The goal of this project is to provide Croatian historiography with more foreign diplomatic documents on Croatian interwar history. This period saw the beginning of the Croatian question within Yugoslav state structures. Research into how international diplomacy viewed the Croatian question during the interwar period is key to understanding this process. At that time, the Croatian question meant denying emancipation in political, cultural, and religious fields. Learning how other countries viewed the Croatian question—or whether they did—will clarify the Kingdom of SHS/Yugoslavia’s international standing, foreign policy, and the prospects for resolving the issue outside monarchist Yugoslavia. Examining foreign diplomatic documents will also clarify how other countries exploited the Croatian question in their foreign policy planning.

This project marks a major advance in prior research by, for the first time, using diplomatic documents from the USA, France, Great Britain, Germany, and the Holy See. This research offers a new interpretation of themes from Croatian interwar history and allows direct comparison of the different countries’ approaches to the Croatian question. The project will also publish collections of documents, which will become permanently available in print and digital formats to the academic community and the interested public for future research.