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croatia
 General Info
Croatia History
Croatia History
Category: General Info
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The Croats established their own princedom as early as the 7th century and
founded an independent state in the 9th century. In the 10th century the
Kingdom of the Croats came into being, ruled by the national kings
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A short history of Croatia
Like many other countries of Western Europe,
Croatia too developed in an area that once made part of the Roman
Empire. In the maelstrom of the great migrations of peoples that
took place Europe-wide after the fall of Rome, the Croat tribes
took over this area. The Croats established their own princedom
as early as the 7th century and founded an independent state in
the 9th century. In the 10th century the Kingdom of the Croats
came into being, ruled by the national kings. From the time of
the conversion to Christianity, which was completed in the 9th
century, the Croats became a part of Western Christendom and of
the society of Western Europe.
 The
course of history replaced the rule of the Croatian national rulers
by a new political setting. In the 11th century, Croatia entered
a personal union with the King of Hungary. In this association,
which lasted a full eight centuries, Croatia retained all the
attributes of statehood through its Parliament, Viceroy, money
and army. Nevertheless, as a result of Hungarian policy, the coastal
parts of Croatia came under the direct control of Venice in the
beginning of the 15th century, and in the 16th century, along
with Hungary, Croatia too became part of the Habsburg Monarchy.
The economic and cultural progress of Croatia in the 16th and
17th centuries was subordinated to the defence of the Austro-Hungarian
frontiers against the inroads of the Turkish Empire. At the price
of losing a large part of its central territory, and taking on
its present horse-shoe shape, Croatia did indeed manage to stop
the century long expansion of the Ottomans.
 In
the course of the centuries, Croatia has kept up with and taken
part in all European movements. And thus in the 19th century there
was here too an awakening of the civic spirit in the Revival Movement
which played an important role in defining the Croatian nation's
awareness of itself. After the collapse of the Habsburg Empire
in 1918, the Croatian people were condemned to live for more than
70 years without a country of their own, without even the right
to bear witness to their own national being. They were forced
by the great powers to live in an artificial creation. First of
all in the State of the Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, and then in
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, which disappeared in the whirlwind
of World War II. Croatia began the New Era after 1945 as one of
the six socialist republics of communist Yugoslavia. However,
after fifty years of communist rule, the citizens of Croatia,
like almost all the other nations of the former "Eastern Europe",
rejected the totalitarian system, opting for a democratic system.
In January 1992, Croatia received international recognition as
an independent and sovereign European state. This act ushered
in a new chapter of Croatian history.
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The Croatian Name
The Croatian name was carried, apart from the Croatian people
of today, by another two slavic tribes: the White Croats in Poland,
along the upper course of the Visla river, west of the San, with
 Krakow
being their centre, and by a tribe in the north/eastern part of
the Chech Republic. The traces of the name Croat, preserved in
local names, witness that smaller groups of Croats were mixed
with other Slavic tribes; Slovenians, Slovakians, the Lusatian
Sorbs, probably in Zeta, Macedonia, even in Greece. There are
several theories on the origin and meaninig of the name Croat
(Hrvat), from the one by Constantine Porphyrogeitus, who derived
the name from the Greek : land (according to which Croats would
be "people owning much land, who derived it from the name of the
inhabitants of the island of Krk (Curetes, Curibantes), then Ratkaj
(who brought the name into relation with the Croatian verb "hrvati
se" - to wrestle), to the 19th and 20th century philological explanations
according to which Croat (Hrvat) descends from hrev: tree (Dobrovsky);
hruv: dance (Miklošia); heru: sword (Zeuss); hruvat: deer
(Much). From the beginning of the 20th century, after Pogodin
drew attention to the archon Hor?athos or Hur?athos from the 2nd/3rd
c. from Tanais, the teories about the Iranian origin of the Croats
started to emerge (Sakae, Jireeek, Hauptmann, etc.).
(source: Croatia Tourist Guide, Lexicographic
Institute Miroslav Krleza, Zagreb, 1998) |
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Basic Historical Data
- around 400 BC the first Greek colonies are
founded on Adriatic islands
- around 100 BC Romans rule over the east coast
of the Adriatic
- 305 - Roman emperor Diokletian in present
day Split
- around 600 Croats start moving to what is today's Croatia
- 852 - Duke Trpimir issues the carter in which
for the first time is mentioned the name Croatia, in domesic
official documents
- 925 - Tomislav, the first Croatian king,
is mentioned, unfifier of Pannonian and Dalmatian Croatia
- 1102 - after the death of Petar Svaeia, the
last Croatian king, Croatia enters into a union with Hungary
- 1242 - King Bela IV issues the Golden Bull
in which he proclaims Zagreb a Free Royal City
- 1433 - the beginning of the defense against
the Turks, who through time ocupy the larger part of Croatian
territory
- 1527 - by a decision of the Croatian Assembly,
the dynasty of Habsburg comes to the Croatian throne
- 1699 - Croatia is largely liberated of Turkish
rule; continental Croatia remains under the rule of Habsburg,
and the largest part of the Adriatic coast and islands are under
Venice; only Dubrovnik Republic remains completely independent
- 1815 - after the short-term rule of the French
under Napoleon, who aboloshed Venice and Dubrovnik Republic,
almost the whole of present day Croatia enters into the Habsburg
Monarchy
- 1847 - Croatian becomes the official language
of Croatia
- 1848 - Ban (Vice -Roy) Josip Jelacic defends
Croatia against attempts of Hungarian occupation and unites
all Croatian provinces
- 1866 - Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer founds
the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, the first in southeast
Europe
- 1918 - after the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian
Monarchy in World War I, Croatia becomes part of the Kingdom
of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians, later proclaimed Yugoslavia
- 1941 - German and Italian forces occupy Yugoslavia;
the organized partisan resistance stars, led by Croatian anti-fascists
under the guidance of Josip Broz - Tito
- 1945 - the Federative Socialist Republic
of Yugoslavia is proclaimed and with this, today's Croatia is
a federative republic
- 1990 - the first multi-party elections after
World War II are organized in Croatia; the Croatian Assembly
elects Dr. Franjo Tudman as its first president
- 1991 - Croatia proclaims independence; the
Serbian rebellion starts, supported by the Yugoslav National
Army from Belgrade, and results in the occupation of the third
of Croatian territory
- 1992 - the Republic of Croatia becomes a
member of the United Nations
- 1998 - the last occupied part of Croatia,
in the east, including Vukovar, is integrated into the country
with the help of the United Nations
(source: Croatia Tourist Guide, Lexicographic Institute Miroslav
Krleza, Zagreb, 1998) |
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Some Famous People of Croatia
- BOSKOVIC, RUDJER
(1711 - 1787) the physicist, mathematician and astronomer; one
of the most learned people of his time, predecessor of modern
phzsics, founder of dynamic atomistics
- BROZ - TITO, JOSIP (1892 - 1980) politician
and statesman; organizer of the anti-fascist rising in the former
Yugoslavia during World War II
- DRZIC, MARIN (1508 - 1567) writer; chronicler
of Dubrovnik Republic; one of the greatest comedians of the
Renaissance (predecessor of Moliere)
- GENERALIC, IVAN (1914 - 1992) naive painter;
founder of the world renowed Hlebine painting school
- GETALDIC, MARIN GHETALDUS (1566 - 1606) mathematician;
known for the application of algebra in geometrz and also a
pioneer in the making of conic lenses
- GUNDULIC, IVAN (1589 - 1638) writer; known
for his epic "Osman", which exalts the freedom-loving spirit
of Dubrovnik Republic
- KLOVIC, JULIJE (1498 - 1578) painter, the
greatest European miniaturist of his time, painted for the Roman
Pope and for the Medici family in Florence
- KRLEZA, MIROSLAV (1893 - 1981) the greatest
modern Croatian writer and also one of the most significant
Middle-European writers of the first half of the 20th century;
founder of Croatian lexicography
- LISINSKI, VATROSLAV (1819 - 1854) composer,
wrote the first Croatian opera "Love and Malice" in 1846
- LUPIS, IVAN (1813 - 1875) nautical officer
from Rijeka; inventor of the torpedo, which was manufactured
for the forst time in Whitehead's factory in Rijeka in 1866
- MARIN (4th century) stone-cutter from the
island of Rab, founded San Marino, the first republic in Europe
- MATOS, ANTUN GUSTAV (1873-1914) Croatian
writer, the last romatic in Croatian literature
- MEŠTROVIC, IVAN (1883 - 1962) famous
croatian sculptor, known for
monumental sculptures with national themes; worked in the USA,
his best known sculpture is "Indians" in Chicago
- PENKALA, SLAVOLJUB (1871 - 1922) inventor
of the mechanical pencil and fountain pen in 1906 and of the
first Croatian two-seater plane
- POLO, MARCO (1254 - 1324) Venetian adventurer
and explorer, meritorious for his explorations of China; according
to tradition, born on island Koreula
- PRELOG, VLADIMIR (1906 - 1998) chemist, worked
in Switzerland; winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1975
- RADIC, STJEPAN (1871 - 1928) plotician, founder
of the Croatian Peasant Party, democrat and champion of Croatian
liberation; died from wouds after being shot in the Assembly
of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
- RUZICKA, VATROSLAV (1887 - 1976) chemist,
worked in Switzerland; winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry
in 1939
- SCHWARTZ, DAVID (1852 - 1897) creator of
the air ship with a metal frame; Ferdinand Zeppelin bought out
his work and, based on them, built the aircraft which bears
his name
- STARCEVIC, ANTE (1823 - 1896) politician,
founder of the Croatian Party of Rights, advocated the policy
of complete independence of Croatia; named the "father of the
nation"
- STEPINAC, ALOJZIJE (1898 - 1960) Zagreb archbishop,
cardinal and theologian, publicly condemned fascist persecution
during World War II; after the establishment of Communist rule,
was imprisoned. Died in confinement. Proclaimed a martyr. The
Pope JOHN PAUL II
made beatification of the Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac on 3rd
October 1998.
- TESLA, NIKOLA (1856 - 1943) physicist, worked
in the USA, one of the greatest inventors in the field of electrical
engineering; drew up plans for the first hydrolelectric power
plant at Niagara Falls using alternating current, laid the groundwork
for the making of radar equipment; named for him is the measuring
unit for magnetic indiction (Tesla - T)
- TU?MAN, FRANJO (1922 - ) politician and historian;
a participant in the anti-fascist movement. Because of advocating
Croatian national rights, came in conflict with the communist
regime; founded the Croatian Democratic Party which won the
first multi-party elections in 1990; the first president of
the independent Croatian state, re-elected in 1996
- VRANCIC, FAUST (1551 - 1617) inventor, philosopher
and lexicographer; anticipated a number of technical inventions,
the parachute, among others
- VUCETIC, IVAN (1858 - 1925) one of the inventors
of dactiloscopy, the method for identifying persons by their
fingerprints
(source: Croatia Tourist Guide, Lexicographic Institute Miroslav
Krleza, Zagreb, 1998)
A clicable index of 250 Croatian outstanding
names of its history, culture & science you can find on:
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History Links
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