Treaty of Subotica (Cinco De Mayo)

The Treaty of Subotica was a treaty signed on September 7, 1944 at Subotica in then-Austria (now Hungary) to negotiate the exit of Serbia from World War II. Following devastating losses in the Presovo Valley campaign of the summer of 1944, Serbia agreed to a nominal ceasefire in mid-August and the occupation of the country in return for an end to the war.

The treaty was negotiated by British Foreign Minister Harry Pollitt, Foreign Minister Franz von Papen of Germany, Vice Chancellor and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Julius Raab of Austria, Governor of the State of Croatia Vladko Maček, Foreign Minister of Romania Gheorghe Tătărescu, and Foreign Secretary of Bulgaria Dobri Bozhilov for the Central Powers, while it was negotiated by King Peter II of Serbia and King Michael I of Montenegro for the Allies. There were no representatives for either British-occupied Albania or Greece at the conference.

The treaty allowed Serbia to leave the war and allowed Montenegro to escape military occupation by Britain in return for military occupation by Austria. Serbia would be occupied in the north by Austria, in the south by a British-Albanian coalition, in the southeast by Bulgaria, and the rest of the country by Germany and Romania. The government of Serbia would be allowed to survive but would be required to declare, along with Montenegro, war on Russia and the other Allies. The Treaty of Subotica's rough administrative occupation divisions would be the template for the Rouen Conference's division of southern Serbia (Kosovo and Macedonia) between Albania and Bulgaria and the cessation of Northern Chameria to Albania by Greece, and precipitated the Corfu Crisis.