The Serbian state first emerged from the Byzantine Empire in the thirteenth century; however, after being conquered by the Turks at the end of the fourteenth century it was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. Only in 1878 did Serbia gain independence. In 1918 Serbia together with Montenegro, which had been part of Serbia in the fourteenth century, joined with its Balkan neighbours to form the 'Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes' under the rule of the Serb King. In 1929 the country was renamed Yugoslavia. During the Second World War the country was occupied by the Axis forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Chetniks (Serb royalists), Ustashe (Croatian nationalists) and Partisans (Communists) all fought against one another and the feelings of distrust and bitterness remain today. After the war Yugoslavia reunited as a Communist federal republic under Josip Tito. Tito ruled until his death in 1980 soon after which nationalism within the republics began to rise; Communism also became increasingly unpopular. In 1990 there were a few days of fighting between the JNA (the Serb dominated Federal Yugoslav Army) and Slovenian forces which eventually ended when the Communist federal government withdrew the JNA. Slovenia had successfully won its independence which was declared on 25 June 1991. Croatia, too, declared independence on that day but the situation here was more volatile because the ethnic Serb minority within the republic opposed independence. The JNA backed Serb minority attacked the Croat defence forces and this quickly developed into civil war. On 15 October 1991 Bosnia and Herzegovina was the next republic to declare its independence, the decision later being endorsed by a referendum within the republic. However, again a Serb minority (one third of the republic's population) opposed independence. In 1992 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was reconstituted, now consisting of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro alone; however, international recognition has not followed. Next the UN imposed economic sanctions and a trade embargo on the newly constituted Yugoslavia because of its support for the rebel Bosnian Serbs. Then the JNA was withdrawn from Bosnia. In order to divert the threat of even more severe sanctions against it the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia severed all economic and political links with the Bosnian Serbs in 1994. The situation remains far from resolved. As it presently stands the population of the newly formed republic is mainly Serbian Orthodox and Serbo-Croat is principally spoken; however, Albanian and Hungarian are also spoken.
