1918 following World War I, under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from the merger of the Kingdom of Serbia with the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (which was formed from territories of the former Austria-Hungary), and constituted the first union of South Slavic peoples as a sovereign state, following centuries of foreign rule over the region under the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary.
Yugoslav WarsThe Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies that took place in the SFR Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001. The conflicts both led up to and resulted from the breakup of Yugoslavia, which began in mid-1991, into six independent countries matching the six entities known as republics which previously comprised Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia (then named Macedonia).
BelgradeBelgrade (bEl"greId , 'bɛlɡɹeɪd ; Београд / Beograd, beǒɡrad; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. The population of the Belgrade metropolitan area is 1,681,405 according to the 2022 census. It is one of the major cities of Southeast Europe and the third most populous city on the Danube river. Belgrade is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe and the world.
Eurovision Song ContestThe Eurovision Song Contest (Concours Eurovision de la chanson), often known simply as Eurovision or by its initialism ESC, is an international song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed live and transmitted to national broadcasters via the Eurovision and Euroradio networks, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries' songs to determine a winner.
MontenegroMontenegro (ˌmɒntᵻˈniːɡroʊ,-ˈneɪɡroʊ,-ˈnɛɡroʊ ; Crna Gora, Црна Гора, Black Mountain) is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, and Croatia and the Adriatic Sea to the southwest with a coastline of 293.5 km. Podgorica (Cyrillic: Подгорица) is the country's capital and its largest city, it covers 10.4% of Montenegro's territory of , and is home to roughly 31% of its total population of 621,000.
North MacedoniaNorth Macedonia (ˌmæsəˈdoʊniə ), officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Kosovo to the northwest, Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. It constitutes approximately the northern third of the larger geographical region of Macedonia. Skopje, the capital and largest city, is home to a quarter of the country's 1.83 million people. The majority of the residents are ethnic Macedonians, a South Slavic people.
Kosovo WarThe Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It was fought between the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war, and the Kosovo Albanian rebel group known as the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The conflict ended when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) intervened by beginning air strikes in March 1999 which resulted in Yugoslav forces withdrawing from Kosovo.
Bosnian WarThe Bosnian War (Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started on 6 April 1992, following a number of earlier violent incidents. The war ended on 14 December 1995 when the Dayton accords were signed. The main belligerents were the forces of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, those of Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia and Republika Srpska, proto-states led and supplied by Croatia and Serbia, respectively.
