Later, he came to believe that the liberation of ethnic Serbs who lived in the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires was more important than bridging the gap between the upper and lower classes, and followed in his father's footsteps by joining the People's Radical Party (NRS) of Nikola Pašić.

[1] Stojadinović's stay in Germany had a profound effect on his economic views and led him to write a doctoral dissertation on the country's budget.

Stojadinović was appointed assistant manager of a local branch of the English Commercial Bank in 1919, but resigned as director-general of the State Accounts Board of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes because of disagreements with the government of Prime Minister Ljubomir Davidović and his Democratic Party.

Following the proclamation of a royal dictatorship by King Alexander I in 1929, he sided with a faction of the NRS which stood opposed to the monarch being given dictatorial powers.

[7] The Regent for the boy king Peter II, the Prince Regent Paul, appointed Stojadinović Prime Minister partly because he was regarded as a financial expert who would deal with the effects of the Great Depression, and partly because Stojadinović was believed to be capable of making a deal with the Croat politicians to resolve the thorny question over whether Yugoslavia was to be a federation or a unitary state.

[9] Stojadinović, like his predecessors, created a patronage machine as the basis of his power with JRZ members being rewarded with employment in the public sector.

[8] However, the gradual improvement of the Yugoslav economy in the late 1930s after the nadir it had fallen to in 1932, the worst year of the Great Depression, did win Stojadinović a measure of popularity.

[8] Stojadinović believed that the solution to the Great Depression were closer economic links with Germany, which lacked many of the raw materials necessary for a modern industrial economy and whose population exceeded the capacity of German farmers to feed it.

[12] In 1935, Yugoslavia observed the sanctions that the League of Nations had imposed on Italy, which inflicted harm on the Yugoslav economy, and Stojadinović signed his first economic treaty with Germany at the same time.

As long as the Rhineland remained a demilitarized zone, there was always the possibility of the French launching an offensive into western Germany, which reassured Yugoslavia.

[1] From the Yugoslav viewpoint, the remilitarization of the Rhineland and the construction of the West Wall meant that Germany could now launch offensives into eastern Europe without fear of France, which led Stojadinović to break with the traditional pro-French foreign policy of Yugoslavia and to seek an understanding with the Reich.

[2] On 15–20 June 1936, the chiefs of staff of the Little Entente (Romania, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia) met in Bucharest to discuss their plans now that the Rhineland was re-militarized.

[19] Besides for his anti-French goals, Mussolini had plans to annex Albania and to use it as a base to conquer Greece, which was allied to Yugoslavia in the Balkan Pact, making an alliance with Belgrade useful from his viewpoint.

[20] From 1936 onward, there were increasing signs that Italy and Germany were putting aside their differences caused by the "Austrian Question" to work together with Mussolini proclaiming in a speech in Milan in October 1936 that there was now a "Berlin-Rome axis" in Europe.

In October 1936, Stojadinović visited Istanbul and while on his way back to Belgrade stayed at Kricim Castle, which was the rural residence of King Boris.

[23] Stojadinović faced little opposition from Turkey, but both Romania and Greece objected strenuously, believing that Yugoslavia was deserting the alliance, and only reluctantly gave permission in January 1937.

[13] Both King Carol II of Romania and President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia supported the French proposal, and Stojadinović was the lone holdout who refused to discuss amending the treaty which created the Little Entente.

[28] Although the pact was actually a banal document saying that the peoples of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria were henceforward to live together in peace and friendship, at the time of the signing Stojadinović and his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Kyoseivanov verbally agreed that Bulgaria would cease making claims on Yugoslav Macedonia in exchange for which Stojadinović would support Bulgarian claims against Greece.

[29] Stojadinović wanted much of Greek Macedonia for Yugoslavia, especially the port city of Thessaloniki, and the purpose of the friendship pact was to lay the basis of a Yugoslav-Bulgarian alliance against Greece.

[11] In March 1937, Stojadinović told Raymond Brugère, the French minister in Belgrade, that France was secure behind the Maginot Line, but the construction of the West Wall meant that the French Army would probably stay behind the Maginot Line if Germany should attack any of France's allies in Eastern Europe, which led him to the conclusion that Yugoslavia must not "provoke" Germany in any possible way.

[31] Without informing France, Czechoslovakia or Romania, Stojadinović opened negotiations in the winter of 1936–37 for an Italo-Yugoslav treaty intended to resolve all of the outstanding problems between the two countries.

[32] On 25 March 1937, the Italian foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, arrived in Belgrade to sign the treaty alongside Stojadinović.

[10] Stojadinović withdrew the Concordat in a bid to save his popularity with the Serbs, which damaged his reputation as a fair-minded negotiator with the Croats, with Maček accusing him of dealing in bad faith.

[37] In December 1937, Stojadinović visited Rome to meet Benito Mussolini and his son-in-law, the Foreign Minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, both of whom he regarded as friends.

In January 1938, Stojadinović visited Germany to meet Adolf Hitler and assured him that he was a personal admirer of der Führer who wanted much closer German-Yugoslav ties.

[41] Stojadinović's remarks during his visit to Berlin led to an explosive meeting with Raymond Brugère, the French minister upon his return to Belgrade.

[45] A day before the elections on 11 December 1938, Stojadinović told a group of journalists at a press conference in Belgrade that the JRZ's platform was: "One King, one nation, one state, prosperity at home, peace on the borders".

[6] In late 1938 he was re-elected, albeit with a smaller margin than expected, failed in pacifying the Croats, raised a military-like legion of his own followers ('Green Shirts'), and did not formulate any clear political programme, providing the regent Paul with a welcomed pretext upon which to replace Stojadinović, on 5 February 1939, with Dragiša Cvetković.

[46] Following his replacement, the Prince Regent went further by detaining Stojadinović without proper cause until he had managed, with the help of his strong personal ties to King George VI of the UK (who had been the Prince Regent's best man in 1923) to enlist the support of the United Kingdom to have Stojadinović sent into exile to the British Crown colony of Mauritius, where he was kept during World War II.

[47] The affluent lifestyle of Stojadinović in Buenos Aires suggested that the rumors of personal corruption on his part during his time as prime minister had some foundation in fact.