History of Croatia
This is the
history of
Croatia.
The area known as
Croatia today has been inhabited throughout the prehistoric period, since the
Stone Age. In the middle
Paleolithic,
Neanderthals lived in Krapina. In the early
Neolithic period, the
StarÄevo,
VinÄa,
Sopot,
VuÄedol and
Hvar cultures were scattered around the region. The
Iron Age left traces of the
Hallstatt culture (proto-
Illyrians) and the
La Tène culture (proto-
Celts).
In recorded history, the area was inhabited by the
Illyrians, and since the
4th century BC also colonized by the
Celts and by the
Greeks. Illyria was a sovereign state until the
Romans conquered it in
168 BC. The Western Empire organized the
provinces of
Pannonia and
Dalmatia, which after its downfall passed to the
Huns, the
Ostrogoths and then to the
Byzantine Empire. Forebears of Croatia's current
Slav population settled there in the
7th century.
The
Croats arrived in what is today Croatia in the seventh century. They organized into two
dukedoms; the duchy of
Pannonian Croatia in the north and the duchy of
Littoral Croatia duchy in the south. The biggest part of
Christianization of the Croats ended in the
9th century.
Croatian duke
Trpimir I (845–864), founder of
Trpimirović dynasty, fought successfully against Bulgarians, and against Byzantine
strategos in
Zadar. He expanded his state in east to the
Drava River.The first native Croatian ruler recognized by a
pope was duke
Branimir, whom
Pope John VIII called
dux Chroatorum in 879.
 |
The inscription of duke Branimir, around 888. |
The first
King of Croatia,
Tomislav (910–928) of the Trpimirović dynasty, was crowned in
925. Tomislav,
rex Chroatorum, united the Pannonian and Dalmatian duchies and created a sizeable state. He defeated Bulgarian Tsar
Simeon I in
battle of the Bosnian Highlands. The
mediæval Croatian kingdom reached its peak during the reign of King
Petar KreÅ¡imir IV (1058–1074).
Following the disappearance of the major native dynasty by the end of the
11th century in the
Battle of Gvozd Mountain, the Croats eventually recognized the Hungarian ruler
Coloman as the common king for Croatia and
Hungary in a treaty of 1102 (often referred to as the
Pacta conventa).
[[Image:Tomislav.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Croatia during king {{Tomislav}}'s reign The size of Croatia was disputed by two Croatian historians Nada Klaic and Ivo Goldstein - see [
1] ]]
The consequences of the change to the Hungarian king included the introduction of
feudalism and the rise of the native noble families such as
Frankopan and
Šubić. The later kings sought to restore some of their previously lost influence by giving certain privileges to the towns. The primary governor of Croatian provinces was the
ban.
The princes of Bribir from the Šubić family became particularly influential, asserting control over large parts of
Dalmatia,
Slavonia and Bosnia. Later, however, the
Angevines intervened and restored royal power. They also sold the whole of
Dalmatia to
Venice in
1409.
As the
Turkish incursion into Europe started, Croatia once again became a border area. The Croats fought an increasing amount of battles and gradually lost increasing amounts of territory to the Ottoman Empire (
Battle of Krbava field).
The
1526 Battle of Mohács was a crucial event in which the rule of the
Jagiellon dynasty was shattered by the death of King
Louis II. The Ottoman Empire further expanded in the
16th century to include most of
Slavonia, western Bosnia and
Lika.
Later in the same century, large areas of Croatia and Slavonia adjacent to the Ottoman Empire were carved out into the
Military Frontier (
Vojna Krajina,
German Militaergrenze) and ruled directly from Vienna military headquarters. The area became rather deserted and was subsequently settled by
Serbs,
Vlachs,
Croats and
Germans and others. As a result of their compulsory military service to the Habsburg Empire during conflict with the
Ottoman Empire, the population in the Military Frontier was free of serfdom and enjoyed much political autonomy unlike the population living in the parts ruled by Hungary.
After the
Bihać fort finally fell in
1592, only small parts of Croatia remained unconquered. The remaining 16,800 km² were referred to as the
remnants of the remnants of the once great Croatian kingdom. The Ottoman army was successfully repelled for the first time on the territory of Croatia following the
battle of Sisak in
1593. The lost territory was mostly restored, except for large parts of today's
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The
Croats have participated in the
Thirty Years' War. They were remembered by brutality throughout the Protestant world. One Protestant church in Aachen still has a saying about Croats as they were remembered in common prayers of German people from that time: "God save us from hunger, Croats and plague!".
By the 1700s, the
Ottoman Empire was driven out of
Hungary and Croatia, and
Austria brought the empire under central control. Empress
Maria Theresia was supported by the Croatians in the
War of Austrian Succession of
1741â€"
1748 and subsequently made significant contributions to Croatian matters.
With the fall of the
Venetian Republic in
1797, its possessions in eastern
Adriatic became subject to a dispute between
France and Austria. The Habsburgs eventually secured them (by
1815) and Dalmatia and Istria became part of the empire, though they were in
Cisleithania while Croatia and Slavonia were under Hungary.
Croatian
romantic nationalism emerged in mid-
19th century to counteract the apparent Germanization and Magyarization of Croatia. The
Illyrian movement attracted a number of influential figures from
1830s on, and produced some important advances in the
Croatian language and culture.
Following
the Revolutions of 1848 in Habsburg areas and the creation of the dual monarchy of
Austria-Hungary, Croatia lost its domestic autonomy, despite the contributions of its ban
JelaÄić in quenching the Hungarian rebellion. Croatian autonomy was restored in
1868 with the Hungarianâ€"Croatian Settlement which wasn't particularly favorable for the Croatians.
Shortly before the end of the
First World War in
1918, the
Croatian Parliament severed relations with
Austria-Hungary as the
Entente armies defeated those of the Habsburgs.
Croatia and Slavonia' became a part of the
State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs composed out of all Southern Slavic territories of the now former
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with a transitional government headed in
Zagreb. Although the state inherited much of Austro-Hungary's military arsenal, including the entire fleet, the Kingdom of Italy moved rapidly to annex the state's most western territories, promised to her by the
Treaty of London of
1915. An Italian Army eventually took
Istria, started to annex the
Adriatic islands one by one, and even landed in
Zadar. After
Srijem left
Croatia and Slavonia and joined Serbia together with Vojvodina, which was shortly followed by a referendum to join Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia, the People's Council (
Narodno vijeće) of the state, guided by what was by that time a half a century long tradition of
pan-Slavism, joined the
Kingdom of Serbia into the
Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
The Kingdom underwent a crucial change in
1921 to the dismay of the Croatian political leadership led by the
Peasant Party of
Stjepan Radić. The new constitution abolished the historical/political entities, including Croatia and Slavonia centralizing authority in the capital of
Belgrade. The Croatian Peasent Party boycotted the government of the
Serbian Radical People's Party throughout the period, except for a brief interlude between
1925 and
1927, when external Italian expansionism was at hand with her allies,
Albania,
Hungary,
Romania and
Bulgaria that threatened Yugoslavia as a whole.
In
1928, Radić was mortally wounded during a Parliament session by
PuniÅ¡a RaÄić, a deputy of the Serbian Radical People's Party, which caused further upsets among the
Croatian elite. In
1929, King
Aleksandar proclaimed a dictatorship and imposed a new constitution which, among other things, renamed the country into the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The territory of Croatia was roughly composed out of the
Sava and
Littoral Banates.
In
1934, King Aleksandar was
assassinated abroad, in
Marseilles, by a coalition of two radical groups: the Croatian
Ustaše and the Macedonian pro-Bulgarian
VMORO. The
Serbian-
Croatian Cvetković-
MaÄek government that came to power, distanced Yugoslavia's former allies of
France and the
United Kingdom, and moved closer to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the period of
1935-
1941. A national
Banovina of Croatia was created in
1939 out of the two Banates, as well as parts of the Zeta,
Vrbas,
Drina and Danube Banates. It had a reconstructed
Croatian Parliament which would choose a Croatian
Ban and Viceban. This
Croatia included a part of
Bosnia (region), most of
Herzegovina and the city of
Dubrovnik and the surroundings.
The
Axis occupation of Yugoslavia in
1941 allowed the Croatian radical right
Ustaše party to come into power, forming the so-called "
Independent State of Croatia", led by
Ante Pavelić, he was styled (
Führer-like)
Poglavnik Nezavisne Drzave Hrvatske (i.e. Leader of the Independent State of Croatia). His fascist puppet regime enacted racial laws, formed eight concentration camps and started a campaign to exterminate Croatia's ethnic minorities (
Serbs,
Romas and
Jews in presice) and remove the
"enemies of the state". Up to 200,000 persons are estimated to have been killed in this campaign, most notably in the
Jasenovac extermination camp. This complex of internment and extermination camps was one of the larger sites of mass murder in occupied Europe.
The communist
anti-fascist partisan movement emerged early in
1941, under the command of
Josip Broz Tito, as in other parts of
Yugoslavia. Serbian
royalist guerilla ÄŒetnici were also formed.
By
1943, the communist Partisan resistance movement had gained the upper hand and in
1945, with the help of the Soviet
Red Army, expelled the Axis forces and local supporters. The
ZAVNOH, state anti-fascist council of people's liberation of Croatia, functioned since
1943 and formed an interim civil government.
Following the defeat of the Independent State of Croatia at the end of the war a large number of sympathisers (soldiers and civilians) attempted to flee in the direction of Austria where they were interned by British forces and then returned to the Partisans. A large number of these persons were killed in what has come to be called the
Bleiburg massacre.
Croatia became part of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in
1945, which was run by Tito's
Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Tito, himself a Croat, adopted a carefully contrived policy to manage the conflicting national ambitions of the Croats and Serbs.
Croatia was a
Socialist Republic part of a six-part federation. Under the new communist system, private property was
nationalized and the economy was based on a type of planned
market socialism. The country underwent a rebuilding process, recovered from WWII, went through
industrialization and started developing
tourism.
The constitution of
1963 balanced the power in the country between the Croats and the Serbs, and alleviated the fact that the Croats were again in a minority. Trends after
1965, however, led to the
Croatian Spring of
1970â€"
71, when students in Zagreb organized demonstrations for greater civil liberties and greater Croatian autonomy. The regime stifled the public protest and incarcerated the leaders, but this led to the ratification of a new Constitution in
1974, giving more rights to the individual republics.
In
1980, after Tito's death economic, political, and ethnic difficulties started to mount and the federal government began to crumble. The crisis in
Kosovo and, in
1986, the emergence of
Slobodan Milošević in Serbia provoked a very negative reaction in
Croatia and
Slovenia. As communist hegemony was challenged throughout Central and Eastern Europe calls for free multy-party elections were becoming louder.
In
1990, the
first free elections were held. A people's movement called the
Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won, led by
Franjo Tuđman General of Croatian WW2 antifascist movement, the Partisans. HDZ's intentions were to secure more independence for Croatia, contrary to the wishes of part of ethnic Serbs in the republic and official politics in Belgrade. The excessively polarized climate soon escalated into complete estrangement between the two nationalities and even sectarian violence.
In the summer of 1990, Serbs from the mountainous areas where they constitute a relative majority rebelled and formed an unrecognized "Autonomous Region of the Serb Krajina" (later the
Republic of Serbian Krajina). Any intervention by the Croatian police was obstructed by the
Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), mainly consisting of Serbs. The conflict culminated with the so-called "log revolution", when the so-called Krajina Serbs blocked the roads to the tourist destinations in
Dalmatia.
After the Croatian government had declared independence from Yugoslavia on
25 June 1991, the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) began military actions. Many Croatian cities, notably
Vukovar and
Dubrovnik, came under the attack of the Serbian forces. The
Croatian Parliament cut all remaining ties with Yugoslavia on
October 8, 1991.
The civilian population fled the areas of armed conflict
en masse: generally speaking, thousands of Croats moved away from the Bosnian and Serbian border, while thousands of Serbs moved towards it. In many places, masses of civilians were forced out by the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), which consisted mostly from conscripts from Serbia and Montenegro, and irregulars from Serbia, in what became known as
ethnic cleansing. Ethnic Serbs in Croatian-dominated parts of Croatia were similarly forced out by the Croatian army and irregular forces.
The border city of
Vukovar underwent a three month siege — the
Battle of Vukovar — during which most of the city was destroyed and a majority of the population was forced to flee. The city fell to the Serbian forces on
November 18, 1991. Some historians believe that the city could'e been spared and defended, but was left to "fend for itself" to gain sympathy votes from the west.
Subsequent
UN-sponsored cease-fires followed, and the warring parties mostly entrenched. The Yugoslav People's Army retreated from Croatia into Bosnia and Herzegovina where the
Bosnian War was just about to start. During 1992 and
1993, Croatia also handled estimated 700,000 of refugees from Bosnia, mainly Bosnia's Moslems.
Armed conflict in Croatia remained intermittent and mostly on a small scale until
1995. In early August, Croatia started the
Operation Storm and quickly reconquered most of the so-called "
Republic of Serbian Krajina", leading to a mass exodus of the Serbian population. An estimated 200,000-400,000 Serbs fled shortly before, during and after the operation. A few months later, as a result, the war ended upon the negotiation of the
Dayton Agreement. A peaceful integration of the remaining Serbian-controlled territories in Eastern
Slavonia was completed in
1998 under
UN supervision. Most of the Serbs expelled from the Krajina region have not returned.
President Tuđman died in late
1999. In February
2000,
Stjepan Mesić was elected president, ending the
HDZ's rule. The country underwent many liberal reforms beginning in
2000. An economic recovery as well as healing of many war wounds ensued and the country proceeded to become a member of several important regional and international organizations. The country has started the process of joining the
European Union, but a perceived lack of co-operation with the
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia concerning the tracking down of the indicted general
Ante Gotovina long formed difficulties. After Gotovina's capture on
8 December 2005 negotiations with the aim of Croatia joining the EU have begun, although no sooner than
2009.
*
List of rulers of Croatia *
History of present-day nations and states*
History of Europe*
History of the Mediterranean*
History of the Mediterranean region*
History of Hungary*
History of the Balkans*
Central Europe*
Austria-Hungary*
NDH*
History of Yugoslavia*
Balkans*
Short History of Croatia*
Overview of History, Culture and Science of Croatia*
WWW-VL History:Croatia*
History of Croatia*
Dr. Michael McAdams: Croatia â€" Myth and Reality*
History of Croatia as an introduction to the battle of Vukovar*
Historical Maps of Croatia*
Croatia under Tomislav -from Nada Klaic book*[
2]
