The State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs ( / ; ) was a political entity that was constituted in October 1918, at the end of World War I, by Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (Prečani) residing in what were the southernmost parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although internationally unrecognised, this was the first incarnation of a Yugoslav state founded on the Pan-Slavic ideology. Thirty-three days after it was proclaimed, the state joined the Kingdom of Serbia and the Kingdom of Montenegro to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
Name
The state's name derives from the three main South Slavic ethnic groups that inhabited it: the Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs.
The Croats identified in the name were those residing in the preceding kingdoms of Croatia-Slavonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Dalmatia (including Boka Kotorska).
The Serbs identified in the name were those residing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia-Slavonia, Dalmatia (including Boka Kotorska and Montenegrin Littoral), not those residing in the Kingdom of Serbia (which included the territory of the present-day North Macedonia), nor those living in the Kingdom of Montenegro or Vojvodina (including Banat, Bačka, Baranya).
The Slovenes identified in the name were the residents of the Duchy of Carniola, Duchy of Styria, Duchy of Carinthia and Prekmurje.
Creation
Background
In 1918, the final year of the War, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was suffering from an internal crisis accompanied by unrest amongst the multiple Slavic peoples within its borders. The South Slavic peoples were divided between various subdivisions of the monarchy: Cisleithania: The Austrian Littoral, Duchy of Carniola and the Kingdom of Dalmatia were under Austrian jurisdiction. The neighbouring duchies of Styria and the Carinthia also included a significant South Slavic population. Transleithania: The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and Fiume (corpus separatum) were under Hungarian jurisdiction. The Kingdom of Hungary itself included a significant South Slavic populations in Prekmurje, Međimurje, Baranja and territories that had been part of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. The Austro-Hungarian Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Activities of the pro-Yugoslav forces in the Transleithanian Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia on 30 May 1917 resulted in adoption of the May Declaration by the Yugoslav Club, a group of Croatian and Slovene deputies in the Reichsrat (the legislature of Cisleithania in Vienna). The Declaration sought the unification of all the lands in the Habsburg monarchy populated by Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs in one independent entity.
On 2–3 March 1918, a grass-roots meeting was held in Zagreb that included representatives of various aspects of public life as well as members of several political parties, primarily the Mile Starčević faction of the Party of Rights led by Ante Pavelić and the Slovene People's Party. The ruling Croat-Serb Coalition and its opposition the Croatian People's Peasant Party, however, were excluded. The meeting produced the Zagreb Resolution that proclaimed the unity of the people of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (a "unified nation" with the latter described as equal "tribes" whose peculiar historical positions and desires are to be accommodated), demanded a right of self-determination and possession of the territory they occupied, including the whole of Cisleithania.
In July and August 1918, the so-called "People's organizations of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs" were formed in Split (for Dalmatia), Sušak (for the Croatian Littoral) and Ljubljana (for the Slovene lands) to advance these policies. In late August, the Croatia-Slavonia parties met again in Zagreb to discuss how to proceed and, in particular, how to gain the support of the Croat-Serb Coalition.