This article looks at the transition of the Habsburg South Slav lands, in particular Croatia, from empire into (Yugoslav) nation-state from 1917 to 1923, and the violence which attended it. While this transition was less cataclysmic in the South Slav lands than in other parts of the former Habsburg Empire, patterns of paramilitary violence and counter-revolution similar to those elsewhere in Europe were also present here. The article looks at these patterns from a transnational perspective and shows that although state control was effectively restored in Croatia by 1923, paramilitary networks forged during 1917–23 would return as Yugoslavia faced greater external threats and internal disequilibrium in the 1930s.