Banovina of Croatia

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The Banovina of Croatia or Banate of Croatia (Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian: Banovina Hrvatska) was a province (banovina) of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between 1939 and 1941. Its capital was at Zagreb and it included most of present-day Croatia along with portions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

The banovinas of Yugoslavia, established in 1929, deliberately avoided following ethnic or religious boundaries which resulted in the country's ethnic Croats, like other ethnic groups, being divided among several banovinas. Following a struggle within the unitary Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Croat leaders won autonomy for a new ethnic-based banovina. In 1939, the entire area of the Sava and Littoral Banovinas was combined and parts of the Vrbas, Zeta, Drina and Danube banovinas were added to form the Banovina of Croatia.

In 1941, the World War II Axis Powers occupied the Banovina of Croatia and the province was abolished. Some of the coastal areas from Split to Zadar and near the Gulf of Kotor were annexed by Fascist Italy but the remainder became a part of the Independent State of Croatia. Following World War II, the region was divided between new states of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia (autonomous Vojvodina province) within a federal Socialist Yugoslavia.

[edit] See also

• Kingdom of Yugoslavia
• Croatia

Banovinas of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929-1941)
Croatia (from 1939) | Danube | Drava | Drina | Littoral (to 1939) | Morava | Sava (to 1939) | Vardar | Vrbas | Zeta
City of Belgrade