Serbia and Changes in the Concept of Citizenship in the Era of the First World War

Abstract

This article examines changes in the concept of citizenship that occurred during and after the First World War resulting from Serbia's enlargement and unification with other South Slav nations in the Yugoslav state. As the consequence of unification with former Habsburg territories and the stipulations of peace treaties with Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria, Serbia's liberal concept of citizenship was changed by the introduction of Heimatrecht or pertinenza and by the creation of a certain hierarchy among ethnicities that gave preference to South Slavs and Slavs in general. With the passing of the 1928 Law on Citizenship it became clear that the Yugoslav concept of citizenship had become more regressive relative to the notion of citizenship that had existed in the pre-war Serbian Kingdom.