This was the context in which Stjepan Radić, towards the end of the century, created the agrarian movement for education and electoral emancipation of the peasants, as well as real autonomy for Croatia.

Indeed, throughout the interwar period, albeit outlawed, and in spite of ruthless and brutal police action against its supporters, the HSS carried a large majority of Croatian votes at every election.

After Radić's death, political activity being effectively suppressed within Yugoslavia, the party leadership decided that Krnjević and August Košutić (HSS vice-president) should leave the country to press the case for democracy and a federal system in Yugoslavia, with substantial autonomy for Croatia, Košutić in Rome and Vienna, Krnjević in Geneva, at the seat of the League of Nations; while the new president of HSS, Vladko Maček, would remain at home.

Both in Geneva and during several journeys to Paris and London, he tried to change the attitude of the Western powers, generally supportive of the centralist state, viewed as a bulwark against both German and Russian expansionism in the Balkans.

Attempts to establish more direct contacts with governments were more successful at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris – especially when Léon Blum was in power - than at the Foreign Office in London, which had close ties with Belgrade: Winston Churchill was more receptive, but had little influence.

In spite of their unwillingness to apply pressure on the Belgrade government, Krnjević strongly favoured the Western democracies, as opposed to the fascist regimes of Italy and Germany.

Their leader, Ante Pavelić, tried to convince Benito Mussolini that he could establish Italian hegemony in the Balkans by sending troops to ‘liberate’ Croatia, ahead of any German moves in that direction.

Throughout his exile, Krnjević kept in touch with Maček (in Zagreb), regularly sending him reports on the political situation and the attitude of the Western powers towards Yugoslavia's internal problems.

Though officially banned, the HSS, under the leadership of Maček, was supported by the overwhelming majority of Croats, and even by many Serbs opposed to the authoritarian regime of Milan Stojadinović.

Only the prospect of impending war in Europe led the Prince Regent to seek a solution to the glaring divisions that made his country so vulnerable to external pressure.

As things turned out, the Banovina lasted only 20 months, On March 27, an army – led coup in Belgrade drove out Cvetković and the Regent Prince Paul, installing General Dušan Simović as head of the government and Alexander's son, just short of the age of majority, as the new king, Peter II.

Strong anti-Simović feeling and plotting resulted in his early downfall (January 1942) and replacement by Slobodan Jovanović, a respected Serbian intellectual, not tied to any of the major parties - after the March 27 Coup, he had been a member of an ephemeral Regency Council.

Convinced that the Serb majority in the Yugoslav government had no real intention of implementing genuine democracy – or of restoring the Croatian Banovina – in post-war Yugoslavia, Krnjević, in spite of great pressure from the Foreign Office, refused to be co-signer of Jovanović's declaration of ‘War Aims’.

Of a different nature was King Peter's determination to marry the Greek Princess Alexandra: this was firmly opposed by the same Serbian ministers (and also Mihailović), who considered a royal wedding highly inappropriate during wartime.

The immediate constitutional crisis was solved by the formation of a government composed of senior civil servants (led by Božidar Purić) who did not object to the King's wedding.

Negotiations with Tito on the island of Vis resulted in the Tito-Šubašić Agreement (14 June), which essentially conceded all the main demands of the Partisans: they would have predominance in the joint government (and in ruling the country), and the King could not return to Yugoslavia before a referendum decided the future of the monarchy.

As early as in 1943, he had strongly urged the HSS in Croatia to prepare for a takeover of power, as soon as permitted by the military situation – even sending detailed instructions how to proceed (Jelić-Butić, 1983).

But there were many Croatian emigrants in North and South America, as well as some in Western Europe – including increasing numbers of Croats working in Germany (‘Gastarbeiter’) – who had been, or were, HSS supporters or potential recruits.

[6] Only two years after his death, the collapse of the Communist regime would lead to the first free multi-party elections in Croatia's modern history, involving a re-established Croatian Peasant Party.