Yugoslav Committee

The Yugoslav Committee was a <a href="/facts/World_War_I/vITTUanQ">World War I</a>-era, unelected, <a href="/facts/Ad-hoc/IYxx5Ha8">ad-hoc</a> committee. It largely consisted of émigré <a href="/facts/Croat/pxr26XCP">Croat</a>, <a href="/facts/Slovenes/nQphKLCK">Slovene</a>, and <a href="/facts/Bosnian_Serb/Hf9oIQ8S">Bosnian Serb</a> politicians and political activists whose aim was the detachment of <a href="/facts/Austria-Hungary/9WPUPj0W">Austro-Hungarian</a> lands inhabited by <a href="/facts/South_Slavs/lvXFR0wc">South Slavs</a> and unification of those lands with the <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Serbia/2HSIwdv9">Kingdom of Serbia</a>. The group was formally established in 1915 and last met in 1919, shortly after the breakup of Austria-Hungary and the establishment of the <a href="/facts/Kingdom_of_Serbs,_Croats_and_Slovenes/IRNUtvxW">Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes</a>, which was later renamed <a href="/facts/Yugoslavia/rK14hYmb">Yugoslavia</a>. The Yugoslav Committee was led by its president, the Croat lawyer <a href="/facts/Ante_Trumbi%C4%87/7P4s8qh4">Ante Trumbić</a>, and, until 1916, by Croat politician <a href="/facts/Frano_Supilo/r0jQqgDV">Frano Supilo</a> as its vice president.
The members of the Yugoslav Committee had different positions on topics such as the method of unification, the desired system of government, and the constitution of the proposed union state. The bulk of the committee members espoused various forms of <a href="/facts/Yugoslavism/rFtdx9AJ">Yugoslavism</a> – advocating for either a centralised state or a <a href="/facts/Federation/R846sufb">federation</a> in which lands constituting the new state would preserve a degree of autonomy. The committee was financially supported by donations from the <a href="/facts/Croatian_diaspora/UhckBlqM">Croatian diaspora</a>, and by the government of the Kingdom of Serbia, led by <a href="/facts/Nikola_Pa%C5%A1i%C4%87/M21xKE35">Nikola Pašić</a>. Serbia attempted to use the Yugoslav Committee as a propaganda tool in pursuit of its own policies, including territorial expansion (or the creation of a <a href="/facts/Greater_Serbia/52JLaI05">Greater Serbia</a>).
Representatives of the Yugoslav Committee and the Serbian government met on the Greek island of <a href="/facts/Corfu/PHc5Jskt">Corfu</a> in 1917; they discussed the proposed unification of South Slavs and produced the <a href="/facts/Corfu_Declaration/RAYK8z4m">Corfu Declaration</a>, outlining some elements of the future union's constitution. Further meetings took place at the end of the war in <a href="/facts/Geneva/14gXxjcq">Geneva</a> in 1918. Those discussions resulted in the <a href="/facts/Geneva_Declaration_(1918)/GsufxMHm">Geneva Declaration</a>, which described a <a href="/facts/Confederation/8BLyhA5U">confederal</a> constitution of the union. The Government of Serbia repudiated the declaration shortly afterwards. The <a href="/facts/State_of_Slovenes,_Croats_and_Serbs/PFJzTAc7">State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs</a>, which was formed as Austria-Hungary was breaking up, treated the Yugoslav Committee as its representative in international affairs. The committee soon came under pressure to unify with Serbia and proceeded to do so in a manner that ignored the earlier declarations. It ceased to exist shortly afterwards.

Yugoslav Committee open-in-new

Yugoslav Committee