Editing History of Croatia (section)

== Croats inside the first Yugoslavia (1918–1941) ==
{{Main|Creation of Yugoslavia|Croatian affairs in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia}}
[[File:Proglašenje raskida veza s Austro-Ugarskom.jpg|thumb|200x200px|Proclamation of severing ties with [[Austria-Hungary]] in front of [[Croatian Parliament|Croatian Sabor]] in 1918. ]]
A [[creation of Yugoslavia|new state]] was created in late 1918. [[Syrmia]] left Croatia-Slavonia and joined Serbia together with Vojvodina,{{Citation needed|date=January 2025|reason=An ad-hoc assembly did vote for such a move, but the Novi Sad assembly did not and no formal decision of the Kingdom of Serbia, or State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, or the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes confirms Syrmia 'leaving', i.e. it appears that an informal unelected group voted on an issue nobody followed up later.}} shortly followed by a referendum to join Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia. The [[State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs|People's Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs]] (''Narodno vijeće''), guided by what was by that time a half-century-long tradition of [[pan-Slavism]] and without the sanction of the [[Croatian Parliament|Croatian Sabor]], merged with the [[Kingdom of Serbia]] into the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes]].

In the immediate aftermath of the war, the [[Allies of World War I]] [[Occupation of the eastern Adriatic|occupied the eastern Adriatic]] within the framework of resolution of the [[Adriatic question]]. An attempt at resolution of the issue came in 1920 with the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)|Treaty of Rapallo]].

The Kingdom underwent a crucial change in 1921 to the dismay of Croatia's largest political party, the [[Croatian Peasant Party]] (''Hrvatska seljačka stranka''). The new constitution abolished historical/political entities, including Croatia and Slavonia, centralizing authority in the capital of [[Belgrade]]. The Croatian Peasant Party boycotted the government of the Serbian [[People's Radical Party]] throughout the period, except for a brief interlude between 1925 and 1927, when external Italian expansionism was at hand with her allies, [[Albania]], [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]], [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]], and [[Kingdom of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]], threatening Yugoslavia as a whole. Two differing concepts of how the new common state should be governed became the main source of conflict between Croatian elites led by the Croatian Peasant Party and Serbian elites. Leading Croatian politicians sought a federalized new state in which Croats would have certain autonomy (similar to what they had before in Austria-Hungary), while Serb-centered parties advocated unitarist policies, centralization, and assimilation. The new country's military was also a predominately Serbian institution; by 1938 only about 10% of all Army officers were Croats. The new school system was Serb-centered with Croatian teachers being either retired, purged, or transferred. Serbs were also posted as high state officials.<ref name=":1" /> The replacement of old [[Austro-Hungarian krone]]s was conducted through an unfair rate of four Krones for one [[Yugoslav dinar|Serbian Dinar]].<ref name=":1" />

In the early 1920s, the Yugoslav government of Serbian prime minister [[Nikola Pašić]] used police pressure on voters and ethnic minorities, confiscation of opposition pamphlets,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080220082638/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,846181,00.html "Balkan Politics"], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 31 March 1923</ref> and [[Electoral fraud|election-rigging]] to keep the opposition, mainly the [[Croatian Peasant Party]] and its allies, in the minority in the Yugoslav parliament.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080112220024/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,719894,00.html "Elections"], ''Time'', 23 February 1925</ref> Pašić believed that Yugoslavia should be as centralized as possible, creating a [[Greater Serbia]]n national concept of concentrated power in the hands of Belgrade in place of distinct regional governments and identities.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080220081455/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,720153,00.html "The Opposition"], ''Time'', 6 April 1925</ref>
[[File:Atentat u skupstini.JPG|left|thumb|250x250px|The assassination of Croatian MPs in the National Assembly in Belgrade was one of the events which greatly damaged relations between Serbs and Croats in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.]]

=== Murders of 1928 and royal dictatorship ===
During a Parliament session in 1928, [[Puniša Račić]], a deputy of the Serbian Radical People's Party, shot at Croatian deputies, resulting in the killing of [[Pavle Radić]] and [[Đuro Basariček]] and the wounding of [[Ivan Pernar (politician, born 1889)|Ivan Pernar]] and Ivan Granđa. [[Stjepan Radić]], a Croatian political champion at the time, was wounded and later succumbed to his wounds. These multiple murders caused the outrage of the Croatian population and ignited violent demonstrations, strikes, and armed conflicts throughout Croatian parts of the country. The Greater Serbian-influenced Royal Yugoslav Court even considered "amputation" of Croatian parts of the country, while leaving Yugoslavia only inside [[Greater Serbia]]n borders, however, [[Croatian Peasant Party]] leadership rejected this idea.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Macan |first=Trpimir |title=Hrvatska povijest |publisher=Matica hrvatska |year=1995 |isbn=953-150-030-4}}</ref> While Račić was subsequently tried for multiple murders, he served his sentence in a luxurious villa in [[Požarevac]], where he had several servants at his disposal and was allowed to leave and return at any time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Crnogorci postavili ploču atentatoru koji je pucao na Stjepana Radića i prvake HSS-a |url=https://www.tportal.hr/vijesti/clanak/crnogorci-postavili-plocu-atentatoru-koji-je-pucao-na-stjepana-radica-i-prvake-hss-a-20170713 |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=tportal.hr}}</ref>

In response to the shooting at the National Assembly, [[Alexander I of Yugoslavia|King Alexander]] abolished the parliamentary system and proclaimed a [[6 January Dictatorship|royal dictatorship]]. He imposed a [[1931 Yugoslav Constitution|new constitution]] aimed at removing all existing national identities and imposing "integral Yugoslavism". He also renamed the country from the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The territory of Croatia was largely divided among the [[Sava Banovina]] and the [[Littoral Banovina]]. Political parties were banned and the royal dictatorship took on an increasingly harsh character. [[Vladko Maček]], who had succeeded Radić as leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, the largest political party in Croatia, was imprisoned. Ante Pavelić was exiled from Yugoslavia and created the [[Ultranationalism|ultranationalist]] [[Ustaše|Ustaše Movement]], with the ultimate goal of destroying Yugoslavia and making Croatia an independent country. According to the British historian [[Misha Glenny]], the murder in March 1929 of Toni Schlegel, editor of the pro-Yugoslavian newspaper ''Novosti'', brought a "furious response" from the regime. In [[Lika]] and west [[Herzegovina]] in particular, described as "hotbeds of Croatian separatism", Glenny wrote that the majority-Serb police acted "with no restraining authority whatsoever".<ref>Misha Glenny, ''The Balkans 1804–1999'', Granta Books, London 1345, pp. 431–432</ref> In the words of a prominent Croatian writer, Schlegel's death became the pretext for terror in all forms. Politics was soon "indistinguishable from gangsterism".<ref>Josip Horvat, ''Politička povijest Hrvatske 1918–1929'' (Political History of Croatia 1918–1929), Zagreb, 1938</ref> In 1931, the royal regime organized the assassination of Croatian scientist and intellectual [[Milan Šufflay]] on the streets of Zagreb. The assassination was condemned by globally renowned intellectuals such as [[Albert Einstein]] and [[Heinrich Mann]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Šufflay, Milan |url=https://www.enciklopedija.hr/clanak/sufflay-milan |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=www.enciklopedija.hr}}</ref> In 1932, the Ustaše Movement unsuccessfully planned the [[Velebit uprising]] in Lika. Despite the oppressive climate, few rallied to the Ustaša cause and the movement was never able to gain serious support among the Croatian population.

=== Banovina of Croatia ===
In 1934, King Aleksandar was assassinated during a state visit to [[Marseille]] by a coalition of the Ustaše and the Bulgarian [[Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization]] (IMRO), thus ending the Royal dictatorship. The government of Serbian Radical [[Milan Stojadinović]], which took power in 1935, distanced Yugoslavia from its former allies of France and the United Kingdom and moved the country closer to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In 1937 Yugoslav gendarmes led by Radical Party member Jovo Koprivica killed dozens of youth members of the Croatian Peasant Party in [[Senj]] because they sang Croatian patriotic songs.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-09 |title=Župan Petry položio vijenac u sjećanje na Senjske žrtve |url=https://www.novilist.hr/rijeka-regija/sjecanje-na-senjske-zrtve/ |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=Novi list |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Senjske žrtve: Obljetnica tragične pogibije sedam mladih Gospićana |url=https://www.vecernji.hr/vijesti/senjske-zrtve-obljetnica-tragicne-pogibije-sedam-mladih-gospicana-285482 |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=www.vecernji.hr |language=hr}}</ref> With the rise of Nazis in Germany and the looming possibility of another European war, Serbian political elites decided that it was time to fix relations with the Croats, the second largest ethnic group in the country, so that in the event of a new war the country would be united and without ethnic divisions. Negotiations started, resulting in the [[Cvetković–Maček Agreement]] and the creation of [[Banovina of Croatia]], an autonomous Croatian province inside Yugoslavia. Banovina of Croatia was created in 1939 out of the two Banates, as well as parts of the Zeta, [[Vrbas Banovina|Vrbas]], [[Drina Banovina|Drina]], and Danube Banates. It had a reconstructed Croatian Parliament which would choose a Croatian [[Ban (title)|Ban]] and Viceban. This Croatia included a part of [[Bosnia (region)|Bosnia]], most of [[Herzegovina]], and [[Dubrovnik]] and its surroundings.