Independence of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs

On 29 October 1918 the Croatian Sabor, the diet of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, unanimously severed all constitutional ties with Hungary and Austria. Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia together with Rijeka declared themselves an independent state and joined a common, sovereign state of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. The Sabor handed supreme power to the National Council in Zagreb. That day saw the birth of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, the State of SHS, the first Yugoslav state. It comprised the Slovene lands, Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. No great power recognised it, and it lasted a mere 33 days.

The road to 29 October

The National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, formed in Zagreb at the beginning of October, announced on 19 October that it was taking the conduct of national policy into its own hands. It demanded the unification of the whole nation of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs throughout its ethnic territory, regardless of provincial and state borders, in a single, fully sovereign state organised on the principles of political and economic democracy. This was its answer to Emperor Charles’s manifesto of 16 October. In it the emperor had announced the transformation of the Austrian half of the monarchy into a federal state, but under pressure from the Hungarian government he excluded the lands of the Crown of St Stephen, and therefore Croatia. To the South Slavs, divided between Austria, Hungary and Bosnia, it offered nothing. The day before, Washington had replied to Vienna that autonomy for the peoples of the monarchy was no longer enough and that they themselves were to decide their fate.

In the days that followed, power in Croatia slipped out of Budapest’s hands. A British chronology of the war records under 21 October that the Ban of Croatia rejected a proposal from the military commandant of Zagreb, who was ready to disperse the National Council. This episode is not confirmed by the Croatian accounts available. What is known is that on 22 October large demonstrations in favour of unification marched through the streets of Zagreb, and Ban Antun Mihalović spoke in front of the National Theatre. On 23 October the Council began talks with the ban and with the military commanders in Zagreb, Generals Luka Šnjarić and Mihovil Mihaljević, on how they would behave if Croatia broke with the monarchy. The same day in Rijeka Croatian soldiers of the 79th Infantry Regiment mutinied, which hastened the fall of the Hungarian government. On 25 October twenty deputies tabled a motion in the Sabor to break ties with the monarchy.

On 28 October the ban had an audience with Emperor Charles in Vienna. According to accounts cited by historians, the emperor listened to his report on the situation in Croatia and dismissed him with the words “Do as you wish”. The military received permission from Vienna to cooperate with the national councils in maintaining order, and that same day the generals placed themselves at the Council’s disposal. During the night of 28–29 October the Council’s Central Committee adopted a motion by vice-president Svetozar Pribićević that the Sabor should break with the monarchy on the basis of the right of nations to self-determination.

The session of the Sabor

The session began on 29 October at 10.30 a.m. in a solemn atmosphere, chaired by Bogdan Medaković. The Sabor adopted two resolutions. The first stated that, on the basis of the nation’s full right to self-determination, already recognised by all the belligerent powers, all existing constitutional relations and ties of the Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia with the Kingdom of Hungary and the Empire of Austria were dissolved. It annulled the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868 together with its later amendments. The second declared that Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia with Rijeka were becoming a state completely independent of Hungary and Austria and, on the basis of the national unity of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, were joining a common, national and sovereign state of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs throughout the ethnic territory of that nation. The form of government and the constitution of the state were to be decided in future by a constituent assembly of the whole united nation, and by a qualified majority that would protect any of its parts from being outvoted.

The Sabor recognised the supreme authority of the National Council, and the functions of its government were taken over by the Council’s presidium, with Anton Korošec, a Slovene, as president, and as vice-presidents Pribićević, a Croatian Serb, and a Croat, Ante Pavelić. The ban declared that he accepted the Sabor’s position and placed all executive power at the disposal of the Council, which kept him at the head of the provincial government. The generals also attended the session to show that the army was submitting to the new authority. After the vote the deputies and the crowd went to a thanksgiving Mass at St Mark’s Church. The same day, at a great rally in Ljubljana, the new state was proclaimed in the Slovene lands, and in the following days the Council took power in Split, Sarajevo and other towns. A British chronology records the Sabor’s accession to the Yugoslav declaration of independence under 30 October, but Croatian accounts, based on the Sabor’s minutes, consistently give 29 October.

A state without recognition

The new state had neither Allied recognition nor an army of its own. Mutinous and disintegrating units of the Austro-Hungarian army were returning home from the front, and looting spread in the countryside. The Serbs of Vojvodina did not submit to Zagreb and in November joined Serbia directly. The greatest threat, however, was Italy. The Treaty of London had promised it Istria, part of Dalmatia and the islands, and on the day the State of SHS was proclaimed the Italian army was already conducting its offensive at Vittorio Veneto. After the armistice with Austria-Hungary on 3 November, Italian troops began occupying the eastern coast of the Adriatic, including lands inhabited mostly by Slovenes and Croats.

Under this pressure the supporters of rapid unification with Serbia gained the upper hand in the National Council. At the beginning of November representatives of the Council, the Yugoslav Committee and the Serbian government agreed in Geneva on a plan for a federal state, but the Serbian government and Pribićević himself soon rejected it. On 24 November the Council decided to unite with Serbia and Montenegro, and on 1 December 1918 its delegation, disregarding the conditions adopted in Zagreb, asked in Belgrade for unification without reservations. That day Prince Regent Alexander proclaimed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The dispute over whether the common state should be centralised or federal, left unresolved both in the Corfu Declaration and in October 1918, weighed on it throughout the interwar period.