The Congress of Oppressed Nationalities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was held towards the end of the World War I in Rome, Kingdom of Italy, between 8 and 10 April 1918. The event, attended by Czechoslovak, Polish, Italian, Yugoslav and Romanian delegations from Austria-Hungary, followed the publication of the Wilson's 14 points and represented the beginning of the real support to the independence movements and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Ukrainian or Rusyn delegations were not invited to participate in the Congress due to objections raised by Polish representatives. The decision to host the event was made after prime ministers of Italy Vittorio Emanuele Orlando and Nikola Pašić of the Kingdom of Serbia became concerned with earlier statement of David Lloyd George that dissolution of the Austria-Hungary is not one of the war aims of his alliance and decided to prioritise self-determination before future border demarcation on the Adriatic Sea. The event rejected Austrophilist proposals on continued existence of the monarchy as a guarantor against violent and exclusive nationalism in the region and instead framed the war as a conflict between democracy and autocracy.