CROATIA.

In 1914 all the Croatian regions were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Croats were the majority in two such regions (with strong Serb minorities). The "kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia" in the north, with its capital in Zagreb, was attached to Hungary and enjoyed some degree of autonomy, with its own institutions: the ban (viceroy) and the sabor (parliament). Along the Adriatic, in the south, Dalmatia, belonging to Austria proper, also had its own provincial parliament but without autonomy. The two regions were essentially rural. Dalmatia was particularly poor, isolated, and depopulated because of emigration. Croats asked for, and never obtained, the union of the two provinces. There were also Croats in Bosnia and Istria.

Croat opinion was divided between the "Croat-Serb coalition," the more bourgeois party, heir to the "Yugoslav Movement" of the nineteenth century, and the purely Croat parties that were more popular, particularly the "Croatian Peasants Party" of Stjepan Radi? (1871–1928). Thanks to poll-tax suffrage, the former held the majority in both Chambers. In 1910 Radi?'s party only had nine deputies in the parliament of Zagreb (out of seventy-seven).

During World War I most Croat soldiers fought loyally in the Austrian army. In the case of an Allied victory, many feared the division of the region between Serbia and Italy (which had in fact been the intention of a secret inter-Allied agreement signed in London in 1915). To avoid this, a possible solution was for all of the regions where Croats lived to unite with Serbia, in the name of the Yugoslav idea. This was the choice made in 1914 by a few Croatian politicians, mostly from Dalmatia. Exiled in Paris, they founded a "Yugoslavian committee" in 1915 that sought to negotiate with Serbia and to be recognized by the Allies as legitimate representatives of Slovene, Croat, and Serb subjects of the Habsburgs.

In October 1918 Austria collapsed. The Serbian army liberated Serbia and marched west. The Italians progressed along the Adriatic. The threat of division became greater. The parliaments of all the southern Slavic provinces of the empire sent delegates to Zagreb. They founded a "National Committee of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs" (SHS) presided over by Anton Korošec (1872–1940), a Slovene, but dominated by Svetozar Pribi?evi? (a Croatian Serb). They proclaimed the independence of the "SHS State" and their desire to unite with Serbia. Only one delegate, Radi?, who favored an independent republic of Croatia, protested. The delegation went to Belgrade where it agreed to the fusion of the two States: SHS and Serbia, into one "Kingdom of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs" (later called "Yugoslavia"), proclaimed on 1 December 1918 by the regent and future king, Alexander Karadjordjevi? (1888–1934). The state's structure as either a federation or a union, was to be decided by a future constituent assembly.

THE MONARCHY OF YUGOSLAVIA (1918–1941)

At first, the union of Croatia and Serbia was welcomed. It seemed the only alternative to division and anarchy. Moreover, a part of the Croat elite embraced the idea of a "Yugoslavian people" uniting Croats and Serbs as equals. But very quickly the methods employed by the Serb army and bureaucracy, the disadvantageous currency exchange rate, the suppression of autonomous Croatian institutions, and the Serb seizure of all key positions fed discontent. As of 1919, in the constituent assembly elected by universal suffrage, Radi?'s Peasants Party won more than half of the Croat vote, and the Communists also did well. But Radi?'s followers boycotted the vote on the constitution and the Communist Party was banned. It was therefore a truncated assembly that voted for the constitution of 1921. The latter established a rigorously centralized system, based on the Serbian model, and gave the king great power.

The following twenty years were characterized by the ongoing conflict between Belgrade's centralizing will and Croats' resistance. The Croat elite quickly renounced the Yugoslav ideal of the preceding generation and joined the masses of farmers in protest against the regime. Several times, the army fired on peaceful Croat demonstrators, and Croatian intellectuals were assassinated. In 1928, on the floor of the parliament in Belgrade, Radi? and two other representatives were shot down by one of their Montenegrin colleagues.

The king suspended the constitution and promulgated another even more centralizing document. Ante Paveli? (1889–1959), a Croatian extremist representative, sought asylum in Italy, where, under the protection of Benito Mussolini (1883–1945), he founded the Ustaše (insurgent) movement, a terrorist organization. In 1934 he had King Alexander assassinated when the monarch was visiting Marseille, France. The dictatorship continued under the prime ministers appointed by the king's successor, Prince Regent Paul (1926–1976).

An attempt at conciliation was made in 1939. The royal government concluded an agreement with Vladko Ma?ek, successor of Radi?, creating a "banovina [province] of Croatia" that would be largely autonomous and would include a part of Bosnia. In April 1941 Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany and collapsed in a matter of days.

THE USTAŠE REGIME (1941–1945)

The Germans wanted an independent Croatia. Ma?ek, the main Croat leader, refused to collaborate with them. The Ustaše took power. They proclaimed the "Independent State of Croatia" (NDH). Their leader, Paveli?, became chief of state, "poglavnik" (führer). The new state encompassed all of Bosnia but had to relinquish a part of Dalmatia to Italy.

The Croat population welcomed the country's independence as if it had been liberated. But the enthusiasm for the Croat state did not translate into adhesion to Ustaše policy. Strong resistance quickly took shape.

The NDH was a typical fascist state: a one-man dictatorship marked by a single-party system, arbitrary decisions, violence, concentration camps, and massacres. But its nationalism learnt to live with complete submission to Germany and Italy. The single party, the Ustaše, was not a party of the masses. It remained a small violent group that did not have much influence upon society.

Because the NDH encompassed all of Bosnia, only 53 percent of the population was Catholic Croat, but 17 percent was Muslim and 30 percent Orthodox Serb. The regime decided to lean on the first two groups and to eliminate Serbs, who were expelled, converted to Catholicism by force, or killed. This program was put into effect with village massacres and deportations to death camps. Jews and Roma (Gypsies) were exterminated. The casualty count has often been exaggerated, but it was established that approximately three hundred thousand Serbsdiedduringthe warin Croatia and Bosnia:some died in combat or in other war-related ways, but probably at least half died in these systematic killings.

This policy naturally triggered armed resistance, first among the Serbs who were its primary target, but also among many Croats and Muslims. The rebels divided into two enemy movements: the "chetniks," Serb royalists under General Dragoljub Mihailovi? (1893–1946), and the communist "partisans," led by the Croat Josip Broz (1892–1980), known as Tito. The "chetniks," all Serbs, massacred Croat and Muslim populations and collaborated with the Italians and sometimes with the Germans. The "partisans" were open to all ethnic groups, their organization the sole conduit that Croatian resisters, who were more and more numerous, could turn to. Soon, Paveli?'s government controlled less than half of its territory. The partisans—who recruited from every group, were more effective, and were supported not only by the Soviet Union but also eventually by the Western Allies—were victorious. In May 1945 they finished conquering Croatia and took Zagreb.

COMMUNIST YUGOSLAVIA (1945–1990)

In its beginning, the regime was very harsh. Thousands of prisoners were executed without trial (the Bleiburg massacre), and Catholic priests were murdered. Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac (1898–1960) was sentenced to solitary confinement. A single-party regime was established, Stalinist methods were put into effect, and the economy was entirely nationalized.

But on the institutional level, the new power got off on a different footing than did the monarchy before the war: it was federalist and not unitarian. Croatia (minus Bosnia but including Istria, which was taken away from Italy) became one of six federated republics. The Croat and Serb nations were recognized.

As of 1948, after the breakup between Tito and the USSR, the regime distanced itself from Stalinist methods. The state economy was replaced with a self-management policies. During the 1960s and 1970s economic growth was rapid. Industry and tourism increased, as did the emigration of workers, especially to Germany. With the end of the 1960s and some liberalization of the regime, a movement appeared demanding full acknowledgment of Croatian specificity. In 1971, with the wide support of the population, the communist leaders began reforms to that end. It was the "Croatian Spring," a movement repressed by Tito, who fired those communist leaders and ordered more than one thousand arrests.

In 1974 a new constitution established an almost confederate regime that gave much power to the six republics and to the two autonomous provinces. A large number of the demands of the Croatian Spring were met. After Tito's death in 1980, in spite of the economic deterioration, Croatia was at peace until 1989.

Decentralization displeased the Serbs, who were scattered across several republics and provinces. They wanted to strengthen the central power, or the attachment to Serbia of all regions where Serbs lived (including in Croatia). This demand, first expressed by the opposition, was adopted and supported in 1986 by Slobodan Miloševi? (1941–2006), a new Serb Communist leader, who, in 1989, abolished the autonomy of the two provinces of Kosovo and Voivodine. The other republics felt threatened.

THE EXPLOSION OF YUGOSLAVIA AND THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE (1990–1995)

The conflict deepened in 1990 when, after the fall of communism in neighboring countries, the Yugoslav republics also organized free elections. The communists won the elections in Serbia and Montenegro. In Croatia, the winner was a new nationalist party, the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Community). Franjo Tudjman (1922–1999), its leader and a former partisan who had been jailed several times under Tito, was elected president. His policy displeased Croatian Serbs, who openly rebelled in the summer of 1990.

In 1991 Miloševi? blocked the functioning of the federal presidency in order to prevent the pending election of a Croat, Stipe Mesi?. Federal troops supported the armed rebellion of the Croatian Serbs. Croatia, following Slovenia's example, organized a referendum and proclaimed its independence on 25 June 1991. Belgrade answered with war: first in Slovenia, which the Yugoslavian army evacuated two weeks later, and then in Croatia, where the fighting lasted six months (July 1991–January 1992).

Rural regions where Serbs were the majority, called Krajina (borderlands), proclaimed a "Republic of Serbian Krajina" (RSK), which separated itself from Croatia. The federal army, using artillery and aviation, and aided by local militias and volunteers from Serbia, gained increasing control of the ground, occupying eventually a third of Croatia, from which all Croats were thrown out (three hundred thousand refugees, massacres, much destruction). Dubrovnik and Osijek were besieged and bombarded, as well as Vukovar, which was taken in November and where many Croat prisoners were murdered.

Croats had little to resist with but still managed to raid federal barracks for weapons. In some regions, they also chased away or massacred Serbs. They succeeded in preserving their main cities and the integrity of their territory.

European attempts at mediation remained ineffective for six months. In December of 1991, the European Union, at the behest of Germany, decided to recognize Croatia's independence. Fighting stopped in January 1992. According to the "Vance plan" (named after the American mediator Cyrus Vance [1917–2002]), the regions of Croatia conquered by the Serbs were placed under the military occupation of United Nations troops but remained under the control of the RSK. In violation of this plan, the Croats who had been chased out were not allowed to return.

From 1992 to 1995 war raged in Bosnia. The Croats of Bosnia armed themselves against the Serbs, but very quickly began fighting Bosnians as well :Tudjman also wanted to annex a portion of Bosnia. In 1994 the United States succeeded in stopping the fighting and convinced each side to join with the other against the Serbs. The Croatian army made rapid progress in Bosnia, and in two very quick military operations (May and July 1995), reconquered almost all of the Krajina, from which the Serb population was evacuated by order of their own leaders. This victory facilitated the conclusion of the Dayton Agreements, which put an end to the war in Bosnia and enabled Croatia to peacefully recover that portion of its territory (Vukovar) that was still occupied.

POSTWAR PERIOD (FROM 1995)

Croatia has definitely secured its independence and reunited its territory. It was ruined by the war, but reconstruction went quickly, and the economy began to grow again, thanks especially to tourism. Tudjman's rule became more and more personal, authoritarian, and nationalistic, but the president died in December 1999 and the HDZ, his party, lost the 2000 elections. The new president, Mesi?, who was very hostile toward nationalism, established, in two successive administrations (the first was dominated by the Socialists until the elections of 2003 and the next involved a renewed HDZ), a policy of democratization and reconciliation with Croatia's neighbors aimed at, eventually, Croatia's membership in the European Union.

See alsoBosnia-Herzegovina; Miloševi?, Slobodan; Sarajevo; Serbia; Tudjman, Franco; World War I; World War II; Yugoslavia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Ma?ek, Vladko. In the Struggle for Freedom. Translated by Elizabeth and Stjepan Gazi. University Park, Pa., 1957. Translation of Memoari. Memoirs of one of the principal Croat leaders between the two world wars.

Mesi?, Stipe. The Demise of Yugoslavia: A Political Memoir. Budapest and New York, 2004. Translation of Kako je srušena Jugoslavija: Politi?ki memoari. Testimony of the last president of Yugoslavia, before he became the second president of Croatia.

Tomac, Zdravko. The Struggle for the Croatian State: Through Hell to Democracy. Translated by Zrinka Kos et al. Zagreb, Croatia, 1993. Testimony of a Croat politician, minister in 1991–1992.

Tudjman, Franjo. Horrors of War: Historical Reality and Philosophy. Translated by Katarina Mijatovic. New York, 1996. Translation of Bespu?a povijesne zbiljnosti: Raaprava o povijesti i filozofii zlosilja. Very controversial historical-philosophical book by the first president of Croatia.

Secondary Sources

Adler, Jasna. L'Union forcée: La Croatie et la création de l'Etat Yougoslave (1918). Chêne-Bourg, Switzerland, 1997. Every detail about this single decisive year.

Banac, Ivo. The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics. Ithaca, N.Y., 1984. In-depth study of the aspirations and national policies of various peoples, including Croats.

Goldstein, Ivo. Croatia: A History. Translated by Nikolina Jovanovi?. London, 1999.

Hory, Ladislaus, and Martin Broszat. Der kroatische Ustascha-Staat, 1941–1945. Stuttgart, 1964. Focuses on foreign politics and minority persecution.

Krulic, Joseph. Histoire de la Yougoslavie de 1945 à nos jours. Brussels, 1993. Meticulous study of the evolution of the Communist Party.

Macan, Trpimir, and Josip Šentija. A Short History of Croatia. Zagreb, Croatia, 1992.

Magaš, Branka. The Destruction of Yugoslavia. Tracking the Break-up, 1980–92. London, 1993. This book brings well-constructed answers to the most controversial questions. Croatia holds it dear.

Magaš, Branka, and Ivo Ž ani?, eds. The War in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1991–1995. London and Portland, Ore., 2001. Collaborative book to which various historians from various countries as well as Croat and Bosnian politicians and soldiers have contributed.

Mel?i?, Dunja, ed. Der Jugoslawien-Krieg: Handbuch zu Vorgeschichte, Verlauf und Konsequenzen. Opladen, 1999. International collaborative book, the most complete and critical studies: cultural facts, political history, statistical figures.

Peroche, Gregory. Histoire de la Croatie et des nations slaves du Sud 395–1992. Paris, 1992. Croatian point of view on Croatia's history.

Ramet, Sabrina P. Nationalism and Federalism in Yugoslavia, 1962–1991. 2nd ed. Bloomington, Ind., 1992.

——. Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Miloševi?. 4th ed. Boulder, Colo., 2002. The two books by Ramet survey the last forty years of history and answer certain cultural and institutional questions.

Tanner, Marcus. Croatia: A Nation Forged in War. New Haven, Conn., and London, 1997. The best documented and most complete general study. Two hundred pages devoted to the twentieth century.

Tomasevich, Jozo. The Chetniks. Stanford, Calif., and Cambridge, U.K., 1975.

——. War and Revolution in Yugoslavia, 1941–1945: Occupation and Collaboration. Stanford, Calif., 2001. Tomasevich's two books paint an exhaustive picture of World War II in Croatia and Bosnia and all of its complexity.

Paul Garde