Slovenes and Yugoslavia 1918–1991

Extract

On December 1, 1918, as Regent Alexander proclaimed the creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the latter entered the new state under pressure from manifold motives. Besides the desire for Slavonic solidarity, there was also a more prosaic need that made them take that step. Following the disintegration of the Habsburg monarchy, in which they had lived for centuries, they emerged in the international political arena completely alone and inexperienced “as political children.” They had no borders confirmed by history, and no army apart from a handful of volunteers. For a neighbor, they had victorious Italy with the London Treaty in its pocket, in which the Great Powers promised it a large portion of Slovene territory for its participation in the war. The only power which it was possible to rely upon at that moment was Serbia, which, in turn, dictated its own conditions for the unification. The future state was to become a monarchy under a Karadjordjevich dynasty and was to be centrally structured, irrespective of the ethnic and historical distinctions among various “tribes” making up the new state. The fact that the three constituent entities of the Kingdom were lowered to the level of tribes is clearly indicative: it proclaimed the belief in the existence of a single South-Slavic nation which, although cleft into three branches by events in the past, was to reach its initial unity again, in line with the principle: one state, one nation.