Bjelajac, Mile (2022) The Presence of the French Army in the Balkans at the End of the Great War and the creation of Yugoslavia. New Evidences and Controversies. In: Finir la Grande Guerre dans les Balkans 1918-1923. Institute for Balkan Studies, Belgrade, pp. 297-321. ISBN 978-86-7179-114-4

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Abstract

The historical assessment of the presence and the particular role of the french, italian and serbian armies in the aftermath of the armistice in the Balkans have had a long tradition. This paper offers a survey of the differences in the approach to the issue, especially in the light of the denials that the yugoslav project represented a historically authentic south slav movement and portrayals of it as an artificial project promulgated by french and serbian power. T he author of this paper tries to highlight the importance of the Allies’ victory at the macedonian (salonika) front and the far-reaching consequences of the end of the first World War and strengthening of the yugoslav movement in montenegro and the habsburg monarchy in its final days. The author emphasizes the fact that the scarce and scattered serbian detachments would not have been able to impose unification if the majority of the south slav population had been opposed to it in november and december 1918. The french army acted principally in the directions of Bulgaria, romania, ukraine, and hungary. only small detachments were sent to rijeka (fiume), split, Bay of kotor (cattaro), and skadar (scutari). The predominant force was the italian one. however, the commander-in-chief of the Allied Army of the orient, General franchet d’espèrey, did his best to support the serbian or yugoslav cause, sometimes even against the instructions he received from Prime minister clemenceau.

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