Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: Република Србија or Republika Srbija, listen (help·info)), is a landlocked country in Central and Southeastern Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkan Peninsula. It is bordered by Hungary on the north; Romania and Bulgaria on the east; Albania and the Republic of Macedonia on the south; and Montenegro, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on the west. The capital is Belgrade.
The modern state of Serbia emerged in 1817 following the Second Serbian Uprising. Later on, it expanded its territory further towards the south to include Kosovo and Metohija, Raška and Macedonia regions (in 1912). Finally, Vojvodina (former autonomous Habsburg province named Voivodship of Serbia and Tamiš Banat), proclaimed its secession from Austria-Hungary, and joined Serbia in 1918. The current borders of the country were established following the end of World War II, when Serbia became a federal unit within Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Serbia became an independent state again in 2006, after Montenegro left the union which was formed after dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1990s.
