Ante Trumbić (17 May 1864 – 17 November 1938) was a Yugoslav and Croatian lawyer and politician in the early 20th century.

Biography

Trumbić was born in Split in the Austrian crownland of Dalmatia and studied law at Zagreb, Vienna and Graz (with doctorate in 1890). He practiced as a lawyer, and then, from 1905 as the city mayor of Split. Trumbić was in favor of moderate reforms in Austro-Hungarian Slavic provinces. That included the unification of Dalmatia with Croatia-Slavonia demanded by the Trumbić helped draw up.

After the assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the invasion of Serbia by Austria-Hungary, Trumbić became the prominent Yugoslav nationalist leader during World War I, and led the Yugoslav Committee that lobbied the Allies to support the creation of an independent Yugoslavia. Trumbić negotiated with Serbian Prime Minister Nikola Pašić to have the Kingdom of Serbia support the creation of a Yugoslav state, which was delivered at the Corfu Declaration on 20 July 1917 that advocated the creation of a united state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes that would be led by the Serbian House of Karađorđević. Trumbić grew steadily disillusioned with the Yugoslav government over time which he saw as Serb-dominated. In November 1932 Trumbić edited the Zagreb Points, a series of demands put forth by the Peasant-Democratic coalition to counter Serbian hegemony.

With the arrest of Croatian Peasant Party leader Vladko Maček in April 1933 Trumbić and Josip Predavec became the caretaker heads of the party. With Predavec's assassination on 14 July, Trumbić was essentially the head of the party in Maček's absence.

thumb|[[Autochrome Lumière|Autochrome by Auguste Léon, 1919]]

According to Henri Pozzi, Trumbić later regretted the end of Austria-Hungary, as the South Slav state he had helped to create proved incapable of his intended reforms.

References

  • FirstWorldWar.com biography of Ante Trumbić
  • Leadership in Austria-Hungary during WWI