Kingdom of Yugoslavia

(Today: Serbia, BiH, Slovenia, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Croatia (excluding Zadar, Istria, Rijeka and certain islands)

The newly formed South Slavic state was organized as a centralized monarchy centered in Belgrade. Serbia entered the new state union as an independent state on the victorious side in the Great War with great support from France and other international actors, with the Serbs being the most populous nation in it, which made Belgrade politicians consider centralism and their privileged seats self-explanatory.

In the Kingdom of SHS, later Yugoslavia, only three nations were recognized: Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian. Unlike the similar creation of a Spanish, German or French nation during the 19th century, Yugoslavia as a national identity was simply not possible, since the construction of both Serbian and Croatian and Slovenian national identities among the wider regiment of the territory of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was largely complete even before the creation of a common state. Montenegrins and Macedonians, however, were considered part of the Serb nation, while Muslims were defined solely as a religious community, "the product of the Ottoman and Austrian occupation," and their members were expected to someday sicken or crunch. Thus, the forcing of Yugoslavia by King Alexander (1921-1934), as well as the repressive dictatorship after 1929, would only favor the incitement of certain nationalisms, above all Croatian and Macedonian (eg Ustasha and VMRO).

Each national group within a state faces its own political party or parties pursuing regional interests. Politicians were trying to reconcile two irreconcilable ideas - it was necessary to create a "one state for all Serbs" in which the Croats would have their "statehood". The result of the domination of the Serbian elite, of which the Serb peasant and citizen, of course, did not benefit, was the emergence of the "Croatian question", ie the search for a solution to the status of Croatian countries and peoples. It will be somewhat fulfilled only with the establishment of the Banovina of Croatia (1939-1941) as a kind of "state in the state". However, soon the Second World War would again and radically reshape the map of Yugoslavia.