Croatia is a country with a long, complex and varied history. It has swung like a geopolitical pendulum from rule by the Roman Empire, to independence, back to subjugation by Empire and then finally once again to independence again. In between it also flaunted with both working with other Balkan countries in a regional kingdom, and taking them over under the idea of a greater Croatia.
Under the Romans the area was known as Dalmatia (hence our modern day description of the Dalmatian Coast for that area of the Adriatic) but its modern ethnic make up, as with all the Balkan region, comes from the Slavs who migrated into area from further east in the 600s AD.
In the next three hundred years an independent Croatian Kingdom developed but its fortunes became linked to the whims of the regional empires and shifting alliances. The next few centuries saw Croatia go from strength, fighting against Bulgaria in cohort with the Ottoman Empire, to weakness, falling under control of the Kingdom of Hungary, losing its Dalmatian coast to the Venetians and then falling to Ottoman control when the Ottoman Empire defeated Hungary. The Ottomans then lost out to the Austrian Empire with Croatia just a pawn in the game until finally, after WW1 and the crumbling of Empire, Croatian nationalism once more made its mark and an independent Croatia appeared again on the world map.
Post WW1, Croatia joined with Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia but I guess the cohesion of that pact is evidenced by the assassination of a Croatian politician (in parliament!) by a Montenegrin counterpart. It took another World War and the political strength of the partisan leader General Josip Tito in a communist post war period to successfully hold Croatia and other Balkan states together as the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The death of Tito saw the stitches of those bonds unravel and further bloodshed was to result before an independent Croatia was again recognised on the World stage in 1992.
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| Modern Croatia |
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