The Southland in the Public Administration of the Southern Slavic State 1918–1941

Abstract

The article examines in detail the changes of the Southland’s public administrative system after the splitting of the Austro–Hungarian Monarchy. The historical Southland first joined the Serbian Monarchy after WW I and later the Slovenian–Croatian–Serb state. Mainly lands populated by Hungarians belonged to the Southland such as Backa, the western part of the Banat, the so-called Baranja triangle and the lands of the Medjimurje and Prekmurje. The new regime reorganized the public administrative system with the aim of centralization and unification and slowly marginalized those Hungarians who were working in the public administrative system during the times previous to the Peace Treaty of Trianon. The article shows in detail the structure and characteristics of this newly established administrative system.