During WW2, Yugoslavia was attacked by the axis and relentlessly carved between various axis-aligned states. However, not all of the yugoslav populace was chummy with the axis occuptaion, and formed a resistance movement collectively known as the yugoslav partisans. For most of the war, the yugoslav partisans remained a harassment force, if still dedicated to liberating their country. Tito's socialist partisans eventually gained a good reputation and were admitted as the official government of post-war Yugoslavia after defeating the axis puppet states in the region.
So, how do we make the Yugoslav partisans more successful than OTL, up to the point of occupying enough of Yugoslavia to harass Italy? Above all, how do we make them successful enough for them to receive territorial concessions as spoils of war, especially the territory of Friuli?
To which yugoslav state would Friuli be awarded, or would it be admitted as an independent ethnic italian state? If the former option is used, would an expulsion of the italians be needed in the territory, like how the germans were expulsed from their former eastern territories?
 
What if there was a partition? The Royalist Chetniks got a bad rap. Perhaps there is a tricamerial approach. A larger tito run state, A monarchist Taiwan style bulwark in the south and Trieste as a Bosnian style refuges.
 
There are lots of things the Yugoslav Communist Party could have done in the interwar period to swell its ranks and improve its popularity and the popularity the Partisans as a resistance movement. It could have taken a principled stand against the Axis in 1939 instead of muttering something about "Franco-British imperialism" or whatever; or avoided flirting with far-right separatist movement.

There are also things the Royal Yugoslav Government could have done to improve the Communists' credibility - by discrediting itself. For example, if it waits too long to pivot towards the Axis, and ends up being forced to make humiliating territorial concessions in some sort of a Third Vienna Award. Then there's a coup and an invasion like in OTL, but this time a lot of people would have totally lost trust in the Royal government(-in-exile) and will opt for the Partisans instead.

If Friuli became a part of Yugoslavia, it would have been awarded to Slovenia. Expulsion of the Italians wouldn't have been neccessary, but just because it's not necessary doesn't mean Tito won't do it. The Communist government expelled most Italians IOTL, after all.
 
There are lots of things the Yugoslav Communist Party could have done in the interwar period to swell its ranks and improve its popularity and the popularity the Partisans as a resistance movement. It could have taken a principled stand against the Axis in 1939 instead of muttering something about "Franco-British imperialism" or whatever; or avoided flirting with far-right separatist movement.

There are also things the Royal Yugoslav Government could have done to improve the Communists' credibility - by discrediting itself. For example, if it waits too long to pivot towards the Axis, and ends up being forced to make humiliating territorial concessions in some sort of a Third Vienna Award. Then there's a coup and an invasion like in OTL, but this time a lot of people would have totally lost trust in the Royal government(-in-exile) and will opt for the Partisans instead.

Is there a necessity for the chetniks to be weakened in order for the socialist partisans to get stronger?
 
Is there a necessity for the chetniks to be weakened in order for the socialist partisans to get stronger?

I think so. Though there may be another option: make the Axis occupation regimes even worse, by a whole order of magnitude. That would swell the ranks of both Partisans and Chetniks, and probably blur the dividing line between them until there's a single massive resistance movement with unclear ideological principles.

Strangely enough, the Chetnik leadership also wanted to annex Friuli (about half of it) and award it to a Greater Slovenia.
 
The most I could see Yugoslavia getting would be Slavia Friulana. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavia_Friulana The rest of Friuli is just too Italian or at least Friulian, but in any event not Slav. The western powers would certainly be opposed to Yugoslavia getting most of Friuli, and even Stalin would not want to appear to be too anti-Italian, lest he hurt the chances of the Italian Communist Party.
 
The very most I can imagine the Yugoslavs getting would be Trieste and the above-mentioned Slavic areas. That, a major port and the last Slovene irredenta, would be it. Why would Yugoslavia have any interest in controlling this non-Slavic territory?
 
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