Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (1918–1929) Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca Краљевина Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца (Serbo-Croatian) Kraljevina Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev (Slovene) Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929–1941) Kraljevina Jugoslavija (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene) Краљевина Југославија (Serbo-Croatian)
^Serbian andCroatian, highly mutually intelligible standard languages, were officially considered eastern and western varieties of a common language, contemporarily known asSerbo-Croatian.Slovene was considered a dialect of the common language despite low mutual intelligibility with Serbo-Croatian. 'Serbo-Croato-Slovene' was declared the single official language (srbsko-hrvatsko-slovenački orsrbsko-hrvatsko-slovenski; also translated "Serbocroatoslovenian"). In practice it functioned as Serbo-Croatian.[7][8]
^Peter II, still underage, was declared an adult by a militarycoup. Shortly after his assumption of royal authority, Yugoslavia was occupied by the Axis and the young King went into exile. In 1944, he accepted the formation ofDemocratic Federal Yugoslavia. He was deposed by the Yugoslav parliament in 1945.
TheKingdom of Yugoslavia[9] was a country inSoutheast andCentral Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called theKingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" (lit.'Land of theSouth Slavs') has been its colloquial name as early as 1922 due to its origins.[10][11] The official name of the state was changed to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" by KingAlexander I on 3 October 1929.[10]
The state was ruled by the Serbiandynasty of Karađorđević, which previously ruled the Kingdom of Serbia underPeter I from 1903 (after theMay Coup) onward. Peter I became the first king of Yugoslavia until his death in 1921. He was succeeded by his son Alexander I, who had been regent for his father. He was known as "Alexander the Unifier" and he renamed the kingdom "Yugoslavia" in 1929. He was assassinated inMarseille byVlado Chernozemski, a member of theInternal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), during his visit toFrance in 1934. The crown passed to his 11-year-old son,Peter. Alexander's cousinPaul ruled asPrince regent until 1941, when Peter II came of age.[13] The royal family flew toLondon the same year, prior to the country beinginvaded by theAxis powers.
In 1916, the Yugoslav Committee started negotiations with theSerbian Government inexile, on which they decided on the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, declaring the joint Corfu Declaration in 1917, the meetings were held at theMunicipal Theatre of Corfu.[17]
In November 1918, the National Council of theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs appointed 28 members to start negotiation with the representatives of the government of the Kingdom of Serbia and Montenegro on creation of a new Yugoslav state, the delegation negotiated directly withregent Alexander Karađorđević.[18] The negotiations would end, with the delegation of the National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs led byAnte Pavelić reading the address in front of regent Alexander, who represented his father, KingPeter I of Serbia, by which acceptance the kingdom was established.[19]
The name of the new Yugoslav state was Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Serbo-Croatian:Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca /Краљевина Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца;Slovene:Kraljevina Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev) or its abbreviated form Kingdom of SCS (Kraljevina SHS /Краљевина СХС).
The new kingdom was made up of the formerly independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro (Montenegro having been absorbed into Serbia the previous month), and of a substantial amount of territory that was formerly part of Austria-Hungary, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The main states which formed the new Kingdom were the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs;Vojvodina; and the Kingdom of Serbia with the Kingdom of Montenegro.
The creation of the state was supported bypan-Slavists and Yugoslav nationalists. For the pan-Slavic movement, all of the South Slav (Yugoslav) people had united into a single state. The creation was also supported by the Allies, who sought tobreak up the Austro-Hungarian Empire.[citation needed]
The newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes participated in theParis Peace Conference with Trumbić as the country's representative.[16] Since theAllies had lured theItalians into the war with a promise ofsubstantial territorial gains in exchange, which cut off aquarter of Slovene ethnic territory from the remaining three-quarters of Slovenes living in the Kingdom of SCS, Trumbić successfully vouched for the inclusion of mostSlavs living in the former Austria-Hungary to be included within the borders of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Nevertheless, with theTreaty of Rapallo[16] a population of half a million South Slavs,[20] mostly Slovenes, were subjected to forcedItalianization until thefall of Fascism in Italy. At the time whenBenito Mussolini was willing to modify the Rapallo borders in order to annex the independent state ofRijeka toItaly, Pašić's attempts to correct the borders atPostojna andIdrija were effectively undermined by the regent Alexander who preferred "goodrelations" with Italy.[21]
The Yugoslav kingdom bordered Italy andAustria to the northwest at the Rapallo border,Hungary andRomania to the north, Bulgaria to the east,Greece andAlbania to the south, and theAdriatic Sea to the west. Almost immediately, it ran into disputes with most of its neighbours.Slovenia was difficult to determine, since it had been an integral part of Austria for 400 years. The Vojvodina region was disputed with Hungary,Macedonia with Bulgaria, Rijeka with Italy.[22]
Aplebiscite was also held in theProvince of Carinthia, which opted to remain in Austria.Austrians had formed a majority in this region although numbers reflected that someSlovenes did vote for Carinthia to become part of Austria. The Dalmatian port city ofZadar and a few of the Dalmatian islands were given to Italy. The city of Rijeka was declared to be theFree State of Fiume, but it was soon occupied, and in 1924annexed, by Italy, which had also been promised the Dalmatian coast during World War I, and Yugoslavia claimingIstria, a part of the formerAustrian Littoral which had been annexed to Italy, but which contained a considerable population of Croats and Slovenes.
The formation of theVidovdan Constitution in 1921 sparked tensions between the differentYugoslav ethnic groups.[16] Trumbić opposed the 1921 constitution and over time grew increasingly hostile towards the Yugoslav government that he saw as being centralized in the favor of Serb hegemony over Yugoslavia.[16]
Three-quarters of the Yugoslav workforce was engaged in agriculture. A few commercial farmers existed, but most were subsistence peasants. Those in the south were especially poor, living in a hilly, infertile region. No large estates existed except in the north, and all of those were owned by foreigners. Indeed, one of the first actions undertaken by the new Yugoslav state in 1919 was to break up the estates and dispose of foreign, and in particularHungarian landowners. Nearly 40% of the rural population was surplus (i.e., excess people not needed to maintain current production levels), and despite a warm climate, Yugoslavia was also relatively dry. Internal communications were poor, damage from World War I had been extensive, and with few exceptions agriculture was devoid of machinery or other modern farming technologies.[23]
The 1931 census revealed that 34% of Yugoslav peasants owned less than five acres of land; another 34% owned between five-twelve acres of land; 29% owned fifty acres; and 3% owned more than fifty acres.[24] The interwar era saw the emergence of a class known as the worker-peasants who engaged in seasonal work, working part of the year on the farm and another part in industry, usually mining.[25] About 90% of Yugoslav farmers owned their own land, which explained why so many were unwilling to break with their rural lifestyle completely.[25] More than half of industrial workers belonged to the worker-peasant category.[25] In 1931, the Social Ministry reported: that in Yugoslavia there is a constant stream of laborers coming and going from agriculture to industry and vice versa. What has developed is a new class of workers-we call them industrialized peasants-who are regularly employed industry without having broken their ties to agriculture".[25] The Great Depression hurt Yugoslavia very badly with most people living a lower standard of living in 1940 than they had in 1920.[26] Between 1925-1933, the income of peasants fell by two-thirds.[26]
Manufacturing was limited toBelgrade and the other major population centers, and consisted mainly of small, comparatively primitive facilities that produced strictly for the domestic market. The commercial potential of Yugoslavia'sAdriatic ports went to waste because the nation lacked the capital or technical knowledge to operate a shipping industry.[27] On the other hand, the mining industry was well developed due to the nation's abundance of mineral resources, but since it was primarily owned and operated by foreigners, most production was exported. Yugoslavia was the third least industrialized nation in Eastern Europe afterBulgaria andAlbania.
Yugoslavia was rich in deposits of coal, iron, copper, gold, silver, lead, zinc, chrome, manganese and bauxite, and mining was one of the most important industries in the kingdom. The backwardness of Yugoslavia prevented the mining industry from becoming the basis of an industrial society. The lack of electricity was a major problem. In 1934, the estimated per capita electricity consumption was approximately 90 kilowatt-hours per year in Belgrade, compared to 253 kWh/year in Budapest and 367 kWh/year in Paris. The lack of a manufacturing basis led to the situation where raw materials were exported from Yugoslavia to more developed nations, usually Britain, France or Germany, and Yugoslavs had to buy the products from those nations made with their raw materials. Despite these limitations, industry did begin to grow in Yugoslavia with 2,193 factories being opened between 1919-1938. The majority of the factories were opened in Slovenia, which had 47% of the factories, followed by Croatia at 37% and Serbia at 24%. The least industrialized regions were Kosovo and Macedonia, which 14% of the factories that were opened.[28]
Bond of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes for the liquidation of the agro-debts from Bosnia and Herzegovina, issued 18 June 1921
Yugoslavia was typical of Eastern European nations in that it borrowed large sums of money from the West during the 1920s. When theGreat Depression began in 1929, the Western lenders called in their debts, which could not be paid back. Some of the money was lost to graft, although most was used by farmers to improve production and export potential. Agricultural exports, however, were always an unstable prospect as their export earnings were heavily reliant on volatile world market prices. The Great Depression caused the market for them to collapse as global demand contracted heavily and the situation for export-oriented farmers further deteriorated when nations everywhere started to erect trade barriers. Italy was a major trading partner of Yugoslavia in the initial years after World War I, but ties fell off afterBenito Mussolini came to power in 1922. In the grim economic situation of the 1930s, Yugoslavia followed the lead of its neighbors in allowing itself to become a dependent ofNazi Germany.[29]
Although Yugoslavia had enacted a compulsory public education policy, it was inaccessible to many peasants in the countryside. Official literacy figures for the population stood at 50%, but it varied widely throughout the country. Less than 10% of Slovenes were illiterate, whereas over 80% of Macedonians and Bosnians could not read or write. Approximately 10% of initial elementary school students went on to attend higher forms of education, at one of the country's three universities inBelgrade,Ljubljana, andZagreb.[30]
Immediately after 1 December proclamation, negotiations between theNational Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Serbian government resulted in agreement over the new government which was to be headed byNikola Pašić. However, when this agreement was submitted to the approval of the regent, Alexander Karađorđević, it was rejected, producing the new state's first governmental crisis. Many regarded this rejection as a violation of parliamentary principles, but the matter was resolved when the regent suggested replacing Pašić withStojan Protić, a leading member of Pašić's Radical Party. The National Council and the Serbian government agreed and the new government came into existence on 20 December 1918.[31][32]
In this period before the election of the Constituent Assembly, aProvisional Representation served as a parliament which was formed by delegates from the various elected bodies that had existed before the creation of the state. A realignment of parties combining several members of the Serbian opposition with political parties from the former Austria-Hungary led to the creation of a new party, The Democratic Party, that dominated the Provisional Representation and the government.
Because the Democratic Party led byLjubomir Davidović pushed a highly centralized agenda a number of Croatian delegates moved into opposition. However, the radicals themselves were not happy that they had only three ministers to the Democratic Party's 11 and, on 16 August 1919, Protić handed in his resignation. Davidović then formed a coalition with the Social Democrats. This government had a majority, but the quorum of the Provisional Representation was half plus one vote. The opposition then began to boycott the parliament. As the government could never guarantee that all of its supporters would turn up, it became impossible to hold a quorate meeting of the parliament. Davidović soon resigned, but as no one else could form a government he again became prime minister. As the opposition continued their boycott, the government decided it had no alternative but to rule by decree. This was denounced by the opposition who began to style themselves as the Parliamentary Community. Davidović realized that the situation was untenable and asked the King to hold immediate elections for the Constituent Assembly. When the King refused, he felt he had no alternative but to resign.
The Parliamentary Community now formed a government led by Stojan Protić committed to the restoration of parliamentary norms and mitigating the centralization of the previous government. Their opposition to the former governments program of radical land reform also united them. As several small groups and individuals switched sides, Protić now even had a small majority. However, the Democratic Party and the Social Democrats now boycotted parliament and Protić was unable to muster a quorum. Hence the Parliamentary Community, now in government, was forced to rule by decree.
For the Parliamentary Community to thus violate the basic principle around which they had formed put them in an extremely difficult position. In April 1920, widespread worker unrest and a railway strike broke out. According to Gligorijević, this put pressure on the two main parties to settle their differences. After successful negotiations, Protić resigned to make way for a new government led by the neutral figure of Milenko Vesnić. The Social Democrats did not follow the Democratic Party, their former allies, into government because they were opposed to the anti-communist measures to which the new government was committed.
The controversies that had divided the parties earlier were still very much live issues. The Democratic Party continued to push its agenda of centralization and still insisted on the need for radical land reform. A disagreement over electoral law finally led the Democratic Party to vote against the government in Parliament and the government was defeated. Though this meeting had not been quorate, Vesnić used this as a pretext to resign. His resignation had the intended effect: the Radical Party agreed to accept the need for centralization, and the Democratic Party agreed to drop its insistence on land reform. Vesnić again headed the new government. The Croatian Community and the Slovenian People's Party were however not happy with the Radicals' acceptance of centralization. Neither was Stojan Protić, and he withdrew from the government on this issue.
In September 1920 a peasant revolt broke out in Croatia, the immediate cause of which was the branding of the peasants' cattle. The Croatian community blamed the centralizing policies of the government and of ministerSvetozar Pribićević in particular.
One of the few laws successfully passed by the Provisional Representation was the electoral law for the constituent assembly. During the negotiations that preceded the foundation of the new state, it had been agreed that voting would be secret and based on universal suffrage. It had not occurred to them that universal might include women until the beginning of a movement for women's suffrage appeared with the creation of the new state. The Social Democrats and the Slovenian People's Party supported women's suffrage but the Radicals opposed it. The Democratic Party was open to the idea but not committed enough to make an issue of it so the proposal fell. Proportional Representation was accepted in principle but the system chosen (d'Hondt with very small constituencies) favored large parties and parties with strong regional support.
The election was held on 28 November 1920. When the votes were counted the Democratic Party had won the most seats, more than the Radicals – but only just. For a party that had been so dominant in the Provisional Representation, that amounted to a defeat. Further it had done rather badly in all former Austria-Hungarian areas. That undercut the party's belief that its centralization policy represented the will of the Yugoslav people as a whole. The Radicals had done no better in that region but this presented them far less of a problem because they had campaigned openly as a Serbian party. The most dramatic gains had been made by the two anti-system parties. TheCroatian Republican Peasant Party's leadership had been released from prison only as the election campaign began to get underway. According to Gligorijević, this had helped them more than active campaigning. The Croatian community (that had in a timid way tried to express the discontent that Croatian Republican Peasant Party mobilized) had been too tainted by their participation in government and was all but eliminated. The other gainers were the communists who had done especially well in the widerMacedonia region. The remainder of the seats were taken up by smaller parties that were at best skeptical of the centralizing platform of the Democratic Party.
The results left Nikola Pašić in a very strong position as the Democrats had no choice but to ally with the Radicals if they wanted to get their concept of a centralized Yugoslavia through. Pašić was always careful to keep open the option of a deal with the Croatian opposition. The Democrats and the Radicals were not quite strong enough to get the constitution through on their own and they made an alliance with the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO). The Muslim party sought and got concessions over the preservation of Bosnia in its borders and how the land reform would affect Muslim landowners in Bosnia.
The Croatian Republican Peasant Party refused to swear allegiance to the King on the grounds that this presumed that Yugoslavia would be a monarchy, something that it contended only the Constituent Assembly could decide. The party was unable to take its seats. Most of the opposition though initially taking their seats declared boycotts as time went so that there were few votes against. However, the constitution decided against 1918 agreement between theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and theKingdom of Serbia, which stated that a 66% majority that 50% plus one vote would be needed to pass, irrespective of how many voted against. Only last minute concessions toDžemijet, a group of Muslims fromMacedonia and Kosovo, saved it.
On 28 June 1921, theVidovdan Constitution was passed, establishing aunitary monarchy. The pre–World War I traditional regions were abolished and 33 new administrativeoblasts (provinces) ruled from the center were instituted. During this time, King Peter I died (16 August 1921), and the prince-regent succeeded to the throne as KingAlexander I.
Ljubomir Davidović of the Democrats began to have doubts about the wisdom of his party's commitment to centralization and opened up negotiations with the opposition. This threatened to provoke a split in his party as his action was opposed by Svetozar Pribićević. It also gave Pašić a pretext to end the coalition. At first the King gave Pašić a mandate to form a coalition with Pribićević's Democrats. However, Pašić offered Pribićević too little for there to be much chance that Pribićević would agree. A purely Radical government was formed with a mandate to hold elections. The Radicals made gains at the expense of the Democrats but elsewhere there were gains by Radić's Peasant's Party.
Serb politicians around Radic regarded Serbia as the standard bearer of Yugoslav unity, as the state ofPiedmont had been for Italy, orPrussia for theGerman Empire; a kind of "Greater Serbia". Over the following years, Croatian resistance against a Serbo-centric policy increased.
In the early 1920s, the Yugoslav government of prime ministerNikola Pašić used police pressure over voters and ethnic minorities, confiscation of opposition pamphlets[33] and other measure torig elections. This was ineffective against theCroatian Peasant Party (formerly the Croatian Republican Peasant Party), whose members continued to win election to the Yugoslav parliament in large numbers,[34] but did harm the Radicals' main Serbian rivals, the Democrats.
Stjepan Radić, the head of the Croatian Peasant Party, was imprisoned many times for political reasons.[35] He was released in 1925 and returned to parliament.
In the spring of 1928, Radić andSvetozar Pribićević waged a bitter parliamentary battle against the ratification of theNettuno Convention with Italy. In this they mobilised nationalist opposition in Serbia but provoked a violent reaction from the governing majority including death threats. On 20 June 1928, a member of the government majority, the Serb deputyPuniša Račić, shot five members of the Croatian Peasant Party, including their leader Stjepan Radić, after Radić refused to apologize for earlier offense in which he accused Račić of stealing from civilian population.[36] Two died on the floor of the Assembly while the life of Radić hung in the balance.
The opposition now completely withdrew from parliament, declaring that they would not return to a parliament in which several of their representatives had been killed, and insisting on new elections. On 1 August, at a meeting in Zagreb, they renounced 1 December Declaration of 1920. They demanded that the negotiations for unification should begin from scratch. On 8 August Stjepan Radić died.
On 6 January 1929, using as a pretext the political crisis triggered by the shooting, King Alexander abolished the Constitution, prorogued the Parliament and introduced a personal dictatorship (known as the "January 6 Dictatorship",Šestosiječanjska diktatura,Šestojanuarska diktatura) with the aim of establishing theYugoslav ideology and singleYugoslav nation.[37][38][39] He changed the name of the country to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia", and changed the internal divisions from the 33 oblasts to nine newbanovinas on 3 October. This decision was made following a proposal by the British ambassador to better decentralize the country, modeled onCzechoslovakia.[40] A Court for the Protection of the State was soon established to act as the new regime's tool for putting down any dissent. Opposition politiciansVladko Maček andSvetozar Pribićević were arrested under charges by the court. Pribićević later went into exile, whereas over the course of the 1930s Maček would become the leader of the entire opposition bloc.
Immediately after the dictatorship was proclaimed, Croatian deputyAnte Pavelić left for exile from the country. The following years Pavelić worked to establish a revolutionary organization, theUstaše, allied with theInternal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) against the state.
In 1931, Alexander decreeda new Constitution which made executive power the gift of the King. Elections were to be by universal male suffrage. The provision for a secret ballot was dropped, and pressure on public employees to vote for the governing party was to be a feature of all elections held under Alexander's constitution. Further, half the upper house was directly appointed by the King, and legislation could become law with the approval of one of the houses alone if also approved by the King.
That same year, Croatian historian and anti-Yugoslavist intellectual[41]Milan Šufflay was assassinated in Zagreb. As a response,Albert Einstein andHeinrich Mann sent an appeal to theInternational League of Human Rights in Paris condemning the murder, accusing the Yugoslav government. The letter states of a "horrible brutality which is being practiced upon the Croatian People". The appeal was addressed to the Paris-basedLigue des droits de l'homme[42] (Human Rights League).[43] In their letter Einstein and Mann held the Yugoslav King Alexander explicitly responsible for these circumstances.[43][44][45]
Croat opposition to the new régime was strong and, in late 1932, the Croatian Peasant Party issued theZagreb Manifesto which sought an end to Serb hegemony and dictatorship. The government reacted by imprisoning many political opponents including the new Croatian Peasant Party leader Vladko Maček. Despite these measures, opposition to the dictatorship continued, with Croats calling for a solution to what was called the "Croatian question".
On 9 October 1934, the king was assassinated inMarseille, France, byBulgarian Veličko Kerin (also known by his revolutionarypseudonymVlado Chernozemski), an activist of IMRO, in a conspiracy with Yugoslav exiles and radical members of banned political parties in cooperation with the Croatian extreme nationalist Ustaše organisation.
Because Alexander's eldest son,Peter II, was a minor, a regency council of three, specified in Alexander's will, took over the new king's royal powers and duties. The council was dominated by the 11-year-old king's first cousin once removedPrince Paul.
Prince Paul decided to appoint well-known economistMilan Stojadinović as prime minister in 1935. His solution to solving the economic problems left over from theGreat Depression was to make trade deals and get closer toFascist Italy andNazi Germany. The JRZ had majority support from Slovenes, Bosniaks, and Serbs. The only part missing was the support from Croats. This is whyMilan Stojadinović called the JRZ regime a "Three-Legged Chair", Stojadinović wrote in his memoirs: "I called our party the three-legged chair, on which it was possible to sit when necessary, although a chair with four legs is far more stable" - the fourth leg being the Croats, whose support was mostly behind the HSS.[46]Prince Paul did not like this at first, but let him continue as long as it fixed the economy. Paul was concerned with rising tensions in Europe, especially with the Anschluss and the Munich Agreement Therefore, Paul oustedMilan Stojadinović replacing him withDragiša Cvetković for being a Germanophile.
In the late 1930s, internal tensions continued to increase with Serbs and Croats seeking to establish ethnic federal subdivisions. Serbs wantedVardar Banovina (later known within Yugoslavia as Vardar Macedonia),Vojvodina, Montenegro united with the Serb lands, and Croatia wanted Dalmatia and some of Vojvodina. Both sides claimed territory in present-dayBosnia and Herzegovina populated also byBosnian Muslims. The expansion ofNazi Germany in 1938 gave new momentum to efforts to solve these problems and, in 1939, Prince Paul appointedDragiša Cvetković as prime minister, with the goal of reaching an agreement with the Croatian opposition. Accordingly, on 26 August 1939,Vladko Maček became vice premier of Yugoslavia and an autonomousBanovina of Croatia was established with its own parliament.
These changes satisfied neither Serbs, who were concerned with the status of the Serb minority in the new Banovina of Croatia and who wanted more of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Serbian territory, nor the Croatian nationalist Ustaše, who were also angered by any settlement short of full independence for aGreater Croatia including all of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Fearing an invasion by theAxis powers, Yugoslaviasigned the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941, pledging cooperation with the Axis. Massive anti-Axis demonstrations followed inBelgrade.
On 27 March, the regime of Prince Paul was overthrown by amilitary coup d'état with British support. The 17-year-oldPeter II was declared to be of age and placed in power. GeneralDušan Simović became his Prime Minister. Yugoslavia withdrew its support for the Axisde facto without formally renouncing the Tripartite Pact. Although the new rulers opposedNazi Germany, they also feared that if Germany attacked Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom was not in any real position to help. Regardless of this, on 6 April 1941, the Axis powers launched theinvasion of Yugoslavia and quickly conquered it. The royal family, including Prince Paul, escaped abroad and were kept underhouse arrest inBritish Kenya.[47]
Following the July 1943fall of the Fascist regime in Italy, Tomislav II abdicated from his Croatian throne and Pavelić assumed direct control over the NDH, annexing the ItalianGovernorate of Dalmatia in the process. After theinvasion of Italy by the Axis powers in September 1943, the Italian governorates in Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia and Slovenia were occupied by the Germans and placed under direct German control.
King Peter II, who had escaped into exile, was still recognized as King of the whole state of Yugoslavia by theAllies. From 13 May 1941, the largelySerb guerilla force,Chetniks ("Yugoslav Army of the Fatherland",Jugoslovenska vojska u otadžbini, or JVUO) resisted the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia and supported Peter II. Thisresistance movement, which was both anti-German and anti-communist, was commanded by Royalist GeneralDraža Mihailović. For a long time, the Chetniks were supported by the British, the United States, and the Yugoslav royal government in exile of King Peter II.
However, over the course of the war, effective power changed to the hands ofJosip Broz Tito'sCommunistPartisans. In 1943, Tito proclaimed the creation of theDemocratic Federative Yugoslavia (Demokratska federativna Jugoslavija). The Allies gradually recognized Tito's forces as the stronger opposition forces to the German occupation. They began to send most of their aid to Tito's Partisans, rather than to the Royalist Chetniks. On 16 June 1944, theTito–Šubašić agreement was signed which merged thede facto and thede jure government of Yugoslavia.
In early 1945, after the Germans had been driven out, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formally restored, however real political power was held by Tito's Communist Partisans. On 29 November, King Peter II was deposed (and the monarchy abolished) by Yugoslavia's Communist Constituent Assembly while he was still in exile. On 2 December, the Communist authorities claimed the entire territory as part of theFederal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The new Yugoslavia covered roughly the same territory as the Kingdom had, now a federal republic ruled by the Communist Party rather than a unitary monarchy.
The Kingdom nourished a close relationship with theAllies of World War I. This was especially the case between 1920 and 1934 with Yugoslavia's traditional supporters ofBritain andFrance.
From 1920, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had formed theLittle Entente withCzechoslovakia andRomania, with the support ofFrance. The primary aim of the alliance was to preventHungary from regaining the territories it had lost after the First World War. The alliance lost its significance in 1937 when Yugoslavia and Romania refused to support Czechoslovakia, then threatened by Germany, in the event of military aggression.
In 1934, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia formed aBalkan Bloc withGreece,Romania, and Turkey that was intent on keeping balance on theBalkan peninsula. The alliance was formalized and entrenched on 9 February 1934 when it became the "Balkan Entente". In 1934, with the assassination of King Alexander I byVlado Chernozemski inMarseille and the shifting of Yugoslav foreign policy, the alliance crumbled.
TheKingdom of Italy had territorial ambitions against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Relations between Italy and the kingdom's predecessors, theKingdom of Serbia and theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs became sour and hostile during World War I, as Italian and Yugoslav politicians were in dispute over the region ofDalmatia which Italy demanded as part of Italy. These hostile relations were demonstrated on 1 November 1918, when Italian forces sunk the recently captured Austro-Hungarian battleshipSMS Viribus Unitis being used by the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.
Italian Fascist dictatorBenito Mussolini accepted the extreme Croatian nationalistUstase movement ofAnte Pavelić to reside in Italy and use training grounds in Italy to prepare for war with Yugoslavia. Hungary also permitted such Ustase training camps as well.[48] Mussolini allowed Pavelić to reside in Rome.
In 1927, in response to the growing Italian expansionism, the royal government of Yugoslavia signed an agreement of friendship and cooperation with the United Kingdom andFrance.
1939 Yugoslav postage stamp featuring KingPeter II
Officially, the last words of King Alexander had been "Save Yugoslavia, and the friendship with France". His successors were well aware of the need to try and do the first, but the second, maintaining close ties with France, was increasingly difficult. There were several reasons for this. By the mid-1930s, France, internally divided, was increasingly unable to play an important role in Eastern Europe and support its allies, many of whom had suffered badly from the economic crisis of that period. By contrast, Germany was increasingly willing to get into barter agreements with the countries of south east Europe. In the process those countries felt it was against their interests to closely follow France. An additional motive to improve relations with Italy and Germany was Italy's support of the Ustase movement. As Maček intimated Italy would support Croatian secession from Yugoslavia, First Regent Prince Paul judged closer relations with Italy were inevitable. In an effort to rob the HSS from potential Italian support, a treaty of friendship was signed between the two countries in 1937. This diminished the Ustasa threat somewhat since Mussolini imprisoned some of their leaders and temporarily withdrew financial support. In 1938, Germany, annexing Austria, became a neighbour of Yugoslavia. The feeble reaction of France and Britain, later that year, during the Sudeten Crisis convinced Belgrade that a European war was inevitable and that it would be unwise to support France and Britain. Instead, Yugoslavia tried to stay aloof, this in spite of Paul's personal sympathies for Britain and Serbia's establishment's predilections for France. In the meantime, Germany and Italy tried to exploit Yugoslavia's domestic problems, and so did Maček. In the end, the regency agreed to the formation of theBanovina of Croatia in August 1939. This did not put an end to the pressures from Germany and Italy, and Yugoslavia's strategic position deteriorated by the day. It was increasingly dependent on the German market, about 90% of its exports went to Germany, and in April 1939 Italy invaded and annexed Albania. In October 1940 it attacked Greece, by when France had already been eliminated from the scene, leaving Britain as Yugoslavia's only potential ally – given that Belgrade had not recognized the Soviet Union. London however wanted to involve Yugoslavia in the war, which it rejected.
From late 1940, Hitler wanted Belgrade to unequivocally choose sides. Pressure intensified, culminating in the signing of the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941. Two days later, Prince Paul was deposed in a coup d'état and his nephew Peter II was proclaimed of age, but the new government, headed by General Simović, assured Germany it would adhere to the Pact. Hitler nonetheless ordered theinvasion of Yugoslavia. On 6 April 1941, Belgrade was bombed; on 10 April, the Independent State of Croatia was proclaimed; and on 17 April, the weak Yugoslav Army capitulated.
After the invasion, the Yugoslav royal government went into exile and local Yugoslav forces rose up in resistance to the occupyingAxis powers. Initially the monarchy preferredDraža Mihailović and his Serb-dominatedČetnik resistance. However, in 1944, theTito–Šubašić agreement recognised the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia asa provisional government, with the status of the monarchy to be decided at a later date. Three regents – Srđan Budisavljević, a Serb;Ante Mandić, a Croat; andDušan Sernec, a Slovene – were sworn in at Belgrade on 3 March 1945. They appointed the new government, to be headed by Tito as prime minister and minister of war, with Šubašić as foreign minister, on 7 March.[49]
On 29 November 1945, while still in exile,KingPeter II was deposed by theconstituent assembly. The Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia was internationally recognized as Yugoslavia and Peter II became apretender.
In a multiethnic, multireligious and multilinguistic society, ethnic tensions and regional interests commonly surfaced in both politics and daily life, especially between the two largest and most influential groups who monopolized all political power in the country, the Serbs and Croats. Other quarrels were those between Serbs and Macedonians, as the Yugoslav government had as its official position that the latter were ethnic Serbs from "Old Serbia" (Serbo-Croatian:Stara Srbija). In the early 20th century the international community viewed the Macedonians predominantly as regional variety ofBulgarians on linguistic basis and cultural similarities, but during theParis Peace Conference of 1919, the Allies sanctioned the Serbian control of Vardar Macedonia and its view, that Macedonian Slavs were in fact Southern Serbs.[50]Bulgarian politicians later interpreted the decision as punishment for it being aCentral Power duringWorld War I and as sanctionedSerbian irredentism.
Rights of the Muslim minority were never enshrined in law but concessions were made to accommodate for religious relativism. Some regions of the country were allowed to exist as enclaves ofIslamic law.[51]
Aside fromVlachs, the Yugoslav government awarded no special treatment to non-Slavic ethnic minorities in terms of respect for their language, culture, or political autonomy.
Until 1929, Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were the constitutional nations, when they were merged into a single "Yugoslav" nationality. With the language of the country being institutionalized and mandatory, ethnic minorities were expected to gradually assimilate into the Yugoslavpanethnic identity.
Thesubdivisions of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia existed successively in three different forms. From 1918 to 1922, the kingdom maintained the pre–World War I subdivisions of Yugoslavia's predecessor states. In 1922, the state was divided into thirty-threeoblasts (provinces). In 1929, after the establishment of theJanuary 6 Dictatorship, a new system of ninebanovinas (regions) was implemented by royal decree. In 1939, as an accommodation to YugoslavCroats in theCvetković-Maček Agreement, a singleBanovina of Croatia was formed from two of thesebanovinas (and from sections of others).[citation needed]
The Kingdom participated at the Olympic Games from 1920 until 1936. During this time, the country won eight medals, all in gymnastics and six of these were won byLeon Štukelj, aSlovene who was the most nominated gymnast of that time.[citation needed]
^Mesić, Milan (2004).Perspectives of Multiculturalism: Western and Transitional Countries. Zagreb: FF Press. p. 322.a triple-named language, called officially Serbo-Croato-Slovene
^Tomasevich, Jozo (1975).War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: The Chetniks. Stanford University Press. p. 93.ISBN978-0-8047-0857-9.
^Alexander, Ronelle (2013)."Language and Identity: The Fate of Serbo-Croatian". In Daskalov, Rumen; Marinov, Tchavdar (eds.).Entangled Histories of the Balkans: Volume One: National Ideologies and Language Policies. Koninklijke Brill NV. p. 371.ISBN978-9-0042-5076-5.Archived from the original on 15 May 2016. Retrieved25 October 2015.Now, however, the official language of the new state, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, bore the unwieldy name Serbo-Croato-Slovene (srbsko-hrvatsko-slovenački orsrbsko-hrvatsko-slovenski).
^ab "Kraljevina Jugoslavija! Novi naziv naše države. No, mi smo itak med seboj vedno dejali Jugoslavija, četudi je bilo na vseh uradnih listih Kraljevina Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev. In tudi drugi narodi, kakor Nemci in Francozi, so pisali že prej v svojih listih mnogo o Jugoslaviji. 3. oktobra, ko je kralj Aleksander podpisal "Zakon o nazivu in razdelitvi kraljevine na upravna območja", pa je bil naslov kraljevine Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev za vedno izbrisan." (Naš rod ("Our Generation", a monthly Slovene language periodical), Ljubljana 1929/30, št. 1, str. 22, letnik I.)
^abcdefSpencer Tucker.Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2005. p. 1189.
^History of the municipal theatreArchived 23 June 2007 at theWayback Machine from Corfu city hall Quote: "The Municipal Theatre was not only an Art-monument but also a historical one. On its premises the exiled Serbian parliament, held meetings in 1916, which decided the creation of the new Unified Kingdom of Yugoslavia."
^Boban, Ljubo,When and how was the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs formed, Institute of Croatian History,ISSN0353-295X, volume 26, issue 1, 1993, pp. 187–198
^Budisavljević Srđan, Stvaranje Države Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca (Creating the State of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), Zagreb, 1958, pp. 170–175.
^Gligorijević, Branislav (1979)Parliament i političke stranke u Jugoslaviji 1919–1929 Institut za savremenu istoriju, Narodna knjiga, Belgrade,OCLC6420325[page needed]
^Tomasevich, Jozo (October 2002).War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941-1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford University Press. p. 33.ISBN978-0-8047-7924-1.
^Josef Korbel,Tito's Communism (University of Denver Press, 1951), 22.
^Nationalism and Territory: Constructing Group Identity in Southeastern Europe, Geographical perspectives on the human past, George W. White, Rowman & Littlefield, 2000,ISBN0-8476-9809-2, p. 236.
^Schlesinger, Rudolf B. (1988).Comparative law: cases, text, materials. Foundation Press. p. 328.ISBN978-0-8827-7615-6.Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved25 October 2015.Some countries, notably the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, had preserved enclaves of Islamic law (relating to personal...)..
^Pllana, Nusret; Kabashi, Emin (2001).Der Terror der Besatzungsmacht Serbien gegen die Albaner (in Albanian) (1918-1921, sont tues beaucoup d'albanais ainsi que leurs maisons brulees. Dans la prefecture de Peja 1563 personnes tuees et 714 maisons brulees; a Mitrovica 1330 personnes et 42 maisons brulees ed.). Arkivi Shtetëror i Kosovës. p. 33.ISBN978-9-9514-0400-6. Retrieved19 August 2023.
Banac, Ivo (1992).The National Question in Yugoslavia. Origins, History, Politics (2nd printing ed.). Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.ISBN978-0-8014-9493-2.
Calic, Marie-Janine (2019).A History of Yugoslavia. West Lafayette: Purdue University.ISBN978-1-55753-838-3.
Grgić, Stipica (2018). "Pantheon on a tablecloth: Yugoslav dictatorship and the confrontation of national symbols in Croatia (1929–1935)".The Journal of Nationalism and Ethnicity.46 (3):458–470.doi:10.1080/00905992.2017.1357029.S2CID158362422.
Nielsen, Christian Axboe (2009). "Policing Yugoslavism: Surveillance, Denunciations, and Ideology during King Aleksandar's Dictatorship, 1929–1934".East European Politics and Societies.23 (1):34–62.doi:10.1177/0888325408326789.S2CID145765948.
Hadži-Jovančić, Perica (2020). "Losing the Periphery: The British Foreign Office and Policy Towards Yugoslavia, 1935–1938".Diplomacy & Statecraft.31 (1):65–90.doi:10.1080/09592296.2020.1721060.
Radojević, Mira (2012). "On the problem of democracy and parliamentarianism in Yugoslavia between the two world wars".Историјски записи.85 (3–4):99–110.
f Annexed by Italy (1941–1943) and Germany (1943–1944). Smaller part annexed by the Independent State of Croatia (1941–1944).
g North Macedonia's official and constitutional name was the Republic of Macedonia until 2019. It was known in the United Nations asthe former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia because of anaming dispute withGreece.
h Free Territory was established in 1947. Its administration was divided into two areas (Zone A) and (Zone B). Free Territory was de facto taken over by Italy and SFRY in 1954.
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