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History of Croatia


History of Croatia

The Croats settled in the region in the early 7th century and formed two principalities: Croatia and Pannonia. The establishment of the Trpimirović dynasty ca 850 brought strengthening to the Dalmatian Croat Duchy, which together with the Pannonian principality became a kingdom in 925 under King Tomislav. In 1102, Croatia entered into a personal union with the Hungarian Kingdom. After the 1526 Battle of Mohács the "reliquiae reliquiarum" (remnants of the remnants) of Croatia became a part of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1527. Croatian lands were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the latter's dissolution at the end of World War I. In 1918, the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a kingdom known after 1929 as Yugoslavia. Following World War II, Yugoslavia became an independent communist republic under the strong hand of Marshal Tito. Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Four years of bloody war followed involving local Serbs who sought recognition of the territories they held, a Croatian offensive in 1995 ended the Serb administration of the larger section whilst through UN supervision, the last Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia was returned to Croatia in 1998. The operations resulted in a mass exodus of Croatian Serbs (into Bosnia and Serbia) who had previously inhabited the lands. Prior to the war of independence, Croatia's Serbian minority made up around 11% of the overall population. Visitors now to Croatia's more popular towns would see little physical evidence of this violence and relations between Croats and Serbs are gradually improving. Croatia's coastal areas are especially stunning, and have the hybrid charm of Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.

The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Croatia


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Croatia Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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