The news that Greece was rapidly defeated and could only retreat to the island of Crete was a shock to European countries, among which the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was the most deeply affected.
In Belgrade, Regent Prince Paul was discussing Yugoslavia's diplomatic issues with Prime Minister Svetkov.
"Now that Greece is divided into large territories by Romania and Italy, we in Yugoslavia need to prepare early."
Prince Paul, the regent, expressed his concerns to the prime minister.
Prince Paul is the younger brother of Alexander of the former kingdom. After his brother was assassinated, he assumed the position of regent of Yugoslavia and handed over the rights when his nephew Peter II came of age.
"I have already talked with the British and French ambassadors, and they agree and understand our country's neutrality. But now we are facing Italy and Romania, which makes our country completely confused about how to deal with it."
Prime Minister Svetkov also had the same worries. Since Yugoslavia had always maintained a close attitude towards Britain and France, it was allowed to join the Little Entente led by France. However, after the Czech crisis, Yugoslavia discovered that Britain and France were somewhat unreliable, and gradually began to alienate relations between Britain and France.
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However, the pressure brought by Italy forced Yugoslavia to rely on the support of Britain and France to contend with it. Italy's ambitions for the Dalmatian coastal zone of Yugoslavia could be smelled across the Adriatic Sea.
Regarding the Prime Minister's words, Prince Paul couldn't help but said, "Yes, the current situation in the Kingdom is worrying. I don't know if we can guarantee the integrity of the Kingdom."
Yes, Prince Paul's biggest worry about Yugoslavia now is whether it can ensure the integrity of its territory. Because Yugoslavia not only has foreign troubles, but also internal worries. Yugoslavia's internal worries are its many domestic ethnic issues.
Like Romania, Serbia also benefited greatly from World War I. It not only gained Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also obtained the Croatian and Slovenian regions of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In addition, it also annexed the Kingdom of Montenegro. The territory increased from 110,000 square kilometers before the First World War.
It jumped to 260,000 square kilometers and became the second largest country in the Balkans.
It's just that the consequence of such reckless annexation of territory was to make the domestic ethnic issues extremely complicated, completely surpassing the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The domestic ethnic issues alone made the newly born Lovenians-Croats
——The Kingdom of Serbia is a headache (yes, it is not called the Kingdom of Yugoslavia yet).
The largest ethnic group in the country, Serbs, account for only 36.3%, followed by Croats at 19.7%, Bosnians at 8.9%, Slovenes at 7.9%, Albanians at 7.7%, and Marstons at 6.
%, and Montenegrins account for 2.6%.
There are so many ethnic groups in the new kingdom, and there is no one ethnic group that has the dominant population, which is bound to cause many problems. Among them, the newly joined Croats and Slovenes are also doubtful about whether the new kingdom can treat them equally. Among them, the second
Among the two major ethnic groups, the Croats, led by the Peasants' Party and some other parties opposed the merger with Serbia, which led to fierce conflicts between the two ethnic groups.
Among them, in 1929, Serbian King Alexander launched a coup, canceled the constitution, implemented dictatorship, and established the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In the form of the national structure, the new kingdom enforced a centralized unitary system, did not implement federalism, and did not implement ethnic regional autonomy.
The establishment of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia put all other ethnic groups except the Serbs completely under its rule, which intensified the ethnic issues in Yugoslavia.
The most famous incident was the assassination of the Croatian radical national organization Ustasha. King Alexander and the French Foreign Minister Bardoux who were in the car were shot to death, and the three attachés in the car were also killed (sharp shooters?).
This incident had a great impact on Yugoslavia. The most direct impact was the loss of the ruler (the government was directly responsible to the king). It also caused the problem between the Serbs and the Croats to erupt sharply, and the incidents between the two groups became increasingly serious.
increase.
This year, in order to appease the mood of the Croats, Prime Minister Svetkov and the leader of the Croatian Peasants' Party, Macek, signed an agreement to establish a Croatian province and grant certain autonomy. Macek joined the coalition government and served as deputy prime minister.
Although Yugoslavia temporarily calmed the resistance of the Croats, as the saying goes, the government's approach aroused opposition within the Serbs.
Among them, the pro-Serb Radical Party in Croatia has even proposed that the Serbs in Croatia should implement autonomy and merge with the Krajina Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina to form a new region.
And it also allowed other ethnic groups to see opportunities. As the old saying goes, you don't worry about scarcity but inequality. Since the Croats can govern themselves, why can't they. So although this agreement temporarily appeased the Croats, other ethnic areas gave birth to
More dissatisfaction.
It's just that the current Yugoslav government has no time to deal with ethnic issues. Now they must prioritize solving the problem of taking sides. The tragedy of Greece has frightened them.
Prince Paul discussed with the Prime Minister this time because he had an idea that needed the Prime Minister's approval. He hesitated and said, "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, do you... think... besides seeking neutrality, can we do anything else?"
The best way to preserve the integrity of Yugoslavia is to eliminate threats from Italy and Romania."
Although Prince Paul's words were vague, how could Svetkov, as the Prime Minister, not understand them. The only way to directly eliminate the threat is to join Italy and Romania in addition to making Italy and Romania dare not have such thoughts.
Fight? Does Yugoslavia have the strength?
So after thinking about it for a moment, the Prime Minister replied, "Yes!"
I saw him continue to give reasons. "The current territorial conflicts with our country are Italy and Romania. Among them, the problem with Italy is mainly the Dalmatian coastal zone, and the problem with Romania is Macedonia. And if our country joins, then
It can make Germany more comfortable in the alliance, but this method will also cause internal divisions in our country."
Yes, it is torn apart. Currently, there are too many people in Yugoslavia who are close to Britain and France. Even after Britain was attacked by Alexander and lost most of the Mediterranean fleet, there are still many people who firmly believe that Britain and France will eventually win, just like the last war.
So if they knew about their alliance with Germany, they would definitely do something bad.
Not to mention the Macedonian region, which is currently the most difficult problem in Yugoslavia. Svetkov has not slept well for this reason. The Macedonian separatists are dancing too much now, and these people rely on Romania behind them
The kingdom is simply confident. However, in order to avoid angering Romania, the government cannot take strong measures.
Originally there was no threat to the Macedonian region, but after Romania annexed Bulgaria, everything changed. Yes, Svetkov seems to be annexing. Although the rights enjoyed by Bulgarians in Romania are the same, their national habits and
The language and writing are deeply influenced by Romania.
Not to mention anything else, what he knew was that there were 97 media outlets in Bulgaria before the merger, but now after being merged into Romania, there are now 31 Bulgarian media outlets left, including two media outlets that publish Bulgarian-language media in the original territory of Romania.
The Romanians are paralyzing the Bulgarians with interests and constantly weakening their national identity.
In fact, Svetkov also wanted to learn from this point, but this method requires rich countries to annex poor countries. Yugoslavia does not have such conditions. The Croatians and Slovenes in the former Austro-Hungarian territory are more powerful than Serbians.
Even richer.
Therefore, the Prime Minister is also very much in favor of this method of joining the axis. I become your ally, and naturally you cannot attack your allies.
At this time, Prince Paul expressed his inner thoughts. "Then do you want the Prime Minister to make a trip in person?"
Considering confidentiality and other reasons, Svetkov nodded. "That's fine."
So on November 20, 1939, Yugoslav Prime Minister Svetkov's visit to Germany began.
