I | INTRODUCTION |
Croatia (Croatian Hrvatska), country in
southeastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Formerly one of the six republics
of Yugoslavia, Croatia declared its independence in 1991. Zagreb is the capital
and largest city.
Croatia is located on the eastern side of the
Adriatic Sea, across from Italy. The nation is shaped like the letter V
lying on its side. Inside the V, to the southeast, is the country of
Bosnia and Herzegovina (often called Bosnia); Croatia’s northern border faces
Slovenia and Hungary; to the east lie Serbia and Montenegro.
Croatia has a long coastline on the Adriatic
Sea. More than 1,000 small islands fringe the coast and form part of Croatia’s
territory. The scenic beauty of the Adriatic coast and the country’s rich
cultural traditions attract more than 6 million tourists every year.
In addition to tourism, the Croatian economy
is balanced between industry, manufacturing, and agriculture. The country is
rich in mineral resources, including petroleum, coal, and natural gas.
The people of Croatia are mainly ethnic
Croats. Until 1991 about 10 percent of the population was ethnic Serbs, along
with a much smaller percentage of Hungarians and Italians. In mid-1991 fighting
broke out between Croatian forces and Serb forces aided by the Serb-dominated
Yugoslav Army. Thousands of people died and much of the country was heavily
damaged. A peace accord reached in late 1995 ended the war. Since then, Croatia
has worked to rebuild its economy and infrastructure. See also Wars of
Yugoslav Succession.
II | LAND AND RESOURCES OF CROATIA |
The total area of Croatia is 56,510 sq km
(21,819 sq mi). The country’s diverse terrain includes flat plains, low
mountains, offshore islands, and a coastline, excluding the islands, that
extends 1,778 km (1,105 mi).
Eastern Croatia, including the historic area
of Slavonia, is part of the Pannonian Plain, a low-lying, fertile, agricultural
region. In the west is Dalmatia, a narrow, barren strip of land within the
Dinaric Alps that slopes down to the Adriatic Sea. The Karst, a barren limestone
plateau, dominates the Croatian landscape in some areas; the island of Pag
consists almost entirely of karst terrain. The Dinaric Alps contain several
parallel mountain ranges. The highest peak, on the border with Bosnia, is Mount
Troglav at 1,913 m (6,276 ft).
The coastal range is partially submerged,
creating numerous bays, gulfs, inlets, and more than 1,000 offshore islands. The
historic area of Istria, a peninsula that stretches out into the Adriatic from
Slovenia, lies to the north and west of Dalmatia.
A | Rivers |
Croatia’s chief rivers are the Sava, Drava,
Danube, and Kupa. Both the Drava and the Sava drain the Pannonian Plain and flow
into the Danube, one of the most important waterways in Europe. The Danube forms
part of Croatia’s eastern border with Serbia. The Kupa, smaller than the other
three rivers, flows east along the Slovenian border into central Croatia, where
it joins the Sava.
B | Climate |
Climatically, Croatia may be divided into
four regions: Pannonian, Dinaric mountain, Adriatic, and Mediterranean. The
Pannonian climate, with hot summers and cold winters, prevails in Slavonia. The
Mediterranean climate, with warm, almost rainless summers and mild winters,
prevails in the coastal area to the south of the city of Split.
The coastal area to the north of Split is
characterized by a so-called Adriatic climate, which differs from the
Mediterranean chiefly by the prevalence in winter of drier weather, often
brought in from the northeast by a cold and turbulent air mass called the
bura. The Dinaric mountain climate of the Adriatic hinterland is
characterized by moderate summers and winters and fairly high rainfall.
The average temperature in Zagreb, an
inland city, is 0°C (32°F) in January and 24°C (75°F) in July. In Dubrovnik, a
city on the coast, the average is 9°C (48°F) in January and 25°C (77°F) in July.
C | Plant and Animal Life |
Like the climate, the country’s vegetation
is highly varied, from grape vines and olive trees in Dalmatia to oak forests in
Slavonia. Animal life is diverse, ranging from species of snail and lizard near
the coast to wolf and bear in the mainland forests. Hare, fox, lynx, weasel,
otter, deer, marten, boar, wildcat, and mouflon (wild sheep) also inhabit
Croatia. The Adriatic basin is rich in sea life.
D | Natural Resources |
Petroleum, coal, bauxite, low-grade iron
ore, and china clay (kaolin) are the most abundant natural resources found in
Croatia. Croatia also has deposits of calcium, natural asphalt, silica (see
silicon), mica, and salt.
E | Environmental Issues |
Air pollution and water pollution are
significant problems in Croatia, as in the rest of eastern Europe. There is also
coastal pollution due to industrial waste.
Croatia’s Sava River Valley contains
three bird sanctuaries, two of which are part of the Lonjsko Polje Nature Park.
The floodplain of the Sava River is extensive, resulting in wetlands that
provide a habitat for numerous plant and animal species. These wetlands are at
risk as a result of encroaching agriculture, drainage and land reclamation, and
water pollution.
Croatia protects a higher percentage of
its land in parks than many of the country’s eastern European neighbors, yet
much less than many western European countries. Forests make up 38 percent
(2005) of the country’s land area. Industrial air pollution, much of which comes
from cities outside Croatia, causes acid rain that is damaging to the forests.
III | PEOPLE OF CROATIA |
The total population of Croatia at the time
of the 1991 census was 4,784,265; a 2008 estimate was 4,491,543. During and
after the war ethnic Serbs fled Croatia while ethnic Croats moved in. Croatia’s
population growth rate in 2008 was -0.04 percent, despite population gains due
to immigration. Croatia’s natural population growth rate, which measures births
and deaths, has been negative since 1998. Life expectancy at birth was 75 years
in 2008.
The population density in 2008 was 80 persons
per sq km (206 per sq mi). In 2005, 60 percent of the population was urban. Most
of the urban population is concentrated in four cities: Zagreb, the country’s
capital and primary industrial center; Split, a seaport; Rijeka, also a seaport;
and the agricultural and industrial center of Osijek.
A | Ethnic Groups and Language |
The population of Croatia is
overwhelmingly ethnic Croat. Ethnic Serbs constitute the most significant
minority group, making up about 5 percent of all residents. There are also small
populations of Muslims, Hungarians, Slovenes, Italians, and others. The primary
difference between Croats and Serbs is religion: by tradition, Croats are Roman
Catholic while Serbs are Orthodox Christians.
The official language is Croatian, a
South Slavic language that is closely related to Bosnian and Serbian. In
Croatia, the Latin script is used virtually exclusively. Formal literary
Croatian has a number of differences from the formal Bosnian and Serbian
literary dialects, just as literary British English differs in detail from U.S.
literary standards. In Istria, northwestern Croatia, the Italian language shares
official status with Croatian.
At the time of the 1991 census, which
reflected the prewar population, ethnic Croats constituted 78 percent of the
Croatian population, while ethnic Serbs made up 12 percent. During the war, most
of the Serb population fled to Serbia and Bosnia, as well as other countries,
especially during and after successful Croatian military offensives in 1995. The
agricultural regions of Lika and Kordun, previously populated mainly by ethnic
Serbs, were almost deserted. When the last regions under Serb control, eastern
Slavonia and Baranja, were restored to Croatian government control in early
1998, many of the Serb residents there also left. Meanwhile, from 1991 to 1998
several hundred thousand ethnic Croats migrated to Croatia from Serbia and from
Serb- or Muslim-controlled parts of Bosnia. Some Croatian Serbs returned in the
early 21st century, but the overall effect of the population movements during
the Yugoslav wars was to make the population of Croatia nearly 90 percent ethnic
Croat.
B | Religion |
The Communist government of the former
Yugoslavia repressed religion, but the Roman Catholic Church has enjoyed strong
state support in Croatia since the fall of communism. Other religions are freely
practiced, including Orthodox and Protestant Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Since religion is linked to ethnic identity, however, the non-Catholic portion
of the population remains small relative to the number of Catholics.
C | Education |
Preschool, elementary, and secondary
education is free to all citizens, and compulsory from ages 7 to 14. The
literacy rate was 98.7 percent in 2005. Institutes of higher learning in Croatia
include the University of Zagreb (founded in 1669), the University of Rijeka
(1973), the Josip Juraj Strossmeyer University of Osijek (1975), and the
University of Split (1974).
D | Way of Life |
While the population is increasingly
homogenous ethnically, regional identities remain important, especially in the
coastal Dalmatian region. Croatian folk songs display regional variations. Along
the Dalmatian coast, for example, folk songs closely resemble their Italian
counterparts. Elsewhere, indigenous Slavic or Hungarian influences predominate.
The traditional dances of Croatia include the fast-paced kolo (circle)
dance. Many in Croatia enjoy jazz festivals and classical music, while Croatian
popular music groups are also renowned in Croatia and surrounding regions.
Croatian cuisine reflects Austrian and
Hungarian influences, but has its own character. Local specialties include fried
cheese, chicken á la Backa (prepared with tomatoes, paprika, and onions), Zagreb
veal cutlet, and gibanica, a layered cheese pastry. The Dalmatian coast
produces excellent seafood and wines. The origin of the famous zinfandel grape
of California has been traced to Dalmatia, and the post-Communist Croatian wine
industry is rapidly improving its standards for quality and marketing.
The People section of this article was
contributed by Robert M. Hayden.
IV | CULTURE OF CROATIA |
The regions that make up Croatia were not
unified historically, so the country’s arts show a mix of influences. The
Dalmatian coast was long connected with Italy, and architectural marvels from
Roman times can still be found in Dalmatia. Split, for example, contains the
remains of the Roman emperor Diocletian's palace, while the ruins of a Roman
amphitheater lie in Pula. Medieval walls and fortifications distinguish the
southern city of Dubrovnik, which was an independent city-state until the early
19th century. Continental Croatia, as part of Austria-Hungary, had its own
regional identity but much of its art and literature followed the empire’s
styles. Croatian folk music remained linked to its locale, with styles differing
greatly between Dalmatia and other regions.
Influenced by the Italian Renaissance,
Croatian literature blossomed in Dubrovnik in the 16th and 17th centuries, with
poems by Ivan Gundulić and Marko Marulić, and plays by Marin Držić. By the 19th
century Croatian literature, like that of most other central European peoples,
was dominated by themes of national liberation. Some of these took the form of
promoting the Yugoslav idea of a common state for the South Slavic peoples,
originally a Croatian idea. Other writers stressed the need for a sovereign,
independent Croatian state. The tension between these two nationalist ideas
continued from the second half of the 19th century until 1991, when the Yugoslav
idea was completely lost with the establishment of independent Croatia.
Prior to 1991 Miroslav Krleža was generally
regarded as the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. However, Krleža
was closely associated with Yugoslavism, and after Yugoslavia broke apart his
works lost popularity in Croatia. Dubravka Ugrešić and Slavenka Drakulić
established international reputations during the breakup of Yugoslavia, but they
were criticized for being antinationalist and live outside of Croatia. See
also Yugoslav Literature.
The sculptor Ivan Meštrović developed a
worldwide reputation, and in the early 1900s promoted the establishment of a
Yugoslav state. He emigrated from Croatia to the United States after World War
II. Museums dedicated to his work are located in Split and Zagreb. Josip
Generalic and other Croatian painters have also developed an international
reputation with their naive style (simple, straightforward
technique).
The Culture section of this article was
contributed by Robert M. Hayden.
V | ECONOMY OF CROATIA |
Before the disintegration of Yugoslavia in
1991, Croatia was the federation’s second most prosperous and industrialized
republic after Slovenia, with a per capita output approximately one-third above
the Yugoslav average. Although Croatia was part of a Communist, one-party system
from the mid-1940s until 1990, Yugoslav socialism was decentralized.
Enterprises, although under state ownership and control and subject to
occasional political interference, were generally free to make their own pricing
and investment decisions and allowed to compete with one another.
Before the war in 1991 nearly two-thirds of
Croatia’s land was under cultivation. Sugar beets, wheat, oats, rye, barley, and
corn were the principal agricultural products. Mining, notably of bauxite and
brown coal (see lignite), played some role in Croatia’s socialist
economy. Other industries included food processing, petroleum refining, iron and
steel production, shipbuilding, and the manufacture of chemicals, machinery,
cement and concrete, metals, and textiles. Croatia also enjoyed a thriving
tourist industry along the Dalmatian coast.
A | War and Economic Decline |
With the outbreak of war in 1991, Croatia’s
economy went into steep decline (see Wars of Yugoslav Succession). The
country’s gross domestic product (GDP) began a downward spiral, falling from
$12.4 billion in 1991 to $9.9 billion in 1992. Inflation levels soared, rising
from around 120 percent in 1991 to nearly 1,500 percent in 1993. Unemployment
continued to climb throughout the war, reaching about 17 percent in 1993. A
shortage of jobs, especially for young people, continues to be a critical
economic problem. Much of Croatia’s infrastructure, including roads and tourism
facilities, were badly damaged during the war, and rebuilding that
infrastructure has taken on special economic importance.
B | Steps to Recovery |
In 1993 Croatia began a slow economic
recovery. That year the country joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). A
stabilization plan introduced by the government in late 1993 brought inflation
under control, and in 1994 Croatia introduced a new national currency, the
kuna. The IMF and other international lenders rewarded Croatia with
reconstruction loans that spurred an economic recovery. By 1995 inflation had
declined to less than 4 percent. Croatia’s economy expanded through the late
1990s and, following a brief economic slump in 1999, has continued to experience
positive economic growth. In late 2000 Croatia was admitted to the World Trade
Organization (WTO).
By the end of 1993 the government had
transferred a substantial proportion of state-owned companies to private hands.
In subsequent years the progress of privatization was fitful, slowing markedly
in 2002 due to political infighting and lack of clarity over property rights.
However, capital investment in infrastructure, especially the building of new
roads, and industrial production, grew rapidly. Today, privatization continues
to move forward in several key sectors, including the important energy sector.
In 2006 Croatia’s total GDP measured $42.9 billion.
Croatia’s labor force numbered 1.9 million
in 2006, with some 54 percent of the working population employed in services, 29
percent in industry, and 17 percent in agriculture. In 2006, 32 percent of the
GDP was generated by industry and 7 percent by agriculture.
The country’s principal industrial
products include chemicals, processed metals, wood products, building materials,
textiles, ships, and food products. The revival of the tourism trade and the
shipbuilding industry helped drive Croatia’s economic recovery. However,
agricultural revival has proceeded slowly, as large sections of the country’s
arable farmland were damaged during the war.
C | Energy and Transportation |
While Croatia has some oil and gas
deposits, the country remains heavily dependent on imported fuels for energy.
Electricity production is currently growing more slowly than the GDP, reflecting
increases in energy efficiency.
Croatia has 23,634 km (14,686 mi) of
hard-surfaced public roads and 2,726 km (1,694 mi) of railroad track. An
ambitious program of highway construction is under way, including rebuilding
roads damaged during the war. The government is working to improve the railroad
system with the help of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development (EBRD).
D | Foreign Trade, Currency, and Banking |
Croatia’s major trading partners include
Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Russia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Exports
include foodstuffs, chemicals, and complex machinery such as ships. Machinery,
consumer goods, equipment, fuel, and food dominate imports.
The Croatian currency is the kuna.
Since its introduction in 1994, the kuna has remained relatively stable against
the United States dollar. Croatia’s central bank and the bank of issue is the
National Bank of Croatia. With the help of the IMF, the National Bank has
pursued a policy of tightening supervision over commercial banks.
In 2003 Croatia joined the Central
European Free Trade Association (CEFTA). Croatia is in the process of joining
the European Union (EU), and is expected to become a member in 2007.
The Economy section of this article was
contributed by David Dyker.
VI | GOVERNMENT OF CROATIA |
Croatia’s first non-Communist constitution
was proclaimed in December 1990 when the republic was still part of the former
Yugoslavia. The constitution, amended in 1997 and again in 2001, declares that
Croatia is a democracy with a legislature and president elected by universal
suffrage.
Croatia’s voting age is 18. Croatian law
permits ethnic Croats who live outside of Croatia to vote in Croatian elections,
even if they have never lived in Croatia and are citizens of other countries.
A | Executive |
The president of the republic is the head
of state. After the death of Franjo Tudjman in December 1999, the substantial
executive powers of the president—modeled after the system used in France—were
greatly reduced. The president’s most important role is as commander in chief of
the armed forces. The president also has the power to dissolve parliament and to
call elections. The president is elected by direct popular vote for a five-year
term, and no person may serve more than two terms as president.
The president nominates the prime
minister, but the nomination must be approved by the legislature. The prime
minister and his government are responsible for proposing legislation, passing a
budget, conducting domestic policies and most foreign policies, and executing
the nation’s laws.
B | Legislature |
The Croatian State Assembly, or
Sabor, is a unicameral legislature consisting of the Chamber of
Representatives. A second body, the Chamber of Counties, was abolished by
constitutional amendment in 2001.
The Sabor is composed of about 150
members directly elected to four-year terms, with provisions for adding
additional members if minority communities are not adequately represented.
However, the Sabor may be dissolved at any time with a majority vote of its
members. The Sabor meets twice a year, from January 15 to July 15 and from
September 15 to December 15.
C | Judiciary |
Croatia has a system of trial and appeals
courts, headed by the Supreme Court of Croatia. Judges are appointed by a High
Judiciary Council elected by the Chamber of Representatives. Once appointed, a
judge serves for life unless he or she resigns or is removed from office by the
High Judiciary Council. Constitutional issues are decided by a separate
Constitutional Court, composed of 11 judges elected for eight-year terms by the
Chamber of Representatives.
D | Local Government |
Local governmental functions are exercised
at the levels of counties, towns, municipalities, and districts. There are
elected legislative and executive bodies at each of these levels.
E | Political Parties |
The Croatian Democratic Union (CDU)
dominated Croatian politics for a decade after the first free elections in 1990.
The CDU was the party of nationalist leader and first Croatian president Franjo
Tudjman. During the 1990s most of the other political parties were small and
unable to unite in opposition to the CDU. By the early 2000s, however,
opposition parties had eroded the CDU’s hold on power, taking control of the
Chamber of Representatives for several years. In addition to the CDU, there are
centrist to leftist parties such as the Liberal Party, the Peasants’ Party, the
People’s Party, and the Social Democratic Party; right-wing groups such as the
Party of Rights; and regional parties, including the Istrian Democratic
Assembly. Serbs in Croatia have several political parties of their own.
F | Social Services |
Public health and medical services are
subsidized by the government and are of high quality. Excellent private medical
services are also available. Croatia also has a state-operated pension system.
In 2001, 16 percent of total government expenditures were dedicated to health
programs.
G | Defense |
In 2004 the Croatian armed forces numbered
20,800 on active duty, including 14,050 in the army, 2,500 in the navy, and
2,300 in the air force. There are also reserve forces and armed military police.
A ten-month period of military service is compulsory for men who have reached
the age of 19 in Croatia.
H | International Organizations |
Croatia was admitted to the United Nations
(UN) and to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in
1992. In 1996 Croatia became a member of the Council of Europe. The country is
pursuing membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and expects
admission to the European Union (EU) in 2007.
The Government section of this article
was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.
VII | HISTORY OF CROATIA |
The earliest known inhabitants of what is
now Croatia were Illyrians, who were conquered by the Roman Empire by ad 10. Their land, Illyricum, became the
Roman provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia. As Roman power declined, repeated
invasions and widespread destruction carried out mainly by Germanic peoples
culminated in the 6th century in conquest by the Avars, a nomadic
people of Mongolian and Turkic origin.
Slavic tribes, who probably came with the
Avars or were simply swept along from their original homeland (most likely the
area of present-day Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus), settled over most of central
and southeastern Europe. In Pannonia and Dalmatia they came to be called Croats
(Hrvati), a name of disputed origin.
At the end of the 8th century the armies of
Frankish emperor Charlemagne destroyed the Avars. Croat and other Slavic tribal
federations then established a number of small states between the Roman Catholic
Frankish Empire on the west and the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire on the
east. Most of the Slavic states frequently were dominated by one or the other
empire. Those that were closer to the Frankish Empire, such as the Croats,
became Roman Catholics; those closer to the Byzantine Empire became Eastern
Orthodox Christians. The religious difference has been a major part of
confrontations between Croats and Serbs ever since. By the reign of King
Tomislav (910-929?), Croatia had become an independent kingdom and had expanded
in area to include both Pannonia and Dalmatia, and sometimes Bosnia.
A | Hungarian Domination |
A disputed succession to the throne
following the reigns of Kresimir IV (1058-1074) and Zvonimir (1075-1089) led to
an invasion by Hungary. The two kingdoms united under the Hungarian king, either
by the choice of the Croat nobility or by Hungarian force, in 1102. From then
until 1918 kings of Hungary were also kings of Croatia, represented by a
governor (ban), but Croatia kept its own parliament (Sabor) and
considerable autonomy. After 1420 the city-state of Venice controlled all of the
Dalmatian region. In 1526 King Louis II of Hungary was killed and his army
destroyed by Ottoman Turk forces in the Battle of Mohács, bringing more than 150
years of Ottoman rule to most of Hungary and Croatia. By 1699 the Austrian
Habsburgs, who inherited King Louis’s crowns in 1526, had expelled the Ottomans
from Hungary and Croatia.
Croatia remained divided. Dalmatia and
Istria stayed under Venetian rule until French general Napoleon Bonaparte (later
emperor Napoleon I) abolished the Venetian Republic in 1797. Then when Dalmatia
and Istria were joined to the Habsburg Empire in 1815 they became Austrian
rather than Hungarian provinces, and so remained separated from the rest of the
Croatian lands. Croatia and Slavonia were formally part of Hungary, although a
large portion of their territory remained under direct Austrian rule until the
late 19th century as part of the Habsburg Military Frontier (Vojna
krajina). Many Orthodox Serbs and Vlachs settled there, at Habsburg
invitation, as privileged soldier-farmers. Serbs became the majority population
in much of the Krajina area.
Ban Josip Jelačić and his Croatian army
helped the Austrians put down the Hungarian revolution of 1848. Croat leaders
hoped that the Habsburgs would reward their help by separating a unified Croatia
from Hungary. However, the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867, which created
the nation of Austria-Hungary (also called the dual monarchy), again assigned
Croatia and Slavonia to Hungary and Dalmatia to Austria. Unification and greater
autonomy became the primary demands of most Croatian political parties in the
last years before World War I (1914-1918).
B | Integration into Yugoslavia |
In the 19th century a number of Croats,
Slovenes, and Serbs became advocates of the Yugoslav idea that these closely
related peoples should have their own united country, either within the empire,
like Hungary, or united with Serbia in an independent state. During World War I
the second version of this idea gained more supporters, including the Serbian
government and key public figures in the United Kingdom and the United States,
two of the most powerful nations among the victorious Allied Powers. In 1918, as
the defeated Austro-Hungarian empire disintegrated, the independent Kingdom of
the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was created, and it included Croatia.
The new state was ruled by the Serbian
Karadjordjević dynasty. Most Croat leaders wanted it to be a federal state with
full equality for Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes. Instead, the new kingdom became a
centralized state run by a largely Serbian government, army, and
bureaucracy.
In 1928 a Montenegrin deputy in
parliament fatally shot the principal Croatian leader, Stjepan Radić. King
Aleksandar I proclaimed a royal dictatorship and renamed the country Yugoslavia
(“Land of the South Slavs”) in January 1929. Croatian and Macedonian nationalist
extremists murdered Aleksandar in 1934. On the eve of World War II (1939-1945)
an agreement between the royal government and Radić’s successor created an
autonomous province (Banovina) of Croatia that included parts of Bosnia
and Herzegovina.
C | World War II |
World War II came to Yugoslavia with a
massive invasion by German-led Axis forces in April 1941. Weak and deeply
divided, Yugoslavia was quickly occupied and dismembered. The largest piece
formed the so-called Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država
Hrvatska, or NDH), including Bosnia and Herzegovina but not parts of
Dalmatia annexed by Italy until Italy surrendered in 1943. The NDH was a puppet
state under German and Italian control. It was ruled by the Ustaše, fascist
Croats who had organized King Aleksandar’s assassination, and whose wartime
attempt to exterminate the NDH’s nearly 2 million Serbs was modeled after the
Holocaust orchestrated by German leader Adolf Hitler.
At first, most Croats welcomed their new
independent state, but convincing evidence indicates that most of them, appalled
by Ustaše brutality, soon rejected the Ustaše regime. Inspired by patriotic or
pro-Communist sentiments or fleeing from Ustaše terror and massacres, growing
numbers of both Croats and Serbs joined the Partisans, a Yugoslav-wide
resistance movement. The Partisans were organized and headed by Josip Broz Tito,
the Croat head of the Yugoslav Communist Party.
By May 1945, the Axis powers were
defeated and the Partisans had won a parallel civil war against the Ustaše,
other Axis collaborators, and a rival resistance movement, the Serb Royalist
Četniks. The Partisans also re-created Yugoslavia, led by Tito and under firm
Communist rule, as a federal state of six republics, including Croatia. The
republics were to serve as semiautonomous “homelands.” Croatia was enlarged by
the addition of Rijeka (Fiume), most of Istria, and three islands, all
territories that had been under Italian rule between the world wars. Twenty
percent of Yugoslavia’s Croats lived outside Croatia, most of them in Bosnia and
Herzegovina and in Serbia. Croatia itself was multiethnic, with Serbs
representing 15 percent of its population.
D | Tito’s Yugoslavia |
For the next 45 years Croatia was part of
Tito’s Yugoslavia. First a faithful copy of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (USSR), Yugoslavia changed after Tito’s break with Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin in 1948. There was a gradual process of decentralization (in which
greater power devolved to the republics, including Croatia, and their own
Communist leaderships), easing of repression, and abandonment of
collectivization. The government introduced economic experiments such as “market
socialism” and “workers’ self-management.”
In the late 1960s and early 1970s the
leaders of Croatia’s branch of the Yugoslav Communist Party, renamed the League
of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) in 1952, played prominent roles in this
liberalization. Freer expression of sentiments and interests, which previously
had been suppressed for fear of reviving prewar conflicts between the Yugoslav
republics, were byproducts of these developments.
A new generation of Croatian Communist
leaders centered around Miko Tripalo and Savka Dabčević-Kučar, initially
supported by their mentor and veteran Croat leader, Vladimir Bakarić, pressed
for even more liberalization and republican autonomy. They argued that richer
republics like Croatia and Slovenia were being exploited for the benefit of
poorer republics and held back by the remaining federal controls and taxes. A
rising tide of nationalist sentiment produced a Croatian Mass Movement
(masovni pokret, abbreviated as Maspok), with non-Communists and
anti-Communists competing for its control and demanding a separate army, banking
system, and membership in the United Nations (UN).
In 1971 Josip Broz Tito moved to depose
Tripalo and Dabčević-Kučar and suppress the Maspok. Party purges and numerous
arrests and dismissals followed. The ensuing freeze on open dissent and
liberalization lasted more than 15 years.
The 1980 death of Tito, the ultimate and
authoritative arbiter in disputes between increasingly autonomous republics,
coincided with the onset of an economic crisis that by 1985 had lowered
production and living standards to 1965 levels. Tito’s successors, as leaders of
republics with conflicting national aspirations and economic interests, could
not agree on effective remedies. Acceptance of “Tito’s Yugoslavia” declined
everywhere, especially in Slovenia and Croatia.
An aggressive campaign to reassert Serb
and the Communist Party’s hegemony over a recentralized Yugoslavia was initiated
in 1988 by Slobodan Milošević, president of the Serbian League of Communists and
then of Serbia, but this only accelerated Croat and other non-Serb opposition to
the Yugoslav federation. After the collapse of communism in the rest of Eastern
Europe in 1989, the LCY disintegrated in early 1990. In multiparty elections
later that year, nationalist parties were victorious in each republic.
In Croatia the elections of 1990 produced
a parliamentary majority for the Croatian Democratic Union (CDU; Hrvatska
Demokratska Zajednica or HDZ in Croatian), an anti-Communist nationalist
party. Franjo Tudjman, its founder and leader, formerly a Partisan and Communist
general who was twice imprisoned for nationalist activities, was elected
president of Croatia.
Tudjman’s climb to power and conspicuous
use of traditional Croatian ceremonies and nationalist symbols aroused great
enthusiasm among most Croats. At the same time Croatian Serbs—especially in the
region of Krajina, where Ustaše genocide was still a living memory—feared the
return of a repressive separatist regime. These fears were heightened when a new
constitution declared that Croatian would be the republic’s only official
language, implying that the Croatian dialects of Serbo-Croatian represented a
separate language from that spoken by Serbs. Krajina Serbs declared their
secession from Croatia and subsequent union with Serbia in February 1991.
E | Independence and Civil War |
After frantic negotiations among
post-Communist republic leaders failed to find a new formula to preserve a
version of Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia seceded on June 25, 1991. The
European Community, now the European Union (EU), recognized Croatia in January
1992, with the United States and other countries following suit a few months
later. From July to December 1991 vicious fighting ensued, combining elements of
both civil and international wars. Ethnic cleansing (massacres and
expulsion) of Croats from Krajina took place, with the Yugoslav army supporting
the Krajina Serbs. By the time United Nations (UN) envoy Cyrus Vance negotiated
a lasting cease-fire in December 1991, nearly one-third of Croatia was under
Serb control.
Under the terms of the cease-fire,
Krajina was incorporated into four UN Protected Areas (UNPAs), where 14,000 UN
troops kept the two sides apart. This situation endured until Croatian forces
reoccupied three of the UNPAs in lightning offensives in mid-1995. Most Croatian
Serbs fled to Bosnia and Serbia. Only eastern Slavonia and Baranja remained
under Serb control.
Meanwhile, Croatia was also deeply
involved in the war in Bosnia, which lasted from 1992 to 1995. Croatia first
supported the Bosnian Croats and Muslims against the Serbs, then later backed
the Bosnian Croats when they battled the Bosnian Muslims. (see Wars of
Yugoslav Succession) The Croat-Muslim conflict ended with an American-imposed
and largely theoretical Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In December 1995 Tudjman joined Slobodan
Milošević, the Serbian president, and Bosnian president Alija Izetbegović in
signing the Dayton Peace Accord, which ended the war in Bosnia. Tudjman agreed
that eastern Slavonia and Baranja should be placed under UN administration for a
transitional year, later extended to January 1998, on the way to peaceful
reintegration into Croatia.
F | Postwar Croatia |
The war and appeals to patriotism made
political dissent difficult, helping to sustain the popularity of Franjo Tudjman
and his Croatian Democratic Union (CDU). Tudjman and the CDU also benefited from
their almost total control of the mass media and manipulation of a fragmented
opposition. In the 1992 general election the CDU again won an absolute majority
in the bicameral parliament and Tudjman won a second five-year term as
president. In elections to the Chamber of Representatives in 1995 the CDU’s
majority was cut, while in municipal elections the party lost Zagreb and several
other cities. However, Tudjman refused to permit the installation of a non-CDU
government in Zagreb, claiming that a capital city must be governed by the same
party that controlled the national government.
In elections in 1997 the CDU increased
its majority in the Chamber of Counties and Tudjman won a third presidential
term. However, election monitors from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) criticized the process, citing favoritism for
Tudjman in the state-controlled media, vastly unequal campaign resources, and
the denial of voting rights to ethnic Serbs still living in Croatia. The EU
cited the regime’s authoritarian tendencies as a reason why Croatia was not
among five formerly Communist states, including neighboring Slovenia, invited to
start the process of joining the EU in 1997.
In January 1998 eastern Slavonia and
Baranja were finally turned over to Croatia. With the expiration of the United
Nations (UN) mandate in mid-January, the last UN troops departed, although UN
observers stayed to monitor treatment of local ethnic Serbs. Serbs, who
complained of job discrimination and harassment, continued a slow exodus from
the country.
At the same time Croatia and neighboring
countries were confronting the murderous events that occurred during the war. In
1996 the UN convened the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY), the first war crime tribunal created since the end of World
War II (see War Crimes Trials). In 1999 several Croats were extradited to
The Hague to face charges by the ICTY. Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan
Milošević, who backed the ethnic Serbs during the fighting in Croatia, became
the first head of state ever tried for war crimes when the ICTY indicted him in
2001. The same year Croatian general Mirko Norac, hailed by some as a war hero,
was put on trial in Croatia for his actions during the war. He was convicted and
sentenced to prison in 2003, and the following year was indicted by the ICTY as
well.
G | Recent Events |
Tudjman died in late 1999. In
legislative elections in early 2000 a center-left opposition coalition soundly
defeated the CDU. Stepjan Mesić, leader of the Croatian People’s Party, was
elected president. Mesić pledged to push for closer ties to Europe and the West,
including membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the
European Union (EU).
In 2001 a constitutional amendment
eliminated the Chamber of Counties, leaving the Chamber of Representatives as
the only national legislative body in Croatia. By early 2003 Croatia had
implemented sufficient political and economic reforms to submit a formal
application for EU membership.
The parliamentary elections of 2003
returned the CDU to power, although without an outright majority in the
legislature. The new prime minister, CDU leader Ivo Sanader, pledged to uphold
democracy, human rights, and a free market economy in Croatia. Sanader also
vowed to cooperate fully with the ICTY in The Hague. In January 2005 Stepjan
Mesić easily won a second five-year term as president. The CDU won the most
seats in the 2007 parliamentary elections, and Sanader formed a new coalition
government.
The History section of this article was
contributed by Dennison Rusinow.
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