Let's discover Croatia
The history of Croatia
Before leaving to live in a country, it is important to have a basic knowledge of its history, the history of a country explains the current culture of a country.
Croatia, independent since 1991, has been throughout its history at the crossroads of four large cultural spaces, which conferred an astonishing richness on its heritage, both architectural and artistic. Indeed, in addition to the Slavic character of its inhabitants - traditionally Christians of Roman rite and using an alphabet with Latin characters -, the Venetian influences on the Dalmatian coast on the one hand, and Austro-Hungarian in the plains of the north of Slavonia, in the Danube basin on the other hand, are manifest there and are superimposed on a pre-Roman - Roman and Byzantine heritage - more diffuse. The immediate vicinity of the Ottoman Empire, from the 15th to the 19th century, whose expansion stopped on Croatian soil, was also important since Croatia inherited its current borders in the shape of a "horseshoe".
Contemporary Croatia is also the heir to the medieval Croatian Kingdom, first independent then associated with the Hungarian crown and finally integrated into the Austrian Empire, which became Austria-Hungary in 1867 until the First World War. At the beginning of the 15th century, the coastal province of Dalmatia became Venetian for four centuries, then French from 1809 to 1814, within the Illyrian Provinces of Napoleon which put an end to the Republic of Ragusa, before reintegrating the Triunitary Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia -Dalmatia, within the framework of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Thus, it was only in the 20th century that Croatia saw for the first time united with its Slavic neighbors, within Yugoslavia ("South Slavic country"). It lived from 1918 to 1991, first in the form of a centralized kingdom under the scepter of a Serbian dynasty, then, after 1945, as a people's federation of six republics, led by the Communist of Croatian origin, Tito.
In 1946, Croatia became one of the 6 republics that make up socialist Yugoslavia. Croatian nationalism awoke in 1971 when exiled Ustashas assassinated Yugoslav diplomats. It was then that the Croatian Spring took place, a national movement initiated by intellectuals and students and aimed at promoting the language and autonomy of Croatia within Yugoslavia. Tito then multiplies the arrests of Croatian nationalists. The situation of nations is deteriorating, and faced with the emergence of a Grand Serb nationalism around Milošević, Croatia takes refuge in a separatist discourse which evolves towards nationalism. In 1990, ex-general TuÄ‘man then became president of the Republic. Faced with the blockage of Yugoslav institutions and the obvious political impasse within the Yugoslav Federation, the path to independence is underway. The first clashes between Serbian and Croatian police took place.
In the first multiparty elections in 1990, 94% of Croats voted for independence (June 25, 1991) which was internationally recognized in 1992. The predominantly Serbian regions of Croatia refused this state of affairs and declared their independence, the latter n never recognized by the international community. During the first 7 months of war, there were 50,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of refugees. For several years, the Serbian army occupied about a third of Croatian territory, without the violence actually ceasing. In 1995, Croatia managed to regain the territories of Western Slavonia and Croatian Krajina by military operations. It was not until 1998 that it completely covered its territory by peacefully reintegrating eastern Slavonia. Croatia applied to join the EU in February 2003, making it the first candidate country in the Western Balkans. On January 22, 2012, the Croatian population voted in favor of membership, with 67% of the votes cast. On March 27, 2013, the European Commission gave the green light to Croatia to join the Union on July 1, 2013, considering that the country was meeting all of its commitments, even if efforts remained to be made, in particular in the area of corruption. Croatia thus becomes the 28th member state of the Union.