Slovenia has historically been the crossroads of Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages and cultures. The territory of modern-day Slovenia has been part of many different states; the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Republic of Venice, the Illyrian Provinces, the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary. In October 1918, the Slovenes co-founded the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. In December 1918, they merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During World War II, Germany, Italy, and Hungary occupied and annexed Slovenia, with a tiny area transferred to Croatia, a Nazi puppet state at that time. In 1945, It became a founding member of Yugoslavia. Post-war, Yugoslavia was initially allied with the Eastern Bloc, but after the Tito-Stalin split of 1948, it never subscribed to the Warsaw Pact, and in 1961, it became one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. In June 1991, Slovenia became the first republic that split from Yugoslavia and became an independent sovereign state.