The Paris Peace Conference Following World War one
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The Paris Peace Conference following World War One first recognized Yugoslavia as a new state and expanded its area taking parts of Austria and Hungary. It also divided the area into the states of Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and other territories. Hungarian and Bulgarian demands of revisions to the treaty that gave Yugoslavia these lands led Yugoslavia to make alliances with Czechoslovakia and Romania. These three countries came to be known as the Little Entente and were in close cooperation with France. Alexander became the King of the entire territory and declared himself the Dictator after Croats set up a separate parliament. This is when the areas name was changed to Yugoslavia.
King Alexander had hoped to restrain separatist intentions and lessen nationalist ideas among the different regions of the area. However, European powers would intervene when the Fascists and Nazis came to power in Italy and Germany. Also the Soviet Union, under Stalin, along with Italy and Germany opposed his wishes of a unified Yugoslavia. In fact Italy and Germany wanted to change the treaties signed at the end of World War One and Soviets wanted to regain their hold in Europe. Tensions were spreading across Europe and Hitler and Mussolini were gaining power. King Alexander was assassinated on a visit to France in 1934 by a Croatian separatist organization that supported Nazi policies.
In the 1930s the supporter of the policies set in the area of Yugoslavia after WWI were losing there power and Croatia was being supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Croatia remained part of Yugoslavia but was developing an independent political identity in international relations. The successor of King Alexander was his eleven year old son Peter II and a regency council led by his cousin Prince Paul. The area would be put under severe pressure from the Axis powers to submit to their rule. On March 25, 1941 Prince Paul signed the Tripartite Treaty which would give Germany the ability to transport war materials throughout the area in exchange for territorial expansion. This was signed in hopes to keep Yugoslavia out of the existing war in Europe that would eventually be World War II. The signing of this treaty was widely not accepted across Yugoslavia. Leaders of the nation would resign in protest to any treaty that would bind them with the Axis powers and the “New World Order.”
On March 27 the Serb people and some of the army who protested against the signing of the treaty organized a successful coup of the regency of Prince Paul and left 17 year old King Peter in control. King Peter would flee the country along with the existing royal government. “Unprecedented scenes of public rejoicing on the part of Serb people, who saw their liberty and their honor saved.”(Britannica) General Dusan Simovic would become prime minister of Yugoslavia. The Serbs were backed by a determination of independence and a large majority of the army. However, the Croats lacked both of these leaving their lands as easy targets for German invasion. Also at this time Germans had occupied nearly all of the lands surrounding Yugoslavia forcing Yugoslavian troops to defend all borders of the area.
Once the new government of Yugoslavia refused to ratify the treaty Hitler said that he would “Destroy Yugoslavia as a military power and a sovereign state.”(Americana) On April 6, 1941 German planes bombed Belgrade and in less than two hours killed over 17,000 people in the city. On April 10 the German, Italian, and Hungarian armies attacked from several directions. The Yugoslav army fought a diligent resistance but due to the overwhelming advantage the Axis powers had in men and materials they would fall in less than two weeks. At this time Yugoslavias various regions and Germany signed an armistice. Yugoslavia is then occupied by the Axis and divided up among the countries who would now occupy the area. The Independent State of Croatia is formed and ruled by a fascist, once terrorist, group called Utashi. This State is backed and controlled by Nazi Germany. Small Serbian resistance movements would hide away in the hills of Yugoslavia and fight against the occupying Germans. However, by November Germany had eliminated all the resistance movements across Yugoslavia. Croatia establishes concentration camps for anti-fascists, communists, Serbs, Gypsies, and Jews. During this time hundreds of thousands men, women, and children were murdered in these camps. These camps were more savage than the German concentration camps but because of the mass amount