A délszláv egység első hivatalos manifesztuma – a korfui nyilatkozat
The First Offical Manifesto of Southern Slavic Unity – the Declaration of Corfu

Summary/Abstract: The idea of Yugoslavism (creation of an united state of the South Slavs, the Serbs, Croats and Slovenians) dates back to the 16th century. In the 19th century there were serious attempts on the side of the Croatian and Serbian politicians to find a political solution for the establishment of a common state. Nevertheless, the real opportunity for creating such a state came by with the outbreak of World War I. During the war, there were two centres promoting the unified South Slav state. The Serbian Government on the one side and the Yugoslav Committee founded in Paris on the other side. The cooperation of the two bodies was rather strained due to the differences in their views regarding the form of the future state. Should it be a federation (the view of the Yugoslav Committee) or a centralist state (the Serbian point of view). During the whole period the Serbian Government was in a stronger position, however, due to some changes in the international relations, Pašić was forced to accept the Yugoslav Committee at least formally. This led to the Corfu conference, where after more than a month long negotiations the Serbian Government and the Yugoslav committee signed for the very first time a common declaration that envisioned a constitutional monarchy under Serbia’s ruling Karađorđević dynasty, the so-called Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

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