Cvetković–Maček Agreement
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The Cvetković–Maček Agreement ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Sporazum Cvetković-Maček, Споразум Цветковић-Мачек), also known simply as the Sporazum in English-language histories, was a political compromise on internal divisions in the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...
. It was settled on August 26, 1939, by Yugoslav prime minister
Dragiša Cvetković Dragiša Cvetković ( sr-cyr, Драгиша Цветковић; 15 January 1893 – 18 February 1969) was a Yugoslav politician active in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He served as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1939 to 1941. ...
(an ethnic
Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
) and by
Vladko Maček Vladimir Maček (20 June 1879 – 15 May 1964) was a politician in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As a leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) following the 1928 assassination of Stjepan Radić, Maček had been a leading Croatian political fig ...
, a
Croat The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...
politician. The agreement established the
Banovina of Croatia The Banovina of Croatia or Banate of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Banovina Hrvatska, Бановина Хрватска) was an autonomous province ( banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1939 and 1941. It was formed by a merg ...
, with boundaries drawn to include as many ethnic Croats as possible. This effectively created within unitary Yugoslavia an autonomous Croatian
sub-state Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
, a demand of Croat politicians since the 1918 founding 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 ...
(Yugoslavia). The Banovina later provided a model for eventual post-war constitutional arrangements in Federal Yugoslavia (1943-1945).


Background


Administration in the 1920s & the Croatian Question

Yugoslavia effectively went through two iterations of internal administrative borders. In the
Vidovdan 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 ...
of 28 June 1921, drawn up in large parts by
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 P ...
and
Svetozar Pribićević Svetozar Pribićević ( sr-cyr, Светозар Прибићевић}, ; 26 October 1875 – 15 September 1936) was a Croatian Serb politician in Austria-Hungary and later Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He was one of the main proponents of Yugoslavism a ...
, 33 administrative districts were established in what was then called 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 ...
. These were designed in a very deliberate way to maximize the political power and representation of the ethnic
Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
population, and an amendment to the Electoral Law in June 1922 even prescribed the use of pre-
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
population numbers, allowing Serbia to ignore its massive casualties during the war. Furthermore, the way that the constitution was passed by parliament had also caused some resentment, as the
Croatian Republican Peasant Party The Croatian Peasant Party ( hr, Hrvatska seljačka stranka, HSS) is an agrarian political party in Croatia founded on 22 December 1904 by Antun and Stjepan Radić as Croatian Peoples' Peasant Party (HPSS). The Brothers Radić believed that t ...
(HRSS), Croatia's largest regionalist party, had refused to vote, whereas the
Communist Party of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...
(KPJ) had been excluded. This had made it easy for Pašić's
People's Radical Party The People's Radical Party ( sr, Народна радикална странка, Narodna radikalna stranka, abbr. НРС or NRS) was the dominant ruling party of Kingdom of Serbia and later Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from the la ...
(NRS) and Pribićević's
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...
(DS), both political parties that were most popular among ethnic Serbs, to fulfill their agenda. Ultimately, the Vidovdan Constitution institutionalized Serbian hegemony in the new state, and its revision became a key goal for high-ranking opposition voices like HRSS leader
Stjepan Radić Stjepan Radić (11 June 1871 – 8 August 1928) was a Croat politician and founder of the Croatian People's Peasant Party (HPSS), active in Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He is credited with galvanizing Cro ...
. Radić was shot by a Serb deputy in parliament in 1928, and died two months later. He became a martyr for the anti-Vidovdan cause, and the little remaining Croat faith in the constitution shattered. The HRSS started once again boycotting parliament, and the Vidovdan Constitution became untenable. Starting as early as 1922, the issue of the value and preferred method of appeasement towards the unwilling Croatian partner became the local version of the ''
Croatian Question The Croatian question () refers to a political, cultural, social and economical status of Croats in Austria-Hungary, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia and post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first steps towards Croat home rule were made ...
'' among the Serbian elite. Even 'amputation', i.e. Croatian independence to the benefit of the whole system, was considered on multiple occasions. Usually, the Serbian vision of amputation included the annexation of regions that were ethnically mixed between Croats and Serbs by Serbia, rather than Croatia. This would have effectively created a " Great Serbia" rather than a union of South Slavs. From the Croatian viewpoint, the ''Croatian Question'' was less focussed on the appeasement of Yugoslavia as a greater whole, but on the separation of Croatia from any sort of influence from Belgrade. Stjepan Radić became the early face of the Croatian separatist movement. He oscillated between favoring outright independence or a confederate model of government with three constitutionally recognized peoples (Slovenes, Croats, Serbs) that were to form independent and sovereign nation states before then voluntarily joining a loose union. Other contradictions in his political beliefs included those on the role of organized religion, urbanization and communism. His view of Croatia's borders, be it within or without Yugoslavia, expanded far beyond the modern-day Croatian nation state and included most of contemporary
Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
as well. In Radić's view the local Bosniaks were not a separate
ethnic group An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
and were in truth an extension of the Croat nation, which had 'de-balkanized' them. Radić used the term 'Balkans' in a derogatory fashion, as he believed that Croatia was not a part of the Balkans. This Croatian view on Bosnia's status, which went back to thinkers like
Ljudevit Gaj Ljudevit Gaj (; born Ludwig Gay; hu, Gáj Lajos; 8 August 1809 – 20 April 1872) was a Croatian Linguistics, linguist, politician, journalist and writer. He was one of the central figures of the pan-Slavist Illyrian movement. Biography Origi ...
, was juxtaposed by Serbian nationalist beliefs going back to
Vuk Karadžić Vuk Stefanović Karadžić ( sr-Cyrl, Вук Стефановић Караџић, ; 6 November 1787 (26 October OS)7 February 1864) was a Serbian philologist, anthropologist and linguist. He was one of the most important reformers of the mode ...
, which included the Bosniaks as a natural part of the Serbian nation. As such, any sort of territorial settlement between Serbs and Croats would likely happen without representation of the Bosniaks and be to their detriment.


The Royal Dictatorship of the 1930s

After the proclamation of the
6 January Dictatorship The 6 January Dictatorship ( sr-cyr, Шестојануарска диктатура, Šestojanuarska diktatura; hr, Šestosiječanjska diktatura; sl, Šestojanuarska diktatura) was a royal dictatorship established in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croa ...
by
Alexander I Alexander I may refer to: * Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC * Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus * Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome * Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...
, the Vidovdan Constitution was overturned. Half a year later, it was replaced with the
1931 Yugoslav Constitution The 1931 Yugoslav Constitution, also known as September Constitution or Octroic constitution, was the second and final Constitution of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was issued by decree on September 3. Background Article 76 of the Constitution ...
(also known as ''September Constitution''), and the country officially became the ''Kingdom of Yugoslavia''. In the September Constitution, the 33 administrative districts of the Vidovdan Constitution were replaced with nine ''banovinas.'' Each of these were named after a river, and in the case of the
Littoral Banovina The Littoral Banovina or Littoral Banate ( hr, Primorska banovina; sr, Приморска бановина, italics=no / ''Primorska banovina''), was a province ( banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1929 and 1939. This province consis ...
, after the coastline. They were outwardly designed to avoid connotations of historical, ethnic, regional or religious allegiance, but were in effect a continuation of the Serbian dominance within Yugoslavia: Serbs were the majority in six out of nine of the banovinas,
Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Slovenci ), are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Slovenia, and adjacent regions in Italy, Austria and Hungary. Slovenes share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovene as their n ...
the majority in
Drava The Drava or Drave''Utrata Fachwörterbuch ...
, Croatians in
Sava The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally th ...
and Littoral. By comparison, the
Kosovo Albanians The Albanians of Kosovo ( sq, Shqiptarët e Kosovës, ), also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovar/Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars/Kosovans, constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians belong to the ethnic Albanian sub-gr ...
and Macedonians were minorities under Serbian majorities in
Zeta Zeta (, ; uppercase Ζ, lowercase ζ; grc, ζῆτα, el, ζήτα, label= Demotic Greek, classical or ''zē̂ta''; ''zíta'') is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 7. It was derived f ...
and
Vardar The Vardar (; mk, , , ) or Axios () is the longest river in North Macedonia and the second longest river in Greece, in which it reaches the Aegean Sea at Thessaloniki. It is long, out of which are in Greece, and drains an area of around . Th ...
, and the
Bosniaks The Bosniaks ( bs, Bošnjaci, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia, which is today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who share a common Bosnian ancestry ...
(often just called ''Muslims'' at the time) were split between four banovinas ( Vrbas,
Zeta Zeta (, ; uppercase Ζ, lowercase ζ; grc, ζῆτα, el, ζήτα, label= Demotic Greek, classical or ''zē̂ta''; ''zíta'') is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 7. It was derived f ...
,
Drina The Drina ( sr-Cyrl, Дрина, ) is a long Balkans river, which forms a large portion of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. It is the longest tributary of the Sava River and the longest karst river in the Dinaric Alps whic ...
, Littoral), making a majority in none of them. In the decade following the establishment of the royal dictatorship, half a dozen prime ministers (
Živković Živković (sometimes transliterated Zivkovic, sr-Cyrl, Живковић, ) is a Croatian and Serbian surname derived from a masculine given name Živko. It is the most common surname in the Šibenik-Knin County in Croatia, and among the most fr ...
1929–1932, Marinković 1932, Srškić 1932–1934, Uzunović 1934, Jevtić 1934–1935, Stojadinović 1935–1939) rose and fell, first at the behest of King Alexander I, and then, after the king's assassination in 1934, at the wishes of Prince Paul, who served as regent for the underage King Peter II. Of these prime ministers,
Milan Stojadinović Milan Stojadinović ( sr-Cyrl, Милан Стојадиновић; 4 August 1888 – 26 October 1961) was a Serbian and Yugoslav politician and economist who served as the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia from 1935 to 1939. He also served as Forei ...
had the longest tenure between 1935 and 1939, primarily because of the global economic recovery from the
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
. However, he was ideologically a strong centralist and opposed to major concessions to the minority movements, particularly when it came to the Croatian Question. He also drew the personal ire of Prince Paul, a western-minded anglophile, by adopting imagery and rhetoric from Italian Fascism. Stojadinović's government fell in early February 1939, when he lost the faith of his cabinet. The regent replaced him with
Dragiša Cvetković Dragiša Cvetković ( sr-cyr, Драгиша Цветковић; 15 January 1893 – 18 February 1969) was a Yugoslav politician active in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He served as the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1939 to 1941. ...
on 5 February. Cvetković would remain prime minister until the
Yugoslav coup d'état The Yugoslav coup d'état took place on 27 March 1941 in Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, when the regency led by Prince Paul of Yugoslavia was overthrown and King Peter II fully assumed monarchical powers. The coup was planned and conducted ...
in March 1941, immediately preceding the German
Invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, or ''Projekt 25'' was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was p ...
. Cvetković was not particularly popular in his native Serbia, neither with government supporters nor with the opposition. As such, he sought to strike a deal with
Vladko Maček Vladimir Maček (20 June 1879 – 15 May 1964) was a politician in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As a leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) following the 1928 assassination of Stjepan Radić, Maček had been a leading Croatian political fig ...
, who had become the leader of the Croatian regionalist movement following Radić's death.


The Role of the Croats in Government, 1918–1939

Stjepan Radić had initially boycotted the Yugoslav Assembly with his HRSS in the early 1920s and had been openly hostile to the institution of the Yugoslav monarchy and the very membership of Croatia within the Yugoslav state. He engaged in openly hostile rhetoric towards the Serbian elite, and had to go abroad in July 1923 after an arrest warrant because of a speech insulting to Queen Maria. Radić had even enlisted his party in the
Krestintern The Peasant International (russian: Крестьянский Интернационал), known most commonly by its Russian abbreviation Krestintern (Крестинтерн), was an international peasants' organization formed by the Communist ...
in the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
in 1924, although King Alexander had openly supported the Russian Whites against the Bolsheviks in the
Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
. Radić's open flirt with communism, which was deeply despised in the Serbian political establishment, even partially brought about the downfall of the Davidović administration, the first one which had not been led by the Radical Party. However, in the mid-1920s, he turned his ideology in prison, accepted both the monarchy and the constitution and started to work with his renamed Croatian Peasant Party (HSS, the 'Republican' part had been dropped from the name) from within the system. A brief alliance between Radić's HSS and Pašić's Radical Party, formed on 18 July 1925, led nowhere due to mutual and public contempt, and the HSS broke ranks with the Radicals in early April 1926. After Radić's death in 1928, the party came under the leadership of
Vladko Maček Vladimir Maček (20 June 1879 – 15 May 1964) was a politician in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. As a leader of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) following the 1928 assassination of Stjepan Radić, Maček had been a leading Croatian political fig ...
on 13 August 1928, who turned it further in favor of bourgeois political circles and intellectualism, away from the rural peasant agrarianism originally envisioned by Radić. He had been offered the possibility of leading the Yugoslav government as prime minister in July 1932, after the King had dismissed
Petar Živković Petar Živković ( sr-cyr, Петар Живковић; 1 January 1879 – 3 February 1947) was a Serbian military officer and political figure in Yugoslavia. He was Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 7 January 1929 until 4 Apr ...
and
Vojislav Marinković Vojislav Marinković ( sr-cyr, Војислав Маринковић; 13 May 1876 Ministry, p. 1 – 18 September 1935) Yugoslav Archive (2008), p. 1 was a Serbian and Yugoslav diplomat and politician, serving two times as Minister of Foreign ...
in short succession, but Maček declined. During the Royal Dictatorship, he formed potent political alliances in the opposition. First, the HSS joined with the Democratic Party to form a ''Democratic Peasant Union'', then allied with other forces like the Slovene People's Party and
Yugoslav Muslim Organization The Yugoslav Muslim Organization (, ''JMO'') was an Ethnic Muslim (today Bosniak) political party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. It was founded in Sarajevo on the 16 February 1919 and was led by ...
to become a complete 'United Opposition'. These alliances managed to score good electoral results in spite of the openly biased political system that the September Constitution of 1931 had established. The United Opposition list managed to secure 45% of the vote in December 1938, further undermining the authority of Prime Minister Stojadinović. Stojadinović was then replaced with Cvetković in February 1939.


Agreement


Negotiations

Cvetković had been appointed prime minister because of the necessity that Regent Paul saw in immediately appeasing with the Croatian regionalists. Through intermediaries in the HSS, Cvetković met Maček in
Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...
for preliminary talks. Cvetković and Maček could profit off each other: Cvetković could gain some much need legitimacy with the Croat people and thus the United Opposition, whereas Maček could fulfill his regionalist agenda to increase Croatian autonomy. Negotiations lasted from April to August 1939, and produced the Sporazum. The agreement was finalized on 20 August 1939, and ratified on the 26th.


Terms

The terms of the agreement were as follows: * Article I ** A new government for the Banovina of Croatia will be formed. * Article II ** The Sava and Littoral banovinas will become the Banovina of Croatia. ** Additionally, the majority Croatian parts of the Dubrovnik, Sid, Ilok, Brcko, Gradacac, Travnik and Fojnica regions will be added to those two banovinas. ** Parts of the aforementioned regions without Croatian majorities will be separated and will not be annexed by the Banovina of Croatia. * Article III ** Serbs, Croats and Slovenes are to be equal before the law in the new Banovina as well as in the country at large. The three ethnic groups are guaranteed equal access to positions in public service in the country. ** Religious equality is guaranteed. The constitution of the new Banovina will guarantee equal basic civil and political rights. * Article IV ** The internal tasks of agriculture, trade and industry, forest and mines, buildings, social policy, public education, justice and internal administration will be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Banovina of Croatia. The Banovina will cooperate with the military leadership when it comes to mining concessions that are of interest to the national defense. ** All other affairs, as well as 'matters of particular importance for the state', such as national security, suppression of destructive propaganda, police intelligence, protection of public order, and others, will remain with the federal government. ** "Necessary financial autonomy" will be provided to Croatia, but the military leadership will be provided with the necessary influence in production and logistics within Croatia to assure national defense. * Article V ** Joint legislative power by King and Parliament within the jurisdiction of the Banovina. ** Creation of a separate parliament for the Banovina, freely elected by a universal, equal, direct and secret ballot. Minority representation will be guaranteed. ** The King shall exercise his administrative powers within the Banovina through a Ban. ** The Ban, named and dismissed by the King, is accountable to the King and the parliament. ** Written acts of royal authority must be counter-signed by the Ban if they are to apply within the Banovina of Croatia. ** Establishment of a Constitutional Court for the settlement of disputes between the federal government and the Banovina. * Article VI ** The territorial extent and jurisdictional rights of the Banovina will be guaranteed by a special constitutional provision. This provision cannot be changed without the Banovina's consent. * Article VII ** The federal government agrees to make any new laws that might be necessary to implement the agreement. Furthermore, although not formalized in the agreement, Maček joined the cabinet as Vice Premier. Four further cabinet positions were given to Maček's colleagues, forming the ''Government of National Agreement''. The first and only Ban was
Ivan Šubašić Ivan Šubašić (; 7 May 1892 – 22 March 1955) was a Yugoslav Croat politician, best known as the last Ban of Croatia and prime minister of the royalist Yugoslav Government in exile during the Second World War. Early life He was born in Vuk ...
, a veteran of the First World War who was selected by the regent as a ''Serbs' Croat'' in the hopes of appeasing the Serbian public opinion about the deal with the Croatians, although the gesture had little effect on the negative Serbian reaction to the agreement.


Outcome

For the HSS part of the Peasant-Democrat Coalition, the agreement meant that, just like the HRSS had done with the
Vidovdan 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 ...
, the party now effectively operated from within the September Constitution and had started cooperating with the constitutional system it had previously rejected. However, Maček had come as close as he could to complete Croatian autonomy without outright independence: Croatia now had a ban between itself and the king, and it had its own parliament in Zagreb, the
Sabor The Croatian Parliament ( hr, Hrvatski sabor) or the Sabor is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Croatia. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the people and is vested with legislative power. The Sabor ...
, to look after its own affairs. Furthermore, he had scored five government posts for himself and his colleagues. However, the agreement's stipulations were provisional. The planned revisions did however never happen, as the Second World War brought about the end of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The new Banovina of Croatia comprised about a third of the entire country's territory. The Croats were now the only ethnic group within Yugoslavia with their own dedicated political entity within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, but the population also contained 20% Serbs and 4% Bosniaks. Most of the stipulations of the treaty remained unfulfilled, as the outbreak of Second World War in the very week of the agreement's ratification and the eventual involvement of Yugoslavia after the German Invasion of April 1941 prevented its political realization.


Reaction


Croatia

The Croatian reaction within Yugoslavia was, at least initially, generally positive, as the Croats, at last, had their own autonomous government and an ethnically defined territorial entity to call their own. However, both the fascist Ustasha and the Croatian communists were unhappy that the settlement had stayed short of outright independence. The positive opinion was further helped by the fact that the agreement was given legitimacy by its sponsors, especially Maček, who was popular as a defender of Croatian national interests. The positive opinion towards the agreement among Croats did however turn increasingly sour as the agreement's implementation stalled and economic hardship arose in relationship with the onset of the Second World War.


Serbia

The Serbian reaction was one of outrage: 800,000 ethnic Serbs, about 20% of the Banovina's population, were now subjects of a Croatian parliament, and the Croat Maček's accession to the office of vice premier was perceived as even more of an insult. Furthermore, the fact of the very existence of a Croatian banovina led to political calls for just the same arrangement for Serbia.
Slobodan Jovanović Slobodan Jovanović ( sr-Cyrl, Слободан Јовановић; 3 December 1869 – 12 December 1958) was a Serbian and Yugoslav writer, historian, lawyer, philosopher, literary critic, diplomat, politician and one of the most prominent int ...
of the
Serbian Cultural Club The Serbian Cultural Club ( sr, Srpski kulturni klub, italics=yes, sr-Cyrl, Српски културни клуб; SKK) was a short-lived but influential grouping of mainly Belgrade-based Serb intellectuals of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the yea ...
put forth a proposal that would have included Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia into a ''banovina of Serb countries''. This proposal reached planning stages in mid-1940, but was never realized due to the increasing pressure placed on the country by the Second World War. Both the Orthodox clergy and the officer class of the Yugoslav armed forces were outspoken in their opposition to the agreement. Even in liberal Serbian circles, where the 1931 Constitution was unpopular, the agreement was rejected. But among Serbian liberals, the main outrage did not lay with a Serbian government that betrayed the Serbs, but rather with the Croatian side of the deal, as the Croatians had through their cooperation with the authoritarian government legitimized both the authoritarian system in general and the 1931 Constitution in particular. Both liberals and conservatives in Serbia did, however, lay at least some of the blame at the feet of Prime Minister Cvetković, who was soon even less popular in Serbia than his authoritarian predecessor Stojadinović had been. In general, the agreement put a renewed strain on Serb-Croat relations, which had overall improved during the united opposition of Croat and Serb liberals against the central government's authority. The major effect of the Banovina of Croatia's creation on the political views of most Serb policy makers was the end of the ideology of centralism (also called unitarism). By the end of the 1930s, most Serbian politicians favored a federal system and wished to emulate the Croatian autonomy rights for the Serbs.


Rest of Yugoslavia

The Bosniak Muslims were particularly embittered, as they previously already had to deal with the division between four different banovinas, in all of which they were minorities. Now, two of these banovinas were merged into a national unit, which the Bosniaks had been denied, along with the very recognition as a national subculture in Yugoslavia, which was from its founding primarily designed around Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Not only did parts of the Bosniak population (4% of the Banovina of Croatia's overall population) now live under Croatian rule, but the drafts for a Serb banovina by the likes of Jovanović and the Serbian Cultural Club threatened to undermine the cultural and political autonomy of the remaining Bosniaks as well. Only one member of the new Cvetković-Maček cabinet was a member of the Yugoslav Muslim Organization, further increasing the impression that the Croatians had struck a deal with the Serbians to partition Bosnia to the detriment of the Bosniaks. For the Slovenes, the matter was less one of a possible imminent national destruction like in the case of Bosnia, but more one of equality between the three peoples. The Slovenes had usually stood side by side with the Croats in a joint skepticism of central Serb authority, but now the Croats evidently had struck a deal with the Serbs that awarded them special treatment, including a separate national parliament that Slovenia did not have. Although the Drava banovina was somewhat close to an exclusively Slovene district, it had none of the special autonomies granted to the Banovina of Croatia. While there were calls for a ''Banovina of Slovenia'', the threat posed by neighboring Italy and Germany posed by the rapidly expanding Second World War soon took precedence.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cvetkovic-Macek Agreement 1939 in Yugoslavia 1939 in Croatia August 1939 events 1939 in politics