Original scientific paper
Echoes of the Establishment of Croatian Banovina in the Bačka-Croatian Public
Krešimir BUŠIĆ
Abstract
In the paper the author analyses the response of the Bačka-
Croatian (Bunjevac) public to the establishment of Croatian
Banovina in 1939-1941. Making use of the available sources,
first and foremost newspaper articles, journals and advertising
brochures, the author discusses the importance of strengthening
political and cultural ties between Zagreb and Subotica on the
eve of the Second World War. The author also presents the main
guidelines of the process of national integration of the Bačka-
Croatian ethnic community into the Croatian nation. Therefore,
the decisive role of the Bačka-Croatian elite at the time in
preserving national identity, in other words the self-confident
declaration of Bačka-Croats and Šokci group as Croats, is
observed. The resistance of the Bačka-Croatian community
against frequent attempts of assimilation by Serbian hegemonistic
circles has also been presented. The author stresses the
importance of the little known public support and activities on the
part of the Bačka-Croatian cultural and political elites with the
aim of annexing "Bačka Croatia", that is, annexing six northern
Bačka and Baranja counties with the majority of Catholic Šokci
and Bunjevci populations to the independent Croatian Banovina.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
17974
URI
Publication date:
31.10.2005.
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