Background , 1911, indicating those areas inhabited by Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Most of those territories were included in the State. In 1918, the final year of the War, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was suffering from an internal crisis accompanied by unrest amongst the multiple Slavic peoples within its borders. The
South Slavic peoples were divided between various subdivisions of the monarchy: •
Cisleithania: The
Austrian Littoral,
Duchy of Carniola and the
Kingdom of Dalmatia were under Austrian jurisdiction. The neighbouring duchies of
Styria and the
Carinthia also included a significant South Slavic population. •
Transleithania: The
Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and
Fiume (corpus separatum) were under Hungarian jurisdiction. The
Kingdom of Hungary itself included a significant South Slavic populations in
Prekmurje,
Međimurje,
Baranja and territories that had been part of the
Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar. • The
Austro-Hungarian Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Activities of the pro-Yugoslav forces in the
Transleithanian
Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia on 30 May 1917 resulted in adoption of the
May Declaration by the Yugoslav Club, a group of Croatian and Slovene deputies in the
Reichsrat (the legislature of Cisleithania in Vienna). The Declaration sought the unification of all the lands in the Habsburg monarchy populated by Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs in one independent entity. On 2–3 March 1918, a grass-roots meeting was held in
Zagreb that included representatives of various aspects of public life as well as members of several political parties, primarily the
Mile Starčević faction of the
Party of Rights led by
Ante Pavelić and the
Slovene People's Party. The ruling
Croat-Serb Coalition and its opposition the
Croatian People's Peasant Party, however, were excluded. The meeting produced the
Zagreb Resolution that proclaimed the unity of the people of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (a "unified nation" with the latter described as equal "tribes" whose peculiar historical positions and desires are to be accommodated), demanded a right of
self-determination and possession of the territory they occupied, including the whole of Cisleithania. In July and August 1918, the so-called "People's organizations of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs" were formed in
Split (for Dalmatia),
Sušak (for the
Croatian Littoral) and
Ljubljana (for the
Slovene lands) to advance these policies. In late August, the Croatia-Slavonia parties met again in Zagreb to discuss how to proceed and, in particular, how to gain the support of the
Croat-Serb Coalition. On 14 September 1918,
Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister Stephan Burián von Rajecz issued a statement advocating a settlement of World War I by peace treaty and it became apparent that the war was coming to an end. By early October, the Slovene-Croat-Serb movement were planning to set up a National Assembly.
Svetozar Pribićević, the leader of the Croat-Serb Coalition, confronted
Srđan Budisavljević, one of the leaders of this movement, in an effort to determine whether these plans were meant to undermine the Coalition, and the two reached an understanding whereby the Coalition would be invited to join any future National Council before a National Assembly was formed. At the same time, the organizers obtained support from the Croatian People's Peasant Party and the
Serb People's Radical Party. On 5 and 6 October, a provisional assembly was convened and the formation of executive committees begun. Seats were apportioned to members of all parties, == Conflict with Hungary ==