After the defeat of the multi-ethnic
Austria-Hungary and the ruling
Habsburg dynasty in
World War I, new states arose in its former territory. Among these there was an internationally unrecognized
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which was created in the final days of the war according to the 1917
Corfu Declaration, and merged with the
Kingdom of Serbia to form the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on December 1, 1918. Determination of borders between the new countries was complex and difficult, and not always peaceful: While the northwestern border with the
Kingdom of Italy along the "
Julian March" was already determined by the 1915
Treaty of London, the demarcation line between Yugoslavia and the rump state of
German-Austria was a difficult and highly disputed matter. The principle of
self-determination, championed by U.S. President
Woodrow Wilson, was taken up by both
Slovenes and
German-Austrians in the
Carinthian,
Styrian and
Carniolan lands of the defunct Habsburg empire. The rising tensions culminated in clashes of arms, as on
Marburg's Bloody Sunday in
Lower Styria and the continued fighting of
paramilitary groups in southeastern Carinthia. In particular the "Carinthian question" had become an issue in the closing days of World War I, when events developed rapidly, beginning with territorial claims by the Slovenian National Assembly on October 17, 1918. These claims were rejected by the Carinthian provisional
Landtag assembly on 25 October 1918, declaring the state's accession to German-Austria. From November 5, Yugoslav forces moved into the settlement area of the
Carinthian Slovenes from the
Karawanks mountain range down to the
Drava River and beyond. The
Landtag assembly fled from
Klagenfurt to the northwestern town of
Spittal an der Drau and on 11 November officially demanded self-determination, which in this case amounted to demanding a
plebiscite for a region with a mixed population. With the occupation of southeastern Carinthia by Yugoslav troops, the confrontation evolved into armed clashes. The provisional Carinthian government under Governor decided to take up arms to preserve the southern Carinthian border on the Karawanks range. The bitter fighting of paramilitary groups around
Arnoldstein and
Ferlach alarmed the
Entente powers. They arbitrated a ceasefire, whereafter a nine-day
U.S. Army commission under Lt.Col.
Sherman Miles scouted the disputed region in January and February 1919 and made the crucial recommendation that the Karawanks frontier should be retained, thus opening the possibility of a plebiscite. Yugoslav representatives urged for a border on the Drava;
American delegates however spoke in favor of preserving the unity of the Klagenfurt Basin and convinced the
British and
French delegations. Until May 7, all occupied Carinthian territories were vacated. When Yugoslav forces under General
Rudolf Maister made an attempt to re-enter the region on 28 May 1919, they were forced to withdraw by the Entente authorities. The question was whether the considerable Slovene-speaking majority in the state's southeastern region, adjoining the Karawanks range, 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
romantic nationalism under the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy and the idea of an autonomy of the "
Slovene lands", referring to the early medieval Slavic principality of
Carantania, which had perished in the ninth century. A common state with other South Slavic peoples seemed the most acceptable compromise toward fulfillment of nationalist strivings. ==Plebiscite==