The
Carinthian Plebiscite on 10 October 1920 determined the final southern border between the
Republic of AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
and the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) after
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
.
After the ruin of the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Habsburg dynasty in
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, new states arose in its former territory. Among these there was an internationally recognized
State of Slovenes, Croats and SerbsThe State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs was a short-lived state formed from the southernmost parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after its dissolution at the end of the World War I by the resident population of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs...
, which was created on October 29, 1918, but was incorporated into the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on December 1, 1918.
Determination of borders between the new countries was complex and difficult, and not always peacefully.
The
Carinthian Plebiscite on 10 October 1920 determined the final southern border between the
Republic of AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
and the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) after
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
.
History
After the ruin of the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the Habsburg dynasty in
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, new states arose in its former territory. Among these there was an internationally recognized
State of Slovenes, Croats and SerbsThe State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs was a short-lived state formed from the southernmost parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy after its dissolution at the end of the World War I by the resident population of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs...
, which was created on October 29, 1918, but was incorporated into the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on December 1, 1918.
Determination of borders between the new countries was complex and difficult, and not always peacefully. The "Carinthian question" became an issue in the closing days of World War I. The principle of
self-determinationSelf-determination is defined as free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion; and especially as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status. In other words, it is the right of the people of a nation to decide how they want to be governed...
, championed by
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
, was taken up by various nationalities that would people the
successor statesIn the fictional BattleTech universe, the Successor States are the major military powers of the Inner Sphere, each governed by one of the Great Houses...
of the defunct Habsburg empire. Events in Carinthia developed rapidly, beginning with territorial claims by the Slovenian National Assembly on October 17, 1918. These claims where rejected by the Carinthian Provisional State Assembly on October 25, 1918. On November 11, 1918, the Carinthian Provisional State Assembly demanded self-determination, which in this case amounted to demanding a plebiscite for a region with a mixed population. The question was whether the considerable Slovene-speaking majority in the state's southern region, adjoining the
KarawankenKarawanken or Karavanke is a mountain range on the border between Slovenia and Austria. With a total length of 120 km, the Karawanken chain is the longest range in Europe....
frontier, would carry the vote for union with Austria or whether that majority wished to join a newly created South Slavic state. This was to a large extent a consequence of rising national awareness under the multi-national
Austrian-Hungarian MonarchyAustria–Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, or Dual State, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe...
and dreams of autonomy, which Slovenes had not experienced since the Slavic principality of Carantania lost its autonomy in the ninth century. A common state with other southern Slavic peoples seemed the most acceptable compromise toward fulfillment of nationalist strivings.
With the occupation of Lower Carinthia by Yugoslav (that is, southern Slavic) troops in 1919, the confrontation evolved into armed clashes. A fight to preserve the Karawanken frontier began, alarming the
Entente- History :* The Entente Cordiale, 1904 between France and the United Kingdom* The Anglo-Russian Entente, 1907 between the United Kingdom and Russia* The Triple Entente, 1907 between France, Russia, and the United Kingdom...
powers. A nine-day American commission, the "Miles mission," scouted the disputed region between river and mountains in January and February 1919 and made the crucial recommendation that the Karawanken frontier should be retained, thus opening the possibility of a plebiscite. Yugoslavs pressed for a border on the Drava; American delegates spoke in favor of preserving the unity of the
KlagenfurtKlagenfurt am Wörthersee is the capital of the federal state of Carinthia in Austria. With a population of over 90,000 it is the sixth-largest city in the country. The city is the bishop's seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt and home to the Alpen-Adria...
Basin and convinced the
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
and
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
delegations.
The
Treaty of Saint-GermainThe Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the new Republic of Austria on the other...
with Austria in 1919 should have determined the border between Austria and the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed the Kingdom of
YugoslaviaYugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century.The first country to be known by this...
). The treaty determined that parts of Carinthia—the
MežaThe Meža is a 43 km long river in Carinthia, Slovenia. It has its source on the Austrian side of the country border near the Olševa mountain, goes subterranean a kilometer from its source and reappears on the surface in Koprivna near Črna na Koroškem, Slovenia. It is the central river of the...
valley (in German, the
Mießtal) and areas around
DravogradDravograd is a small town and a municipality with the same name in northern Slovenia, located at the Slovenian-Austrian border crossing by the Drava River, at the confluence with the Meža and the Mislinja. It is part of the traditional Slovenian province of Carinthia Dravograd (German:...
(
Unterdrauburg) and Jezersko (
Ober Seeland) -- should be annexed to the new Kingdom, with the status of the wider area around the Klagenfurt basin to be determined by a plebiscite.
Wanting to resolve the conflict peacefully, the Allied victors in World War I divided southeastern Carinthia into two zones, "A" in the south and "B" in the north. A two-stage referendum was to be held to determine annexation by either
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
or the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
The population of Zone A was predominantly Slovene-speaking: according to the Austrian census of 1910, people in this area who used Slovene as their primary language represented nearly 70% of the population; while the number of ethnic Slovenes was probably higher. German speakers were concentrated in
VölkermarktVölkermarkt is a city of about 11,000 inhabitants in Carinthia, Austria.According to the 2001 census 2,6% of the population are Carinthian Slovenes....
and certain smaller localities, especially
BleiburgBleiburg is a small town in the Austrian state of Carinthia, south-east of Klagenfurt, in the district of Völkermarkt, near the border with Slovenia....
(
Pliberk, in Slovene) and
FerlachFerlach is the southernmost town in Austria, about 17 km south of the Carinthian capital Klagenfurt. It is situated in the Rosental/Rož valley of the Drava river, at the northern slope of the Karawanken mountain range...
(
Borovlje).
Before the plebiscite, both sides waged intensive propaganda campaigns. Austrian propaganda emphasized the economic benefits of maintaining the unity of the Klagenfurt Basin and appealed to feelings of Carinthian unity and brotherhood between the Slovene- and German-speaking peoples of Carinthia. Conducted in the local Slovene dialect, Austrian propaganda promised that the Slovene language would be equal to the German in Austria; it had an anti-Yugoslav tendency, picturing the conditions in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes as chaotic. Yugoslav propaganda almost exclusively used arguments emphasizing Slovene national awareness. It was extremely anti-German and turned to economic issues only in the last few weeks before the plebiscite but was not capable of using the political instability of the young Austrian republic and its then unenviable position in the international community for advantage.
Despite the six-month term determined by the
Treaty of Saint-GermainThe Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the new Republic of Austria on the other...
, the referendum was not held in Zone A until October 10, 1920. In addition to changing the date of the plebiscite, other terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain allegedly were ignored or changed: an Austrian representative was accepted into the commission, and the plebiscite commission changed rules by not allowing the Yugoslav military to control the border between Zones A and B (8.6.1920). The Yugoslav army had to withdraw from Zone A in accord with the decision of the plebiscite commission (18.9.1920). Changes may also have been made in electoral registers which allowed people from northern zone B voting in zone A, which dramatically powered the German side.
The outcome of the plebiscite held on October 10,1920, was 22,025 votes (59.1% of the total cast) in favor of adhesion to Austria and 15,279 (40.9%) in favor of annexation by the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Because the Austrian option gained a majority of votes in Slavic Zone A, the second stage of the referendum in northern Zone B, populated chiefly by German speakers, was not carried out.
The plebiscite determined the border between Austria and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The border remained unchanged after World War II, even as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia gave way to Tito's
Socialist Federal Republic of YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the second half of World War II until it was formally dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,...
, though at the end of the war Yugoslav troops again briefly occupied the area, including the capital city of Klagenfurt. Since the disintegration of Yugoslavia, the border has separated Austria and
SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
.
Sources
- Janko Pleterski
Janko Pleterski is a Slovenian historian, politician and diplomat.He was born in Maribor, Slovenia, then part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. He frequented high school in Ljubljana. In August 1941, he was arrested by the Fascist authorities of the Italian-occupied Province of...
, Koroški plebiscit 1920. Ljubljana: Zveza zgodovinskih društev Slovenije, 2008.
- Thomas M. Barker and Andreas Moritsch, The Slovene Minority of Carinthia. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.
External links
- A hybrid map of the region on Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and technology provided by Google, free , that powers many map-based services, including the Google Maps website, Google Ride Finder, Google Transit, and maps embedded on third-party websites via the Google Maps API...