Yugoslavism refers to nationalism or patriotism centred upon the Yugoslav ("South Slav") peoples within the Yugoslav populated territories of Southeastern Europe. Yugoslavism has historically advocated the union of all Yugoslav populated territories now composing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and the presently disputed region of Kosovo, Slovenia, and Vardar Macedonia.[1] Yugoslavism was a potent political force during World War I with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip and the subsequent invasion of Serbia by Austria-Hungary, which sought to rally Yugoslavs against Austro-Hungarian imperial domination and in support of an independent Yugoslavia that was achieved in 1918.[2]
Yugoslavists claim that the factional divide, differences, and conflict between the Yugoslav peoples are the result of foreign imperialism in the history of the Balkans, particularly under Catholic and Islamic Ottoman rule that divided Yugoslavs on religion.[2] As a result of religious division, Yugoslavism has typically avoided religious overtones.[2]
Yugoslavism had two major internal divisions that typically splintered the movement. One faction, largely dominated by Serbs has promoted a centralized Yugoslavia and assimilation of all Yugoslav peoples into a single Yugoslav nationality.[2] The other faction, dominated by Croats and non-Serb Yugoslavs, has supported a decentralized and multicultural federation that would preserve existing identities while promoting unity, while being opposed to the idea of centralization and assimilation that they deem as favouring Serb hegemony rather than Yugoslav unity.[2]
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The concept of Yugoslavism first arose in the 1830s with the creation of the Illyrian movement that based its views of South Slavic national identity upon the ideal of national awakening of the French Revolution.[1] The Illyrian movement was formed by Croatian writers who emphasized the common ethnic and linguistic ties between the South Slavic peoples as a basis for their cooperation and eventual political unification.[1] The Illyrian movement was centred in Croatia and Croatian politics, believing that a Croatian renaissance was necessary to be achieved prior to the movement's long-term goal of ethnic and political unification of South Slavs.[1] Ljudevit Gaj, a key figure of the Illyrian movement declared Croats and Serbs to be the two major subgroups of the South Slav or "Illyrian" nationality, which also included Slovenes, and South Slavic inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Montenegro.[1] In spite of its pan-South Slavic ideals, the Illyrian movement was dominated by upper-class Croats, with little support amongst Serbs, Slovenes, or other South Slavic peoples.[1]
During the Revolutions of 1848, the Illyrian movement became a strong political force in the Hapsburg Austrian Empire, and advocated cooperation between Croats and Serbs to oppose Hungarian rule of its South Slavic populated territories.[1]
The concept and term "Yugoslavism" was founded in the later-half of the nineteenth century by two Croatian Catholic Bishops: Josip Juraj Strossmayer, an ethnically mixed Croat-German liberal politician; and Franjo Rački who both emphasized Yugoslavism as a supranational cultural patriotism to unite South Slavs on the basis of common origins, cultural ties, and spiritual bonds of South Slavs.[3] However like the Illyian movement, Strossmeyer's and Rački's Yugoslavism found little support outside of Croatia.[4] Yugoslavism faced strong competition from other nationalist movements seeking to rally the various South Slav peoples, such as Serbian nationalism.[4] Initially Serbian nationalists who were focused on fighting the Turks, did not cooperate with Yugoslavists, seeing little benefit in a joint movement or unification with Croats of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.[4] However this period of noncooperation was briefly broken in the mid-1860s when Strossmeyer and Serbian foreign minister Ilija Garašanin agreed to work together to create "a Yugoslav state free from Austria or Turkey."[5]
The concept of Yugoslavism did not become strong until the beginning of the twentieth century due to the lack of belief that Yugoslavs could realistically unify and the lack of popular government in Yugoslav populated territories.[2] Yugoslavism began to arise with the overthrow of the Obrenović dynasty in Serbia in 1903 and the creation of a popular government within a constitutional monarchy.[2] After the annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria-Hungary in 1908 Yugoslavism soared as the multiple Yugoslav denominations saw themselves as victims of foreign imperialism.[2] In 1912, the eruption of the Balkan wars saw various Yugoslavs unite against the Ottoman Empire.[2] In 1913, Slovene intellectuals published a manifesto recognizing the existence of a Yugoslav nation and calling for its independence, declaring:
As it is a fact that we Slovenes, Croats and Serbs constitute a compact linguistic and ethnic group with similar economic conditions, and so indissolubly linked by a common fate on a common territory that no one of the three can aspire to a separate future, and in consideration of the fact that among the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, the Jugoslav thought is even today strongly developed, we have extended our national sentiments beyond our frontier to the Croats and Serbs…By this we all become members of one united Jugo-slav nation.[6]
The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Yugoslavist revolutionary Gavrilo Princip, a Serb associated with Young Bosnia, a group composed of Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks, marked the beginning of a militant nationalist activity by Yugoslavs against Austro-Hungarian rule.[6] In response to the outbreak of the war a number of Croats and diaspora Serbs supported Croat-Serb cooperation against Austria-Hungary with the desire of creating a federation based on cooperation between them.[6] Serbs in Serbia on the other hand preferred either a Greater Serbia or a centralized Yugoslavia that would in effect create a Greater Serbia within it.[6] The leadership of the Croatian Peasant and social democratic parties in Croatia and Slovenia generally supported a federal Yugoslav state that would recognize the equality of the Serb, Croat and Slovene nations as distinct and separate tribal sub-nations of the Yugoslav nation.[6]
As the Serbian military made advances against Austria-Hungary in the early months of the war, Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić requested support from the Serbian parliament to support the Serbian government's official war aims that declared that Serbia would support the liberation of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes under Austro-Hungarian rule.[2] Pašić supported the creation of the Yugoslav Committee to be composed of Yugoslavs émigrés from Austria-Hungary.[2] The Yugoslav Committee was led by Yugoslavist Ante Trumbić and initially composed of twelve Croats (including eight from Dalmatia and two from Croatia proper), three Serbs, and one Slovene.[2] The Yugoslav Committee lobbied the Allies to support the liberation of the Yugoslav peoples of Austria-Hungary.[2] Pašić was dismayed with the discovery that the Allies had promised to give Italy a substantial portion of Dalmatia and believed that the Committee should attempt to convince the Allies that this was unacceptable and an injustice.[2]
In 1917, Pašić, representing the Serbian government, and Trumbić, representing the Yugoslav Committee signed the Corfu Declaration on the Greek island of Corfu that declared the intention to create a Yugoslav state to be known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes that was to be headed by a "constitutional, democratic, and parliamentary monarchy" headed by the Serbian ruling dynasty, the House of Karađorđević.[2]
At the end of World War I, the National Council of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs was formed in Ljubljana. Shortly thereafter, on 1 December 1918, King Alexander of Serbia proclaimed the existence of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes which was recognized by Belgrade and the National Council in Zagreb on the 28th and 29th of December.[2]