Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia was a kingdom and socialist state in the Balkan region.
Contents
History
Yugoslavia emerged from pan-Slavic nationalism within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
During the World War 1 peace negotiations, nationalists declared a State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. This was quickly merged into the Kingdom of Serbia to form a new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The League of Communists of Yugoslavia participated in the short-lived republic but was banned by the kingdom.
The official name became Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929.
On March 27th, 1941, King Peter II overthrew the pro-Axis regency of Prince Paul. Hitler responded with a land and air invasion; Italian, Hungarian, and Bulgarian forces then joined the invasion. Many border regions (and the Dalmatian cosat for Italy) were seized. The remainder was partitioned into:
the Italian governorate of Montenegro, an Italian puppet;
the Independent State of Croatia, fascist government led by Pavelić; and
the Government of National Salvation in Serbia, a German puppet.
Tito led the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments of Yugoslavia, generally known as the Yugoslav Partisans, against these client states. He was also general secretary of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. (Note that the office of 'general secretary' was known as 'political secretary' until 1936; both are distinguished from the office of the 'organizational secretary'.) The only other significant resistance group was the royalist Chetniks led by Mihailović, and they eventually shifted towards collaboration with the Axis.
After the war, Tito led the new Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. This was a federation of republics and autonomous provinces, with a bicameral federal parliament called the National Assembly divided between the Federal Council, and the Council of Peoples.
In 1953 the constitution was amended:
restructured the parliament and renamed to the Federal People's Assembly
still two chambers: the Federal Council and the Council of Producers
In 1963, a new constitution was written:
the official name became Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
restructured the parliament and renamed to the Federal Assembly
- now five chambers: the Federal Council and 4 chambers with specific bureaucratic responsibilities: Economic Council, Educational-Cultural Council, Social-Health Council and the Organization-Political Council
- a presidency council was formed to hold executive power
- 3 members from each republic
- 2 members from each autonomous province
- Tito, as president of the League, chaired the presidency permanently
- total of 23 with Tito
In 1967 the Council of Nations was extricated from the Federal Council to be another co-equal chamber. One year later, the Federal Council was merged into the Council of Nations.
In 1974 this was reduced to one member from each republic and autonomous province plus Tito, for a total of 9. Tito died on May 4, 1980 and his permanent seat on the presidency was not replaced. The council began to rotate the chair.
In 1990, the delegations from Slovenia and Croatia walked out of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia convention. Each republic began to develop multi-party systems, and organized elections for later that year.
Mesić came to hold the rotating chair of the presidency. He ceased to attend meetings, alongside the members from Slovenia and Macedonia, leaving just Milošević and his supporters. The Yugoslav presidency effectively ceased to be.
Slovenia and Croatia formally declared independence on June 25th, 1991. This led into the Ten Day War from June 27th through July 7th. The Brijuni Agreement established an armistice during which declarations of independence were frozen but the Yugoslav army had to vacate the relevant territories. Subsequent negotiations revealed the futility of re-establishing a sovereign Yugoslavian state. Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina held referenda that ultimately led them to also secede. Most of these new states then suffered from separatist movements by ethnic Serbs that sought reunification.