Prevlaka ( Croatian pronunciation: [prɛ̂ʋlaka] ) is a small peninsula in southern Croatia , near the border with Montenegro , at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor on the eastern Adriatic coast.
145-526: Because of its strategic location in the southern Adriatic, in the aftermath of the SFR Yugoslav breakup , the peninsula became subject to a territorial dispute between Croatia and FR Yugoslavia , a federal state that included Montenegro . The territory was functional under UN until 2002. The UN mission ended in December 2002 and the territory that had previously been part of SR Croatia was returned to
290-875: A "horrible brutality which is being practiced upon the Croatian People". The appeal was addressed to the Paris-based Ligue des droits de l'homme (Human Rights League). In their letter Einstein and Mann held the Yugoslav king Aleksandar explicitly responsible for these circumstances. Croat opposition to the new régime was strong and, in late 1932, the Croatian Peasant Party issued the Zagreb Manifesto which sought an end to Serb hegemony and dictatorship. The government reacted by imprisoning many political opponents including
435-724: A Germanophile. In the late 1930s, internal tensions continued to increase with Serbs and Croats seeking to establish ethnic federal subdivisions. Serbs wanted Vardar Banovina (later known within Yugoslavia as Vardar Macedonia), Vojvodina , Montenegro united with the Serb lands, and Croatia wanted Dalmatia and some of Vojvodina. Both sides claimed territory in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina populated also by Bosnian Muslims . The expansion of Nazi Germany in 1938 gave new momentum to efforts to solve these problems and, in 1939, Prince Paul appointed Dragiša Cvetković as prime minister, with
580-614: A Serbo-centric policy increased. In the early 1920s, the Yugoslav government of prime minister Nikola Pašić used police pressure over voters and ethnic minorities, confiscation of opposition pamphlets and other measure to rig elections . This was ineffective against the Croatian Peasant Party (formerly the Croatian Republican Peasant Party), whose members continued to win election to the Yugoslav parliament in large numbers, but did harm
725-459: A combined Bulgarian , Austrian and German force on 6 October 1915. This saw the escalation of South Slavic nationalism and calls by Slavic nationalists for the independence and unification of the South Slavic nationalities of Austria-Hungary along with Serbia and Montenegro into a single State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs . The Dalmatian Croat politician Ante Trumbić became
870-698: A coup d'état in October 1988, but not a second one in January 1989. In addition to Serbia itself, Milošević could now install representatives of the two provinces and SR Montenegro in the Yugoslav Presidency Council. The very instrument that reduced Serbian influence before was now used to increase it: in the eight member Presidency, Milošević could count on a minimum of four votes – SR Montenegro (following local events), his own through SR Serbia, and now SAP Vojvodina and SAP Kosovo as well. In
1015-556: A few of the Dalmatian islands were given to Italy. The city of Rijeka was declared to be the Free State of Fiume , but it was soon occupied, and in 1924 annexed , by Italy, which had also been promised the Dalmatian coast during World War I, and Yugoslavia claiming Istria , a part of the former Austrian Littoral which had been annexed to Italy, but which contained a considerable population of Croats and Slovenes. The formation of
1160-558: A government led by Stojan Protić committed to the restoration of parliamentary norms and mitigating the centralization of the previous government. Their opposition to the former governments program of radical land reform also united them. As several small groups and individuals switched sides, Protić now even had a small majority. However, the Democratic Party and the Social Democrats now boycotted parliament and Protić
1305-514: A group of Muslims from Macedonia and Kosovo, saved it. On 28 June 1921, the Vidovdan Constitution was passed, establishing a unitary monarchy. The pre–World War I traditional regions were abolished and 33 new administrative oblasts (provinces) ruled from the center were instituted. During this time, King Peter I died (16 August 1921), and the prince-regent succeeded to the throne as King Alexander I . Ljubomir Davidović of
1450-610: A meeting in the Cankar Hall in Ljubljana, co-organized with the democratic opposition forces , publicly endorsing the efforts of Albanian protesters who demanded that Vllasi be released. In the 1995 BBC2 documentary The Death of Yugoslavia , Kučan claimed that in 1989, he was concerned that with the successes of Milošević's anti-bureaucratic revolution in Serbia's provinces as well as Montenegro, that his small republic would be
1595-437: A new government led by the neutral figure of Milenko Vesnić. The Social Democrats did not follow the Democratic Party, their former allies, into government because they were opposed to the anti-communist measures to which the new government was committed. The controversies that had divided the parties earlier were still very much live issues. The Democratic Party continued to push its agenda of centralization and still insisted on
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#17327654054141740-598: A pretext the political crisis triggered by the shooting, King Alexander abolished the Constitution, prorogued the Parliament and introduced a personal dictatorship (known as the "January 6 Dictatorship", Šestosiječanjska diktatura , Šestojanuarska diktatura ) with the aim of establishing the Yugoslav ideology and single Yugoslav nation . He changed the name of the country to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia", and changed
1885-627: A prominent South Slavic leader during the war and led the Yugoslav Committee that lobbied the Allies to support the creation of an independent Yugoslavia . Trumbić faced initial hostility from Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić , who preferred an enlarged Serbia over a unified Yugoslav state. However, both Pašić and Trumbić agreed to a compromise, which was delivered at the Corfu Declaration on 20 July 1917 that advocated
2030-606: A separate crown land under Austria-Hungary . Under Austria-Hungary, both Slovenes and Croats enjoyed autonomy with free hands only in education, law, religion, and 45% of taxes. The Serbs tended to view the territories as a just reward for their support of the allies in World War ;I and the new state as an extension of the Kingdom of Serbia . Tensions between the Croats and Serbs often erupted into open conflict, with
2175-586: A series of rallies, called "Rallies of Truth", Milošević's supporters succeeded in overthrowing local governments and replacing them with his allies. As a result of these events, in February 1989 ethnic Albanian miners in Kosovo organized a strike , demanding the preservation of the now-endangered autonomy. This contributed to ethnic conflict between the Albanian and Serb populations of the province. At 77% of
2320-639: A time of austerity. Increasingly, demands were voiced in Serbia for more centralisation in order to force Croatia and Slovenia to pay more into the federal budget, demands that were completely rejected in the "have" republics. The relaxation of tensions with the Soviet Union after Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , the top position in 1985, meant that western nations were no longer willing to be generous with restructuring Yugoslavia's debts, as
2465-399: A timid way tried to express the discontent that Croatian Republican Peasant Party mobilized) had been too tainted by their participation in government and was all but eliminated. The other gainers were the communists who had done especially well in the wider Macedonia region. The remainder of the seats were taken up by smaller parties that were at best skeptical of the centralizing platform of
2610-462: A violent reaction from the governing majority including death threats. On 20 June 1928, a member of the government majority, the Serb deputy Puniša Račić , shot five members of the Croatian Peasant Party, including their leader Stjepan Radić, after Radić refused to apologize for earlier offense in which he accused Račić of stealing from civilian population. Two died on the floor of the Assembly while
2755-404: A warm climate, Yugoslavia was also relatively dry. Internal communications were poor, damage from World War I had been extensive, and with few exceptions agriculture was devoid of machinery or other modern farming technologies. Manufacturing was limited to Belgrade and the other major population centers, and consisted mainly of small, comparatively primitive facilities that produced strictly for
2900-640: The 1974 Constitution , the office of President of Yugoslavia was replaced with the Yugoslav Presidency , an eight-member collective head-of-state composed of representatives from six republics and, controversially, two autonomous provinces of the Socialist Republic of Serbia , SAP Kosovo and SAP Vojvodina . Since the SFR Yugoslav federation was formed in 1945, the constituent Socialist Republic of Serbia (SR Serbia) included
3045-680: The Independent State of Croatia or the Italian governorate of Montenegro , control the Bay of Kotor region. The Bay of Kotor along with its surrounding areas including eastern Konavle and Prevlaka was controlled directly by Italy based on the May 1941 Treaties of Rome . As World War II dragged on, in summer 1943, in response to the Allied advances in their Italian campaign , Nazi Germany took over
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#17327654054143190-404: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia along with its internal administrative subdivisions being reconfigured into 9 banovinas, Prevlaka was included into Zeta Banovina together with Dubrovnik. During the 1930s, Royal Yugoslav Army further fortified Prevlaka. In 1939, the area was assigned to the newly created Banovina of Croatia subdivision of the Yugoslav kingdom. World War II was the only period since
3335-660: The League of Communists of Slovenia , was endorsing Kosovo and Slovene separatism. Initial strikes in Kosovo turned into widespread demonstrations calling for Kosovo to be made the seventh republic. This angered Serbia's leadership which proceeded to use police force, and later the federal army (the Yugoslav People's Army JNA) by order of the Serbian-controlled Presidency. In February 1989 ethnic Albanian Azem Vllasi , SAP Kosovo's representative on
3480-624: The Moljević plan ("On Our State and Its Borders") and the orders issues by Draža Mihailović which included "[t]he cleansing of all nation understandings and fighting". Both Croats and Muslims were recruited as soldiers by the SS (primarily in the 13th Waffen Mountain Division ). At the same time, former royalist, General Milan Nedić , was installed by the Axis as head of the puppet government in
3625-515: The SANU Memorandum as "nothing else but the darkest nationalism". However, Kosovo's autonomy had always been an unpopular policy in Serbia, and he took advantage of the situation and made a departure from traditional communist neutrality on the issue of Kosovo. Milošević assured Serbs that their mistreatment by ethnic Albanians would be stopped. He then began a campaign against the ruling communist elite of SR Serbia, demanding reductions in
3770-868: The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia split apart, but the unresolved issues caused a series of inter-ethnic Yugoslav Wars . The wars primarily affected Bosnia and Herzegovina , neighbouring parts of Croatia and, some years later, Kosovo . Following the Allied victory in World War II , Yugoslavia was set up as a federation of six republics, with borders drawn along ethnic and historical lines: Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia , Macedonia , Montenegro , Serbia , and Slovenia . In addition, two autonomous provinces were established within Serbia: Vojvodina and Kosovo . Each of
3915-442: The Vidovdan Constitution in 1921 sparked tensions between the different Yugoslav ethnic groups . Trumbić opposed the 1921 constitution and over time grew increasingly hostile towards the Yugoslav government that he saw as being centralized in the favor of Serb hegemony over Yugoslavia. Three-quarters of the Yugoslav workforce was engaged in agriculture. A few commercial farmers existed, but most were subsistence peasants. Those in
4060-696: The Yugoslav Wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia , the territory was occupied by Yugoslav forces like most of the Dubrovnik region during the siege of Dubrovnik . At one point, the Croatian military gained temporary control over Prevlaka, before it was retaken. The two sides agreed on the demilitarization of the peninsula and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 779 of October 6, 1992 extended
4205-528: The first multi-party elections held across the country, except in Montenegro and in Serbia , where Milošević and his allies won. Nationalist rhetoric on all sides became increasingly heated. Between June 1991 and April 1992, four constituent republics declared independence while Montenegro and Serbia remained federated. Germany took the initiative and recognized the independence of Croatia and Slovenia, but
4350-446: The "motivating causes of the disintegration in economic circumstance and its ferocious pressures". Likewise, Sabine Rutar states that, “while antagonistic representations of the ethnic-national past indeed were heavily (mis-)used during the conflict, one must be careful not to turn these forceful categories of practice into categories of historical analysis”. As President, Tito's policy was to push for rapid economic growth , and growth
4495-523: The 15th century when the boundaries of Konavle were modified. In April 1941 Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia, conquering it in less than three weeks before proceeding to dismember its territory by creating a handful of locally-administered fascist puppet states. Due to its strategic importance, the Axis-aligned Kingdom of Italy under prime minister Benito Mussolini would not let either of the two newly propped up local fascist puppet regimes,
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4640-456: The 1974 Constitution. Public opinion in Slovenia in 1987 saw better economic opportunity in independence from Yugoslavia than within it. There were also places that saw no economic benefit from being in Yugoslavia; for example, the autonomous province of Kosovo was poorly developed, and per capita GDP fell from 47 percent of the Yugoslav average in the immediate post-war period to 27 percent by
4785-568: The 1980s. It highlighted the vast differences in the quality of life in the different republics. Economic growth was curbed due to Western trade barriers combined with the 1973 oil crisis . Yugoslavia subsequently fell into heavy IMF debt due to the large number of International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans taken out by the regime. As a condition of receiving loans, the IMF demanded the " market liberalisation " of Yugoslavia. By 1981, Yugoslavia had incurred $ 19.9 billion in foreign debt. Another concern
4930-958: The Assembly of the SFRY, based on the decision of the Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and the Assembly of Montenegro, adopted the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , which formally ended the breakup. Yugoslavia occupied a significant portion of the Balkan Peninsula , including a strip of land on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea , stretching southward from the Bay of Trieste in Central Europe to
5075-581: The Central Committee of the League of Communists of Serbia on 23–24 September 1987. At a 1988 rally in Belgrade, Milošević made clear his perception of the situation facing SR Serbia in Yugoslavia, saying: At home and abroad, Serbia's enemies are massing against us. We say to them "We are not afraid. We will not flinch from battle". On another occasion, he privately stated: We Serbs will act in
5220-611: The Communist elites who had so mismanaged the economy by recklessly borrowing money abroad. The policies of austerity also led to uncovering much corruption on the part of the elites, most notably with the "Agrokomerc affair" of 1987, when the Agrokomerc enterprise of Bosnia turned out to be the centre of a vast nexus of corruption running all across Yugoslavia, and that the managers of Agrokomerc had issued promissory notes equivalent to almost US$ 1 billion without collateral, forcing
5365-470: The Communist's Party's wish to support "national self determination ". This resulted in Kosovo being turned into an autonomous region of Serbia, legislated by the 1974 constitution . This constitution broke down powers between the capital and the autonomous regions in Vojvodina (an area of Yugoslavia with a large number of ethnic minorities) and Kosovo (with a large ethnic- Albanian population). Despite
5510-501: The Croatian extreme nationalist Ustaše organisation. Because Aleksandar's eldest son, Peter II , was a minor, a regency council of three, specified in Aleksandar's will, took over the new king's royal powers and duties. The council was dominated by the 11-year-old king's first cousin once removed Prince Paul . Prince Paul decided to appoint well-known economist Milan Stojadinović as prime minister in 1935. His solution to solving
5655-570: The Croatian nationalist Ustaše, who were also angered by any settlement short of full independence for a Greater Croatia including all of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Fearing an invasion by the Axis powers , Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact on 25 March 1941, pledging cooperation with the Axis. Massive anti-Axis demonstrations followed in Belgrade . On 27 March, the regime of Prince Paul
5800-551: The Democratic Party. The results left Nikola Pašić in a very strong position as the Democrats had no choice but to ally with the Radicals if they wanted to get their concept of a centralized Yugoslavia through. Pašić was always careful to keep open the option of a deal with the Croatian opposition. The Democrats and the Radicals were not quite strong enough to get the constitution through on their own and they made an alliance with
5945-561: The Democrats began to have doubts about the wisdom of his party's commitment to centralization and opened up negotiations with the opposition. This threatened to provoke a split in his party as his action was opposed by Svetozar Pribićević. It also gave Pašić a pretext to end the coalition. At first the King gave Pašić a mandate to form a coalition with Pribićević's Democrats. However, Pašić offered Pribićević too little for there to be much chance that Pribićević would agree. A purely Radical government
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6090-762: The German-occupied area of Serbia, and local Serbs were recruited into the Gestapo and the Serbian Volunteer Corps , which was linked to the German Waffen-SS . Both quislings were confronted and eventually defeated by the communist-led, anti-fascist Partisan movement composed of members of all ethnic groups in the area, leading to the formation of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . The official Yugoslav post-war estimate of victims in Yugoslavia during World War II
6235-610: The King, and legislation could become law with the approval of one of the houses alone if also approved by the King. That same year, Croatian historian and anti-Yugoslavist intellectual Milan Šufflay was assassinated in Zagreb. As a response, Albert Einstein and Heinrich Mann sent an appeal to the International League of Human Rights in Paris condemning the murder, accusing the Yugoslav government. The letter states of
6380-756: The Kingdom of Montenegro. The creation of the state was supported by pan-Slavists and Yugoslav nationalists. For the pan-Slavic movement, all of the South Slav (Yugoslav) people had united into a single state. The creation was also supported by the Allies, who sought to break up the Austro-Hungarian Empire . The newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes participated in the Paris Peace Conference with Trumbić as
6525-446: The National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs appointed 28 members to start negotiation with the representatives of the government of the Kingdom of Serbia and Montenegro on creation of a new Yugoslav state, the delegation negotiated directly with regent Alexander Karađorđević . The negotiations would end, with the delegation of the National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs led by Ante Pavelić reading
6670-408: The Presidency, was forced to resign and was replaced by an ally of Milošević. Albanian protesters demanded that Vllasi be returned to office, and Vllasi's support for the demonstrations caused Milošević and his allies to respond stating this was a "counter-revolution against Serbia and Yugoslavia", and demanded that the federal Yugoslav government put down the striking Albanians by force. Milošević's aim
6815-407: The Provisional Representation and the government. Because the Democratic Party led by Ljubomir Davidović pushed a highly centralized agenda a number of Croatian delegates moved into opposition. However, the radicals themselves were not happy that they had only three ministers to the Democratic Party's 11 and, on 16 August 1919, Protić handed in his resignation. Davidović then formed a coalition with
6960-437: The Radicals' main Serbian rivals, the Democrats. Stjepan Radić , the head of the Croatian Peasant Party, was imprisoned many times for political reasons. He was released in 1925 and returned to parliament. In the spring of 1928, Radić and Svetozar Pribićević waged a bitter parliamentary battle against the ratification of the Nettuno Convention with Italy. In this they mobilised nationalist opposition in Serbia but provoked
7105-509: The Republic of Croatia. An agreement was signed by both sides five days before the departure of the UNMOP that demilitarized Prevlaka, though implementation still has a temporary character. The narrow, uninhabited peninsula is 2.6 kilometres (1.6 mi) long and only 150–500 metres (500–1,600 ft) wide, covering an area of 93.33 hectares (230.6 acres) (just under 1 square kilometre or 0.4 square miles). The word prevlaka means ' portage '. Cape Oštro (Punta Oštro/Punta d'Ostro), located at
7250-413: The Serb-dominated security structure exercising oppression during elections and the assassination in the National Assembly of Croat political leaders, including Stjepan Radić , who opposed the Serbian monarch's absolutism . The assassination and human rights abuses were subject of concern for the Human Rights League and precipitated voices of protest from intellectuals, including Albert Einstein . It
7395-417: The Serbian "ruling class", and the minorities who were seen to benefit from government legislation. Real earnings in Yugoslavia fell by 25% from 1979 to 1985. By 1988, emigrant remittances to Yugoslavia totalled over $ 4.5 billion (USD), and by 1989 remittances were $ 6.2 billion (USD), making up over 19% of the world's total. In 1990, US policy insisted on the shock therapy austerity programme that
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#17327654054147540-453: The Serbian minority were a fifth column of Serbian expansionism and pursued a policy of persecution against the Serbs. The policy dictated that one-third of the Serbian minority were to be killed, one-third expelled, and one-third converted to Catholicism and assimilated as Croats. Conversely, Serbian Royalist Chetniks pursued their own campaign of persecution against non-Serbs in parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina , Croatia and Sandžak per
7685-430: The Social Democrats. This government had a majority, but the quorum of the Provisional Representation was half plus one vote. The opposition then began to boycott the parliament. As the government could never guarantee that all of its supporters would turn up, it became impossible to hold a quorate meeting of the parliament. Davidović soon resigned, but as no one else could form a government he again became prime minister. As
7830-429: The Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO). The Muslim party sought and got concessions over the preservation of Bosnia in its borders and how the land reform would affect Muslim landowners in Bosnia. The Croatian Republican Peasant Party refused to swear allegiance to the King on the grounds that this presumed that Yugoslavia would be a monarchy, something that it contended only the Constituent Assembly could decide. The party
7975-499: The Yugoslav people as a whole. The Radicals had done no better in that region but this presented them far less of a problem because they had campaigned openly as a Serbian party. The most dramatic gains had been made by the two anti-system parties. The Croatian Republican Peasant Party's leadership had been released from prison only as the election campaign began to get underway. According to Gligorijević, this had helped them more than active campaigning. The Croatian community (that had in
8120-478: The address in front of regent Alexander, who represented his father, King Peter I of Serbia , by which acceptance the kingdom was established. The name of the new Yugoslav state was Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes ( Serbo-Croatian : Kraljevina Srba, Hrvata i Slovenaca / Краљевина Срба, Хрвата и Словенаца ; Slovene : Kraljevina Srbov, Hrvatov in Slovencev ) or its abbreviated form Kingdom of SCS ( Kraljevina SHS / Краљевина СХС ). The new kingdom
8265-417: The administration of the Bay of Kotor including Prevlaka. On 22 December 1944, the Yugoslav Partisans took control of the region, and after the war Prevlaka became part of the newly proclaimed FPR Yugoslavia , specifically its constituent unit the People's Republic of Croatia . In 1955, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) closed down access to Prevlaka because of its coastal artillery installations. During
8410-551: The aged Marshal Tito dies, Yugoslavia will experience political instability that may produce a reaction toward greater authoritarianism or, far less likely, a collapse of existing collectivist arrangements". (Tito died soon after the book was published.) On 4 May 1980, Tito's death was announced through state broadcasts across Yugoslavia. His death removed what many international political observers saw as Yugoslavia's main unifying force, and subsequently ethnic tension started to grow in Yugoslavia. The crisis that emerged in Yugoslavia
8555-436: The autonomy of Kosovo and Vojvodina. These actions made him popular amongst Serbs and aided his rise to power in Serbia. Milošević and his allies took on an aggressive nationalist agenda of reviving SR Serbia within Yugoslavia, promising reforms and protection of all Serbs. The ruling party of SFR Yugoslavia was the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (SKJ), a composite political party made-up of eight Leagues of Communists from
8700-513: The beginning of a movement for women's suffrage appeared with the creation of the new state. The Social Democrats and the Slovenian People's Party supported women's suffrage but the Radicals opposed it. The Democratic Party was open to the idea but not committed enough to make an issue of it so the proposal fell. Proportional Representation was accepted in principle but the system chosen ( d'Hondt with very small constituencies) favored large parties and parties with strong regional support. The election
8845-441: The borders at Postojna and Idrija were effectively undermined by the regent Alexander who preferred "good relations " with Italy. The Yugoslav kingdom bordered Italy and Austria to the northwest at the Rapallo border, Hungary and Romania to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece and Albania to the south, and the Adriatic Sea to the west. Almost immediately, it ran into disputes with most of its neighbours. Slovenia
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#17327654054148990-417: The borders of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Nevertheless, with the Treaty of Rapallo a population of half a million South Slavs, mostly Slovenes, were subjected to forced Italianization until the fall of Fascism in Italy . At the time when Benito Mussolini was willing to modify the Rapallo borders in order to annex the independent state of Rijeka to Italy , Pašić's attempts to correct
9135-429: The controversial SANU Memorandum protesting against the weakening of the Serbian central government. The problems in the Serbian Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo between ethnic Serbs and Albanians grew exponentially. This, coupled with economic problems in Kosovo and Serbia as a whole, led to even greater Serbian resentment of the 1974 Constitution . Kosovo Albanians started to demand that Kosovo be granted
9280-495: The council of the League of Communists, as a means to induce the other members to realize that enormous support was on his side in putting down the Albanian strike in Kosovo. Serbian parliament speaker Borisav Jović , a strong ally of Milošević, met with the current President of the Yugoslav Presidency, Bosnian representative Raif Dizdarević , and demanded that the federal government concede to Serbian demands. Dizdarević argued with Jović saying that "You [Serbian politicians] organized
9425-474: The country's leaderships' decision to enforce a policy of full employment ), and ethno-religious tensions. Yugoslavia's non-aligned status resulted in access to loans from both superpower blocs. This contact with the United States and the West opened up Yugoslavia's markets sooner than the rest of Central and Eastern Europe. The 1980s were a decade of Western economic ministrations. A decade of frugality resulted in growing frustration and resentment against both
9570-402: The country's representative. Since the Allies had lured the Italians into the war with a promise of substantial territorial gains in exchange , which cut off a quarter of Slovene ethnic territory from the remaining three-quarters of Slovenes living in the Kingdom of SCS, Trumbić successfully vouched for the inclusion of most Slavs living in the former Austria-Hungary to be included within
9715-410: The country's three universities in Belgrade , Ljubljana , and Zagreb . Immediately after 1 December proclamation, negotiations between the National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Serbian government resulted in agreement over the new government which was to be headed by Nikola Pašić . However, when this agreement was submitted to the approval of the regent, Alexander Karađorđević, it
9860-431: The court. Pribićević later went into exile, whereas over the course of the 1930s Maček would become the leader of the entire opposition bloc. Immediately after the dictatorship was proclaimed, Croatian deputy Ante Pavelić left for exile from the country. The following years Pavelić worked to establish a revolutionary organization, the Ustaše , allied with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) against
10005-409: The creation of a united state of Serbs , Croats, and Slovenes to be led by the Serbian House of Karađorđević . In 1916, the Yugoslav Committee started negotiations with the Serbian Government in exile , on which they decided on the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, declaring the joint Corfu Declaration in 1917, the meetings were held at the Municipal Theatre of Corfu . In November 1918,
10150-498: The demonstrations, you control it", Jović refused to take responsibility for the actions of the protesters. Dizdarević then decided to attempt to bring calm to the situation himself by talking with the protesters, by making an impassioned speech for unity of Yugoslavia saying: Our fathers died to create Yugoslavia. We will not go down the road to national conflict. We will take the path of Brotherhood and Unity . Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes The Kingdom of Yugoslavia
10295-402: The domestic market. The commercial potential of Yugoslavia's Adriatic ports went to waste because the nation lacked the capital or technical knowledge to operate a shipping industry. On the other hand, the mining industry was well developed due to the nation's abundance of mineral resources, but since it was primarily owned and operated by foreigners, most production was exported. Yugoslavia was
10440-538: The economic problems left over from the Great Depression was to make trade deals and get closer to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany . The JRZ had majority support from Slovenes, Bosniaks, and Serbs. The only part missing was the support from Croats. This is why Milan Stojadinović called the JRZ regime a "Three-Legged Chair", Stojadinović wrote in his memoirs: "I called our party the three-legged chair, on which it
10585-540: The election of the Constituent Assembly, a Provisional Representation served as a parliament which was formed by delegates from the various elected bodies that had existed before the creation of the state. A realignment of parties combining several members of the Serbian opposition with political parties from the former Austria-Hungary led to the creation of a new party, The Democratic Party, that dominated
10730-928: The entire Bay of Kotor. In July 1807, the Russians and the French struck a deal in the first Treaty of Tilsit for the area to be handed over to the First French Empire . In 1808, the French assigned the newly acquired territory over to their client state called the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy before in 1810 reassigning it back into the First French Empire proper as part of the Illyrian Provinces , their recently created autonomous subdivision. Following Napoleon's defeat, former Ragusan territory including Prevlaka came under
10875-645: The example of a communist country outside of the Eastern Bloc was no longer needed by the West as a way of destabilising the Soviet bloc. The external status quo, which the Communist Party had depended upon to remain viable, was thus beginning to disappear. Furthermore, the failure of communism all over Central and Eastern Europe once again brought to the surface Yugoslavia's inner contradictions, economic inefficiencies (such as chronic lack of productivity, fuelled by
11020-493: The federal model and formalising national rights. The loosened control basically turned Yugoslavia into a de facto confederacy , which also placed pressure on the legitimacy of the regime within the federation. Since the late 1970s a widening gap of economic resources between the developed and underdeveloped regions of Yugoslavia severely deteriorated the federation's unity. The most developed republics, Croatia and Slovenia, rejected attempts to limit their autonomy as provided in
11165-488: The federal structure of the new Yugoslavia , there was still tension between the federalists, primarily Croats and Slovenes who argued for greater autonomy, and unitarists , primarily Serbs. The struggle would occur in cycles of protests for greater individual and national rights (such as the Croatian Spring ) and subsequent repression. The 1974 constitution was an attempt to short-circuit this pattern by entrenching
11310-425: The goal of reaching an agreement with the Croatian opposition. Accordingly, on 26 August 1939, Vladko Maček became vice premier of Yugoslavia and an autonomous Banovina of Croatia was established with its own parliament. These changes satisfied neither Serbs, who were concerned with the status of the Serb minority in the new Banovina of Croatia and who wanted more of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Serbian territory, nor
11455-495: The government and of minister Svetozar Pribićević in particular. One of the few laws successfully passed by the Provisional Representation was the electoral law for the constituent assembly. During the negotiations that preceded the foundation of the new state, it had been agreed that voting would be secret and based on universal suffrage. It had not occurred to them that universal might include women until
11600-406: The high autonomy of provinces and ineffective system of consensus at the federal level across Yugoslavia, which were seen as an obstacle for Serb interests. In 1987, Slobodan Milošević came to power in Serbia, and through a series of populist moves acquired de facto control over Kosovo, Vojvodina, and Montenegro, garnering a high level of support among Serbs for his centralist policies. Milošević
11745-558: The interest of Serbia whether we do it in compliance with the constitution or not, whether we do it in compliance in the law or not, whether we do it in compliance with party statutes or not. The Anti-bureaucratic revolution was a series of protests in Serbia and Montenegro orchestrated by Milošević to put his supporters in SAP Vojvodina, SAP Kosovo, and the Socialist Republic of Montenegro (SR Montenegro) to power as he sought to oust his rivals. The government of Montenegro survived
11890-602: The internal divisions from the 33 oblasts to nine new banovinas on 3 October. This decision was made following a proposal by the British ambassador to better decentralize the country, modeled on Czechoslovakia . A Court for the Protection of the State was soon established to act as the new regime's tool for putting down any dissent. Opposition politicians Vladko Maček and Svetozar Pribićević were arrested under charges by
12035-543: The lead of its neighbors in allowing itself to become a dependent of Nazi Germany . Although Yugoslavia had enacted a compulsory public education policy, it was inaccessible to many peasants in the countryside. Official literacy figures for the population stood at 50%, but it varied widely throughout the country. Less than 10% of Slovenes were illiterate, whereas over 80% of Macedonians and Bosnians could not read or write. Approximately 10% of initial elementary school students went on to attend higher forms of education, at one of
12180-659: The legitimate government. This was established on 2 November following the signing of the Treaty of Vis by Ivan Šubašić (on behalf of the Kingdom) and Josip Broz Tito (on behalf of the Yugoslav Partisans ). Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by the Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip and the outbreak of World War I , Serbia was invaded and occupied by
12325-465: The life of Radić hung in the balance. The opposition now completely withdrew from parliament, declaring that they would not return to a parliament in which several of their representatives had been killed, and insisting on new elections. On 1 August, at a meeting in Zagreb, they renounced 1 December Declaration of 1920. They demanded that the negotiations for unification should begin from scratch. On 8 August Stjepan Radić died. On 6 January 1929, using as
12470-484: The majority Albanian population. In an effort to ensure his legacy, Tito's 1974 constitution established a system of year-long presidencies, on a rotation basis out of the eight leaders of the republics and autonomous provinces. Tito's death would show that such short terms were highly ineffective. Essentially it left a power vacuum which was left open for most of the 1980s. In their book Free to Choose (1980), Milton Friedman and his wife Rose Friedman foretold: "Once
12615-587: The mandate of UNPROFOR to the implementation of this agreement, together with the European Community Monitoring Mission . A resolution to the conflict took shape in 1996 when the United Nations mediated the conflict and established an observer mission (UNMOP) which oversaw the demilitarization and acted as a buffer. The Konfin/Kobila border crossing has operated since 1999. The UN mission ended in December 2002 and
12760-410: The market for them to collapse as global demand contracted heavily and the situation for export-oriented farmers further deteriorated when nations everywhere started to erect trade barriers. Italy was a major trading partner of Yugoslavia in the initial years after World War I, but ties fell off after Benito Mussolini came to power in 1922. In the grim economic situation of the 1930s, Yugoslavia followed
12905-421: The mid-1980s increasingly started to corrode the legitimacy of the Communist system, as ordinary people started to lose faith in the competence and honesty of the elites. A wave of major strikes developed in 1987–88 as workers demanded higher wages to compensate for inflation, as the IMF mandated the end of various subsidies , and they were accompanied by denunciations of the entire system as corrupt. Finally,
13050-443: The more prosperous republics of SR Slovenia and SR Croatia wanted to move towards decentralization and democracy. The historian Basil Davidson contends that the "recourse to 'ethnicity' as an explanation [of the conflict] is pseudo-scientific nonsense". Even the degree of linguistic and religious differences "have been less substantial than instant commentators routinely tell us". Davidson agrees with Susan Woodward , who found
13195-794: The mouth of Bojana as well as Lake Prespa inland, and eastward as far as the Iron Gates on the Danube and Midžor in the Balkan Mountains , thus including a large part of Southeast Europe , a region with a history of ethnic conflict. The important elements that fostered the discord involved contemporary and historical factors, including the formation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia , the first breakup and subsequent inter-ethnic and political wars and genocide during World War II , ideas of Greater Albania , Greater Croatia and Greater Serbia and conflicting views about Pan-Slavism , and
13340-520: The need for radical land reform. A disagreement over electoral law finally led the Democratic Party to vote against the government in Parliament and the government was defeated. Though this meeting had not been quorate, Vesnić used this as a pretext to resign. His resignation had the intended effect: the Radical Party agreed to accept the need for centralization, and the Democratic Party agreed to drop its insistence on land reform. Vesnić again headed
13485-547: The new Croatian Peasant Party leader Vladko Maček. Despite these measures, opposition to the dictatorship continued, with Croats calling for a solution to what was called the "Croatian question". On 9 October 1934, the king was assassinated in Marseille , France, by Bulgarian Veličko Kerin (also known by his revolutionary pseudonym Vlado Chernozemski ), an activist of IMRO, in a conspiracy with Yugoslav exiles and radical members of banned political parties in cooperation with
13630-536: The new government. The Croatian Community and the Slovenian People's Party were however not happy with the Radicals' acceptance of centralization. Neither was Stojan Protić, and he withdrew from the government on this issue. In September 1920 a peasant revolt broke out in Croatia, the immediate cause of which was the branding of the peasants' cattle. The Croatian community blamed the centralizing policies of
13775-411: The next target for a political coup by Milošević's supporters if the coup in Kosovo went unimpeded. Serbian state-run television denounced Kučan as a separatist, a traitor, and an endorser of Albanian separatism. Serb protests continued in Belgrade demanding action in Kosovo. Milošević instructed communist representative Petar Gračanin to make sure the protest continued while he discussed matters at
13920-520: The opposition continued their boycott, the government decided it had no alternative but to rule by decree. This was denounced by the opposition who began to style themselves as the Parliamentary Community. Davidović realized that the situation was untenable and asked the King to hold immediate elections for the Constituent Assembly. When the King refused, he felt he had no alternative but to resign. The Parliamentary Community now formed
14065-406: The permanent border settlement, the two states have the option of settling the issue between themselves bilaterally or opting for the international arbitration . 42°23′57″N 18°31′04″E / 42.39917°N 18.51778°E / 42.39917; 18.51778 Breakup of Yugoslavia After a period of political and economic crisis in the 1980s, the constituent republics of
14210-403: The politics of austerity brought to the fore tensions between the well off "have" republics like Slovenia and Croatia versus the poorer "have not" republics like Serbia. Both Croatia and Slovenia felt that they were paying too much money into the federal budget to support the "have not" republics, while Serbia wanted Croatia and Slovenia to pay more money into the federal budget to support them at
14355-552: The population of Kosovo in the 1980s, ethnic-Albanians were the majority. In June 1989, the 600th anniversary of Serbia's historic defeat at the field of Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević gave the Gazimestan speech to 200,000 Serbs, with a Serb nationalist theme which deliberately evoked medieval Serbian history . Milošević's answer to the incompetence of the federal system was to centralise the government. Considering Slovenia and Croatia were looking farther ahead to independence, this
14500-455: The republics had its own branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia party and a ruling elite, and any tensions were solved on the federal level. The Yugoslav model of state organisation, as well as a "middle way" between planned and liberal economy , had been a relative success, and the country experienced a period of strong economic growth and relative political stability up to the 1980s, under Josip Broz Tito . After his death in 1980,
14645-532: The rule of the Austrian Empire in 1813. Austrian rule was ratified by the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and the territory became part of its newly created internal administrative subdivision, the Kingdom of Dalmatia . It remained as such after the transformation of Austrian Empire into the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary following the Congress of Berlin in 1867. Towards the end of the 19th century, on
14790-698: The same year, prior to the country being invaded by the Axis powers . In April 1941, the country was occupied and partitioned by the Axis powers . A royal government-in-exile , recognized by the United Kingdom and, later, by all the Allies , was established in London . In 1944, after pressure from the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill , the King recognized the government of Democratic Federal Yugoslavia as
14935-489: The same year, the Kingdom of Montenegro also proclaimed its unification with Serbia, whereas the regions of Kosovo and Vardar Macedonia had become parts of Serbia prior to the unification. The state was ruled by the Serbian dynasty of Karađorđević , which previously ruled the Kingdom of Serbia under Peter I from 1903 (after the May Coup ) onward. Peter I became the first king of Yugoslavia until his death in 1921. He
15080-475: The sea belt entrance into Boka Kotorska while the sea bay on the side of Prevlaka facing Herceg Novi was declared no man's waters. Montenegro became independent in 2006 and the temporary agreement remained in effect. In 2008, a mixed commission was created, tasked with preparing the legal case for the border settlement in front of the International Court of Justice at The Hague . In search of
15225-418: The six republics and two autonomous provinces. The League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) governed SR Serbia. Riding the wave of nationalist sentiment and his new popularity gained in Kosovo, Slobodan Milošević (Chairman of the League of Communists of Serbia (SKS) since May 1986) became the most powerful politician in Serbia by defeating his former mentor President of Serbia Ivan Stambolic at the 8th session of
15370-460: The south were especially poor, living in a hilly, infertile region. No large estates existed except in the north, and all of those were owned by foreigners. Indeed, one of the first actions undertaken by the new Yugoslav state in 1919 was to break up the estates and dispose of foreign, and in particular Hungarian landowners. Nearly 40% of the rural population was surplus (i.e., excess people not needed to maintain current production levels), and despite
15515-486: The state to assume responsibility for their debts when Agrokomerc finally collapsed. The rampant corruption in Yugoslavia, of which the "Agrokomerc affair" was merely the most dramatic example, did much to discredit the Communist system, as it was revealed that the elites were living luxurious lifestyles, well beyond the means of ordinary people, with money stolen from the public purse during a time of austerity. The problems imposed by heavy indebtedness and corruption had by
15660-400: The state. In 1931, Alexander decreed a new Constitution which made executive power the gift of the King. Elections were to be by universal male suffrage. The provision for a secret ballot was dropped, and pressure on public employees to vote for the governing party was to be a feature of all elections held under Alexander's constitution. Further, half the upper house was directly appointed by
15805-411: The status of a constituent republic beginning in the early 1980s, particularly with the 1981 protests in Kosovo . This was seen by the Serbian public as a devastating blow to Serb pride because of the historic links that Serbians held with Kosovo. It was viewed that that secession would be devastating to Kosovar Serbs. This eventually led to the repression of the Albanian majority in Kosovo. Meanwhile,
15950-475: The status of ethnic Serbs outside Serbia and Montenegro, and that of ethnic Croats outside Croatia, remained unsolved. After a string of inter-ethnic incidents, the Yugoslav Wars ensued, first in Croatia and then, most severely, in multi-ethnic Bosnia and Herzegovina . The wars left economic and political damage in the region that is still felt decades later. On April 27, 1992, the Federal Council of
16095-497: The suggestion of General Lazar Mamula , the Austro-Hungarian authorities decided to build a fort on Punta d'Ostro, along with another in the island of Mamula in order to ensure military control over the entrance into the Bay of Kotor. The Austrian authorities successfully fortified cape Mirište and the islet of Mamula. The authorities reportedly also decided to compensate local farmers for the expropriated land, but no money
16240-560: The territory that had previously been part of SR Croatia was returned to the Republic of Croatia. An agreement was signed by both sides five days before the departure of the UNMOP that demilitarized Prevlaka, though implementation still has a temporary character. In 2002, the two states agreed on a temporary solution stipulating that Croatia would receive the entire land mass of the Prevlaka peninsula including some 500 metres (1,600 ft) of
16385-733: The third least industrialized nation in Eastern Europe after Bulgaria and Albania . Yugoslavia was typical of Eastern European nations in that it borrowed large sums of money from the West during the 1920s. When the Great Depression began in 1929, the Western lenders called in their debts, which could not be paid back. Some of the money was lost to graft, although most was used by farmers to improve production and export potential. Agricultural exports, however, were always an unstable prospect as their export earnings were heavily reliant on volatile world market prices. The Great Depression caused
16530-525: The two autonomous provinces of SAP Kosovo and SAP Vojvodina. With the 1974 constitution, the influence of the central government of SR Serbia over the provinces was greatly reduced, which gave them long-sought autonomy. The government of SR Serbia was restricted in making and carrying out decisions that would apply to the provinces. The provinces had a vote in the Yugoslav Presidency, which was not always cast in favor of SR Serbia. In Serbia, there
16675-641: The two less prominent capes Konfin and Kobila , to the northwest of which is a road border crossing between Croatia and Montenegro. The D516 highway connects it to Konavle and the D8 ; northwards the road connects to Njivice , Sutorina , and Igalo . Konavle and the Prevlaka peninsula was bought by the Republic of Ragusa from the Bosnian Kingdom in the early 15th century to protect its eastern flank. Ragusans fortified Cape Oštro in 1441. Cape Kobila
16820-499: The unilateral recognition by a newly reunited Germany of the breakaway republics. Before World War II , major tensions arose from the first, monarchist Yugoslavia 's multi-ethnic make-up and relative political and demographic domination of the Serbs. Fundamental to the tensions were the different concepts of the new state. The Croats and Slovenes envisaged a federal model where they would enjoy greater autonomy than they had as
16965-401: The very tip of the peninsula, is the southernmost point of mainland in Croatia. Along with the small Montenegrin island of Mamula , which sits some 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) east of Cape Oštro, in addition to being two sides of an international maritime border, the two spots present observation entry points into the Bay of Kotor. North of the Prevlaka isthmus, just within the Bay of Kotor, lie
17110-426: The weakened system of federal government was left unable to cope with rising economic and political challenges. In the 1980s, Kosovo Albanians started to demand that their autonomous province be granted the status of a full constituent republic, starting with the 1981 protests . Ethnic tensions between Albanians and Kosovo Serbs remained high over the whole decade, which resulted in the growth of Serb opposition to
17255-482: Was 1,704,000. Subsequent data gathering in the 1980s by historians Vladimir Žerjavić and Bogoljub Kočović showed that the actual number of dead was about 1 million. Of that number, 330,000 to 390,000 ethnic Serbs perished from all causes in Croatia and Bosnia. These same historians also established the deaths of 192,000 to 207,000 ethnic Croats and 86,000 to 103,000 Muslims from all affiliations and causes throughout Yugoslavia. Prior to its collapse, Yugoslavia
17400-556: Was a colossal sum for a poor country. In 1984, the Reagan administration issued a classified document, National Security Decision Directive 133, expressing concern that Yugoslavia's debt load might cause the country to align with the Soviet bloc. The 1980s were a time of economic austerity as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed stringent conditions on Yugoslavia, which caused much resentment toward
17545-555: Was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes , but the term " Yugoslavia " ( lit. ' Land of the South Slavs ' ) was its colloquial name due to its origins. The official name of the state was changed to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" by King Alexander I on 3 October 1929. The preliminary kingdom
17690-523: Was a regional industrial power and an economic success. From 1960 to 1980, annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged 6.1 percent, medical care was free, literacy was 91 percent, and life expectancy was 72 years. Prior to 1991, Yugoslavia's armed forces were amongst the best-equipped in Europe. Yugoslavia was a unique state, straddling both the East and West. Moreover, its president, Josip Broz Tito ,
17835-445: Was aided when a huge protest was formed outside of the Yugoslav parliament in Belgrade by Serb supporters of Milošević who demanded that the Yugoslav military forces make their presence stronger in Kosovo to protect the Serbs there and put down the strike. On 27 February, SR Slovene representative in the collective presidency of Yugoslavia, Milan Kučan , opposed the demands of the Serbs and left Belgrade for SR Slovenia where he attended
17980-672: Was connected with the weakening of the Communist states in Eastern Europe towards the end of the Cold War , leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In Yugoslavia, the national communist party, officially called the League of Communists of Yugoslavia , had lost its ideological base. In 1986, the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) contributed significantly to the rise of nationalist sentiments, as it drafted
18125-557: Was considered unacceptable. Meanwhile, the Socialist Republic of Croatia (SR Croatia) and the Socialist Republic of Slovenia (SR Slovenia), supported the Albanian miners and their struggle for recognition. Media in SR Slovenia published articles comparing Milošević to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini . Milošević contended that such criticism was unfounded and amounted to "spreading fear of Serbia". Milošević's state-run media claimed in response that Milan Kučan , head of
18270-576: Was difficult to determine, since it had been an integral part of Austria for 400 years. The Vojvodina region was disputed with Hungary, Macedonia with Bulgaria, Rijeka with Italy. A plebiscite was also held in the Province of Carinthia , which opted to remain in Austria. Austrians had formed a majority in this region although numbers reflected that some Slovenes did vote for Carinthia to become part of Austria. The Dalmatian port city of Zadar and
18415-468: Was formed in 1918 by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (itself formed from territories of the former Austria-Hungary , encompassing today's Bosnia and Herzegovina and most of today's Croatia and Slovenia ) and Banat, Bačka and Baranja (that had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary) with the formerly independent Kingdom of Serbia . In
18560-480: Was formed with a mandate to hold elections. The Radicals made gains at the expense of the Democrats but elsewhere there were gains by Radić's Peasant's Party. Serb politicians around Radic regarded Serbia as the standard bearer of Yugoslav unity, as the state of Piedmont had been for Italy, or Prussia for the German Empire ; a kind of " Greater Serbia ". Over the following years, Croatian resistance against
18705-418: Was great resentment towards these developments, which the nationalist elements of the public saw as the "division of Serbia". The 1974 constitution not only exacerbated Serbian fears of a "weak Serbia, for a strong Yugoslavia" but also hit at the heart of Serbian national sentiment. A majority of Serbs saw – and still see – Kosovo as the "cradle of the nation", and would not accept the possibility of losing it to
18850-402: Was held on 28 November 1920. When the votes were counted the Democratic Party had won the most seats, more than the Radicals – but only just. For a party that had been so dominant in the Provisional Representation, that amounted to a defeat. Further it had done rather badly in all former Austria-Hungarian areas. That undercut the party's belief that its centralization policy represented the will of
18995-495: Was in this environment of oppression that the radical insurgent group (later fascist dictatorship) the Ustaše were formed. During World War II, the country's tensions were exploited by the occupying Axis forces which established a Croat puppet state spanning much of present-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina . The Axis powers installed the Ustaše as the leaders of the Independent State of Croatia . The Ustaše resolved that
19140-427: Was indeed high in the 1970s. However, the over-expansion of the economy caused inflation and pushed Yugoslavia into economic recession . A major problem for Yugoslavia was the heavy debt incurred in the 1970s, which proved to be difficult to repay in the 1980s. Yugoslavia's debt load, initially estimated at a sum equal to $ 6 billion U.S. dollars, instead turned out to be equivalent to $ 21 billion U.S. dollars, which
19285-401: Was made up of the formerly independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro ( Montenegro having been absorbed into Serbia the previous month ), and of a substantial amount of territory that was formerly part of Austria-Hungary, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The main states which formed the new Kingdom were the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs; Vojvodina ; and the Kingdom of Serbia with
19430-597: Was met with opposition by party leaders of the western constituent republics of Slovenia and Croatia, who also advocated greater democratisation of the country in line with the Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe . The League of Communists of Yugoslavia dissolved in January 1990 along federal lines. Republican communist organisations became the separate socialist parties. During 1990, the socialists (former communists) lost power to ethnic separatist parties in
19575-464: Was meted out to the ex- Comecon countries. Such a programme had been advocated by the IMF and other organisations "as a condition for fresh injections of capital." In 1987, Serbian official Slobodan Milošević was sent to bring calm to an ethnically driven protest by Serbs against the Albanian administration of SAP Kosovo. Milošević had been, up to this point, a hard-line communist who had decried all forms of nationalism as treachery, such as condemning
19720-587: Was one of the fundamental founders of the " third world " or " group of 77 " which acted as an alternative to the superpowers. More importantly, Yugoslavia acted as a buffer state between the West and the Soviet Union and also prevented the Soviets from getting a toehold on the Mediterranean Sea . The central government's control began to be loosened due to increasing nationalist grievances and
19865-479: Was overthrown by a military coup d'état with British support. The 17-year-old Peter II was declared to be of age and placed in power. General Dušan Simović became his Prime Minister. Yugoslavia withdrew its support for the Axis de facto without formally renouncing the Tripartite Pact. Although the new rulers opposed Nazi Germany , they also feared that if Germany attacked Yugoslavia, the United Kingdom
20010-430: Was paid until the collapse of the dual monarchy. In 1918, after the end of World War I and collapse of Austria-Hungary, Prevlaka became part of the newly created Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes . By 1922, once the new state determined its internal administrative subdivisions, dividing its territory into 33 oblasts, the peninsula got included in kingdom's Dubrovnik Oblast. In 1929, as Kingdom of SCS transformed into
20155-646: Was possible to sit when necessary, although a chair with four legs is far more stable" - the fourth leg being the Croats, whose support was mostly behind the HSS. Prince Paul did not like this at first, but let him continue as long as it fixed the economy. Paul was concerned with rising tensions in Europe, especially with the Anschluss and the Munich Agreement Therefore, Paul ousted Milan Stojadinović replacing him with Dragiša Cvetković for being
20300-419: Was rejected, producing the new state's first governmental crisis. Many regarded this rejection as a violation of parliamentary principles, but the matter was resolved when the regent suggested replacing Pašić with Stojan Protić , a leading member of Pašić's Radical Party. The National Council and the Serbian government agreed and the new government came into existence on 20 December 1918. In this period before
20445-720: Was succeeded by his son Alexander I , who had been regent for his father. He was known as "Alexander the Unifier" and he renamed the kingdom "Yugoslavia" in 1929. He was assassinated in Marseille by Vlado Chernozemski , a member of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO), during his visit to France in 1934. The crown passed to his 11-year-old son, Peter . Alexander's cousin Paul ruled as Prince regent until 1941, when Peter II came of age. The royal family flew to London
20590-521: Was the boundary with Sutorina under the Ottoman Empire 's control since 1699. In 1806, during Napoleon 's conquest of Europe , King Alexander I of Russia was intent on stopping French advances in the Adriatic and to that end deployed a Mediterranean expedition led by vice-admiral Dmitry Senyavin , that by September 1806 made considerable territorial gains in the area, including Prevlaka and
20735-527: Was the level of unemployment, at 1 million by 1980. This problem was compounded by the general "unproductiveness of the South", which not only added to Yugoslavia's economic woes, but also irritated Slovenia and Croatia further. The SFR Yugoslavia was a conglomeration of eight federated entities, roughly divided along ethnic lines, including six republics: Two autonomous provinces within Serbia: With
20880-491: Was unable to muster a quorum. Hence the Parliamentary Community, now in government, was forced to rule by decree. For the Parliamentary Community to thus violate the basic principle around which they had formed put them in an extremely difficult position. In April 1920, widespread worker unrest and a railway strike broke out. According to Gligorijević, this put pressure on the two main parties to settle their differences. After successful negotiations, Protić resigned to make way for
21025-509: Was unable to take its seats. Most of the opposition though initially taking their seats declared boycotts as time went so that there were few votes against. However, the constitution decided against 1918 agreement between the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and the Kingdom of Serbia , which stated that a 66% majority that 50% plus one vote would be needed to pass, irrespective of how many voted against. Only last minute concessions to Džemijet ,
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