Serbia /ˈsɜrbiə/ (Serbian: Србија, Srbija), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Република Србија, Republika Srbija), is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans. Serbia borders Hungary to the north; Romania and Bulgaria to the east; the Republic of Macedonia to the south; and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the west. Although Albania, to the southwest, shares no borders with Serbia proper, it does border Kosovo, which Serbia regards as an integral part of its territory. Belgrade is the capital of Serbia and the largest city.
After the Slavic settlement in the Balkans, Serbs formed a medieval kingdom that evolved into a Serbian Empire, which reached its peak in the 14th century. In the 16th century Serbian lands were conquered by Ottomans. Serbia regained independence from the Ottoman Empire in a 19th century revolution and subsequently expanded its territory. Former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina joined Serbia in 1918. Following the end of World War I, the country united with other South Slavic peoples into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After World War II it became a federal unit within Socialist Yugoslavia, which broke apart in a series of wars in the 1990s. Serbia once again became an independent state in 2006, following the breakup of a short-lived union with Montenegro.
In February 2008, the parliament of Kosovo, Serbia's southern province with an ethnic Albanian majority, declared independence. The response from the international community has been mixed. Serbia regards Kosovo as its autonomous province governed by the United Nations.
Serbia is a member of the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the Council of Europe which it presided over in 2007. It is also a potential candidate for membership in the European Union and a militarily neutral country
