WI Slovenia gets more of Carinthia

Panhomo

After WW1 the southern austrian border was determined by plebiscite. Southern Carinthia was predominantly ethnically and linguistically slovenian, but narrowly voted to remain in austria. What if they had instead voted to leave?

Slovenia's area and population would both increase by about 25%. Serbs would be somewhat less dominant in Yugoslavia.

Assuming the nazis appear and behave much as OTL, their will probably be german irredentism extended to carinthia, especially after anschluss. Occupation might be even harsher than OTL. If WW2 plays out similarly to OTL Slovenia/Yugoslavia will probably behave as Poland and Czechoslovakia, that is expel most ethnic germans.

Will the Austrian and Italian, maybe even hungarian borders, be changed from OTL after WW2? What other changes might we see up to the present day?
 

Hrvatskiwi

Panhomo said:
After WW1 the southern austrian border was determined by plebiscite. Southern Carinthia was predominantly ethnically and linguistically slovenian, but narrowly voted to remain in austria. What if they had instead voted to leave?

Slovenia's area and population would both increase by about 25%. Serbs would be somewhat less dominant in Yugoslavia.

Assuming the nazis appear and behave much as OTL, their will probably be german irredentism extended to carinthia, especially after anschluss. Occupation might be even harsher than OTL. If WW2 plays out similarly to OTL Slovenia/Yugoslavia will probably behave as Poland and Czechoslovakia, that is expel most ethnic germans.

Will the Austrian and Italian, maybe even hungarian borders, be changed from OTL after WW2? What other changes might we see up to the present day?
Click to expand...

German irredentism did extent to Carinthia, as they incorporated most of Slovenia proper into the Grossdeutsches Reich during the war. Also a lot of Volksdeutsche (although admittedly not as thoroughly as in Poland and Czechoslovakia were expelled or at least compelled to leave.
 

Panhomo

Hrvatskiwi said:
German irredentism did extent to Carinthia, as they incorporated most of Slovenia proper into the Grossdeutsches Reich during the war. Also a lot of Volksdeutsche (although admittedly not as thoroughly as in Poland and Czechoslovakia were expelled or at least compelled to leave.
Click to expand...

I'm just using wikipedia so you may well be right, but according to the wiki germany only occupied about half of slovenia, and never actually incorporated it as a direct part of the reich like they did to luxembourg.
 

Hrvatskiwi

Panhomo said:
I'm just using wikipedia so you may well be right, but according to the wiki germany only occupied about half of slovenia, and never actually incorporated it as a direct part of the reich like they did to luxembourg.
Click to expand...

Also from Wikipedia (the "Slovene Lands in World War II" page):

"
The Nazis had a plan of ethnic cleansing of northern Slovenia, with the exception of north-eastern part that was occupied by Hungary, and they resettled or chased away Slovene civil population to the puppet states of Nedić's Serbia and NDH. Because Hitler opposed having the ethnic German Gottscheers in the Italian occupation zone, they were moved out of it. About 46,000 Slovenes were transported to Saxony in Germany in order to make space for the relocated Gottscheers.

The majority of Slovene victims during the war were from the northern Slovenia, i.e. Lower Styria, Upper Carniola, Central Sava Valley, and Slovenian Carinthia. However, their formal annexation to the "German Reich" was postponed because of the installation of the new "Gauleiter" and "Reichsstatthalter" of Carinthia first, and later the Nazis dropped the plan because of the Slovene Partisans, with which they wanted to deal first. Only Meža valley initially became part of "Reichsgau Carinthia". "

So basically, they intended to fully annex Slovenia, but only didn't officially go through with it because that would basically evaporate their ability to gain any support from collaborationists like the Slovene Home Guard.
 
Neoteros

Neoteros

Hard mode: Slovenia gets all of this.

800px-Zemljovid_slovenske_de%C5%BEele_in_pokrajin_%28Original%29.jpg
 

rfmcdonald

Neoteros said:
Hard mode: Slovenia gets all of this.

800px-Zemljovid_slovenske_de%C5%BEele_in_pokrajin_%28Original%29.jpg
Click to expand...

That would be substantial, and low-probability given that these frontiers would bring Slovenes into conflict with all of their neighbours. (The Croats are not likely to give up Istria and surrounding districts.)

If southern Carinthia got added to Yugoslav Slovenia, my guess is that unless something unlikely happened the territory would share in the history of the Slovene lands: partition and occupation, here entirely by Nazi Germany, followed by civil war between the Home Guard and Partisans. Eventually, we'll see a collapse of Nazi rule, the return of Yugoslav rule to this territory, and an expulsion of local ethnic Germans akin to that which occurred in the Gottschee enclave in southern Slovenia. I don't see a Slovenian south Carinthia doing much to change events elsewhere--Trieste's fate does not seem liable to change.

The existence of a larger contingent of German refugees from Slovenia may worsen Austria-Slovenia relations, or it may not.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top