Великохрватске претензије на Војводину

Abstract

Based on the so-far unpublished archival records, published sources, the press and literature, the author shows that since the 1848/49 revolution to date the Croats have sought ways to expand their state territory to the areas which belonged and which still belong to Vojvodina. Invoking the historical right or the national principle, while at the same time resorting even to gross forgeries, they aimed to appropriate Vojvodina’s territory, this being fertile soil that Croatia would have great economic benefi t from. By laying claims to Vojvodina, the Croats were undermining Serbia, striving to bring discord among inhabitants of Vojvodina and Serbia. Th ey were thus consciously destabilising the joint state as they did not intend to stay in it. By ruining the joint state, both the one aft er World War I and the one aft er World War II, they aimed to gain an independent and as bigger as possible Croatia. It is with such intentions that Croatian politicians have always endorsed all autonomous movements in Vojvodina, not because they cared about the autonomy of Vojvodina, but because such movements were breaking the unity of the Serbs and weakening Serbia’s resistance. Despite showing greater Croatian pretensions to Vojvodina, as well as to Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Croats have been constantly accusing the Serbs of hegemony and greater Serbian pretensions. Serbian politics has not managed to appropriately respond to the Croats’ claims, which is why, until the present time, those less informed have the impression that the Serbs have had greater Serbian plans and appetites, and that the Croats have been ingenuous and under constant threat from the Serbs. Th is paper demonstrates and proves that the actual facts are diff erent and that those attacking others have been trying to conceal their own appetites for other nations’ lands.