Included also should be the southern part of the Hungarian county known as Baranja, the triangle of land between Drava, Danube and the Hungarian border, an area of 114 square km that after loosing the war, following the ethnic principal, Hungary had to relinquish to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians which from 1929 was called Yugoslavia. This territory was relinquished via a treaty signed in Trianon. Baranja has in spite of Serbian attempts to increase their population density at the expense of its Croat and Hungarian ethnic groups retained its Croatian majority (22 740 Croats vs. 13 851 Serbs and 17 674 others).
Since 1918 the Government of Belgrade attempted to enforce a centralised rule over Yugoslavia with no regard to historical boundaries. The aim was to Serbify and assimilate all the constituent nations of Yugoslavia, especially Croatia. However in 1939 the Serbs were forced to loosen their grip on the other republics with the creation of the Croatian Banovina which comprised partly historical Croatian territory but also regions from Bosnia and Herzegovina which were inhabited by Croats. All of Eastern Slavonia and Western Srijem formed an integral part of this Banovina as well as all of the territory that today forms part of Croatia. Sid, a village which currently pertains to Serbia also comprised a part of the Croatian Banovina.
During the 2nd world war, Croatia acquired the status of independent state and comprised all of Slavonia, Srijem, Bosnia and Herzegovina except Istria and part of Dalmatia which was occupied by Italy. Baranja was once more taken by Hungary. Thus Eastern Croatia retained its historical borders instituted in 1918 when it entered the first Yugoslavia.
