Creation of Yugoslavia

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The formation of Yugoslavia, a state meant to unify South Slavs initially known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, was an extended process that began as a vague intellectual concept from the 17th to early 20th centuries and culminated in the realization of the ideal with the 1918 collapse of Habsburg Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I.

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[edit] Early advocacy of a South Slav state

The first idea of a state for all South Slavs emerged in the late 17th century, a product of visionary thinking of Croat writers and philosophers who believed that the only way for southern Slavs to regain lost freedom after centuries of occupation under the various empires would be to unite and free themselves of tyrannies and dictatorships. They named it the Illyrian Movement and gathered many prominent Croatian intellectuals and politicians around the new idea, but the movement started gaining large momentum only at the end of the 19th century, mainly because of the policies against freedom movements of southern Slavs. However, ideas for a unified state did not mature from the conceptual to practical state of planning and few of those promoting such an entity had given any serious consideration to what form the new state should take.

As the Ottoman Empire grew weaker and Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece grew stronger after the Berlin Congress, hope for sovereignty of the South Slavic peoples in Austria-Hungary increased, and the idea of a union between them gained momentum. Scholar Aurel Popovici proposed a reform called "United States of Greater Austria" in 1906. His proposal was not acted upon by the Habsburg Emperor but was an inspiration for the peace conferences at the end of World War I.

[edit] World War I

During the early period of World War I (which started in 1914), a number of prominent political figures, including Ante Trumbić, Ivan Meštrović, Nikola Stojadinović and others from South Slavic lands under the Habsburg Empire fled to London, where they began work on forming a committee to represent the South Slavs of Austria-Hungary, choosing London as their headquarters.

[edit] The Yugoslav Committee

The Yugoslav Committee was officially formed on 30 April 1915 in London, and began to raise funds, especially among South Slavs living in the Americas. These "Yugoslavs" were Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes who identified themselves with the movement toward a single Yugoslav or South Slavic state. Exiled Yugoslavs living in North America and Britain were the primary supporters of the Yugoslav Committee. Because of their stature, the members of the Yugoslav Committee were able to make their views known to the Allied governments, which began to take them more seriously as the fate of Austria-Hungary became more uncertain.

While the committee's basic aim was the unification of the Habsburg South Slav lands with Kingdom of Serbia (which was independent at the time), its more immediate concern was to head off Italian claims on Habsburg territories in Istria and Dalmatia. In 1915, the Allies had lured the Italians into the war with a promise of substantial territorial gains in exchange. According to the secret London Pact, these included Istria and large parts of Dalmatia, which had substantial numbers of Italians living in the coastal cities surrounded by Slavs.

[edit] Serbian disagreements

Image:LandsForSerbia.PNG
Lands offered to Serbia by the Allies in 1915

During first year of World War I, the Serbian parliament had pledged itself to work for the liberation of all Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes with the Niš Declaration (Нишка декларација / Niška deklaracija) of December 1914. This proclaimed that aim of the war had become defense of Serbia as well as freedom for Serbs, Croats and Slovenes living in Austria-Hungary and union of them with Kingdom of Serbia. However, during 1915, there was disagreement over the kingdom's war goals. Prime Minister Nikola Pašić and King Peter I had been supporters of the secret London Pact which promised Serbia Bosnia, Herzegovina, Slavonia, Syrmia, Bačka and parts of Dalmatia upon defeat of the Central Powers leading Croat members of the Yugoslav Committee to fear a carve-up of Croat lands between Serbia and Italy. Opposing these supporters of a "Greater Serbia" was regent Alexander I who was a strong supporter of Yugoslav idea.

The Yugoslav Committee also quarreled with Serbia about the designation and command of units of South Slav prisoners of war in Russia now being mobilised to fight with the Allies of World War I. The Yugoslav Committee wanted them to fight in the Yugoslav name, while Nikola Pašić, seeing in this a "Croat Army," wanted them to fight under the Serbian flag.

[edit] The Corfu agreement

During June and July 1917, the Yugoslav Committee met with the Serbian government in Corfu and, on 20 July, a declaration that laid the foundation for the post-war state was issued. The preamble stated that the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were "the same by blood, by language, by the feelings of their unity, by the continuity and integrity of the territory which they inhabit undividedly, and by the common vital interests of their national survival and manifold development of their moral and material life." The future state was to be called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and was to be a constitutional monarchy under the Karađorđević dynasty.

[edit] The unification of the South Slavs

With the defeat of the Central Powers and the collapse of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire in late 1918, various South Slavic territories were quickly amalgamated to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which was proclaimed on 1 December 1918 in Belgrade by Alexander Karađorđević, Prince-Regent for his father, Peter I of Serbia.

The new kingdom was made up of the formerly independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro, as well as a substantial amount of territories inhabited by South Slavs that were formerly ruled by Austria-Hungary (the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, Banat, Bačka and Baranja, as well as Syrmia). The lands previously administered by Austria-Hungary that formed the new state included Croatia-Slavonia, Međimurje, Baranja, Bačka, Banat and Prekmurje from the Hungarian part of the Empire, Carniola, part of Styria, part of Carinthia and most of Dalmatia from the Austrian part, and the crown province of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Yugoslav kingdom bordered Italy and Austria to the northwest, Hungary and Romania to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece and Albania to the south, and the Adriatic Sea to the west.

[edit] Kingdom of Serbia

The Serbian Army suffered total defeat by the Central Powers in the 1915 Serbian Campaign and Serbia was overrun but, after recuperating on Corfu, the Serbians returned to combat on the Macedonian front together with other Entente forces in 1917. Serbian and French forces began to defeat Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian forces in the Vardar valley in September 1918 and, on 30 September 1918, Bulgaria surendered. A month later in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, the last Austro-Hungarian armies were defeated and the empire was dissolved.

Serbian military forces quickly overran the territory of the Kingdom of Serbia (including the present-day Republic of Macedonia) as well as that of the Kingdom of Montenegro, Banat, Bačka and Baranja and Syrmia but stopped on the borders of the other Habsburg territories that would form the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs waiting for an official union between it and Serbia.

[edit] Kingdom of Montenegro

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The Kingdom of Montenegro was occupied by Austro-Hungarian military forces from 1916 but after their defeat at the end of the war, it became clear that the Serbian Army would liberate Montenegro from the occupation. In preparation, the government of Serbia created Central Committee for Union of Serbia and Montenegro (Централни извршни одбор за уједињење Србије и Црне Горе / Centralni izvršni odbor za ujedinjenje Srbije i Crne Gore) on 15 October 1918. After taking Cetinje, the capital of Montenegro, this committee with support of Serbian army began to appoint mayors and provincial governors. On 25 October 1918 in city of Berane, the Central Committee established rules for the election of a parliament members with the sole purpose of voting for union with Serbia. Elections for the Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro were held on 19 November 1918 for 165 members but with at least 30 installed by the Serbians without election because the populations of Bijelo Polje, Plav and Gusinje were not allowed to vote.

The only great power which supported an independent Montenegro was Italy whose king was married to the daughter of Montenegrin king Nicholas I. Trying to halt unification with Serbia, the Italian Army invaded Montenegro and attempted to take control of capital. This effort quickly failed and discussions about union with Serbia known as the Podgorica Assembly were started. On 26 November 1918, the assembly cast a secret vote and passed a declaration "To unite Kingdom of Montenegro with the Kingdom of Serbia, under the House of Karađorđević, and to then unite with the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes."

Montenegro was thus joined to new Yugoslav kingdom but on 7 January 1919, the Christmas Uprising began against Yugoslav control and was finally crushed only in 1926.

[edit] State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs

As the Habsburg Empire dissolved, a National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs took power in Zagreb on 6 October 1918. On 29 October, the Croatian Sabor (parliament) declared independence and vested its sovereignty in the new State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The Yugoslav Committee was given the task of representing the new state abroad. However, quarrels broke out immediately about the terms of the proposed union with Serbia. Svetozar Pribićević, a Croatian Serb, a leader of the Croatian-Serbian Coalition and vice-precedent of the state, wanted an immediate and unconditional union. Others (non-Serbs), who favoured a federal Yugoslavia were more hesitant. They feared that Serbia would simply annex the former Habsburg territories. The National Council's authority was limited and the Italians were moving to take more territory than they had been allotted in an agreement with the Yugoslav Committee. Political opinion was divided, and Serbian ministers said that if Croats insisted on their own republic or sort of independence, then Serbia would simply take areas inhabited by the Serbs and already controlled by the Serbian Army. After much debate and after Syrmia, which was under control of the Serbian army, declared secession, the National Council agreed to unification with Serbia, although its declaration stated that the final organization of the state should be left to the future Constituent Assembly. The most prominent opponent of this decision was Stjepan Radić, the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party. With the acquiesence of the National Council, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was declared on 1 December 1918 in Belgrade.

[edit] Banat, Bačka and Baranja

Shortly after the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was created from the South Slavic territory of Austro-Hungary, the local Social Democratic Party in the multi-ethnic Banat region proclaimed an independent Banat Republic in Timişoara on 31 October 1918. This new state was an attempt to preserve the territorial integrity of the region from claims of the countries of Serbia and Romania. On 15 November 1918, Serbian troops entered Banat and put an end to the Banat Republic. Serbian army also entered Bačka and Baranja, and most of these regions came to the military control of the Serbian army. From November 13 to November 25, 1918, army of the Kingdom of Serbia stationated in these territories had the official status of "occupational force". On November 25, local Slavic inhabitants who lived in parts of Banat, Bačka and Baranja that were occupied by the Serbian army organized Great people's assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs from Banat, Bačka and Baranja, which proclaimed unification with the Kingdom of Serbia (The assembly numbered 757 deputies, of whom 578 (76.35%) were Serbs, 84 (11.10%) Bunjevci, 62 (8.19%) Slovaks). Most deputies of the assembly were Serbs, and other local Slavs, and although they represented Slavic-inhabited areas and Slavic population from ethnically mixed areas, they did not represented Romanians, Hungarians and Germans, since members of these ethnic groups had different opinions about future of the region. The assembly also formed local provincial government (People's Administration) and parliament (Great People's Council), which administered Banat, Bačka and Baranja until March 11, 1919. Exact borders of this territory towards Romania and Hungary were drawn in peace agreements in 1919 and 1920. These agreements would assign some Hungarian-inhabited and Romanian-inhabited parts of Banat, Bačka and Baranja to Hungary and Romania. In parts of Banat, Bačka and Baranja assigned to South Slavic state, South Slavs included largest part of population, but some Hungarian-inhabited and Romanian-inhabited areas remained within its borders (around 380 000 Hungarians and 67 897 Romanians), as well as some Slavic-inhabited areas remained in Hungary and Romania (around 60 000 South Slavs). In all 3 countries also remained large German population, since the peace conference did not fulfill wishes of German population for creation of an independent multiethnic state in this area. In 1921, unsatisfied with decission of 1920 peace treaty to assign these territories to Hungary, part of local Serb and Hungarian population of Baranja and north-west Bačka under Serbo-Croat-Slovene army control proclaimed short-lived Baranya-Baja Republic in Pécs. When Serbo-Croat-Slovene army has withdrawn inside South Slavic state borders ,troops of the Kingdom of Hungary entered the territory of this short lived republic and incorporated it into this country.

[edit] Syrmia

After collapse of Austria-Hungary, Syrmia became part of the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, but from beginning of November it has been controlled by the Serbian army. On the 24 November 1918 assembly of Syrmia held in Ruma declared secession from State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and, as a separate entity, united with the Kingdom of Serbia. The assembly in Ruma was composed of deputies from parts of Symia inhabited by Serbs, while western Syrmian region of Šokadija, mainly inhabited by Croats, did not had its representatives in this assembly.

[edit] Aftermath

A plebiscite was also held in the Province of Carinthia, which opted to remain in Austria. The Dalmatian port city of Zadar and a few of the Dalmatian islands were given to Italy. The city of Rijeka (Fiume) was declared to be the Free State of Fiume, but it was soon occupied, and in 1924 annexed, by Italy. Tensions over the border with Italy continued, with Italy claiming more of the Dalmatian coast, and Yugoslavia claiming Istria, part of the former Austrian Littoral which had been annexed to Italy, but which contained a South Slavs (Croats and Slovenes) majority.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

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