From 1929, the Kingdom was subdivided into nine new provinces called banovinas or banates. Their borders were intentionally drawn so that they would not correspond either to boundaries between ethnic groups, or to pre-World War I imperial borders. They were named after various geographic features, mostly rivers. Slight changes to their borders were made in 1931 with the new Yugoslav Constitution. The banovinas were as follows: Danube Banovina (Dunavska banovina), with its capital in Novi Sad Drava Banovina (Dravska banovina), with its capital in Ljubljana Drina Banovina (Drinska banovina), with its capital in Sarajevo Littoral Banovina (Primorska banovina), with its capital in Split Morava Banovina (Moravska banovina), with its capital in Niš Sava Banovina (Savska banovina), with its capital in Zagreb Vardar Banovina (Vardarska banovina), with its capital in Skopje Vrbas Banovina (Vrbaska banovina), with its capital in Banja Luka Zeta Banovina (Zetska banovina), with its capital in Cetinje The City of Belgrade, together with Zemun and Pančevo was also an administrative unit independent of the banovinas. Banovina of Croatia: 1939-1941 As an accommodation to Yugoslav Croats in the Cvetković-Maček Agreement, the Banovina of Croatia (Banovina Hrvatska) was formed in 1939 from a merger of the Maritime and Sava Banovinas, with some additional territory from the Drina, Dunav, Vrbas and Zeta Banovinas. Like Sava, its capital was Zagreb.
Banovina of Croatia: 1939-1941
As an accommodation to Yugoslav Croats in the Cvetković-Maček Agreement, the Banovina of Croatia (Banovina Hrvatska) was formed in 1939 from a merger of the Maritime and Sava Banovinas, with some additional territory from the Drina, Dunav, Vrbas and Zeta Banovinas. Like Sava, its capital was Zagreb.
In 1941, the World War II Axis Powers occupied the Banovina of Croatia and the province was abolished. Some of the coastal areas from Split to Zadar and near the Gulf of Kotor were annexed by Fascist Italy but the remainder became a part of the Independent State of Croatia. Following World War II, the region was divided between new states of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia (autonomous Vojvodina province) within a federal Socialist Yugoslavia.
The banovinas of Yugoslavia, established in 1929, deliberately avoided following ethnic or religious boundaries which resulted in the country's ethnic Croats, like other ethnic groups, being divided among several banovinas. Following a struggle within the unitary Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Croat leaders won autonomy for a new ethnic-based banovina with the Cvetković-Maček Agreement.
