Review article
Croatian politics and the emergence of Yugoslavia: from the Berlin Congress of 1878 to the end of World War I in 1918
Nikša Stančić
; Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
Croatian politics variously operationalised the Yugoslav idea depending on fluctuations in a wider political context. In the second half of the 19th century, National Party standpoint was that both, Croatia and Serbia, should take the helm of uniting South Slavs living in the Habsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. However, the issue of territorial control over Bosnia and Herzegovina after its occupation by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1878, together with the issue of Austro-Serbian Alliance in 1881 caused a rift between Croatian and Serbian politics. After Serbia left the Austro-Hungarian union in 1903, the politics of the “new course” was formulated in Croatia which perceived Germany as the main obstacle to abolishing the Dual Monarchy that was holding Croatia in subordinate position, and considered independent Serbia as the crucial factor in the politics of liberation and unification of South Slavs. After the First World War broke out in 1914, Croatian politicians gathered around the Yugoslav Committee firmly believed that the only solution to the Croatian question was the abolition of the Habsburg monarchy and the unification of its South Slavic lands with Serbia, while Serbia`s aim in the war was to unify territories inhabited by Serbian population. The forces of Antanta did not enter the war with the goal of abolishing the Habsburg Monarchy, however they were ready to offer territorial compensation to their allies Italy and Serbia at the expense of the Monarchy and its Croatian lands. Facing danger of Croatia being divided among Austro-Hungarian Empire, Italy and Serbia in case of Antanta forces` victory, the Yugoslav Committee demanded that Serbia should accept “an integral solution to the Yugoslav question“. By signing the Corfu Declaration in 1917, Serbia accepted the program of unification of the Habsburg South Slav lands with Serbia, leaving out the federalist organisation of a future state. At the time of the dissolution of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918, the Croatian Parliament declared independence and passed a resolution on its joining the state of South Slavic peoples, and the National Council announced the establishment of the new independent State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on the territory of the Habsburg Monarchy. In Belgrade, the National Council delegation was pressured into renouncing its demands on preservation of political equality of two united parts of the new state.
Keywords
Croatian politics; Yugoslav idea; “new course” politics; Yugoslav Committee; declaration of the Kingdom of Serbs; Croats and Slovenes
Hrčak ID:
135046
URI
Publication date:
17.12.2014.
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