The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs became merged with the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Montenegro to form the nation of Yugoslavia in 1918. The formation of Yugoslavia began with the formation of the Yugoslav Committee, a collection of mostly Croats, then Serbs and later Slovenes, whose goal was to form a single south Slavic state. In October 1918 the Croatian Parliament declared the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia as an independent state, which, in December that same year, incorporated into the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, merged with Kingdom of Serbia and Kingdom of Montenegro and created the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The kingdom would be renamed to Yugoslavia in 1929, and ruled by Serbian Karađorđević dynasty till Second World War. After the formation of Yugoslavia, Serbia attempted to create a "Greater Serbia" by using police intimidation and vote rigging to establish a Serbian controlled Yugoslavia. From 1929-1941 Serbian controlled Yugoslavia established control over Croatia through Royal Yugoslav police force brutality and assassinations of important Croatians.[1]
The basis of State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and Kingdom of Serbia forming a union in 1918 is to be found in the complex history of the Yugoslav Committee. The Yugoslav Committee was formed by Croatian exiles living outside the Austro-Hungarian homeland during World War I. The Committee was led by Frano Supilo and Ante Trumbić and included the famous Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović. Each repudiated the Committee within a few years of the founding of Yugoslavia. "Yugoslavs" were Serbian, Croatian and Slovene people who identified themselves with the movement toward a single South Slavic state. Exiled Yugoslavs living in North America and Britain were the primary supporters of the Yugoslav Committee. Having established offices in London and Paris as early as 1915, the Yugoslav Committee became an active lobby for the cause of a united South Slav state during World War I.
The concept of a unified South Slavic state had been discussed by Croatian and Slovene intellectuals since the mid-nineteenth century. However, the "Yugoslav Idea" did not mature from the conceptual to practical state of planning. Few of those promoting such an entity had given any serious consideration to what form the new state should take,. Nevertheless, the Yugoslav Committee issued a manifesto calling for the formation of such a South Slavic state on May 12, 1915. The document, like the rhetoric of those who produced it, was vague concerning the form and system of government. It received little official recognition.
As the War dragged on, the Allies began to think of the concept of Yugoslavia as a blocking force in the Balkans to counter future German expansionism. Although no formal agreement was announced until July 1917, the Yugoslav Committee and the Serbian Government-in-Exile worked hand-in-hand from November 1916 onward. On July 20, 1917 the Serbian government and the Yugoslav Committee issued the text of an agreement known as the Corfu Declaration which called for the formation of a multi-national state. The vast majority of the Serbian, Croatian and Slovene people had no knowledge of the declaration made by a small group of exiled intellectuals and the Serbian Government-in-Exile. Nonetheless, the signers claimed to speak for all South Slavic peoples and the Corfu Declaration became the justification claimed by Serbia for the forced unification of Croatians and Slovenes under the Serbian crown.
Formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
As the War drew to a close, the Austro-Hungarian Empire began to disintegrate. The Croatian Parliament (Sabor) met in Zagreb on October 29, 1918 to declare "the Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia" to be a free and independent state. All major parties from the Croatian Parliament had named representatives into the new National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs that had been formed in early October 1918, and which in turn took control over most of the Austro-Hungarian possessions inhabited by South Slavs.
On November 24, the National Council declared the new state's unification with Kingdom of Serbia (who had already absorbed Kingdom of Montenegro), and its members started negotiating the terms with the Serbian Regent Alexander.
Stjepan Radić's Croatian Peasant Party participated in the National Council, but after it decided to merge with Serbia, they started to back off, calling the move foolish, and disputing the decision based on the fact that the Croatian Parliament never explicitly approved it.[2]
Zagreb's brief jubilation quickly changed to the sober realization that Croatia would again be ruled from a foreign capital as Italian, French and French African forces invaded from the west and Serbian troops invaded from the east.
On December 1, 1918, Serbian Prince Alexander announced the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, with a Serbian King ruling from the Serbian capital of Belgrade. Despite the neutral-sounding name, the country was called Yugoslavia by the diplomatic community almost from the beginning.
The greatest promoters of creating a state of the Southern Slavs, i.e. the idea of Yugoslavia, were the Croats (Josip Juraj Strossmayer on the first place), but they did not conceive of it as a centralized, Serb-dominated state. Their aim was to preserve the Croatian national identity and the sovereignty of Croatia and to organize the new state of South Slavs on a confederative basis.
That is why the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, established in 1918, did not obtain the confirmation and permission of the Croatian Parliament. This state, created in 1918 from Austro-Hungarian part, (Koruška, Štajerska, Kranjska, Istra, Dalmatia, Croatia - Slavonia, Vojvodina, Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Serbia and Montenegro, which were opposing sides during the First World War (1914–1918), contained a germ of numerous future conflicts. It was composed of different traditions, religions, nations, languages and scripts.
Persecutions of the Muslims by the Serbs resulted in their massive emigration to Turkey soon after the foundation of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918, where Serbia was the leading and privileged nation. The same happened to several hundred thousand Muslims soon after the Second World War.
On November 28, 1920 elections to the Constitutional Assembly were held. The Assembly was to be charged with adopting a constitution for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The Croatian People's Peasant Party emerged as the largest Croatian party in the assembly, with 50 seats. The party subsequently held a congress in Zagreb on December 8 where it was renamed to the Croatian Republican Peasant Party, and a republican platform for the new constitution was adopted.[5] In response to this, King Peter removed Matko Laginja from the position of ban on December 11. In turn, the Croatian Republican Peasant Party boycotted the assembly.[6]
The concept of "Greater Serbia" in Yugoslavia was put in practice during the early 1920s, under the Yugoslav premiership of Nikola Pašić. Using tactics of police intimidation and vote rigging,[7] he diminished the role of the oppositions (mainly those loyal to his Croatian rival, Stjepan Radić) to his government in parliament, creating an environment to centralization of power in the hands of the Serbs in general and Serbian politicians in particular.[8]
Stjepan Radić was one of the most significant personalities in the Croatian political history, who strived to renew the Croatian sovereignty and the economic and cultural emancipation of Croatia. He wanted the state of the Southern Slavs to be reorganized on confederative basis, without Serbian hegemony.
In 1928, Radić was assassinated in the Yugoslav parliament in Belgrade on 20 June 1928 together with his colleagues.
Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–1941)
The assassination of Stjepan Radić caused a major political crisis and the latter half of 1928 was marked with demonstrations and recriminations, with the Croats and prečani Serbs united in demands for federalization.[9] Nevertheless, the January 6 Dictatorship, the personal dictatorship of King Aleksandar emerged in 1929, and the King banned national political parties – a regime met by opposition from Croatia.
The culmination of the Serbian police terror took place during this period[citation needed]. One of the historical documents from that period, showing "methods" of the Serbian police and administration, is a bill on 13 dinars and 15 paras charged to a Croatian family in 1934 for five bullets fired at the father, who was sentenced to death[citation needed]. The families were persuaded even to pay the "expenses" of the execution within eight days, under the threat of confiscation of their property. Croatian archbishop Alojzije Stepinac reported about this event to the French diplomat Ernest Pezet in 1935[citation needed].
Belgrade also made use of the world economic crises in 1929 to destroy the Croatian banking system, which had been the strongest in Yugoslavia[citation needed].
In 1931, Milan Šufflay, Croatian historian of international reputation known esp. for his contributions in the field of albanology, was assassinated in Zagreb. Because of this, Albert Einstein and Heinrich Mann sent an appeal to the International League of Human Rights in Paris to "protect Croats from the terror and persecutions of the Serbian police"[citation needed]. The appeal was also published in the New York Times on 6 May 1931, saying that the newspapers in Zagreb were not allowed to report about Sufflay's activity; it was not allowed to attach a half-mast flag on the main building of the University of Zagreb in his honour; the time of the funeral could not be announced publicly, and even condolence messages were not allowed to be telegraphed. In their letter Einstein and Mann held the Yugoslav king Aleksandar explicitly responsible for the state terror over the Croats[citation needed].
An extremely valuable account on the terrorist methods of the Pan-Serbs in Yugoslavia between the two World Wars has been written by Henri Pozzi, a French diplomat and a close witness, in his book Black Hand over Europe, London, 1935, referring in the title to the "Black Hand", the Pan-Serbian secret terrorist organization, very close to the Royal court in Belgrade.
The tendency of administrative parcellization of Croatia that started in 1922 was revised by the establishment of the autonomous Croatia - Banovina of Croatia - in 1939. It also included Dalmatia and parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Aftermath
These aspects partly contributed to the rise of the Croatian nationalist movement called Ustasha, which gathered around Ante Pavelić (1889–1959). After the invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia in World War 2 due to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Croatia would go on to become a puppet state of the Axis powers, known as the Independent State of Croatia (NDH, Nezavisna država Hrvatska, 1941–1945).
The actions of King Alexander Karadjordjevic and the state terror in the First Yugoslavia has also contributed to the Ustasa's method of revenge of genocide against the Serbs in World War Two-era puppet state of the Independent State of Croatia.
At the time of the Roman Empire, the area of modern Croatia comprised two Roman provinces, Pannonia and Dalmatia. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the area was subjugated by the Ostrogoths for 50 years, before being incorporated into the Byzantine Empire.
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" was its colloquial name due to its origins. The official name of the state was changed to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" by King Alexander I on 3 October 1929.
Syrmia is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers. It is divided between Serbia and Croatia. Most of the region is flat, with the exception of the low Fruška gora mountain stretching along the Danube in its northern part.
The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was a political entity that was constituted in October 1918, at the end of World War I, by Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (Prečani) residing in what were the southernmost parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although internationally unrecognised, this was the first incarnation of a Yugoslav state founded on the Pan-Slavic ideology. Thirty-three days after it was proclaimed, the state joined the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Montenegro to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Stjepan Radić was a Croat politician and founder of the Croatian People's Peasant Party (HPSS), active in Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
The Yugoslav Committee was a World War I-era unelected, ad-hoc committee largely consisting of émigré Croat, Slovene, and Bosnian Serb politicians and political activists, whose aim was the detachment of Austro-Hungarian lands inhabited by the South Slavs and unification of those lands with the Kingdom of Serbia. The group was formally established in 1915, and it last met in 1919, shortly after the breakup of Austria-Hungary and the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The Yugoslav Committee was led by the Croat lawyer Ante Trumbić as the committee president, and Croat politician Frano Supilo as its vice president.
Ante Trumbić was a Yugoslav and Croatian lawyer and politician in the early 20th century.
Svetozar Pribićević was a Croatian Serb politician in Austria-Hungary and later Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He was one of the main proponents of Yugoslavism and a federalized South Slavic state which would later turn out to be Yugoslavia. However, he later became a bitter opponent of the same policy that was promoted by King Alexander I.
The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia was a nominally autonomous kingdom and constitutionally defined separate political nation within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was created in 1868 by merging the kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia following the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868. It was associated with the Kingdom of Hungary within the dual Austro-Hungarian state, being within the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen, also known as Transleithania. While Croatia had been granted a wide internal autonomy with "national features", in reality, Croatian control over key issues such as tax and military issues was minimal and hampered by Hungary. It was internally officially referred to as the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia, also simply known as the Triune Kingdom, and had claims on Dalmatia, which was administered separately by the Austrian Cisleithania. The city of Rijeka, following a disputed section in the 1868 Settlement known as the Rijeka Addendum, became a corpus separatum and was legally owned by Hungary, but administered by both Croatia and Hungary.
Yugoslavia was a state concept among the South Slavic intelligentsia and later popular masses from the 19th to early 20th centuries that culminated in its realization after the 1918 collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I and the formation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. However, the kingdom was better known colloquially as Yugoslavia ; in 1929 it was formally renamed the "Kingdom of Yugoslavia".
Đuro Basariček was a Croatian politician, lawyer and social activist. He was a member of the Croatian Peasant Party from its founding in 1904. He was assassinated in the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in Belgrade in 1928.
The Croat-Serb Coalition was a major political alliance in Austria-Hungary during early 20th century that governed the Croatian lands, the crownlands of Croatia-Slavonia and Dalmatia. It represented the political idea of a cooperation of Croats and Serbs in Austria-Hungary for mutual benefit. Its main leaders were, at first Frano Supilo and Svetozar Pribićević, then Pribićević alone.
Yugoslavism, Yugoslavdom, or Yugoslav nationalism is an ideology supporting the notion that the South Slavs, namely the Bosniaks, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes, but also Bulgarians, belong to a single Yugoslav nation separated by diverging historical circumstances, forms of speech, and religious divides. During the interwar period, Yugoslavism became predominant in, and then the official ideology of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. There were two major forms of Yugoslavism in the period: the regime favoured integral Yugoslavism promoting unitarism, centralisation, and unification of the country's ethnic groups into a single Yugoslav nation, by coercion if necessary. The approach was also applied to languages spoken in the Kingdom. The main alternative was federalist Yugoslavism which advocated the autonomy of the historical lands in the form of a federation and gradual unification without outside pressure. Both agreed on the concept of National Oneness developed as an expression of the strategic alliance of South Slavs in Austria-Hungary in the early 20th century. The concept was meant as a notion that the South Slavs belong to a single "race", were of "one blood", and had shared language. It was considered neutral regarding the choice of centralism or federalism.
The Green Cadres, or sometimes referred to as; Green Brigades or Green Guards, were originally groups of Austro-Hungarian Army deserters in the First World War. They were later joined by peasants discontented with wartime requisitioning, taxation, and poverty. A substantial number of desertions to the Green Cadres occurred as early as 1914, with their numbers peaking in the summer of 1918. They were present in nearly all areas of Austria-Hungary, but particularly large numbers were found in Croatia-Slavonia, Bosnia, Western Slovakia and Moravia, as well as in Galicia. The Green Cadres had no centralised structure and relied on peasants and banditry for food and shelter. As Austria-Hungary fell apart in October 1918, violent outbreaks associated with the Green Cadres peaked. These occurrences were particularly severe in Croatia-Slavonia, Slovakia and Galicia.
The May Declaration was a manifesto of political demands for unification of South Slav-inhabited territories within Austria-Hungary put forward to the Imperial Council in Vienna on 30 May 1917. It was authored by Anton Korošec, the leader of the Slovene People's Party. The document was signed by Korošec and thirty-two other council delegates representing South-Slavic lands within the Cisleithanian part of the dual monarchy – the Slovene Lands, the Dalmatia, Istria, and the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The delegates who signed the declaration were known as the Yugoslav Club.
The National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was a group of political representatives of South Slavs living in Austria-Hungary and subsequently in the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs formed in the wake of dissolution of Austria-Hungary. It was established in Zagreb on 8 October 1918, largely composed of members of various representative bodies operating in Habsburg crown lands inhabited by South Slavs. Founding of the National Council was fulfilment of the Zagreb Resolution on concentration of South Slavic political forces adopted earlier that year on the initiative of the Yugoslav Club. The council elected its central committee and the presidency led by Anton Korošec as the president and by Svetozar Pribičević and Ante Pavelić as vice-presidents.
In the history of Austria-Hungary, trialism was the political movement that aimed to reorganize the bipartite Empire into a tripartite one, creating a Croatian state equal in status to Austria and Hungary. Franz Ferdinand promoted trialism before his assassination in 1914 to prevent the Empire from being ripped apart by Slavic dissent. The Empire would be restructured three ways instead of two, with the Slavic element given representation at the highest levels equivalent to what Austria and Hungary had at the time. Serbians saw this as a threat to their dream of a new state of Yugoslavia. Hungarian leaders had a predominant voice in imperial circles and strongly rejected Trialism because it would liberate many of their minorities from Hungarian rule they considered oppressive.
The Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia was part of Austria-Hungary during World War I. Its territory was administratively divided between the Austrian and Hungarian parts of the empire; Međimurje and Baranja were in the Hungarian part (Transleithania), the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia was a separate entity associated with the Hungarian Kingdom, Dalmatia and Istria were in the Austrian part (Cisleithania), while the town of Rijeka had semi-autonomous status.
The Lipošćak affair was an alleged conspiracy led by the former Austro-Hungarian Army General of the Infantry Anton Lipošćak to seize power in the recently proclaimed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs at the end of the First World War. The majority view of the allegations is that they were fabricated by allies of the Croat-Serb Coalition leader Svetozar Pribičević. Lipošćak was arrested on 22 November 1918 under suspicion of treason. He was accused of plotting to establish councils composed of workers, peasants and soldiers in place of the existing authorities with the aim of reviving the Habsburg monarchy, or working on behalf of foreign powers or the Bolsheviks.
The Zagreb Resolution was a political declaration on the need for political unification of the Croats, the Slovenes and the Serbs living in Austria-Hungary. It was adopted by representatives of opposition political parties in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia presided by Ante Pavelić in a meeting held in Zagreb on 2–3 March 1918. The declaration relied on the right of self-determination and called for establishment of an independent democratic state respecting rights of individuals and historically established polities joining the political union. It also called for ensuring cultural and religious equality in such a union. The Zagreb Resolution established a preparatory committee tasked with establishment of the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs intended to implement the resolution. The National Council was established on 5 October in proceedings described by Pavelić as a continuation of the Zagreb conference that March.
References
↑ Djokic, Dejan. "Coming To Terms With The Past: Former Yugoslavia". History Today 54.6 (2004): 17-19. History Reference Center. Web. 3 Mar. 2015.
↑ "Povijest HSS-a"(PDF) (in Croatian). Croatian Peasant Party. p.10. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2013-04-07. 24. studenog – Govor Stjepana Radića na sjednici središnjeg odbora Narodnog vijeća SHS – Gospodo! Još nije prekasno! Ne srljajte kao guske u maglu. 1.prosinca 1918. Adresa delegacije Narodnog vijeća SHS regentu Aleksandru i proglašenje nove države Kraljevstva Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca. Ulazak Hrvatske u ovu državnu tvorevinu Hrvatski sabor nije odobrio ni potvrdio, na što je opetovano ukazivao Stjepan Radić, osporavajući na taj način njezin legitimitet. 31. prosinca u DOM-u objavljen članak S. Radića Republika ili slobodna narodna država konstituanta ili narodni revolucionarni sabor.
1 2 Sadkovich, James J. (2010). "Yugoslavia , 1922-1960". Tuđman, first political biography. Večernji posebni proizvodi d.o.o., Zagreb. p.44. ISBN978-953-7313-72-2.
1 2 Sadkovich, James J. (2010). "Tuđman's Yugoslavia". Tuđman, first political biography. Večernji posebni proizvodi d.o.o., Zagreb. p.314. ISBN978-953-7313-72-2.
↑ Sirotković, Hodimir (July 2000). "Radićev ustav neutralne seljačke Republike Hrvatske iz 1921. godine"[Radić’s Constitution of the Neutral Peasant’s Republic of Croatia (1921) (Summary)]. Journal - Institute of Croatian History (in Croatian). Institute of Croatian History, Faculty of Philosophy Zagreb, FF press. 32–33 (1): 300. ISSN0353-295X. Retrieved 2013-02-05.
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