Croatia

The eastern shore of the Adriatic and its hinterland were among the older possessions of Rome. By the early first century CE the region had been organised into the provinces of Dalmatia, along the coast, and Pannonia to the north, after the suppression of a great Illyrian revolt. The cities of the coast became thoroughly Roman, none more strikingly than Salona, the provincial capital, beside which the emperor Diocletian, a Dalmatian by birth, built the vast fortified palace around 300 CE into which the population later retreated; the city of Split grew up within its walls and survives as the most complete Roman palace in the world.

From the late sixth and seventh centuries the Roman order on the Adriatic broke down under Avar and Slavic incursions, and Salona itself was destroyed. Among the Slavs who settled the former provinces were the Croats, whom Byzantine tradition held to have migrated from a 'White Croatia' to the north, in the region of modern southern Poland, though the details of their arrival are debated. Over the following centuries they organised a duchy in Dalmatia and a second polity in Pannonia, living between the rival pulls of the Frankish empire to the west and Byzantium on the coast.

By the ninth century the Dalmatian Croatian duchy was asserting its independence. Its ruler Branimir aligned the Croats firmly with the Latin Church of Rome rather than with Byzantium: in 879 Pope John VIII acknowledged Branimir's rule over his realm, a recognition often taken as marking Croatia's emergence as a state in its own right. The decision bound the Croats to Western Christendom and to the Latin alphabet and liturgy, even as the Glagolitic script kept a Slavonic liturgy alive on the coast.

Turning points

1. c. 9 CEFormation

   Dalmatia and Pannonia become Roman provinces

   After the crushing of the great Illyrian (Pannonian) revolt, Rome organised the eastern Adriatic and its hinterland into the provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia, beginning centuries of Roman rule and urban life along the coast.

   [1]

2. c. 305Culture & Ideas

   Diocletian's Palace at Split

   The Dalmatian-born emperor Diocletian built an immense fortified palace near Salona around the turn of the fourth century; the historic core of Split later grew within its walls, today the most complete surviving Roman palace.

   [11] [1]

3. 7th centuryPeoples & Migration

   Slavic settlement and the coming of the Croats

   Avar and Slavic invasions destroyed the Roman provincial order, including the capital Salona; the Croats settled the former provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia and gradually organised duchies of their own.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [9]

4. 879Formation

   Papal recognition of Duke Branimir

   Pope John VIII acknowledged the rule of Duke Branimir over the Croatian realm, aligning the Croats with the Latin Church of Rome and marking the emergence of Croatia as a recognised state.

   [9] [1]

Figures of the era

Out of the ninth-century duchy a kingdom took shape. The decisive figure was Tomislav, who in the early tenth century united the Croats of coastal Dalmatia with those of Pannonia, repelled Magyar pressure from the north and the Bulgarians from the east, and by tradition was crowned king around 925. Letters of Pope John X addressed him as king (rex, kralj), and Croatian historiography has long regarded him as the first king of a unified Croatian realm. Under Tomislav and his successors the kingdom reached from the Drava to the Adriatic and held a recognised place among the Christian states of Europe.

The high point of the native kingdom came in the eleventh century under Petar Kresimir IV and Demetrius Zvonimir, the latter crowned with papal sanction in 1075 and ruling a realm that embraced much of Dalmatia. But the dynasty was insecure. After Zvonimir's death and the extinction of the male line of the old royal house, a succession struggle opened the way to intervention from neighbouring Hungary, whose kings pressed a dynastic claim to the Croatian throne.

The turning point came in 1102. King Coloman of Hungary was crowned king of Croatia and Dalmatia, joining the two crowns in a personal union under the Arpad dynasty. Croatian tradition records the arrangement in the Pacta conventa, an agreement said to have been struck between Coloman and the leaders of the Croatian nobility, under which the nobles recognised the Hungarian king while keeping their lands and privileges; though the surviving text is a later compilation, it reflects the political reality that Croatia retained its own institutions, its Sabor (assembly) and its ban (viceroy), within a union that would endure in changing forms until 1918.

Turning points

1. c. 925Formation

   Tomislav recognised as king of the Croats

   Having united the Croats of Dalmatia and Pannonia and held off the Magyars and Bulgars, Tomislav was addressed as king in letters of Pope John X and is regarded by tradition as the first king of a unified Croatia.

   [2] [9]

2. 1075Politics & Power

   Coronation of Demetrius Zvonimir

   Zvonimir was crowned king of Croatia with the sanction of the papacy, the last of the great native rulers and a symbol of the medieval kingdom at its height.

   [1]

3. 1102Politics & Power

   Personal union with Hungary

   King Coloman of Hungary was crowned king of Croatia and Dalmatia, joining the crowns in a personal union; Croatian tradition records the terms in the Pacta conventa, under which Croatia kept its Sabor and its ban.

   [9] [1]

Figures of the era

Within the Hungarian union, Croatia's fate was increasingly shaped by powers on its coast. Venice fought repeatedly for the Dalmatian cities, and by 1420 it had secured control of most of the Dalmatian coast, which it would hold for nearly four centuries until the republic's fall in 1797. Venetian rule left an enduring imprint on the architecture, art and administration of towns such as Zadar, Sibenik and Trogir, even as the Croatian and Slavic character of their populations persisted beneath a Venetian veneer.

One coastal community escaped both Venice and Hungary: Dubrovnik, known to the wider world as Ragusa. Originally a Latin-founded town that became Slavicised, Ragusa won a precarious autonomy, paying tribute first to Venice and Hungary and, after 1458, to the Ottoman sultan, while in practice governing itself as an aristocratic merchant republic. Its skilled diplomacy, its fleet and its trade made it a rival of Venice in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and a centre of Renaissance learning, until the catastrophic earthquake of 1667 shattered the city and broke its prosperity.

The greatest pressure came from the Ottoman Empire. From the late fifteenth century Ottoman armies pressed into Croatian and Hungarian lands; the disaster at Mohacs in 1526 and the fall of much of the kingdom left Croatia reduced to what its writers called the 'remnants of the remnants' of a once-great realm. In 1527 the Croatian nobility elected the Habsburg Ferdinand I to the throne, binding their fate to Austria. To hold the frontier the Habsburgs organised the Military Frontier (Vojna krajina, Militaergrenze), a militarised zone settled by free soldier-peasants, many of them Orthodox Serb and Vlach refugees from Ottoman territory, who held land in return for permanent military service. The Frontier defended Christian Europe for centuries and left a lasting legacy in the mixed population of the borderlands.

Turning points

1. 1420Politics & Power

   Venice secures Dalmatia

   After long rivalry Venice took control of most of the Dalmatian coast, which it would govern for nearly four centuries until 1797, shaping the art, architecture and administration of the coastal cities.

   [1]

2. 15th–16th c.Economy & Trade

   The Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik)

   Dubrovnik governed itself as an aristocratic merchant republic, paying tribute to the Ottoman sultan after 1458 while rivalling Venice in trade; its walled old city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

   ↗See the data

   [10] [1]

3. Venetian periodCulture & Ideas

   The Dalmatian towns under Venice

   Coastal cities such as Trogir flourished under Venetian rule, acquiring fine Romanesque, Renaissance and Baroque buildings; the historic island town of Trogir is preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Venetian period.

   [12] [1]

4. 1527Politics & Power

   Habsburgs elected to the Croatian throne

   Facing Ottoman conquest after the disaster at Mohacs in 1526, the Croatian nobility elected the Habsburg Ferdinand I as king, binding Croatia's defence to the Austrian monarchy.

   [1]

5. 16th–18th c.War & Rupture

   The Military Frontier

   To hold the line against the Ottomans the Habsburgs created the Military Frontier, a militarised border zone settled by free soldier-peasants, including many Serb and Vlach refugees, who served in exchange for land and privileges.

   ↗See the data

   [1]

6. 1667Catastrophe

   The Great Dubrovnik earthquake

   A devastating earthquake struck Dubrovnik in 1667, destroying much of the city, killing thousands and ending the long prosperity of the Ragusan republic.

   ↗See the data

   [10]

Figures of the era

The fall of Venice in 1797 and the upheavals of the Napoleonic era redrew the map of Croatian lands. For a brief period much of the coast and hinterland was gathered into Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces, an episode that, despite its brevity, helped quicken a sense of shared South Slav identity. After 1815 the Croatian lands were once again parcelled among the Habsburg domains, the coast and the kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia under differing administrations and pressures, with Hungary pressing the use of the Hungarian language on its Croatian subjects.

Against this came the Illyrian movement of the 1830s and 1840s, the heart of the Croatian national revival. Led by the linguistic reformer Ljudevit Gaj, a circle of intellectuals, clergy and gentry defended Croatian interests by promoting a standard literary language and calling, in the name of an 'Illyrian' kinship, for cultural unity among the South Slavs. Their work in standardising the language and founding newspapers, theatres and learned societies gave the modern Croatian nation its cultural foundations, and in 1847 Croatian replaced Latin as the official language of the Sabor.

Politics followed culture. In the revolutionary year 1848 the ban Josip Jelacic led Croatian forces in the turmoil of the Habsburg monarchy. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 placed Croatia-Slavonia within the Hungarian half of the Dual Monarchy, the Nagodba of 1868 granted Croatia a measure of autonomy under a ban and its own Sabor, though real power remained with Budapest. By the eve of the First World War Croatian political life was increasingly drawn to ideas of South Slav union as a way out of subordination within Austria-Hungary.

Turning points

1. 1809–1813Politics & Power

   Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces

   Napoleon gathered much of the coast and hinterland into the short-lived Illyrian Provinces, an episode that helped stir a sense of shared South Slav identity among the Croats.

   [1]

2. 1830s–1840sCulture & Ideas

   The Illyrian movement and national revival

   Led by Ljudevit Gaj, intellectuals and clergy promoted a standard Croatian literary language and South Slav cultural unity, laying the foundations of the modern Croatian nation.

   [3] [1]

3. 1847Culture & Ideas

   Croatian made the official language

   The Croatian Sabor adopted Croatian in place of Latin as the official language, a milestone of the national revival and a response to the imposition of Hungarian.

   [3]

4. 1868Politics & Power

   The Croatian-Hungarian Settlement (Nagodba)

   Within the Dual Monarchy created in 1867, the Nagodba granted Croatia-Slavonia limited autonomy under its own ban and Sabor, though real authority remained with Budapest.

   [1]

Figures of the era

When Austria-Hungary collapsed in 1918, the Croatian Sabor severed its ties with the monarchy, and on 1 December 1918 the South Slav lands joined Serbia and Montenegro in the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. For many Croats the union proved a disappointment, experienced as a centralised state under Serbian dominance; discontent found expression in the Croatian Peasant Party and in mounting national tension, partly addressed only in 1939 by the creation of an autonomous Croatian banovina shortly before the war.

The Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941 brought catastrophe. Germany and Italy established the Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska), a puppet state embracing Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and ruled by the fascist Ustase movement under Ante Pavelic. The regime pursued a programme of terror and extermination against Serbs, Jews, Roma and antifascist Croats. Its largest camp complex at Jasenovac became the site of mass murder; the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates that the Ustase regime killed between 77,000 and 99,000 people there between 1941 and 1945, among them tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma. Resistance gathered around Josip Broz Tito's communist-led Partisans, whose programme of national self-determination and a federal Yugoslavia drew strong support in Croatia.

Out of the Partisan victory came a new, federal socialist Yugoslavia in which Croatia was one of six constituent republics. The decades that followed brought reconstruction, industrialisation and, on the Adriatic, the growth of tourism, but also tight one-party rule. Croatian aspirations for greater autonomy surfaced in the 'Croatian Spring' of 1971, a movement of reformers and students calling for economic and constitutional change; Tito suppressed it, purging and imprisoning its leaders, though the 1974 federal constitution later conceded greater rights to the republics.

Turning points

1. 1 Dec 1918Politics & Power

   Entry into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

   After the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the Croatian lands joined Serbia and Montenegro in the new South Slav kingdom proclaimed on 1 December 1918, later renamed Yugoslavia.

   [4] [1]

2. 1941War & Rupture

   The Independent State of Croatia (NDH)

   Following the Axis invasion, Germany and Italy set up the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state run by the fascist Ustase under Ante Pavelic, embracing Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [6]

3. 1941–1945War & Rupture

   The Jasenovac camp

   The Ustase regime operated its largest camp complex at Jasenovac, where it murdered an estimated 77,000 to 99,000 people, among them tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews and Roma, between 1941 and 1945.

   ↗See the data

   [14] [6]

4. 1945Politics & Power

   Croatia in socialist Yugoslavia

   The Partisan victory under Tito made Croatia one of the six republics of a federal socialist Yugoslavia, ending the Ustase state and beginning four decades of communist rule.

   [7] [1]

5. 1971Politics & Power

   The Croatian Spring

   Reformers and students in the 'Croatian Spring' demanded greater economic and constitutional autonomy; Tito crushed the movement and purged its leaders, though the 1974 constitution later widened republican rights.

   [1]

Figures of the era

As Yugoslavia disintegrated, Croatia moved toward independence. After multi-party elections in 1990 brought Franjo Tudjman and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) to power, the Sabor declared independence on 25 June 1991. The country's Serb minority, encouraged by Belgrade, rejected Croatian authority and, with the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), seized nearly a third of Croatian territory, proclaiming a self-styled Republic of Serbian Krajina. The Croatian War of Independence followed. The Danube town of Vukovar became its symbol: the Yugoslav army and Serb forces besieged it for some three months, and on 18 November 1991 it fell, devastated; two days later prisoners taken from the town hospital were murdered at the Ovcara farm, where an international tribunal later found that 194 people were killed.

International recognition came in 1992; the United States recognised Croatia on 7 April 1992, and the country joined the United Nations. The war reached its decisive turn in 1995. In August Croatia launched Operation Storm, which in a matter of days overran the Republic of Serbian Krajina and ended its existence; the offensive was accompanied by the flight of tens of thousands of Serbs. Two Croatian generals were later convicted at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for crimes connected with Operation Storm, but on 16 November 2012 the Appeals Chamber, by a majority, acquitted both and overturned the convictions. Under the Erdut Agreement the remaining Serb-held region of Eastern Slavonia was peacefully reintegrated, and Croatia recovered full control of its territory by 1998.

Independent Croatia turned to integration with the West while a number of border questions with its neighbours remained open. With Slovenia, a long dispute over the land and maritime boundary in the Gulf of Piran was submitted to arbitration; Croatia withdrew from the process in 2015 and, when the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued its Final Award on 29 June 2017, declared that it did not consider itself bound by it. With Serbia, an unresolved dispute persists over the Danube border, where Croatia claims the old cadastral boundary and Serbia the mid-river thalweg. Despite these frictions, Croatia joined NATO on 1 April 2009 and the European Union on 1 July 2013 as its 28th member, and on 1 January 2023 it adopted the euro and entered the Schengen area.

Turning points

1. 1979Culture & Ideas

   Plitvice Lakes inscribed by UNESCO

   Plitvice Lakes, Croatia's oldest national park, was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 for the ongoing formation of tufa barriers that dam its waters into a chain of lakes and waterfalls, the country's first World Heritage site.

   [13]

2. 25 Jun 1991Independence

   Declaration of independence

   The Croatian Sabor declared independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991; rebel Serbs backed by the Yugoslav army seized nearly a third of the country and proclaimed the Republic of Serbian Krajina, igniting war.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [16]

3. 18 Nov 1991War & Rupture

   The fall of Vukovar

   After a siege of some three months, Vukovar fell to the Yugoslav army and Serb forces on 18 November 1991; two days later 194 people taken from the hospital were killed at the Ovcara farm, a crime later prosecuted at the ICTY.

   ↗See the data

   [15] [16]

4. 1992Independence

   International recognition

   Croatia won international recognition as a sovereign state in 1992; the United States recognised it on 7 April 1992, and the country was admitted to the United Nations.

   ↗See the data

   [18] [16]

5. Aug 1995War & Rupture

   Operation Storm

   In August 1995 the Croatian army launched Operation Storm, which within days overran the Republic of Serbian Krajina and ended its existence, accompanied by the flight of tens of thousands of Serbs; generals later tried at the ICTY were acquitted on appeal in 2012.

   ↗See the data

   [16] [17]

6. 1 Jul 2013Politics & Power

   Accession to the European Union

   Croatia joined the European Union on 1 July 2013 as its 28th member, after a 2012 referendum, having joined NATO in 2009; it adopted the euro and entered the Schengen area on 1 January 2023.

   [20] [21] [22]

7. 29 Jun 2017Politics & Power

   Piran Bay arbitration award

   The Permanent Court of Arbitration issued its Final Award on the Croatia-Slovenia border in the Gulf of Piran; Croatia, which had withdrawn from the process in 2015, declared it did not consider itself bound by the ruling.

   [19]

Figures of the era