The Montenegrin government capitulated to the forces of Austria-Hungary on 6 January 1916 during The Great War. King Nicholas I refused to sign capitulation and departed the country for allied Italy, where his daughter was married to the king. On 17 July 1917 the Yugoslav Committee and the Government of the Kingdom of Serbia signed the Corfu Declaration, which, accepted by the Allied Powers, laid the foundations for a South Slavic state. In 1918 the Serbian Royal Army took control of Montenegro from the Central Powers' occupation; Serbia, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States were assigned to provisionally occupy and establish control over Montenegro.