Balkans-08- Yugoslavia’s-Fall-From-Alexander’s-Assassination-to-the-Blitz-that-I
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia had been created with hope. Its founders believed that one nation could unite peoples who had spent centuries living beneath different empires. Yet unity could not simply be declared. It had to be built. Throughout the 1930s, King Alexander worked tirelessly to strengthen the Kingdom. His government encouraged citizens to think of themselves first as Yugoslavs, rather than as Serbs, Croats, or Slovenes. He believed a common identity offered the country's greatest chance of survival. Many supported his vision. Others feared it came at the expense of their own traditions. Croatian politicians, in particular, continued to call for greater autonomy. Many accepted the existence of Yugoslavia, but wanted more power to remain within Croatia itself. Outside the Kingdom, more radical voices were emerging. Among them was the Ustaše, a Croatian ultra-nationalist movement founded in exile. Led by Ante Pavelic, the organization rejected compromise altogether. It sought an independent Croatian state, and increasingly embraced political violence as a means of achieving it. Meanwhile, Europe itself was changing. The optimism that had followed the First World War was disap
