Kingdom of

Yugoslavia
Aftermath of the
assassination
• After Stjepan Radić died due to an assassination
attempt in the parliment of SHS in 1928., the king
Alexander Karađorđević was faced with several
problems:
• Croats no matter their political affiliation burst in to
protests.
• Some protesters burned portraits of the king.
• King ordered the police to quell the protests and as
a consequence of that 3 protesters were killed.,
multiple were wounded and imprisoned.
• As a sign of protest to the assassination, Crotian
politicians refused to participate in the parliment.
• They outright claimed that the Vidovdan
constitution was illeitimate and that they refuse to
recognize it.
• Mebers of SDK demanded that the Kingdom of SHS
be reorganized in to federal states.
• Because of that, the king proclaimed that he is
starting a dictatorship.
• On the 6th of Januray 1929., the dictatorship
started.
Kingdom of
Yugoslavia
• In the position of a dictator, the king held
all the branches of power: judical,
legislative and executive.
• He changed the name of the coutry from
Kingdom of SHS to Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
• The king prohibitet the use of any national
distinctions in order to pacify the Croats
and the Serbs (no national flags, no
nationalities…).
• He divided the Kingdom in to 9 banovinas
(6 of them had Serbian mayority).
• Many politicians opposed the dictatorship,
and because of that they were either killed
or imrpissoned.
• Because the opposition to the dictatorship was
strong., the king decided to issue a constitution.,
(Oktrioirani ustav 1931).
• The king still held all the power in his hands, he just
masked it with a constitution.
Zagrebačke
punktacije
• Politicians in Croatia held a
secret meeting.
• There they decided that
they are going to form an
opposition to the King and
they presented their plan in
a 6 point document.
Radical organizations
• Since the dictatorship could not be broken through
means of diplomacy, some resorted to terrorrism.
• Nationalist from Macedonia and Croatia formed VMRO
and UHRO.
• The leader oh UHRO was Ante Pavelić (the lawyer).
• He was sentenced to death in Yugoslavia and escaped to
Italy.
• There he befriended Benito Mussolini who inspired him
in his works.
• VMRO and UHRO acted together in order
to take down the king.
• In 1934., they got their chance as the king
was visiting France.
• On 9th October 1934., Vlado Černozemski
member of VMRO shot the king Alexaner
and killed him on the spot in Maresile.
• Petar, the kings son was only 12 so instead
of him his uncle Pavle and a royal council
ruled.