On November 12

On this day in ...
... 1920 (90 years ago today), at a town near Genoa, the Treaty of Rapallo was signed (right) by the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes and the Kingdom of Italy. (ohoto credit) By the terms of the treaty a number of territories, containing populations of varying ethnicities, were annexed to Italy. An independent state known as Fiume also was established; later it became part of Yugoslavia.

(Prior November 12 posts are here, here, and here.)

On May 29

On this day in ...
... 1919, a group led by a former schoolmaster who'd fought in World War I invoked the self-determination provision in U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech, and declared the independent Republic of Prekmurje, the land (left) on which they lived, in southeastern Europe. (photo credit) Their effort was short-lived: within weeks the territory was "incorporated" into the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes created in the wake of the war. Later it was part of Yugoslavia. Today it's the eastermost tip of Slovenia.

(Prior May 29 posts are here, here, and here.)

On February 16

On this day in ...
... 1933, in Geneva, Switzerland, the foreign ministers of Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia signed the Pacte d'organisation de la Petite Entente, aimed at strengthening economic and political ties among the 3 Central European countries. The treatymakers pledged to act consistently with international instruments, chief among them the Covenant of the League of Nations.

(Prior February 16 posts are here, here, and here)

On May 22

On this day in ...

... 1992, the General Assembly resolutions admitted 3 new U.N. member states, Bosnia, Croatia, and Slovenia. All formerly had been part of the state then known as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but broke off, following armed conflicts of varying length and brutality, in the aftermath of the 1980 death of Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, who'd ruled the SFRY with an iron hand since 1953. (map credit)

... 1762, the empires of Sweden and Prussia concluded the Treaty of Hamburg, bringing an end to conflict between the 2 countries during the Seven Years War (1756-63) and returning to the territorial status quo as it had existed between those countries before that war began. The alliance was desired by Prussia after it had broken off relations with the Russian empire.

(Prior May 22 posts are here and here.)

On January 31

On this day in ...
... 1946, a new Constitution proclaimed the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia. States in the West "recognized the new government, although it was clear that the regime was pro-Soviet." The document created a federal system comprising 6 constituent republics -- Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia -- plus 2 autonomous provinces -- Vojvodina and Kosovo. (map credit)
... 1945, the International Air Transit Services Agreement entered into force. Typically called the Chicago Convention in recognition of the city where it'd been signed a year earlier, the Agreement establishes the rights of nation-states over their territorial airspace and their civil aircraft. It has 129 states parties, the United States among them.