Banovina of Serbia


The Banovina of Serbia or Banate of Serbia, officially known as "the Serbian Lands", was a proposed administrative unit of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Its creation was proposed after the establishment of the Banovina of Croatia in 1939. However, due to the Axis occupation and partition of Yugoslavia in 1941, the proposal was never implemented.

Proposal

The creation of the Banovina of Croatia in 1939–40 had been negotiated between Prime Minister Dragiša Cvetković and Croatian leader Vladko Maček in March–August 1939, and settled through an agreement on 26 August. Croatia now became the only banovina constituted on the principle of nationality, named after the majority people, and thus was close to a nation-state. The agreement had little support among Serbian political parties, and the Serbian Orthodox Church and Yugoslav Army opposed it. Relations between Croatian and Serbian politicians strained. Its creation opened the question of the political status of the Serb people in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, with some Serb intellectuals and politicians proposed and planned the creation of the Serbian Banovina, which would include the territory of the existing banovinas of Vrbas, Drina, Danube, Morava, Zeta and Vardar. The Banovina of Croatia included a notable Serb population, while the Serbian Banovina would have similarly included a considerable non-Serb and non-Slavic population. The plans were affirmed in the February 1940 number of Glas, a Serb-centric periodical, published by Matica srpska. It was stated that apart from the Banovina of Croatia, only the Serbian Banovina and supposed Banovina of Slovenia had the precedent and right to form and exist, as states of three ethnic groups which formed Yugoslavia, i.e. State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The process of its organization was supposed to be similar to that of Croatia.

Demographics

According to 1931 Yugoslav census, the existing banovinas that, according to the proposal, would be included into the Banovina of Serbia had the following population: