Creation of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

• The end of the WWI radically changed

Europe’s political map.
• Four empires disappeared: Ottoman, Austro-
Hungarian, German and Russian.
• A number of independent nation-states
emerged: Poland, Finland, Baltic States –
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania –
Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary and the
Kingdom of Serbians, Croatians and
Slovenians.
• The later was the most complex of all these
newly founded states. Nations that found
themselves in it in 1918 – having lived in
different empires and civilizations – were
strangers to each other and it was only in the
common state that they were to confront
their interests and harmonize their goals.
 Boundaries of the country
• The Kingdom consisted of the provinces of
Slovenia and Dalmatia, formerly Austrian
territories; Croatia and Slavonia, formerly
autonomous provinces of Hungary; Vojvodina,
formerly an integral part of Hungary; Bosnia and
Herzegovina, managed by Austro-Hungary and
Serbia and Montenegro, Independent States and
Kingdoms.
• The boundaries of the country were established
at the Versailles Peace Conference from January
1919 to early 1920.
• The territory of the new state covered 248,977
square kilometers and had a population of over
12 million.
• The unification of almost all South Slavic peoples
into their single state was virtually proclaimed by
the Regent, Aleksandar I Karađorđević on
December 1st, 1918.2
 State regulation
• The first Council of Ministers
(government) was formed in December
1918 by decree of the regent Alexander.
• The government was headed by radical
Stojan Protić.
• The Deputy Prime Minister was
Slovenian Anton Korošec, the Ministry
of the Interior belonged to Svetozar
Pribićević from Croatia, and the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs was headed by Ante
Trumbić, also a Croat.
• It was the Council of Ministers that
established the name of the state in the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Stojan Protić
 The state symbols
• Colors of the national flag of the Kingdom of the
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as blue, white and red, in
a horizontal position with an upright spear. In addition
to that national flag, there were tribal flags, Serbian,
Croatian and Slovenian.
• Guided by the foreign exchange that the nation is
represented by a nation of three fraternal tribes
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the government has
accepted the principle of equality in this regard and
weaved the appearance of the coat of arms of all
three tribes into the national coat of arms.
• The unification into the Kingdom in December 1918
raised the question of using the national anthem on
festive occasions. Although there were no anthem
laws, the national anthems of all three South Slavic
tribes were merged and the anthem of the Kingdom
was formed.
• The verses of Bože pravde were sung, then the lyrics
of Lijepa naša domovino and then the Naprej, zastava
slave.
The First Constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

• The St. Vitus’s Day Constitution (June, 28th

1921) defined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats
and Slovenes as “a constitutional,
parliamentary and hereditary monarchy.”
• However, under all provisions the King had
the position of power and control over the
people’s representation.
• He was the one to convene the People’s
Assembly and empowered to dissolve it. He
sanctioned all the laws.
• He was the Commander in Chief of Armed
Forces. He represented the state abroad.
Verdicts were pronounced in his name.
• He appointed ministers who were
accountable to him and to the People’s
Assembly.
 Division of the country
• According to the constitution,
the whole country was to be
divided into provinces, and
provinces into counties, districts
and municipalities.
• At the head of the province was
a great prefect appointed by the
king.
• By law of 1922 the land was
divided into 33 areas.
 Political life
• Political life in the Kingdom was characterized by existence of
a multitude of parties, which reflected diversity and
underdevelopment social structures, heterogeneity of
national and religious composition, different degrees of
economic power.
• The Serbian Civic Front was led by the People's Radical and
Yugoslav Democratic Parties, the first of which acted on the
Serbian areas and those historically and nationally
considered Serbian, and second one throughout the entire
country, considering themselves - at least nominally - as the
Yugoslavian, though she increasingly gained the Serbian
landmark.
• The radicals were old and homogeneous party, under
authoritative leadership with Pašić at the head, the bearer of
Serbian hegemony and centralism.
• The party after Pašić began to fall and divide becoming even
more vulnerable to the effects of the court.
• The Yugoslav Democratic Party was created by an agreement
of various groups of Yugoslav orientation as a prisoner of
national unity, while remaining loosely connected. Led by
Ljubomir Davidović and Svetozar Pribićević, who created his
own Independent Democratic Party in 1924.
Nikola Pašić
 Other political parties
• About 40 political parties and groups were active
on the new state's political stage.
• Thanks to strong support among the Slovenian
peasantry, the Slovenian People's Party became
the strongest political party in Slovenia at the
beginning of the 20th century.
• Led by Anton Korošec, they most oftenly
supported the government in Belgrade as well as
its centralist policies, although sometimes
opposed it.
• The Croatian Peasant Peasant Party was founded
by Antun Radić together with his brother,
Stjepan. Represented opposition to the official
policy of the court.
• The Yugoslav Muslim Organization was created
through the unification of Muslim local political
organizations in February 1919. Its most
prominent member was Dr. Mehmed Spaho.
Anton Korošec
 Communists
• The Socialist, Social Democratic and Labor
Organizations united at the Uniting Congress
in Belgrade in April 1919 into the Socialist
Workers Party of Yugoslavia. A year later, the
party changed its name to the Communist
Party of Yugoslavia.
• The work of the CPY was banned by the
government on December 19th, 1920.
• Following the attempt of assassination of
Regent Alexander on June 28, 1921, and the
assassination of Interior Minister Milorad
Drašković on July 21, 1921, the government
passed the Law on the Protection of Public
Security and Order in the State.
• At the trial for the murder of the regent, 19
communist ministers were sentenced for
complicity.
 Assassination in the Assembly

• Because of the quarrels, allegations of corruption

and insults that Stjepan Radic, leader of the HSS,
constantly addressed to his political opponents
at parliamentary sessions, Puniša Račić, a
member of the Radical Club, together with 23
deputies, submitted a request to the Assembly in
June 1928 asking for for Radić to "be examined
physically and to determine whether he is in
normal condition or not".
• After an altercation at the Assembly session,
Račić fired five bullets in the direction of the
opposition from the assembly booth.
• Two HSS deputies were killed and wounded on
the occasion.
• In early August, Stjepan Radić died of his
wounds, and his death marked the end of
parliamentarism in Yugoslavia.
 Elections in Kingdom
Poltical party 1920. 1923. 1925. 1927.
Radicals 91 108 123 112
Democrats 92 51 39 + 36 59 + 22
Slovenian People’s 14 21 20 20
Party
The Croatian 50 70 67 61
Peasant Party
Communists 58 / / /
 January 6th dictatorship
• King Alexander decided to drastically
change relations in the country.
• On the night of January 5-6, he issued a
proclamation which dissolved the
National Assembly and the Constitution
ceased to be valid.
• At the head of the government, the king
appointed General Petar Zivković, the
guard commander and his honorary
adjutant.
• New laws were passed and the king had
full power, ministers reduced powers, all
political parties and local governments
were dissolved and the Supreme
(Petar Živković, 1879-1947)
Legislative Council was formed.
 Changes in the country
• The state received its new name - the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, on October 3,
1929.
• It consisted of banovina (region), nine of
them, who were headed by a ban who
was installed by the king.
• Decree and the January 6 Dictatorship met
no resistance. Things were the same in
other European countries experiencing
dictatorships in the aftermath of the WWI.
• And yet, there was a distinctive feature to
the January 6 Dictatorship: in the midst of
the crisis it was a response to was the
conflict between the two biggest nations –
Serbs and Croats.
 New constitution
• The King tried to safeguard his overt
absolutism by other means.
• In a proclamation of March 3, 1931
glorifying the results of the January 9
regime he stated, “I have decided to
replace the incumbent policy with the
large one of direct cooperation with
people.”
• The Decretive or September Constitution
(March 3, 1931) that should have testified
of the King’s promise nothing but screened
his absolutism.
• The state remained centralized and unitary,
while the King himself untouchable.
 New constitution
• The new constitution introduced a
bicameral People's Representative -
the National Assembly, directly
elected, and a Senate whose
members were elected by the King.
• This order was opposed by
separatist organizations in Croatia
and Macedonia.
• A number of Croatian Party
ministers, including Ante Pavelić,
went abroad to form an Ustasha
organization.
 Assasination
• September Constitution testified that
a country, the peoples of which have
just begun identifying their interests,
cannot be maintained by force alone,
kept on a tight rein by representatives
of the majority nation.
• In reaction to dictatorship separatist
movements grew stronger: VMRO in
Macedonia and the Ustashas in
Croatia.
• They masterminded the
assassination of King Alexander on
October 9, 1934 in Marseille.
 Regency 1934-1941.
• Since his eldest son, Crow Prince
Peter, was underage, King Alexander
bequeathed the throne to his cousin,
Prince Pavle Karađorđević.
• Prince Pavle formed the cabinet of
Milan Stojadinović (1935–1939) who
appeared as a modernist unlike King
• Stojadinović’s attempt to bring about
an agreement between Vatican and
the Serbian Orthodox Church failed.
• In the elections in 1938 the
governmental list won a razor-thin
majority of vote.
 Government Cvetković - Maček
• The government lasted until February 1939,
when Dragiša Cvetković was elected as a
prime minister.
• Hismain task was to draw an agreement with
Croats.
• The agreement between Dragiša Cvetković
and the Croatian political leader, Vlatko
Maček, was reached in almost no time, but
the time for its implementation was also
running out.
• It was signed on August 26, 1939, just a
couple of days before the outbreak of the
WWII.
• The first autonomous administration within
Yugoslavia, seated in Zagreb, had been
established under the agreement.
 Banovina Croatia
• Banovina Croatia comprised 29% of the territory
of the Kingdom and 29% of the population.
• Be it as it may, the Cvetković – Maček agreement
opened the floodgates to a chain reaction: Serbia,
Slovenia and Bosnian Muslims were demanding
the same autonomy for themselves.
• Banovina had parliament and autonomy in
administration, finance and education, while the
central government maintained foreign policy,
monetary and military spheres.
• Maček became the Deputy Prime Minister of the
Yugoslav government. The agreement was never
ratified in the Assembly.
• Stojadinovic's foreign policy continued during the
Cvetković-Maček government, and the Kingdom
became even more involved with Germany and
Italy.