At the beginning of the 20th century the Jugoslav movement was more intensively felt throughout all the provinces. In Serbia the Austrophile parties with the dynasty of Obre novi6 were overturned in 1903. In Croatia the movement was marked by the fall of the reac tlemary Ban Khuen-Hedervary, who for 20 years had tyrannized over this sorely-tried country. Bosnia-Herzegovina was freed from the absolutism of its administrator, Benjamin Kalay, by his death. In 1905 Dalmatia rid her self of the obnoxious rule of the governor, Baron Handel ; and in Montenegro a constitu tion was introduced. Soon after these events economic relations with Vienna and Budapest were discontinued. Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina (1908),which action stirred up all the Jugoslav people. The approach of the storm was felt more and more. The Serbian national organizations cpenly demanded the evacuation of the annexed country by the Habsburgs. To justify its regime, Austria es tablished a reign of prosecutions and false trials. She proposed to unite all the Jugoslav provinces, including Serbia and Montenegro, under the Habsburg sceptre. The southern Slays became wrought up by such actions and avowed vengeance among themselves. In 1912 the Balkan Confederation was formed against both Austria and Turkey, and Turkish rule subsided with the ending of the Balkan wars. Whereupon Austria-Hungary wanted to fill the vacancy and to bridge over Austro-German rule into Asia Minor. To accomplish this purpose the government of Vienna induced the Bul garians to break the Balkan League and to sep arate from the Slavic nations, which they ac cordingly did.
After the Sarajevo tragedy in 1914, the war between Austria and Serbia began. In the be ginning of the war Serbia twice defeated the Austrian army, but in 1915, attacked by Bul garia in the rear, and by the Austro-German forces to the north, she succumbed. The coun try was occupied by the enemy for three years. In 1918 Bulgaria was the first of the Central Powers to surrender to the Entente Powers. Whereupon the Austrian army was forced to evacuate not only Serbia and Montenegro but all the other Jugoslav provinces. National councils of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes elected a central executive committee to estab lish a sovereign Jugoslav state. This conven tion was held in Geneva during November 1918, bringing a resolution to set up a national gov ernment representing all the Jugoslav provinces and preparing ground for the election of a con stituent assembly. In Montenegro a National Assembly met in the city of Podgorica, de throned its king, Nicholas, and decided to join the Jugoslav union. The Allied Powers, Great Britain, France and the United States, first en couraged the unification of Jugoslavia, and later on gave a more definite form to their rec ognition. On 7 Feb. 1919 the United States
government, through its Secretary of State, is sued a formal statement of the following con tent: "On 29 May 1918, the Government of the United States expressed its sympathy for the nationalistic aspirations of the Jugoslav races, and on 28 June declared that all branches of the Slav race should be completely freed from German and Austrian rule. After having achieved their freedom from foreign oppres sion, the Jugoslays, formerly under Austro Hungarian rule, on various occasions ex pressed the desire to unite with the kingdom of Serbia. The Serbian government, on its part, has publicly and officially accepted the union of the Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian peoples. The Government of the United States.
therefore, welcomes the union, while recogniz ing that the final settlement of territorial fron tiers must be left to the Peace Conference for adjudication according to the desires of the peoples concerned." Bibliography.— Cvijie, Ethnique et National des Yougoslaves' (Scientia, VoL XXIII, pp. 455-463, Bologna 1918); Forbes, Southern Slays' (Oxford University, pp. 1-32, 1915); Gauvain, Question Yougoslav) (Revue de Paris, t. 2, pp. 411-448, 1918) ; Harris, (Southern Slav Question) (Amer. olit. Sci ence Review, Vol. IX, pp. 227-251, 1915) ; Hinko vie, (Les Yougoslaves, leur passe, leur avenir' (Revue Anthropologique, Vol. XXVI, pp. 205 230, Paris 1916); Holdich, (A Jugo-Slav Feder ation' (Fortnightly Review, Vol. CII, pp. 185 195, Krek, (Les Slovenes' (Paris 1917); Lanux, Yougoslavie' (Paris 1916) ; Ma ritch, (Ce que sont les Yougoslaves' (La Revue, Vol. CXXIV, pp. 109-124, Y 1918), Marja novi6, (Jugoslavija) (New York 1916) ; Nie derle, 'La Race Slave' (Paris 1911) ; Primorac, (La Question Yougo-Slave' (Paris 1918); Radonich, (Srbi u Ugarskoj' ((The Serbians in Hungary,) Nish .1915) ; Seton-Watson, Slav, and Magyar' (London 1916); ib., (The Southern Slav Question and the HabsburgMonarchy' (London 1911) ; Stanoy evich, a New European State' (Century, March 1918) ; ib., (The Ethno graphy of the Jugoslays' (Geographical Re view, February 1919) ; Stoyanovich, (La Bosnie-Herzegovine' (Geneve 1917) ; Sigie, (Povjest Hrvatskog Naroda' ((The His tory of the Croatian People,' Zagreb 1916) ; Taylor, (The Future of the Southern Slays' (London 1917) ; Vercesi, (L'Italie et la Yugo slavie au Congress de Rome' (Revue Politique et Parlementaire, t. 95, pp. 25-32, 1918) ; Voino vitch, 'La Dalmatie, l'Italie, et l'Unite Yougo slave) (Geneve 1917) ; Vosnjak, Na tionalism' (London 1916) ; Zuiovich, (Les Serbes' (Paris 1917).