evidence: Yugoslavia, former federated country that was situated in the west-central part of the Balkan Peninsula. [...] After the Balkan Wars of 1912–13 ended Ottoman rule in the Balkan Peninsula and Austria-Hungary was defeated in World War I, the Paris Peace Conference underwrote a new pattern of state boundaries in the Balkans. The major beneficiary there was a newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which comprised the former kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro (including Serbian-held Macedonia), as well as Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austrian territory in Dalmatia and Slovenia, and Hungarian land north of the Danube River. Great difficulty was experienced in crafting this multinational state. Croats favoured a federal structure that would respect the diversity of traditions, while Serbs favoured a unitary state that would unite their scattered population in one country. The unitarist solution prevailed. The 1921 constitution established a highly centralized state, under the Serbian Karadjordjević dynasty, in which legislative power was exercised jointly by the monarchy and the Skupština (assembly). The king appointed a Council of Ministers and retained significant foreign policy prerogatives. The assembly only considered legislation that had already been drafted, and local government acted in effect as the transmission belt for decisions made in Belgrade.