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TheAresProject — Croatia in the 1930s by-nc-sa

Published: 2013-06-29 17:13:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 3501; Favourites: 28; Downloads: 23
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Description From "The History of Croatia" by Allen Spencer
Macmillan Publishing, London, 1961

Having struck down the Serb uprisings, the SP proceeded to sign into law a series of measures to strengthen the Croatian nation in the face of Serb and Communist agitation. Foremost among these were the Law on Religious Establishments (Zakoma o vjerske ustanove) 1926, which established Catholicism as the state religion and prohibited the worship of any other Christian tradition; the Law on the National Language (Zakoma o narodni jezik) 1926, which established Croatian as the national language and Ljudevit Gaj's Latin alphabet as the national script, and made the publication of documents in other scripts or languages for non-educational purposes punishable by a fine or prison sentence; and the Law on Regions (Zakoma o okruge) 1927, which divided the country into twenty-nine regions and six independent cities, and set up a system of government for these that would link them together more strongly than the old provinces and prevent the takeover of their governments by forces hostile to the Croatian nation...

Around Christmas of 1928, shortly after the reorganisation of the country, the issue of Dalmatia came to the fore as the civilian government in Italy (or what was left of it) was ousted in a military coup. The German Government, hard pressed to maintain order in their own nation, caused a stir in international relations by announcing their support for the military government the following February, prompting Croatia to send a formal request to Venice for the turning over of the lands around Zadar and Dubrovnik, which were occupied by the Italian military in the aftermath of the SEW and subsequently annexed into Italy. The Croatian Government, having never recognised the annexation to begin with, now argued that they were in a better condition to govern the lands in addition to having a stronger previous claim to them. The Italians did not respond to the request to begin with, but when Zagreb sent a second note, putting forth what were essentially more strongly worded versions of the same demands, they responded with a call to formally recognise their ownership of the lands, citing previous claims to them going back to the Italian republics of Venice and Ragusa (modern-day Dubrovnik), which had held the lands for much of the early modern period. Zagreb, in turn, cut off diplomatic relations with Venice and sent army forces to bolster the garrisons at Rijeka and Knin. The situation continued for much of 1929, with neither side backing down or declaring war, until Germany moved a significant portion of its military into Krain, put its garrisons in Venetia on alert and sent threatening notes to both governments. This caused both sides to back down, and though Croatia failed to get its way in the dispute, the Italian occupation of parts of Dalmatia remained unrecognised by them.

NOTE: This is from SoaP. Thanks also to Nofix for helping out with the Serbocroatian translations.
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Comments: 9

Arminius1871 [2014-09-15 20:06:42 +0000 UTC]

Oh no it has no Dubrovnik?

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TheAresProject In reply to Arminius1871 [2014-09-16 17:49:14 +0000 UTC]

You mean Ragusa.

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Arminius1871 In reply to TheAresProject [2014-09-16 18:05:11 +0000 UTC]

Ja XD

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Van-Dunkelschreiber [2014-09-15 18:40:22 +0000 UTC]

sound like a place that would suck to live in

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TheAresProject In reply to Van-Dunkelschreiber [2014-09-16 17:48:51 +0000 UTC]

It is, if you're Muslim or Serbian. It's not too hard otherwise though, and it does still enjoy good trade and relations with its neighbours (other than Italy, obviously, and Hungary, which is more or less a pariah).

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Van-Dunkelschreiber In reply to TheAresProject [2014-09-16 22:09:08 +0000 UTC]

it just whenever laws that restrict cultural elements are put into effect they tend to have negative repercussions

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TheAresProject In reply to Van-Dunkelschreiber [2014-09-17 14:35:46 +0000 UTC]

That I do not doubt. Not in the slightest.

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ramones1986 [2014-09-15 13:27:34 +0000 UTC]

The capital of Croatia in this scenario is...

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TheAresProject In reply to ramones1986 [2014-09-15 15:32:12 +0000 UTC]

Zagreb, as per OTL. That was where the Habsburg kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia was based, so it makes sense to keep it there.

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