Kingdom of Yugoslavia
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The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: Kraljevina Jugoslavija; Cyrillic: Краљевина Југославија) was a kingdom in the Balkans which existed during the often-tumultous interwar era of 1918-1941. It was formed in 1918 by Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, while the regions of Kosovo, Vojvodina and Macedonia were parts of Serbia. For its first eleven years of existence it was officialy called Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (Serbo-Croatian: Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca; Cyrillic: Краљевина Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца; Slovene: Kraljevina Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev), but the term Yugoslavia was its colloquial name from the very beginning. On the April 17, 1941, Yugoslavia fell prey to Nazi occupation and was reorganised into four provinces under foreign policy; the country was re-established as Democratic Federal Yugoslavia in 1945, in addition with the seizing of territory from Italy.
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[edit] Formation
The kingdom was formed on 1 December 1918 under the name "Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes" (Serbian: Краљевина Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца / Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca, Croatian: Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca, Slovene: Kraljevina Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev) or Kingdom of SHS (Краљевина СХС / Kraljevina SHS) for short.
On 1 December 1918 the new kingdom was proclaimed 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 (which had unified in the previous month), as well as a substantial amount of territory that was formerly part of Austria-Hungary, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The lands previously in Austria-Hungary that formed the new state included Croatia, Slavonia and Vojvodina from the Hungarian part of the Empire, Carniola, part of Styria and most of Dalmatia from the Austrian part, and the crown province of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The creation of the state was supported by Pan-Slav nationalists and Serbian nationalists. For the Pan-Slavic movement, all of the South Slav or "Yugoslav" people had united into a single state and hoped that the peoples would unite as Slavs and abandon past differences. For Serbian nationalists, for the first time, the long-desired goal of uniting all the Serb people from across the Balkans into one state was achieved.
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.
A plebiscite was also held in the Province of Carinthia, which opted to remain in Austria. The Dalmatian port city of Zadar (Italian: Zara) and a few of the Dalmatian islands were given to Italy. The city of Rijeka (Italian: 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 considerable population of Croats and Slovenes.
The new government tried to integrate the new country politically as well as economically, a task made difficult because of the great diversity of languages, nationalities, and religions in the new state, the different history of the regions, and great differences in economic development among regions.
[edit] Early politics
Immediately after the 1 December proclamation, negotiations between the People's Council (of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs) and the Serbian government resulted in agreement over the new government which was to be headed by Nikola Pašić. However when this was submitted to the approval of the regent it was rejected so producing the new state's first government crisis. All the parties regarded this as a violation of parliamentary principles but the crisis was resolved when they agreed to replace Pašić by Stojan Protić who was a leading member of Pašić's Radical Party. The new government came into existence on December 20, 1918.[2]
In this period before the election of the Constituent Assembly, a Provisional 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 by Ljubomir 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 did have a majority but the quorum of the Provisional Representation was half plus one vote. The opposition then began to boycott the parliament and as the government could never guarantee that all their supporters to turn up it became impossible to hold a quorate meeting of the parliament. Davidović quickly 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 Paliamentary Community. Davidović himself realized that the situation was untenable and requested from the King the immediate holding of 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 including a railway strike broke out and 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 their former allies the Democratic Party into government because they were opposed to the anti communist measures that that new government was committed.
The controversies that had divided the parties earlier were still very much live issues. The Democratic Party continued to push their 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 action produced the result Vesnić had intended and the Radical Party agreed to accept the need for centralization while the Democratic Party agreed to drop their insistence on land reform and Vesnić again headed the new government. The Croatian Community and the Slovenian People's Party were however not at all happy with the Radicals acceptance of centralization. Nor for that matter was Stojan Protić and he withdraw from the government on this issue.
In September 1920 a peasants' 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 minister Svetozar Pribićević in particular.
[edit] From Constituent Assembly to Dictatorship
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 really occurred to them that universal might include women until the beginnings of a movement for women's suffrage appeared with the creation of the new state. The Social Democrats and the Slovenian Peoples 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 the 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 they had done rather badly in all former Austria-Hungarian areas. That undercut their belief that their centralization policy represented the will of the Yugoslavian 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. The Croatian Republican Peasant Party's leadership had been released from prison only as the election campaign began to get underway but according to Gligorijević this far from hindering them 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 wider Macedonia 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 Pasić 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, where as Pasić was always careful to keep open the option of a deal with the Croatian opposition. The Democrats together with the Radicals were not quite strong enough to get the constitution through on their own and they made an alliance with the JMO, the Yugoslav Muslim Organization. The Muslim party sought and got concessions over the preservation of Bosnia in its borders and how the land reform would effect Muslim landowners in Bosnia.
Because 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, they contended only the Constituent could decide) they were unable to take their 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 State of SCS and Kingdom of Serbia which has spoken about 66 % majority that 50% plus one vote will be needed to pass irrespective of how many voted against and it was touch and go whether it would get this. Only last minute concessions to Džemet — who were a group of Muslims from Macedonia and Kosovo - saved it.
On 28 June 1921, the Vidovdan (St Vitus's Day) Constitution was passed, establishing a unitary monarchy. The pre-World War I traditional regions were abolished and 33 new administrative oblasts (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 King Alexander I.
Ljubomir Davidović of the Democrats began to doubts about the wisdom of his parties commitment to centralization and opened up negotiations with the opposition. This threatened to provoke a split in his party as his action was opposed Svetozar Pribićević. It also gave Pasić a pretext to end the coalition. At first the King gave Pasić a mandate to form a coalition with Pribićević's Democrats. However Pasić offered Pribićević too little for there to be much chance that Pribićević would agree and a purley Radical government was formed with a mandate to hold elections. In Serbia the governing party usually did well and these elections were no exception. 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 of Piedmont had been for Italy, or Prussia for the German 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 minister Nikola Pasic used police pressure over voters and ethnic minorities, confiscation of opposition pamphlets[3] and other measures of election rigging. This was ineffective against the Croatian Peasant Party that continued to elect a large delegation to the Yugoslav parliament.[4] but did harm the radicals main Serbian rivals the Democrats.
Stjepan Radić, head of the Croatian Republican Peasant Party, was imprisoned many times due to political reasons.[5] He was released in 1925, and returned to parliament.
In the spring of 1928, Radić and Svetozar Pribićević waged a bitter parliamentary battle against the ratification of the Neptune Convention with Italy. In this they mobilised nationalist opposition in Serbia but provoked a violent reaction from the governing majority including death threats. On the 20 June 1928, a member of the government majority, the Montenegrin deputy Puniša Račić shot down five members of the Croatian Peasant Party (formerly the Croatian Republican Peasant Party) including their leader Stjepan Radić. 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 the 1 August, at a meeting in Zagreb, they renounced the 1 December Declaration of 1920. In this they were demanding that the negotiations for unification should begin from scratch. On October 8, Stjepan Radić died.
[edit] The January 6th Dictatorship
Not long after that, 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 6th Dictatorship, Šestojanuarska diktatura). He also changed the name of the country to Kingdom of Yugoslavia and changed the internal divisions from the 33 oblasts to nine new banovinas on 3 October.
In 1931, Alexander decreed a new Constitution which made executive power the gift of the King. Elections were to be by universal suffrage (though universal still didn't include women). 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.
Croat opposition to the new régime was strong and, in late 1932, the Croatian Peasant Party issued the Zagreb Manifesto which sought an end to Serb hegemony and dictatorship. Belgrade 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. In late 1934, the king planned to release Maček from prison, introduce democratic reforms, and attempt find common ground between Serbs and Croats.
However, on 9 October 1934, the king was assassinated in Marseille, France by Veličko Kerin (also known by his revolutionary pseudonym Vlado Chernozemski), a pro-Bulgarian Macedonian activist of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, in a conspiracy with Yugoslav exiles and radical members of banned political parties in cooperation with the Croatian extreme right-wing 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 role of king. The council was dominated by the king's cousin Prince Paul.
In the late 1930s, internal tensions continued to increase with Serbs and Croats seeking to establish ethnic federal subdivisions. Serbs wanted Vardar Banovina (later known within Yugoslavia as Vardar Macedonia), Vojvodina, Montenegro united with Serb lands while Croatia wanted Dalmatia and some of Vojvodina. Both sides claimed territory in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina populated by Bosniak Muslims. The expansion of Nazi Germany in 1938 gave new momentum to efforts to solve these problems and, in 1939, Prince Paul appointed Dragiša 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 autonomous Banovina of Croatia was established with its own parliament (sabor).
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. The Croatian nationalist Ustaše were also angered by any settlement short of full independence for a Greater Croatia including all of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
[edit] Downfall of the Kingdom
Fearing an invasion of the World War II Axis Powers, Regent Prince Paul signed the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941, pledging cooperation with the Axis. Because of Paul's decision, massive demonstrations took place in Belgrade.
On 27 March, the regime of Prince Paul was overthrown by a military coup d'état with British support. The 17-year-old Peter II was declared to be of age and placed in power. General Dušan Simović became his Prime Minister. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia withdrew its support for the Axis de facto without formally renouncing the Tripartite Pact. Although the new rulers opposed Nazi Germany, they also feared that if German dictator Adolf Hitler attacked Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom was not in any real position to help. Regardless of this, on 6 April 1941, the German armed forces (Wehrmacht) launched the invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and quickly conquered it. The royal family, including Prince Paul, escaped abroad and were interned by the British in Kenya.[citation needed]
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was soon divided by the Axis into several entities. Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria annexed some border areas outright. A Greater Germany was expanded to include Slovenia. Italy added the "Governorship of Dalmatia" (Governatorato di Dalmazia) to the Italian Empire. An expanded Croatia was recognized by the Axis as the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, or NDH). On paper, the NDH was a kingdom and the 4th Duke of Aosta was crowned as King Tomislav II of Croatia. The rump Serbian territory became a military administration of Germany run by military governors which had a Serb civil government led Milan Nedić. Nedić attempted to gain the recognition by Germany of the recognition of a Serbian state and recognized King Peter II as the monarch of Serbia. Puppet states were also set up in Montenegro and southern Yugoslavia.
[edit] Exile and Dissolution
King Peter II, who had escaped into exile, was still recognized as King of the whole state of Yugoslavia by the Allies. From 13 May 1941, the largely Serbian "Yugolsav Army of the Fatherland" (Jugoslovenska vojska u otadžbini, or JVUO, or Chetniks) resisted the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia. This anti-German and anti-communist resistance movement was commanded by Royalist General Draža Mihailović. For a long time, the Chetniks were supported by the British, the United States, and the Yugoslavian royal government in exile of King Peter II.
However, over the course of the war, effective power changed to the hands of Josip Broz Tito's Communist Partisans. In 1943, Tito proclaimed the creation of the Democratic 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 aide to Tito's Partisans, rather than to the Royalist Chetniks. On 16 June 1944, the Tito–Šubašić agreement was signed which merged the de facto and the de jure government of Yugoslavia.
In early 1945, after the Germans had been driven out, the Kingdom was formally restored on paper. But real political power was held by Tito's Communist Partisans. On 29 November, King Peter II was deposed 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 the Democratic Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The new Yugoslavia covered roughly the same territory as the Kingdom had, but it was no longer a monarchy.
[edit] Foreign policy
[edit] Pro-Allied government
The Kingdom nourished a close relationship with the Allies of World War I. This was especially the case between 1920 and 1934 with Yugoslavia's traditional supporters of Britain and France.
[edit] The Little Entente
From 1920 to 1921, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia had formed the Little Entente with Czechoslovakia and Romania. This was to prevent the possibility of Hungary regaining the territories it had lost after the First World War. The alliance soon fell apart as Yugoslavia didn't involve itself in Romania and Czechoslovakia's territorial expansion actions against Hungary.
[edit] Balkan alliances
In 1924, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia formed a Balkan Bloc with Greece, Romania, and Turkey that was intent on keeping balance on the Balkan peninsula. The alliance was formalized and entrenched in 9 February 1934 when it became the "Balkan Entente." In 1934, with the assassination of King Alexander I in Marseilles and the shifting of Yugoslav foreign policy, the alliance crumbled.
[edit] Italian coalition
The Fascist Kingdom of Italy had territorial ambitions against the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and formed a coalition against it with states with similar state designs, heavily influenced by Italy and/or fascism: Albania, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria which lasted from 1924 to 1927. The 1927 cooperation with Britain and France made Italy withdraw.
[edit] Friendship agreement
In 1927, in response to the growing Italian expansionism, the royal government of Yugoslavia signed an agreement of friendship and cooperation with Britain and France.
[edit] Pro-Axis period
From 1935 to 1941, after the assassination of King Alexander I and during the Regency of Prince Paul, it was claimed by the West that the Yugoslav government switched to an extremely pro-Axis foreign policy and it was said to have aligned itself with Fascist Italy.
[edit] Demographics
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes were the constitutional nations up to 1929, when they were merged into a new nationality — Yugoslavs. The following data, grouped by mother tongue, is from the 1921 population census:
- Serbo-Croatian (including Macedonian): 8,911,509 (74.36%)
- Serbs (including Montenegrians and Macedonians): 44.57%
- Croats: 23.5%
- Muslims: 6.29%
- Slovenian: 1,019,997 (8.51%)
- German: 505,790 (4.22%)
- Hungarian: 467,658 (3.9%)
- Albanian: 439,657 (3.67%)
- Romanian: 231,068 (1.93%)
- Turkish: 150,322 (1.25%)
- Czech (including Slovak speakers): 115,532 (0.96%)
- Ruthenian: 25,615 (0.21%)
- Russian: 20,568 (0.17%)
- Polish: 14,764 (0.12%)
- Italian: 12,553 (0.11%)
- Others: 69,878 (0.58%)
[edit] Ethnic groups
- Yugoslavs: 82.87%
- Germans: 4.22%
- Hungarians: 3.90%
- Albanians: 3.67%
- Romanians: 1.93%
- Turks: 1.25%
- Czechs and Slovaks: 0.96%
- Rusyns: 0.21%
- Russians: 0.17%
- Poles: 0.12%
- Others: 0.69%
[edit] Religious groups
- Christians
- Orthodoxs: 5,600,000
- Roman Catholics (including Uniates): 4,700,000
- Protestants: 200,000
- Muslims: 1,300,000
- Jews: 65,000
[edit] List of Kings
- Peter I (1 December 1918 – 16 August 1921; prince regent Alexander ruled in the name of the king)
- Alexander I (16 August 1921 – 9 October 1934)
- Peter II (9 October 1934 – 29 November 1945; in exile from 13 April or 14 April 1941)
- Regency headed by Prince Paul (9 October 1934 – 27 March 1941)
[edit] List of Prime ministers
- Stojan Protić (1918–19)
- Ljubomir Davidović (1919–20)
- Stojan Protić (1920)
- Milenko Vesnić (1920–21)
- Nikola Pašić (1921–24)
- Ljubomir Davidović (1924)
- Nikola Pašić (1924–26)
- Nikola Uzunović (1926–27)
- Velimir Vukićević (1927–28)
- Anton Korošec (1928–29)
- Petar Živković (1929–32)
- Vojislav Marinković (1932)
- Milan Srškić (1932–34)
- Nikola Uzunović (1934)
- Bogoljub Jevtić (1934–35)
- Milan Stojadinović (1935–39)
- Dragiša Cvetković (1939–41)
Prime ministers of Royal Government in Exile (in Cairo/London)
- Dušan Simović (1941–42)
- Slobodan Jovanović (1942–43)
- Miloš Trifunović (1943)
- Božidar Purić (1943–44)
- Ivan Šubašić (1944–45)
- Drago Marušič (1945)
[edit] Subdivisions
The subdivisions 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 33 oblasts or provinces and, in 1929, a new system of nine banovinas was implemented. In 1939, as an accommodation to Yugoslav Croats in the Cvetković–Maček agreement, a Banovina of Croatia was formed, replacing two of the 1929 banovinas and including sections of others as well.
[edit] References
- ^ Constitutions of Serbia, from the Digital National Library of Serbia (Serbian Cyrillic), (Serbian Latin), (English)
- ^ Branislav Gligorijević, Parliament i političke stranke u Jugoslaviji 1919–1929
- ^ Balkan Politics, TIME Magazine, March 31, 1923
- ^ Elections, TIME Magazine, February 23, 1925
- ^ The Opposition, TIME Magazine, April 06, 1925
[edit] See also
- Anthem of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
- Corfu Declaration
- Yugoslav Committee
- Yugoslavia
- Invasion of Yugoslavia
- Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes election, 1923
