Why go
Rudolf Maister’s role in Maribor belongs to the struggle over Lower Styria after the empire’s dissolution. Southern Carinthia followed another course, with a referendum in 1920. Together, these histories explain why Slovene settlement, the boundaries of the new Yugoslav state and today’s national borders did not simply coincide.
The full story
During the First World War, the Declaration Movement pressed for South Slavic political autonomy under Habsburg rule. The empire’s collapse overtook that proposal. In October 1918, a National Council took power in Zagreb, followed by the declaration of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. On 1 December, that state united with Serbia to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The new political arrangement did not settle control of the borderlands. In November 1918, Rudolf Maister took Maribor and surrounding Lower Styrian territory in the name of the Yugoslav state. Fighting also spread through southern Carinthia, where forces reached Klagenfurt before withdrawing under the peace settlement. In the October 1920 referendum, most voters in the designated southern Carinthian area chose Austria. Slovene communities consequently remained on different sides of the new international boundary.