History UsefulNotes / Croatia

* '''Population:''' 4,058,165

Following Coloman's victory, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne.

On a lighter note as of 2021, the Croatian economy has practically recovered as exports and industrial production are continually on the rise (mostly in the private sector), construction projects are picking up (again, mostly due to private investors, but there are some public works as well, such as the enlargement of Franjo Tuđman airport, the reconstruction of Zagreb rotor and the construction of the Pelješac bridge) and all the while the income generated by tourism is consistently breaking last-year records, with Zagreb's advent festival being voted 'European Best Destinations' three years in a row.

Croatia ('''Croatian:''' ''Hrvatska''), officially known as the '''Republic of Croatia''' ('''Croatian:''' ''Republika Hrvatska''[[note]]in the Yugoslavian languages, "r" is occasionally a vowel[[/note]]), is a Southern European country and a former Yugoslav state. The Croats were a Slavic tribe who probably came from somewhere in modern Poland and Ukraine before crossing over the Carpathian basin to settle in modern Croatia during the 600s, when that region had been devastated by [[TheHorde nomadic raiders]].

Croatia was also impacted by the 2015 Migrant Crisis as bordering nations of Slovenia and Hungary put barbed wiring and fences on their borders in order to stem the tides of migrants fleeing Syria and the general Middle-Eastern economic voes. There were fears that the country would become a blocked holding pen forced to hold thousands of migrants though this was averted partially bY alternative migration routes and partially by having Bosnia and Herzegovina take on the role.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected tourism but not to as large of a degree as was feared since the government implemented relatively decent epidemiological measures and an emergency pandemic HQ was established which led the efforts to combat the pandemic, significantly softening the impact. As of late 2021 the country is on a road to recovery and reopening as more and more people get vaccinated.

Meanwhile, the country's primary leftist party - SDP became increasingly moribund, something affecting the whole of the European left. There are multiple reasons for this, but the chief ones seem to be the apparent abandonment of the working- class issues, preoccupation with internal politicking and inept leadership. Overall, the future of the left in Croatia seems highly uncertain and it remains to be seen weather SDP will be able to reform, will fracture into new parties, or will be supplanted by an entirely new party.

Croatia finished its accession agreement in 2011 and was given an all-clear to join the EU. The HDZ party lost the parliamentary elections and was superseded by the so-called ''Cock-a-doodle-doo Coalition'', an association of center-left and centrist parties headed by SDP. This period was marked by downfall of major government owned enterprises as well as major corruption and theft scandals associated with the HDZ government. On 1 July 2013, after ten years of negotiations, Croatia became the 28th member of the European Union.

In 2009, Ivo Sanader abruptly resigned his post and named his protege Jadranka Kosor as the new prime minister. With the economic crisis already taking it's toll, Kosor introduced austerity measures, but also launched a much needed anti-corruption campaign aimed at high public officials. Ivo Sanader tried to come back to HDZ, but was promptly ejected and was soon arrested due to several charges of corruption and eventually high treason (due to unlawful selling of the country's vital oil company INA to the Hungarian MOL).

This lasted until the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Community) lost the 2000 elections to the center-left coalition led by the SDP (Social Democratic Party). The new government instituted a number of reforms intended to limit presidential power and transform the country's semi-presidential system into a parliamentary one. The country enjoyed a relative period of prosperity from 2000-2003 as the economy started to grow again, unemployment was on the decline, and numerous construction projects were started (most notably the construction of the A1 highway). The country was also accepted into the WTO and started the process of accession into the European Union.

Meanwhile, however, the war had spilled over into Bosnia, resulting in the bloodiest conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Milošević reorganized the Yugoslav Army, purging it from almost all non-Serb and Serb officers he deemed not loyal enough and emphasizing Serbian nationalism among the troops. As the Serbs sought to ethnically cleanse large regions of Bosnia, the initial Croat-Bosniak alliance fell apart, and the Croats sought to bring an area of southwestern Bosnia (which they dubbed the Republic of Herceg-Bosna) under their control and conducted some ethnic cleansing of their own (though not on the same scale as the Serbs). Finally, the Croats and Bosniaks, under Western pressure, decided to renew their alliance against the Serbs. After Operation Storm, which brought most of the Serb-occupied areas back under Croatian control (contrary to some opinions in the West, NATO bombing was ineffective, both militarily and politically - NATO did provide [=UAVs=], satellite imagery and advisers), a peace treaty was finally signed by all the participants in 1995. Eastern Slavonia, the only remaining Serb-held part of Croatia, was peacefully returned to Croatia in 1997.

After a few initial successes, the Yugoslav People's Army got bogged down in brutal UrbanWarfare, where it took heavy losses (high desertion rates were a big factor in this - tanks were often left without infantry support, for example). Vukovar remained the only Croatian city that fell into Yugoslav/Serb hands. A ceasefire was agreed upon at the end of 1991, the Yugoslav People's Army (which dropped the "People's" from its name) withdrew from Croatia, and the war in Croatia died down to a series of skirmishes, until the Croats eventually toppled the Serb Krajina in a series of offensives in 1995. Several hundred Serb civilians were killed in the offensives, and some 200,000 Serb civilians became refugees - most of them fled before the Croatian Army, fearing retribution killings. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia later concluded that Operation Storm was not aimed at ethnic persecution, as civilians had not been deliberately targeted. While individual members of the Croatian Army and Special Police were found to have committed war crimes, the state and military leadership had no role in the planning and creation of crimes. Only some 40% of the Serb population has since returned, and these areas remain sparsely populated to this day.

After a few initial successes, the Yugoslav People's Army got bogged down in brutal urban fighting, where it took heavy losses (high desertion rates were a big factor in this - tanks were often left without infantry support, for example). Vukovar remained the only Croatian city that fell into Yugoslav/Serb hands. A ceasefire was agreed upon at the end of 1991, the Yugoslav People's Army (which dropped the "People's" from its name) withdrew from Croatia, and the war in Croatia died down to a series of skirmishes, until the Croats eventually toppled the Serb Krajina in a series of offensives in 1995. Several hundred Serb civilians were killed in the offensives, and some 200,000 Serb civilians became refugees - most of them fled before the Croatian Army, fearing retribution killings. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia later concluded that Operation Storm was not aimed at ethnic persecution, as civilians had not been deliberately targeted. While individual members of the Croatian Army and Special Police were found to have committed war crimes, the state and military leadership had no role in the planning and creation of crimes. Only some 40% of the Serb population has since returned, and these areas remain sparsely populated to this day.

After the fall of many communist regimes in the early 90s, Croatia tried to follow the lead of Slovenia and leave crumbling Yugoslavia, but most areas where the Serbs were in the majority decided to secede from Croatia in the same way Croatia did from Yugoslavia, forming with Serbia's support the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republika_Srpska_Krajina Serb Krajina]] ("Krayeena"), which failed to achieve any significant international recognition. The desertion-plagued and badly motivated Serb-dominated Yugoslav People's Army intervened to officially stop the Croatian attempt to secede while in reality giving military assistance to the Krajina Serbs, but proved ineffective against the Croatian militias and volunteers due to low morale, sloppy to nonexistent strategies and outdated military doctrines - although brutal Serb paramilitaries did their best to make up for this by terrorizing the population. It is estimated that over 200,000 non-Serb civilians, mostly Croats, were expelled from Serb-held territories. The seven-month Siege of Dubrovnik from 1991-92 saw heavy damage done to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while the city of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vukovar Vukovar]] was severely damaged and many of its civilian inhabitants killed before it finally fell into Yugoslav/Serb hands, further turning international opinion against Yugoslavia.

Under Yugoslavia and its GloriousLeader UsefulNotes/JosipBrozTito, Croatia enjoyed autonomy within boundaries fairly similar to those of 1938. This left many Serbs still in the country, and many Croats still in Bosnia, as the different peoples were all mingled together. In TheSeventies, Croatia gained more power under a decentralized constitution. Living standards in communist Yugoslavia were much better than in the Eastern Bloc, and the country was more open towards the West. That said, Yugoslavia was a prominent member of the [[TakeAThirdOption Non-aligned movement]] and firmly refused to join either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. It did, however, reestablish relations with both German republics.

Under Yugoslavia and its GloriousLeader UsefulNotes/JosipBrozTito, Croatia enjoyed autonomy within boundaries fairly similar to those of 1938. This left many Serbs still in the country, and many Croats still in Bosnia, as the different peoples were all mingled together. In the 70s, Croatia gained more power under a decentralized constitution. Living standards in communist Yugoslavia were much better than in the Eastern Bloc, and the country was more open towards the West. That said, Yugoslavia was a prominent member of the [[TakeAThirdOption Non-aligned movement]] and firmly refused to join either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. It did, however, reestablish relations with both German republics.

Under Yugoslavia and its GloriousLeader Tito, Croatia enjoyed autonomy within boundaries fairly similar to those of 1938. This left many Serbs still in the country, and many Croats still in Bosnia, as the different peoples were all mingled together. In the 70s, Croatia gained more power under a decentralized constitution. Living standards in communist Yugoslavia were much better than in the Eastern Bloc, and the country was more open towards the West. That said, Yugoslavia was a prominent member of the [[TakeAThirdOption Non-aligned movement]] and firmly refused to join either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. It did, however, reestablish relations with both German republics.

Soon after the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, two movements sprang up in Croatia (and most of the former Yugoslavia): the multinational and predominantly communist Partisans and the royalist and Serb-nationalist Četniks ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chetniks "Chetniks"]]). The two movements soon realized their goals were incompatible and fought each other as well as the Axis forces. The Četniks soon made a non-attack agreement with the Axis forces (thinking the partisans were a greater threat), but despite all this the Partisans gained the upper hand by 1943. After Italy surrendered later in the same year, the partisans gained a lot of captured equipment, as well as aid from the British air force based in Italy and the Croatian islands.

The Germans and Italians put the Ustaše in charge of Croatia and the whole of Bosnia, creating the [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial "Independent State of Croatia"]], while Italy placed a large part of the Croatian coast land under its direct rule (and Hungary took a small part of northern Croatia). Without any prompting from Germany, they set out to destroy Serbs, [[UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} Jews]], Roma (usually called "Gypsies"), and "antifascists". The last covered mostly enthusiastic supporters of the communist Partisans and other opponents of the Ustaša regime. The Ustaše also hold the "distinction" of being the only non-German nation who ran their own extermination camps (first at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadovno Jadovno]], then at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac Jasenovac]]) and the only nation to ran extermination camps specifically for (Serbian) children ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisak_children%27s_concentration_camp Sisak]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jastrebarsko_concentration_camp Jastrebarsko]]). [[TheDogBitesBack Ustaše brutality was a major factor in driving people to join local resistance movements.]]

The Germans and Italians put the Ustaše in charge of Croatia and the whole of Bosnia, creating the [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial "Independent State of Croatia"]], while Italy placed a large part of the Croatian coast land under its direct rule (and Hungary took a small part of northern Croatia). Without any prompting from Germany, they set out to destroy Serbs, Jews, Roma (usually called "Gypsies"), and "antifascists". The last covered mostly enthusiastic supporters of the communist Partisans and other opponents of the Ustaša regime. The Ustaše also hold the "distinction" of being the only non-German nation who ran their own extermination camps (first at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jadovno Jadovno]], then at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac Jasenovac]]) and the only nation to ran extermination camps specifically for (Serbian) children ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisak_children%27s_concentration_camp Sisak]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jastrebarsko_concentration_camp Jastrebarsko]]). [[TheDogBitesBack Ustaše brutality was a major factor in driving people to join local resistance movements.]]

The Yugoslav government stayed neutral at first, then joined the Axis under German pressure in 1941, but two days later there was an anti-fascist military coup in Serbia. Hitler would have nothing of it, and Germany, Italy, Hungary, Albania and Bulgaria invaded Yugoslavia and conquered it in 2 weeks.

There were problems from the start, however. Croats wanted autonomy, but there was no clean dividing line between Serbs and Croats [[note]] There technically still isn't one culturally - the Serbs and Croats actually speak the same language and the folk traditions are >90% identical, which to this day still causes many to refer to the two as one people (the only true difference being that the Croats are Catholic, whilst Serbs are Orthodox Christian) [[/note]]. As an answer to this and other pro-national movements, king [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_I_of_Yugoslavia Alexander I]] (of the Serbian royal dynasty) put up a dictatorial regime, which lasted until he was assassinated in Marseille (France) by a violent terrorist outfit supported by a Croatian Nazi organization named [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ustasha the Ustaše]] ("Oostahshee"), led by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ante_Pavelić Ante Pavelić]]. Alexander's successor [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_II_of_Yugoslavia Peter II]] was 11 at the time, so the Council of Regents was set up, led by the late king's cousin, Prince-Regent Paul. He was more even-handed and, after long and tricky negotiations, a large autonomous Croatia was created within Yugoslavia in 1939. But soon after that UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler began his campaign to conquer Europe...

The Hapsburg monarchy fell apart and the Croats, in a rush of Yugoslavist enthusiasm, joined the new Yugoslav kingdom (though to be fair, they had little choice: had they refused, their state would have been torn apart as the victorious Serbs and Italians scrambled over the "spoils of war").

The bitterness of the Croats would show during UsefulNotes/WW1. While most were originally content to serve in the army, a series of Austo-Hungarian defeats and the worsening economic situation led to many Croats refusing to take up arms against their "brother" Serbs and Russians. In late 1917 the situation became dire as armed bands of deserters (the so-called "Green Cadre") plagued the countryside. It became even worse when [=POWs=] started returning from Russia (which had withdrawn from the war), telling the locals about UsefulNotes/RedOctober and the promise of a better future should they overthrow their semi-feudal overlords.

The early to mid 19th century saw the rise of the Croatian National Revival, with national awareness being awoken among the people and spreading into writing and politics. When the Hungarians rose up and tried to assert their rule over Croatia in 1848, the Croats sided with the Habsburgs, but after Vienna restored control, they got nothing to show for it. Dalmatia was returned to Austria after the fall of Venice during the Napoleonic Wars, but the Austrian government refused to reunite it with the inland regions of Croatia right until the very end of the 19th century.

Over the next few centuries, the lands that comprise most of modern Croatia were divided between the Habsburg (later Austro-Hungarian) Monarchy, the Republic of Venice, and the Ottoman Empire. These three cultures left an indelible mark on the country's cultural heritage. Unfortunately, Croatia also became a ground for military struggles between the three powers. As a result, Croatia produced some famous troops, such as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenz_infantry Grenzers]] -- light infantry recruited from the lands bordering the Ottoman Empire, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uskoks Uskoks]] -- irregular raiders/pirates, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croats_(military_unit) Croats]] -- light cavalry similar to hussars. The other area around Dubrovnik was Ragusa, a wealthy city state with strong ties to Venice. This was invaded by UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte in 1806 and annexed by Austria in the 1814-15 Congress of Vienna where the Ragusans weren't invited.

They organized the state into two dukedoms by the 9th century, one on the eastern coast of Dalmatia (later known as Littoral Croatia, Dalmatian Croatia, or simply Croatia), and the other further inland, called Lower Pannonia (later Slavonia -- "Land of the Slavs"). A small part of Dalmatia, mostly the older Roman towns like Zadar, Split, Trogir and many island-towns, remained under [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine]] rule. They pledged allegiance to the [[UsefulNotes/HolyRomanEmpire Frankish emperor]], but Ljudevit, Duke of Lower Pannonia, rose in rebellion and resisted Frankish rule until his death in 823. After this, the power of Slavonia waned, while that of Littoral Croatia grew, and it became the political and cultural seat of future Croatian rulers. Croatia under Duke Branimir was recognized by the Pope as a legitimate state in 879. Tomislav is generally considered to have become the first King of Croatia in 925, though the popular image of him is highly romanticized and very little is known about him for certain (he's somewhat like a Croatian King Arthur). Nonetheless, it is certain that Croatia's influence grew in his time, and his successors were the hereditary rulers of a kingdom.

They organized the state into two dukedoms by the 9th century, one on the eastern coast of Dalmatia (later known as Littoral Croatia, Dalmatian Croatia, or simply Croatia), and the other further inland, called Lower Pannonia (later Slavonia -- "Land of the Slavs"). A small part of Dalmatia, mostly the older Roman towns like Zadar, Split, Trogir and many island-towns, remained under [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire Byzantine]] rule. They pledged allegiance to the Frankish emperor, but Ljudevit, Duke of Lower Pannonia, rose in rebellion and resisted Frankish rule until his death in 823. After this, the power of Slavonia waned, while that of Littoral Croatia grew, and it became the political and cultural seat of future Croatian rulers. Croatia under Duke Branimir was recognized by the Pope as a legitimate state in 879. Tomislav is generally considered to have become the first King of Croatia in 925, though the popular image of him is highly romanticized and very little is known about him for certain (he's somewhat like a Croatian King Arthur). Nonetheless, it is certain that Croatia's influence grew in his time, and his successors were the hereditary rulers of a kingdom.

They organized the state into two dukedoms by the 9th century, one on the eastern coast of Dalmatia (later known as Littoral Croatia, Dalmatian Croatia, or simply Croatia), and the other further inland, called Lower Pannonia (later Slavonia -- "Land of the Slavs"). A small part of Dalmatia, mostly the older Roman towns like Zadar, Split, Trogir and many island-towns, remained under Byzantine rule. They pledged allegiance to the Frankish emperor, but Ljudevit, Duke of Lower Pannonia, rose in rebellion and resisted Frankish rule until his death in 823. After this, the power of Slavonia waned, while that of Littoral Croatia grew, and it became the political and cultural seat of future Croatian rulers. Croatia under Duke Branimir was recognized by the Pope as a legitimate state in 879. Tomislav is generally considered to have become the first King of Croatia in 925, though the popular image of him is highly romanticized and very little is known about him for certain (he's somewhat like a Croatian King Arthur). Nonetheless, it is certain that Croatia's influence grew in his time, and his successors were the hereditary rulers of a kingdom.

Croatia ('''Croatian:''' ''Hrvatska''), officially known as the '''Republic of Croatia''' ('''Croatian:''' ''Republika Hrvatska''[[note]]in the Yugoslavian languages, "r" is occasionally a vowel[[/note]]), is a Southern European country and a former Yugoslav state. The Croats were a Slavic tribe who probably came from somewhere in modern Poland and Ukraine before crossing over the Carpathian basin to settle in modern Croatia during the 600s, when that region had been devastated by nomadic raiders.

The Covid-19 pandemic affected tourism but not to as large of a degree as was feared since the government implemented relatively decent epidemiological measures and an emergency pandemic HQ was established which led the efforts to combat the pandemic, significantly softening the impact. As of late 2021 the country is on a road to recovery and reopening as more and more people get vaccinated.

* The chequerboard design on the coat-of-arms (and flag) is echoed on most of their sports uniforms, and Croatia are the only national team to play in checks. Their football team has been very successful since independence - they came third in the World Cup in 1998, their first appearance. They have never been that successful again... until the 2018 World Cup, that is.

* Croatia became a member of UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} in 2008, and a member of UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion in 2013.

* '''Currency:''' Croatian kuna (kn) (HRK)