Congress of Oppressed Nationalities of the Austria-Hungarian Empire Il Congresso delle Nazionalità oppresse dall’Austria-Ungheria (Italian) Kongress der unterdrückten Völker Österreich-Ungarns (German) Kongres utlačovaných národů rakousko-uherských (Czech) Congresul Naționalităților Oprimate din Imperiul Austro-Ungar (Romanian) Kongres utláčaných národov Rakúsko-Uhorska (Slovak) | |
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![]() 1899 ethnographic map of Austria-Hungary | |
Host country | Kingdom of Italy |
Date | 8–10 April 1918 |
Cities | Rome |
Key points | |
Entente's support for full self-determination of Yugoslavs, Czechoslovaks, Romanians and other "oppressed nationalities" [ sic ] implying upcoming dissolution of Austria-Hungary |
The Congress of Oppressed Nationalities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was held towards the end of the World War I in Rome, Kingdom of Italy, between 8 and 10 April 1918. [1] The event, attended by Czechoslovak, Polish, Italian, Yugoslav and Romanian delegation from Austria-Hungary, followed the publication of the Wilson's 14 points and represented the beginning of the real support to the independence movements and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. [2] [1] [3] Ukrainian or Rusyn delegations were not invited to participate in the Congress due to objections raised by Polish representatives. [2] The decision to host the event was made after prime ministers of Italy Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and Nikola Pašić of the Kingdom of Serbia became concerned with earlier statement of David Lloyd George that dissolution of the Austria-Hungary is not one of the war aims of his alliance and decided to prioritise self-determination before future border demarcation on the Adriatic Sea. [4] The event rejected Austrophilist proposals on continued existence of the monarchy as a guarantor against violent and exclusive nationalism in the region and instead framed the war as a conflict between democracy and autocracy. [5]
Alongside representatives from affected nationalities, all Entente powers and the United States sent their ambassadors and the Congress concluded that all nationalities fully or partially subjected to Austria-Hungary have a right of full independence. [6] Ceremonial choice was made by the Prime minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando when he decided to receive the delegation of the future neighboring Yugoslav state before any other delegation at the Congress. [6] Czechoslovak representation was led by Edvard Beneš and Milan Rastislav Štefánik with all Slovak and Czech delegates being a part of the Czechoslovak National Council's delegation. [7] Participant agreed to lay aside any dispute among themselves which would help Central Powers war efforts and which may negatively affect Allied public opinion. [8]
Important precondition for the Italian agreement on hosting the event was reached during the meetings held on 14 and 18 December 1917 at the home of Wickham Steed, where the Yugoslav Committee agreed in principle to accept the subsequent Torre-Trumbić agreement (7 March 1918) on principles of border demarcation between Italy and future Yugoslav state. [9] On 29 May 1918 United States Department of State expressed US government's strong interest in the work of the Congress and honest sympathies for Czechoslovak and Yugoslav national objectives. [10]
The Treaty of Trianon often referred to as the Peace Dictate of Trianon or Dictate of Trianon in Hungary, was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference and was signed on the one side by Hungary and, on the other, by the Entente and Associated Powers in the Grand Trianon château in Versailles on 4 June 1920. It formally terminated the state of war issued from World War I between most of the Allies of World War I and the Kingdom of Hungary. The treaty is mostly famous due to the territorial changes induced on Hungary and recognizing its new international borders after the First World War.
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.
The Treaty of Rapallo was an agreement between the Kingdom of Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in the aftermath of the First World War. It was intended to settle the Adriatic question, which referred to Italian claims over territories promised to the country in return for its entry into the war against Austria-Hungary, claims that were made on the basis of the 1915 Treaty of London. The wartime pact promised Italy large areas of the eastern Adriatic. The treaty, signed on 12 November 1920 in Rapallo, Italy, generally redeemed the promises of territorial gains in the former Austrian Littoral by awarding Italy territories generally corresponding to the peninsula of Istria and the former Princely County of Gorizia and Gradisca, with the addition of the Snežnik Plateau, in addition to what was promised by the London treaty. The articles regarding Dalmatia were largely ignored. Instead, in Dalmatia, Italy received the city of Zadar and several islands. Other provisions of the treaty contained safeguards for the rights of Italian nationals remaining in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and provisions for commissions to demarcate the new border, and facilitate economic and educational cooperation. The treaty also established the Free State of Fiume, the city-state consisting of the former Austro-Hungarian Corpus separatum that consisted of Rijeka and a strip of coast giving the new state a land border with Italy at Istria.
The First Czechoslovak Republic emerged from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in October 1918. The new state consisted mostly of territories inhabited by Czechs and Slovaks, but also included areas containing majority populations of other nationalities, particularly Germans (22.95 %), who accounted for more citizens than the state's second state nation of the Slovaks, Hungarians (5.47 %) and Ruthenians (3.39 %). The new state comprised the total of Bohemia whose borders did not coincide with the language border between German and Czech. Despite initially developing effective representative institutions alongside a successful economy, the deteriorating international economic situation in the 1930s gave rise to growing ethnic tensions. The dispute between the Czech and German populations, fanned by the rise of Nazism in neighbouring Germany, resulted in the loss of territory under the terms of the Munich Agreement and subsequent events in the autumn of 1938, bringing about the end of the First Republic.
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The Corfu Declaration was an agreement between the prime minister of Serbia, Nikola Pašić, and the president of the Yugoslav Committee, Ante Trumbić, concluded on the Greek island of Corfu on 20 July 1917. Its purpose was to establish the method of unifying a future common state of the South Slavs living in Serbia, Montenegro and Austria-Hungary after the First World War. Russia's decision to withdraw diplomatic support for Serbia following the February Revolution, as well as the Yugoslav Committee's sidelining by the trialist reform initiatives launched in Austria-Hungary, motivated both sides to attempt to reach an agreement.
The Yugoslav Committee was a World War I-era, unelected, ad-hoc committee that largely consisting of émigré Croat, Slovene, and Bosnian Serb politicians and political activists, whose aim was the detachment of Austro-Hungarian lands inhabited by 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, which was later renamed Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav Committee was led by its president the Croat lawyer Ante Trumbić and, until 1916, by Croat politician Frano Supilo as its vice president.
Nikola Pašić was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat. During his political career, which spanned almost five decades, he served five times as prime minister of Serbia and three times as prime minister of Yugoslavia, leading 22 governments in total. He played an instrumental role in the founding of Yugoslavia and is considered one of the most influential figures in Serbian twentieth-century history. With 12 years in office, Pašić was the longest-serving prime minister of Serbia.
The Treaty of London or the Pact of London was a secret agreement concluded on 26 April 1915 by the United Kingdom, France, and Russia on the one part, and Italy on the other, in order to entice the latter to enter World War I on the side of the Triple Entente. The agreement involved promises of Italian territorial expansion against Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and in Africa where it was promised enlargement of its colonies. The Entente countries hoped to force the Central Powers – particularly Germany and Austria-Hungary – to divert some of their forces away from existing battlefields. The Entente also hoped that Romania and Bulgaria would be encouraged to join them after Italy did the same.
The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on 1 December [O.S. 18 November] 1918 by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia. The Great Union Day, celebrated on 1 December, is a national holiday in Romania that celebrates this event. The holiday was established after the Romanian Revolution, and celebrates the unification not only of Transylvania, but also of Bessarabia and Bukovina and parts of Banat, Crișana and Maramureș with the Romanian Kingdom. Bessarabia and Bukovina had joined with the Kingdom of Romania earlier in 1918.
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".
The Czechoslovak Army was the name of the armed forces of Czechoslovakia. It was established in 1918 following Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence from Austria-Hungary.
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The Czechoslovak Italian Legion was a legion of Czechoslovak volunteers formed late in World War I. The first formal Czechoslovak Volunteers Group was formed in Italian prisoner-of-war camps in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, near Naples and matured at Padula near Salerno. In January 1918, the headquarters of the 6th Italian Army finally agreed to form reconnaissance squadrons from Czechoslovak and Southern Slav volunteers. In September 1918, the 39th Regiment of the Czechoslovak Italian Legion was formed from those volunteer reconnaissance squadrons. The following regiments of Czechoslovak Italian Legion were formed in April and May 1918:
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Czechoslovakia–Yugoslavia relations were historical foreign relations between Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, both of which are now-defunct states. Czechoslovakia and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were both created as union states of smaller Slavic ethnic groups. Both were created after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, itself a multinational empire unable to appease its Slavic populations or implement a trialist reform in its final years.
Austria–Yugoslavia relations were historical foreign relations between Austria and now broken up Yugoslavia. Both countries were created following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 1918. First Austrian Republic was a successor state of the empire while Yugoslavia was created after the unification of pre-World War I Kingdom of Serbia with the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. In the days before this unification Kingdom of Serbia merged with the Banat, Bačka and Baranja and the Kingdom of Montenegro. During the interwar period of European history relations between the First Austrian Republic and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia were marked by the Austro-Slovene conflict in Carinthia, 1920 Carinthian plebiscite, 1920 establishment of pro-status quo Little Entente, 1934 Rome Protocols between revanchist Austria, Hungary and Fascist Italy and 1938 Anschluss.
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The Geneva Declaration, Geneva Agreement, or Geneva Pact was a statement of political agreement on the provisional political system in the future union of the South Slavs living in the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and Kingdom of Serbia. It was agreed by Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić on behalf of Serbia, representatives of Serbian parliamentary opposition, representatives of the National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which recently seceded from Austria-Hungary, and representatives of the Yugoslav Committee. The talks held in Geneva, Switzerland on 6–9 November 1918 built upon and were intended to supersede the 1917 Corfu Declaration agreed by Pašić and Yugoslav Committee president Ante Trumbić. The basis for the talks was provided by the Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos on behalf of the Supreme War Council of the Triple Entente. The talks were necessary in the process of creation of Yugoslavia as a means to demonstrate to the Entente powers that various governments and interests groups could cooperate on the project to establish a viable state.
The following lists events in the year 1918 in Hungary.