Zagreb Resolution

It was adopted by representatives of opposition political parties in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia presided by Ante Pavelić in a meeting held in Zagreb on 2–3 March 1918.

Slovenian political leaders were dissatisfied with fragmentation of the Slovene Lands within Cisleithania (the Austrian part of the empire).

[7] In 1915, the Yugoslav Committee, an ad-hoc group of intellectuals and politicians from Austria-Hungary claiming to represent interests of South Slavs, learned that the Triple Entente promised the Kingdom of Italy territory (parts of the Slovene Lands, Istria, and Dalmatia) under the Treaty of London in exchange for Italian entry into World War I.

That year, Russia sued for peace following the Russian Revolution while the United States, whose President Woodrow Wilson advocated the principle of self-determination, entered the war.

The May Declaration was welcomed by the Mile Starčević faction of the Party of Rights (SSP) and Antun Bauer, the Archbishop of Zagreb at the time.

[2] In 1918, the Yugoslav Club launched an initiative to improve collaboration among political parties representing the South Slavs in Austria-Hungary and endorsing the programme of unification of Croats, Slovenes, and Serbs.

[13] In addition to the SSP, the meeting was attended by a group of HSK dissidents, a group of politicians affiliated with the Zagreb-based Catholic daily Novine, members of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia and Slavonia, the SLS, the National Progressive Party, as well as several politicians from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dalmatia, Istria, and Međimurje.

The first point of the resolution demanded independence, unification and liberty in a unified national state where the specificities of the Slovenes, the Croats and the Serbs would be preserved.

The resolution made no mention of Austria-Hungary as a predetermined framework for establishment of the demanded state or the Habsburgs as its rulers.

The fourth and final point of the resolution demanded that the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs be guaranteed participation at the future peace conference.

[19] On 29 October, the Croatian Sabor declared the severance of Croatia-Slavonia's and Dalmatia's legal ties with Austria and Hungary, annulled the 1868 Croatian–Hungarian Settlement and joining the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.