Germany put pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Tripartite Pact, which Prince Paul of Yugoslavia accepted on 25 March. Demonstrations against the decision soon broke out and a coup d'état was launched on 27 March. Hitler took the coup as a personal insult and launched the invasion of Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941. Most Croat soldiers in the Yugoslav Army did not feel Yugoslavia as their country and refused to fight for it. The Germans tried to persuade Maček to proclaim the independence of Croatia under the patronage of Germany, but he refused it, so they decided to support the Ustaše instead. Maček returned to Zagreb from Belgrade when the invasion began to help maintain order. His support was not as high in Zagreb as in the rest of Croatia, and many in the city had already switched allegiance to the Ustaše.