The catastrophe of April 1941 resulted in the division and occupation of Yugoslavia.In the opinion of the Axis Powers and those arguing for the »New Order«, Yugoslavia was nothing more than an »artificial creation from Versailles«,therefore during the distribution of its state property it was only referred to asthe »former Yugoslav space«. According to their view the situation only calledfor the vanquishing of Yugoslavia. However, this attitude to the Yugoslav questionhad not been adopted by the Allied Forces, which kept acknowledging thelegitimacy and legality of the Yugoslav representation of the Yugoslav King’sgovernment in London, similarly as the other governments-in-exile (e.g. Polish,Czechoslovak, etc.). Therefore among the Allies of the anti-Axis coalition,formally and legally (de iure) the continuity of the Yugoslav state was uninterrupted.With the April War the situation of the Slovenian nation, which was not onlyoccupied but also divided between the occupiers from the neighbouring states,became especially hard. The future intended for the Slovenian nation in theplans outlined by the Axis Powers was not only evident from the occupiers’denationalisation measures, but also from, for example, the agreement on succession,which – unlike Croatia and Serbia – refrained from even mentioningSlovenia or Slovenians. This was an additional argument for the opinion that inthe long term Slovenians as an ethnic unit were not meant to exist in the »New«European Order. With the establishment of the Independent State of Croatiathe physical contacts with the other Yugoslav nations were severed. Sloveniansremained alone and their future was up to themselves.In such difficult circumstances the occupation represented a completely newsituation for the inhabitants of Slovenia. Gradually everyone became aware thatwith the April War the pre-war political and value system in general was over.Naturally, this did not imply, in the opinion of everyone, that the change of thepre-war distribution of the political power would have to be accepted. Thus onthe other hand new possibilities presented themselves for a new outlook on thefurther life of the nation, and therefore the national goals had to be redefined.An impression was created in the Slovenian public that a whole range of issueshad been left open and that they provided an opportunity for the realisation of»all« national demands. In this sense the questions of the borders, initially alsothe state framework, and later the internal system of the common state were themost important. Immoderate optimism prevailed, failing to take into account thewider international framework and constellation of forces, which importantlyand in some aspects also decisively influenced the situation and were oppositeto expectations in many regards.Despite the fact that an internal conflict between two opposing camps alsobroke out in Slovenia, during the occupation a similar national-political programmedeveloped on both sides. It still involved the United Slovenia (unificationof the whole of ethnic territory into a unit), an uncontested national-politicalideal dating back to the Spring of Nations of 1848, which could manifest itselfin the restored federally organised and extended Yugoslav state. However, thegenesis of the programmes and their understanding (especially with regard tothe degree of federalism) differed in the two conflicting camps. Besides thepublicly proclaimed national-political programme, common to all of the keypolitical actors, a few exceptions also arose. Everyone refused any Central Europeancombinations where Slovenians would have to co-exist with Germans,Hungarians and/or Italians; and the restoration of the Habsburg Monarchy wasrefused resolutely as well.