About Croatia

Croatia is located in Southern Europe. Its shape resembles that of a crescent or a horseshoe, which flanks its neighbours Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. To the north lie Slovenia and Hungary; Italy lies across the Adriatic Sea. Its mainland territory is split in two non-contiguous parts by the short coastline of Bosnia and Herzegovina around Neum.

Its terrain is diverse, including:

• plains, lakes and rolling hills in the continental north and northeast (Central Croatia and Slavonia, part of the Pannonian Basin);
• densely wooded mountains in Lika and Gorski Kotar, part of the Dinaric Alps;
• rocky coastlines on the Adriatic Sea (Istria, Northern Seacoast and Dalmatia).

The country is famous for its many national parks. Croatia has a mixture of climates. In the north and east it is continental, Mediterranean along the coast and a semi-highland and highland climate in the south-central region. Offshore Croatia consists of over one thousand islands varying in size.

The Croats settled in the Balkans in the early 7th century and formed two principalities: Dalmatia 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.

It was part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, from 1918-1929, and Kingdom of Yugoslavia, from 1929-1941.

In 1941-1945 an Axis puppet-state known as the Independent State of Croatia was set up, and after the victory of the Allies, Croatia became a republic within the Yugoslavia federation.

In 1990, the first free elections were held. A people's movement called the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won, led by Franjo Tuđman, former general in Yugoslav army. HDZ's intentions were to secure more independence for Croatia, contrary to the wishes of part of ethnic Serbs in the republic and official politics in Belgrade. The excessively polarized climate soon escalated into conflict between the two nationalities. In the summer of 1990, Serbs from the mountainous areas where they constitute a relative majority rebelled and formed an unrecognized "Autonomous Region of the Serb Krajina". Any intervention by the Croatian police was obstructed by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), mainly consisting of Serbs. The conflict culminated when the Krajina Serbs blocked the roads to tourist destinations in Dalmatia and started a mass ethnic cleansing of all non-Serb population.The Croatian government declared independence from Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991, and the JNA launched an aggression on Croatia. Many Croatian cities, notably Vukovar and Dubrovnik, came under attack of Serbian forces. The Croatian Parliament cut all remaining ties with Yugoslavia in October of that year. The civilian population fled the areas of armed conflict: generally speaking, thousands of Croats moved away from the Bosnian and Serbian border, while thousands of Serbs moved towards it. The border city of Vukovar underwent a three month siege during which most of the city buildings were destroyed and a majority of the population was forced to flee. The city fell to the Serbian forces in late November 1991. Soon after, shocked with atrocities committed by Serbs, the foreign countries started recognizing Croatia's independence. By the end of January 1992, most of the world recognized the country.

Subsequent UN-sponsored cease-fires followed and the Yugoslav People's Army retreated from Croatia. During 1992 and 1993, Croatia also handled hundreds of thousands of refugees from Bosnia. Armed conflict in Croatia remained intermittent and mostly on a small scale until 1995. In early August, Croatia started the Operation Storm and quickly reconquered most of its territory. A few months later, as a result, the war ended upon the negotiation of the Dayton Agreement. A peaceful integration of the remaining Serbian-controlled territories in Eastern Slavonia was completed in 1998 under UN supervision. The country underwent many liberal reforms beginning in 2000. An economic recovery ensued and the country proceeded to become a member of several regional and international organizations. Finaly, the country has started the process of joining the European Union.