| Yugoslav Federation | |
|---|---|
| |
| Flag | |
| Characteristics | |
| Capital | Belgrade |
| Official languages | Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene |
| Government | Federal parliamentary constitutional republic |
| Historical era | Formation - 1918 Joined the European Union - 1965 European Union combined with the Commonwealth of Nations to form the United Commonwealth - 1968 Government of the United Commonwealth is federalised, absorbing the Yugoslav government - 1988 |
| Population | 18 million (1918) 35 million (1987) |
| Currency | Yugoslav dinar (until 1965) Euro (1965-1968) Commonwealth credit (from 1968) |
The Yugoslav Federation (usually referred to as Yugoslavia) was a human nation that existed in Southeastern and Central Europe on Earth in the Sol System for most of the 20th century. Other nations which it bordered included Germany, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary and Romania. It came into existence after the end of the Great War in 1918, when the Slovenian and Croatian peoples of the recently-collapsed Austro-Hungarian Empire united with the Kingdom of Serbia.
The massive destruction experienced during the Great War led post-war Europeans to reject ideas of ethno-nationalism. Serbia, which was one of the driving forces behind the formation of Yugoslavia, therefore wanted to ensure that the new state would not be seen as a "greater Serbia". The constitution of Yugoslavia was written to minimise ethnic and nationalistic tensions as much as possible, which Slavic intellectuals believed had been a significant factor in the Austro-Hungarian Empire's collapse. The new country's government would therefore be a republic with a democratically-elected president as its head of state rather than the head of state being a member of the Serbian monarchy. However, the Serbian royal family was not completely stripped of its power and privileges and continued to have a role in the governance of Serbia as a constituent state of the Yugoslav Federation. Seats in the Yugoslav parliament would be elected using a mixed-member proportional representation system, with all major ethnic groups of Yugoslavia being guaranteed reserve seats in the parliament.
To the surprise of many international observers, Yugoslavia soon evolved into a stable and successful democracy with limited tension between the nation's various ethnic groups. This was in spite of the post-Great War years being fairly challenging for Yugoslavia. Although no orbital weapons had been used to attack Yugoslav territory during the Great War, the post-Great War economic depression limited Yugoslavia's economic growth for several decades. Along with India and Isratin, the state was seen as one of the most successful experiments to develop a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nation.
Yugoslavia joined the League of Nations in 1920.
Yugoslavia joined the European Union in 1965. In 1968 the European Union was merged with the Commonwealth of Nations to form the United Commonwealth.
In the wake of the start of the Allied-Cramori War and the Cramori Empire's attempted invasion of the Sol System in 1976, in 1988 the citizens of the member states of the United Commonwealth voted to give the United Commonwealth Parliament and the United Commonwealth Secretariat the powers of a federal government, effectively transforming the United Commonwealth from a supranational political and economic union to a single federal republic. It was thought that granting the United Commonwealth greater economic, political and military control over the resources of its constituent states would be more effective for planetary defence against the Cramori. The Yugoslav government was therefore effectively absorbed into the United Commonwealth Government in 1988, and Yugoslavia is largely regarded to have ceased to exist as a separate nation-state on that date.