Flag of Yugoslavia 15 Cm Square Badge

Yugoslavia (lit. 'Land of the South Slavs'; Serbo-Croatian: Jugoslavija / Југославија; Slovene: Jugoslavija; Macedonian: Југославија) was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 to 1992. It came into existence 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, and constituted the first union of South Slavic peoples as a sovereign state, following centuries of foreign rule over the region under the Ottoman and Habsburg empires.