The Ethnicization of Agrarian Reforms: The Case of Interwar Yugoslavia
The Ethnicization of Agrarian Reforms: The Case of Interwar Yugoslavia

Summary/Abstract: Land reform is a legal means for settling the agrarian question. In central and South-Eastern Europe where farming is a major occupation, such reforms have served to nationalize – ethnically homogenize – the nation’s land. The analysis of such reforms in Yugoslavia during the period between the two world wars shows how land was systematically distributed in favour of those who were part of the titular nation while, at the same time, discriminating against ethnic minorities. Instead of settling the agrarian question, these reforms fuelled the conflict between ethno-national groups to the point of a quasi-civil war situation. The social memory of the discriminated groups is still today coined by these negative historical experiences, as the case of Kosovo shows.

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