Ante Trumbić (17 May 1864 – 17 November 1938) was a
Yugoslav and
Croatian lawyer and politician in the early 20th century.
Biography
Trumbić was born in
Split
Split(s) or The Split may refer to:
Places
* Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia
* Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay
* Split Island, Falkland Islands
* Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua
Arts, entertai ...
in the
Austrian crownland
Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it ...
of
Dalmatia and studied law at
Zagreb
Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...
,
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and
Graz (with doctorate in 1890). He practiced as a lawyer, and then, from 1905 as the city mayor of Split. Trumbić was in favor of moderate reforms in Austro-Hungarian Slavic provinces, which included the unification of Dalmatia with
Croatia-Slavonia.
After the
assassination in Sarajevo of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria, (18 December 1863 – 28 June 1914) was the heir presumptive to the throne of Austria-Hungary. His assassination in Sarajevo was the most immediate cause of World War I.
F ...
and the invasion of Serbia by Austria-Hungary, Trumbić became the prominent
Yugoslav nationalist leader during World War I, and led the
Yugoslav Committee
Yugoslav Committee ( sh-Latn, Jugoslavenski odbor, sr-Cyrl, Југословенски одбор) was a political interest group formed by South Slavs from Austria-Hungary during World War I aimed at joining the existing south Slavic nations in ...
that lobbied the Allies to support the creation of an independent Yugoslavia.
[Spencer Tucker. ''Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History''. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO, 2005. pp. 1189.] Trumbić negotiated with
Serbian Prime Minister
The prime minister of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, премијерка Србије, premijerka Srbije; masculine gender, masculine: премијер/premijer), officially the president of the Government of the Republic of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, председ ...
Nikola Pašić
Nikola Pašić ( sr-Cyrl, Никола Пашић, ; 18 December 1845 – 10 December 1926) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and diplomat who was a leading political figure for almost 40 years. He was the leader of the People's Radical ...
to have the
Kingdom of Serbia support the creation of a Yugoslav state, which was delivered at the
Corfu Declaration
The Corfu Declaration ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Krfska deklaracija, Крфска декларација) was an agreement between the prime minister of Serbia, Nikola Pašić, and the president of the Yugoslav Committee, Ante Trumbić, concluded on the ...
on 20 July 1917 that advocated the creation of a united state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes that would be led by the Serbian
House of Karađorđević
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condit ...
.
Trumbić led the Yugoslav Committee delegation at the conference in 1918 that produced the
Geneva Declaration.
In 1918 he became foreign minister in the first government of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Kingdom commonly refers to:
* A monarchy ruled by a king or queen
* Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy
Kingdom may also refer to:
Arts and media Television
* ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama s ...
. At the Versailles conference after World War I, Trumbić had to represent Yugoslav concerns in the face of
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
territorial ambitions in Dalmatia (temporarily settled in 1920, but raised again with
Benito Mussolini).
In spite of his support for a united Yugoslavia, Trumbić opposed the
1921 constitution
The Vidovdan Constitution was the first constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was approved by the Constitutional Assembly on 28 June 1921 despite the opposition boycotting the vote. The Constitution is named after the feast ...
over his belief that it was too centralized and allowed Serb hegemony over Yugoslavia.
Trumbić was one of 35 representatives to vote against the constitution amid a wide boycott of the National Assembly by opposition parties. Trumbić grew steadily disillusioned with the Yugoslav government over time which he saw as Serb-dominated.
He was elected for the last time in the
1927 elections on the list of the
Croatian Bloc representing Zagreb together with
Ante Pavelić
Ante Pavelić (; 14 July 1889 – 28 December 1959) was a Croatian politician who founded and headed the fascist ultranationalist organization known as the Ustaše in 1929 and served as dictator of the Independent State of Croatia ( hr, l ...
.
In 1929, claiming to bring an end to the ongoing bickering between the Serbian and the Croatian representatives within the kingdom, King
Alexander of Yugoslavia staged a coup d'état and banned all political parties, and removed the individual nationalities ''Serb'' and ''Croat'' from the bigger picture. He renamed the land ''Yugoslavia'', and abrogated the constitution to establish a royal dictatorship. Trumbić was by now in retirement in Zagreb. King Alexander's division of Croatia-Slavonia and Dalmatia into oblasts and then into
banovinas, countered all previous reforms Trumbić had sought. In a September 1932 interview with
The Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
Trumbić wondered whether Croatia should separate from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and pursue a union with Austria. In November 1932 Trumbić edited the ''
Zagreb Points
The Zagreb Points ( hr, Zagrebačke punktacije) was the name of a resolution released on November 7, 1932, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia which condemned Serb hegemony in that country and called for a return to political life as it was in 1918.
The ...
'', a series of demands put forth by the Peasant-Democratic coalition to counter Serbian hegemony.
With the arrest of Croatian Peasant Party leader
Vladko Maček in April 1933 Trumbić and
Josip Predavec became the caretaker heads of the party. With Predavec's assassination on 14 July, Trumbić was essentially the head of the party in Maček's absence.
According to Henri Pozzi, Trumbić later regretted the end of Austria-Hungary,
[ Henri Pozzi, ''Black Hand over Europe (La Guerre Revient...)''. F. Mott and Co, 1935.] as the South Slav state he had helped to create proved incapable of his intended reforms.
References
External links
FirstWorldWar.com biography of Ante Trumbić
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trumbic, Ante
1864 births
1938 deaths
Lawyers from Split, Croatia
People from the Kingdom of Dalmatia
Party of Rights politicians
Croatian Peasant Party politicians
Foreign ministers of Yugoslavia
Representatives in the Yugoslav National Assembly (1921–1941)
Mayors of Split, Croatia
Yugoslavism