POLITICAL ETHNOGRAPHY AND SERB INTELLECTUAL ELITE IN THE ERA OF THE CREATION OF YUGOSLAVIA (1914 – 1919) – A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present intellectual, cultural and political circumstances in Serbia on the eve of World War 1 and during this war. Special attention will be given to intellectual elite of the Kingdom of Serbia and its attitudes toward the so-called “Yugoslav idea”, which refers to the concept of unification of South Slavic peoples within one independent monarchy. Notions on territorial borders and centers of administrative control and political governing of such a state varied depending on foreign and national political contexts, as well as individual approaches to the solution of the “Yugoslav question”. Thus, this paper will mainly comment the merger of the Serbian political and intellectual elite of the era with regard to the general organization of the future state ew given to the intensive scientific and political engagement of the Serbian geographer Jovan Cvijić.