Yugoslavia

Abstract

On 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Bosnia by a young nationalist. Though Serbia complied with most of the terms of Austria’s subsequent ultimatum, Austria declared war on 28 July, thus precipitating the First World War. In the winter of 1915–16 the Serbian army was forced to retreat to Corfu, where the government, under Prime Minister Pašić, was established. Montenegro capitulated in 1916 and its king fled. Exiles from Croatia and Slovenia had formed a Yugoslav Committee in 1914 whose aim was South Slav federation. This was not compatible with Pašić’s goal of a centralized, Serb-run state, but the Committee and the government managed to contrive a joint ‘Corfu Declaration’ in July 1917 demanding a ‘constitutional, democratic, parliamentary monarchy headed by the Karadjordevics. This was accepted by the Allies as the basis for the new state. The Croats were forced by the pressure of events to join Serbia and Montenegro on 1 Dec. 1918. From 1918–29 the country was known as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.