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Zagreb - History |
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Croatian
Origins:
The
documented history of Croatia begins with Greek colonies established along
the Dalmatian coast after 600 B.C. Migration of the Croats (Chrobati,
Hrvati) is said to have occurred during the early the 6th century A.D.
from white Croatia, a region which is now Ukraine between the Southern Bug
and Dnieper rivers, to the lower Danube valley. They continued toward the
Adriatic, where they conquered the Roman stronghold Salona in 614. After
settling in the former Roman provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia where they
spent approximately 10 years, between 626 and 635, to completely defeat
the Avars, pushing them to the north of the river Danube. After the defeat
of the Avars, Emperor Heraclius enacted a law (Keleusis, iussio),
giving the conquered lands to the Croats and under the sovereignty of the
Byzantine Empire. The Croats then began to develop independently. The
farming Croats continued their former way of life under their zupani
or tribal chiefs, who performed administrative, judicial and military
functions. In
the 7th century, when they were converted to Christianity. Shortly
afterwards they received the privilege of using their national language in
church services. Under pressure from the neighbouring Frankish and
Byzantine empires, the tribal organization of the Croats gradually gave
way to larger units, and there existed two Croatian duchies, one in
Dalmatia along the Adriatic coast, the other in Pannonia. After the
Frankish-Byzantine peace of 812, Pannonian Croatia became a part of the
Frankish empire and the Dalmatian duchy recognized nominal Byzantine
supremacy. In the middle of the 9th century the Pannonian Croats liberated
themselves and joined the Dalmatian duchy, which also shook off foreign
domination. By 880 Branislav (879-892) became the first independent
dux Croatorum.
The Croatian Kingdom:
Tomislav (910 - 928)
was the first ruler of a unified Croatia. During the next 180 years,
Croatia enjoyed strength and prosperity under its own kings. Tomislav, one
of Branislav's successors, annexed the Dalmatian cities and in 925
received the royal crown from Pope John X. Tomislav and his heirs made
strenuous efforts to defend their kingdom both from the Bulgarian empire
in Pannoia and from Venice, which was spreading its power along the
Dalmatian coast. After Tomislav's death, a series of civil wars weakened
central authority and lost peripheral territories including Bosnia. The
Byzantines helped Stjepan Drzislav (969-997) to liberate the
coastal towns from Venice but succeeded in re-establishing their own
influence on the Adriatic. Peter Kresimir changed this situation, by
breaking off relations with Byzntium, strengthening Croatia's ties with
the papacy and enlarged the state boundaries. Croatia then reached the
peak of its power. It spread southwards along the Adriatic coast from the
river Rasa in Istria to the rivers Tara and Piva in Montenegro, eastward
to the Drina and northward to the Drava and to the Danube. Kresimir's
policy divided the nation into a Latin group, which upheld the king, and a
national group, which enjoyed popular support in opposing the king's
policy. This division became fatal during the reign of Dimitrije Zvonimir,
who was crowned in Split by the legate of Pope Gregory VII. Zvonimir was
invited by the pope to participate in a war against the Seljuk Turks, and
convened a great assembly to win his subjects over the campaign. The
people accused him of being a papal vassal and killed him. Anarchy and
civil war followed, and with it the decline of the Croatian Kingdom. The
death of King Zvonimir in 1089 or 1090 without heirs evidently led a group
of Croatian nobles in 1091 to conclude the Pacta Conventa with
Hungarian King Ladislaus, conceding him the Croatian crown in exchange for
Croatian autonomy. Another group of Croatians opposed the Hungarian king,
but were defeated by Ladislaus successor Kalman. The Yugoslav Union: Serbian and Montengrin victories over the Turks in the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 encouraged the Croats to envisage freedom in an independent Yugoslav union that would include Serbia and Montenegro, but in 1914, when the arch-duke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated at Sarajevo, relations between the Croats and the Hungarians appeared to be calm, thanks to the policy of compromise pursued by the Croatian-Serbian coalition, which in 1913 became the government party in Croatia. With the outbreak of World War I the Austro-Hungarian authorities introduced measures of extreme severity throughout their South Slav provinces. The emperor Charles made clear in his coronation speech in 1916 that he recognised Croatian integrity in relation to Hungary, thereby establishing the equality of both countries under St. Stephen's crown. On Oct. 29, 1918, the Croatian diet broke off all ties with Hungary and Austria and proclaimed an independent Croatia, which entered into a state union with other South Slav provinces of the empire, to be governed by a national council. On the request of council's emissaries, on Dec. 1, 1918, the Serbian prince regent Alexander proclaimed the union of this state with Serbia and Montenegro. Yugoslavia came into being. After the election of 1920 the Peasant party (HSS) under Stjepan Radic led Croatian opposition.
The assassination of Radic and some of his political collaborators in the Belgrade parliament on June 20, 1928, produced serious crisis, but the HSS continued its activism under Vlatko Macek. Finally, as conflict between Serbs and Croats was preventing the consolidation of Yugoslavia, the Belgrade government had to give in. The Independent State of Croatia: Croatian
nationalists who aimed at complete independence remained dissatisfied with
the sporazum. In World War II, after Yugoslavia had been occupied
and dismembered by the Axis powers, an Independent State of Croatia was
proclaimed in Zagreb on April 10, 1941, and recognised four days later by
Hitler and Mussolini. Since Vladimir (Vladko) Macek, the leader of
the Peasant party, refused the German offer to head the new state, it was
entrusted to Ante Pavelic (1889-1959), head of the Fascist
terrorist organisation Ustaša. A nationalist fanatic, Pavelic
re-entered Croatia from Italy, where he had spent 12 years of exile
plotting revolution. He introduced a dictatorial regime characterised by
methods of extreme brutality and violence. An attempt was made in 1944 to
bring Croatia over to the side of the Allies, but it was mismanaged; its
leaders, Ante Vokic and Mladen Lorkovic, were arrested and shot by
Pavelic's henchmen. The Independent State of Croatia survived the
capitulation of Germany for a few days only. Pavelic fled to Austria in
May 1945 and later to Argentina. The puppet state gave place to the
people's republic of Croatia within Communist Yugoslavia. With
the collapse of Nazi Germany, and the approach of communist forces toward
Zagreb in 1945, most Ustaša leaders, as well as Macek and many other
Croatians, fled toward areas occupied by American and British units. A
contingent of the Ustaša military and home defence also fled into
Austria, but were captured by the Allies at Bleiburg, then returned to
Yugoslavia where most evidently were executed by Tito’s forces.
as
one of the constituent republics. By the terms of the peace treaty with
Italy in 1947, most of Istria, formerly part of Italy, was included in
Croatia. Tito's
new authoritarian government ruthlessly suppressed any sign of ethnic
nationalism, with all power given to the multi-ethnic (in theory,
non-ethnic) communist party. During
the 1960s and 1970s Croatia's beautiful Adriatic coastline attracted
tourism, which contributed to Yugoslavia's economy. Croatians began to
agitate for greater autonomy as they saw their tourist revenues being used
to stamp out Croatian nationalism. Constant
attention was required to maintain the suppression of nationalist
expression. Croatia was an area of special concern, as the centre of the
strongest nationalist movement in pre-war Yugoslavia. The most serious
challenge to the system during Tito's lifetime was probably the Croatian
Spring or Mass Movement of the late 1960s, which was ended by the removal
by Tito of most of the Croatian leadership in late 1971, and a parallel
removal of accused nationalists in Serbia, Slovenia and Macedonia. (One
of those jailed in Croatia during this period was the former partisan
General Franjo Tudjman.) However, the system of control began to break
down after Tito's death. Following
Tito's death in 1980, tensions between Croatia and the Serb-dominated
Yugoslav government worsened. When
nationalist Croat politicians, notably Franjo Tudjman, advocated a
reduction in ethnic Serb representation in the Croatian police, or argued
that the number of victims at Jasenovac had been inflated, the Serbian
press repeated and embellished such positions to prove to Serbs that
Croatia was returning to the days of the Ustaše, and that Serbs had
to take up arms to defend themselves. The fact that some of the new
political figures did, in fact, advocate a positive view of the Ustaša
movement made still easier the job of the Serb nationalists. By the time
of Franjo Tudjman's 1990 election victory, most Serbs in rural areas
appear to have been convinced that their lives were in danger. With
continuing stalemate, word spread that Serbias government was printing a
massive amount of Yugoslav banknotes, without central government
authorization. In this manner, Serbia was moving to undermine the economic
program of the Federal Premier. There were other factors as well, but this
may have been critical in Slovenia's decision unilaterally to declare
independence on 25 June 1991. Once Slovenia left, the other opponents of
Serbia would find themselves in a minority on the collective Presidency.
If Tudjman had not in any case preferred independence, this incentive well
might have moved him. In May, Croats voted by referendum in favour of
independence and on 25 June 1991 Croatia declared its independence (as did
Slovenia). On
April 13, 1997, elections were held in east Slavonia (Vukovar area); these
elections should conclude the reintegration of this part of Croatia (but
still occupied by Serbian militias) into the republic. Eastern Slavonia back to Croatia's control - January 15, 1998.
For the first time
in more than six years, Croatia has control over all of its territory,
after Eastern Slavonia was formally returned Thursday (15 Jan 1998) by the
United Nations. The Croatian government estimates that it will cost $2.5
billion to reconstruct Eastern Slavonia. It is seeking much of that money
from international sources, including the European Union. |
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At
the end of the war, Tito (A Croatian Communist who fought
against the Italian-back Ustaša regime) reconciled all the
various parts of Yugoslavia and created a Yugoslav federation with
Croatia
