** CROATIA 2008 - PROLOGUE **

  Croatian Demographics and Economy

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This web edition is dedicated to the Memory of Dave Cooper, graduate of Lincoln College Oxford,
Friend, Boon-companion, Polymath and Conversationalist Extraordinary, Traveller, Cyclist, Mountaineer, and Sailor,
who was tragically killed while cycling near his home on 8 February 2008

CROATIA 2008 - PROLOGUE:

Croatia (Hrvatska in Croatian) is to be the destination for our Spring 2008 camping trip. The 'sunshine and beaches' image of the Dalmatian coast, with its attractive cities like Split and Dubrovnik, contrasts sharply with the inland area of Croatia behind the Dinaric Alps which divide the country from neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina. Eastwards beyond the capital city, Zagreb, Slavonia stretches away inland towards the River Danube; this area bordering on Hungary and Serbia is still recovering in both physical and human terms from the aftermath of the wars in the early-mid 1990s. As always there is so much to learn about the history and culture of another country, which is of course the declared aim of our travelling life-style. So as usual with our ventures, we offer a snap-shot profile of Croatian geography, economy, culture and history as a prelude to the trip.

                                                   Click on map for route across Europe

ETHNICITY, CULTURE and GEOGRAPHY:  few countries are as diverse culturally and geographically as Croatia. The country's peculiar shape, its cultural diversity and ethnic mix (with tragic consequences at the 1990 break up of the former Yugoslav Federation) have their origins in the region's history. Croatia's geographical position straddles the point at which the Middle-European culture of former Austro-Hungary meets the Italianate formerly Venetian-controlled coast of Dalmatia and the South Slavic Balkan inheritance of the former Turkish-Ottoman Empire. The country stands astride one of the great fault lines of European civilisation, where the Catholicism of Central Europe meets Serbian Orthodox Christianity and the Islamic traditions of the East. The Venetians' maritime empire controlled the Dalmatian coast until, at Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, the coastline was awarded to the Habsburg Austro-Hungarians. The crescent-shaped continental border of Croatia marks the Habsburg Krajina military border zone along the line of the Ottoman Turkish empire's northernmost expansion, reflected in the predominantly Muslim culture of modern Bosnia-Herzegovina. Religion forms an important factor in defining ethnic identity, between predominantly Western Catholic Croats, Eastern Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosnians: the implication is that Croatians view themselves as the last bastion of western European culture before the vagaries of the east.

This historically-derived cultural diversity is matched by the topographical variations of Croatia's geography: although it's only around 500 km as the crow flies from Trieste down to Dubrovnik, the indentations of the Dalmatian coast and its archipelago of 1,185 islands gives Croatia an astonishing 5,835 kms shoreline. The entire length of Croatia's coastal strip is divided from Bosnia by the natural barrier of the barren karstic limestone mountain chain of the Dinaric Alps. Continental Croatia extends inland for 500 kms beyond the hilly Slovenian borderlands towards the Pannonian Plain and the fertile plains of Slavonia between the Rivers Sava, Drava and Danube, bordering on Hungary and Serbia. This geographical variation is reflected in climatic contrasts between the benignly mild Mediterranean climate along the Adriatic coast, and the harsh extremes of summer heat and winter cold of the continental interior. Topography is responsible for another climatic phenomenon affecting Croatia: the Bura, a cold, dry north-easterly wind blowing from central Europe is trapped behind the Dinaric mountains, escaping through high passes to descend in destructive gusts onto the Adriatic coast. When the Bura blows, ferries services to the islands can be suspended and bridges closed.
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DEMOGRAPHICS and ECONOMY
: the 2001 Croatian census showed a population of around 4.5 million, a reduction of some 5% on the 1991 figure of 5 million; this population decline is accounted for by 2 major factors: 'ethnic cleansing' during the 1991~5 war resulted in some 400,000 Serbs departing the country, offset by some 150,000 Croats being 'cleansed' back to Croatia from Bosnia and Serbia; major emigration of younger Croats seeking improved opportunity abroad was triggered by war upheavals and pessimistic economic outlook. Some 2.3 million ethnic Croats now live in USA, Canada, Australia, South America and Germany. On our 2004 visit, we were told that of Croatia's 4.5 million citizens, there were 1 million pensioners, 1 million children, 1 million unemployed, and only 1.5 million economically active. No wonder that so many Croats migrated to seek a new life overseas. For the average Croat, life is tough: unemployment is drastic at over 18%, unemployment benefits and pensions are painfully low, the cost of living continues to rise and 11% of the population live below the poverty line.

Once one of the wealthiest of the Yugoslav republics, Croatia's economy, especially the industrial sector, suffered devastatingly during the 1991-95 war as output collapsed and the country missed the early waves of investment in Central and Eastern Europe that followed the collapse of Communism. Croatia's economic fortunes have begun to improve but very slowly, with moderate GDP growth of 4~6% led by a rebound in tourism which remains now the major factor in the county's economy along with service industries. Agriculture and heavy industry still increasingly struggle to pay their way as Croatia is opened more to outside competition. The state however still retains a major and burdensome role in the economy, with privatization efforts slowed by political resistance and corruption still a significant factor. Inflation is low at 2.2% and the currency, the kuna, stable. Croatia's application for future EU membership (2010) is seen as a means of improving the country's infrastructure and alleviating unemployment. But major political issues still face the country: reform of the judiciary, the fight against organised crime and corruption, public administration reform, minority rights, refugee return and property rights, the conduct of war crimes trials and cooperation with the International War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague, and outstanding bilateral issues with its neighbours. In order to be taken seriously in EU and NATO accession negotiations and acceptance as an equal member of the international community, Croatia must deal effectively with such political, judicial and economic reforms.
                                                                                                                                                                     
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CROATIAN HISTORY: Croatia is both a very old and a very young country, only becoming a unified independent state after the 1991~5 wars and recovering its current boundaries from UN control in 1998. While existing briefly as an independent kingdom in medieval times, Croatia has over the past 2,500 years been controlled successively by Romans, Goths, Avars, Slavs, Franks, Byzantines, Venetians, Turks, French, Austro-Hungarians, Italians, Germans and Serbs. A buffer zone on the Adriatic trade route between west and east, the Croats have a complex and turbulent history.

Croatia before the Croatians: from 1000 BC, Illyrian tribes occupied the territory and traded with the Greek city-states who colonised the Adriatic coast from the fourth century BC. From the second century BC until the early Imperial Period, the Romans annexed this part of the Balkans into the provinces of Dalmatia along the coast and Pannonia inland. Cities developed and road construction enabled expansion of trade; monuments like the huge amphitheatre at Pula and Diocletian's palace (Emperor from 284~312 AD) at Split attest to the prosperity of this period. The western Roman Empire imploded in the fifth century AD, leaving the way open for invasion of the Balkans by Goths and Avars from eastern Europe, and from the seventh century, Slavic Croats and Serbs.

Medieval Croatian Kingdom, Hungarian rule, Venetian control of Dalmatia, the Ottoman threat, and rule by Austrian Habsburgs: despite pressure from Carolingian Franks to the north and Byzantines to the south, the Croat kingdom consolidated control over both the Adriatic and inland areas, later converting to western Roman Christianity rather than the eastern Orthodox faith, a decision which was to leave a lasting legacy of divergence between Croats and Serbs. By 925 AD the Croat kingdom reached the zenith of its power under King Tomislav and his successors. The kingdom disintegrated by early twelfth century as dynastic power struggles enabled the Hungarians to control Pannonia, and the Venetians to build up their command of the Dalmatian coast. Under Hungarian rule, trade flourished, cities developed including Zagreb, the Croatian parliament (Sabor) was founded, and Croatian nobles tightened their feudal grip over the peasantry. From 1409, the Venetians consolidated their trading empire from Istria down the Adriatic coast; 500 years of Venetian maritime rule left its legacy in deforestation from ship-building and Italianate architecture still seen today along the coast. In the far south, the wealthy trading city-republic of Ragusa (now Dubrovnik) maintained its independence by payment of tribute to powerful adversaries. But the inexorable northward expansion of the Ottoman-Turks during the fifteenth century posed a threat which was to have grave consequences for Croatia: the Turks conquered Serbia and Bosnia, and victory at Mohács in 1526 left the Ottomans in control of inland Croatia and much of Hungary. The emergent Austrian Habsburgs assumed the vacant crown of Hungary and Croatia, establishing in 1578 a military frontier buffer-zone (Vojna Krajina) along the Croatian border with Ottoman-controlled Bosnia. Turkish conquest of the Balkans caused a sequence of population movements as refugees fled north, leaving the mix of Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats in Slavonia and the border areas which resulted in such barbaric ethnic-cleansing during the 1991~95 wars. Further Turkish expansion into Europe was driven back and by 1718 the Habsburgs had recovered all of Slavonia with the stabilised frontier resembling that which still divides Croatia from Bosnia-Herzegovina today. The military frontier remained under direct control from Vienna, but in the residue of Croatia under the Hungarian crown, the nobility took little interest in Croatian language or culture with Magyar being the language of officialdom.
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Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces, and 19th century revival of Croatian nationalism: Napoleon's European conquests swept aside the Venetian Empire and independent republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), creating the French protectorate Illyrian Provinces and encouraging growth of South Slav national consciousness. After Napoleon's defeat in 1815 however, the Congress of Vienna territorial carve-up by the Great Powers awarded Dalmatia to expansionist Austria; the Habsburgs now controlled all of Croatia. Serbia's achievement of autonomy from the Ottomans in 1830 and the growing mood of nationalism across Europe inspired among Croat intellectuals a revival of interest in Slavic language and culture, the so-called Illyrian Movement. But the Habsburgs blocked any attempts to free Croatia from overbearing Hungarian rule and to reunify Croatian territories, maintaining the Military Frontier. The Croatians saw the 1848 Hungarian revolution against Austrian rule as a means of winning autonomy and creating a new South Slav state within the Austrian Empire. In an attempt to control of the situation, the Habsburgs appointed Josip Jalačić, a popular army commander and supporter of the Croatian National Movement, as Ban (Viceroy) of Croatia. Jalačić declared war on the Hungarian revolutionaries, but after their defeat, the Habsburgs forgot about Croatian demands for autonomy and reinforced centralist rule. Despite this, Jalačić is regarded by Croats as a national hero, having abolished feudalism, and reformed the Sabor (parliament) leading to Croat becoming the county's official language. Zagreb's central square named in his honour is graced with the Ban's equestrian statue. Under Emperor Franz Josef (1848~1916), the Habsburg Empire became totally absolutist, suppressing all regional aspirations. After further Hungarian agitation, the Austrians agreed the Augsgleich (Compromise) in 1867, under which the Habsburg Empire became the Dual Monarchy with Franz Josef simultaneously Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary; each half of the Empire would manage its own internal affairs, but Vienna would retain control of defence and foreign policy. This was disastrous for Croatia: Dalmatia remained under Austrian control while the bulk of Croatia was ruled by a semi-autonomous Hungary, again preventing the emergence of a unified Croatian state. Croatians now saw their future in a South Slav state (Yugoslavia) along with the Kingdom of Serbia established in 1862. With the final expulsion of the Turks from the Balkans, tension increased in 1878 when Austro-Hungary occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Krajina (Military Frontier) was abolished in 1881 and absorbed into Croatia, increasing the number of Orthodox Serbs in the country. In 1908 Austro-Hungary formally annexed Bosnia-Herzegovina with its mixed population of Catholic Croats, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Bosniaks. The annexation offended Serbia which viewed Bosnia-Herzegovina as potential area of Serbian expansion in forging a state to include all Serbs, an aim which was to re-surface 90 years later in the 1990s. Serbian success in the Balkan Wars 1912~13 driving the Ottomans from Macedonia, increased their prestige especially among Croats who saw Serbia as the potential nucleus of a future South Slav state and key to Croat independence. By 1914 therefore, tension between Austro-Hungary and Serbia was at boiling point.
                                                                                                                                                                   
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World War 1, and creation of the first Yugoslavia: on 28 June 1914, a young Bosnian-Serb fanatic, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated Franz Josef's nephew and heir, Archduke Ferdinand, in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo. The anti-Serb mood in Vienna boiled over: Austro-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Germany sided with Austria, making a response from the anti-German alliance of Russia, France and Great Britain inevitable. World War 1 was underway. The Croats fought loyally with Austro-Hungary, but defeat in 1918 spelled the collapse of the Habsburg Empire. An independent Croatian state would be non-viable, but union with Slavic neighbours into a South Slav state, gave stronger protection against external powers. As reward for joining the victorious Allies in WW1, Italy was awarded Istria, the port of Rijeka and much the Dalmatian coast and islands.  In 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed as a constitutional monarchy under Serbia's Karađorđević dynasty, the Croats believing the new state would have a federal constitution and guarantee a degree of autonomy. But in 1929, with increasing Croat protests against Serbian dominance, King Alexander replaced the constitution with a royal dictatorship renamed Yugoslavia but in effect a unitary state of Greater Serbia. Alexander was assassinated in Marseille in 1934 by an agent of the Ustaše, an ultra right wing Croatian separatist organisation inspired by Italian fascism and dedicated to violent overthrow of the Yugoslav state. Diametrically opposed was the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) led by Josip Broz Tito, which, under direction from Moscow, worked for a strong federal Yugoslavia as a bulwark against the rise of Nazi Germany. Despite Serb concessions to Croat discontent, tensions continued to mount with war again on the horizon.
                                                                                                                                                                    
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World War 2 and Partisan Resistance: Yugoslavia initially adopted a policy of neutrality when WW2 broke out, but in April 1941, the Germans invaded and established a puppet Ustaše regime to govern the now proclaimed Independent State of Croatia on the Nazi model. The rest of Yugoslavia was carved up between Germans, Hungarians and Italians who occupied Dalmatia and the islands. Ustaše rule ruthlessly suppressed all political opposition and adopted the same barbarous policies towards Serbs as the Nazis did towards Jews: Croat and Bosnian Serbs were either deported to Serbia or subjected to mass-extermination in concentration camps such as Jasenovac. German occupation and the sheer savagery of the Ustaše anti-Serb campaign led to an immediate increase in organised guerrilla resistance activity, divided into two fiercely opposed groups: the royalist, pro-Serbian Četniks loyal to the Yugoslav government in exile, and the communist Partisans led by Tito who forged an effective anti-fascist resistance commanding wide support from all ethnic groups. The two resistance groups' opposition to the invaders was matched by their destructive mutual hatred. Italy's collapse in September 1943 enabled the Partisans to capture weaponry and take command of more territory, and in 1944 the Allies transferred all remaining aid and support from the Četniks to the Partisans; Tito entered Zagreb in May 1945 to be recognised as Yugoslavia's post-war leader. 1000s of Croat reservists who had surrendered to the British, were handed back to Tito's troops and immediately eliminated along with any other opposition, in order to reinforce the communist regime's power-base. Yugoslavia paid a terrible price during WW2 with more than a tenth of its citizens killed, including 300,000 Croats, 300,000 Partisans and 400,000 Bosnians.

Tito's Yugoslavia (1946~1980): in 1945 a Soviet-inspired constitution established the People's Republic of Yugoslavia, a federation of six national republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia), with Tito as President. Quashing all dissent, Tito's personal authority and the Communist Party's iron discipline held the whole structure together. As Cold War tensions increased across Europe, Tito famously broke with Stalin in 1948, managing to resist Soviet economic and ideological pressure and securing increased levels of support at home and abroad. This policy of non-alignment was one of Tito's greatest political feats, allowing Yugoslavia to develop its own brand of communism. Securing aid from the capitalist West, Tito successfully steered Yugoslavia's ailing economy, and during the 1960s~70s evolved a distinctive style of government based on workers' self-management which allowed limited competition within a framework of communism. To avoid nationalist dissention, the constituent republics were given decentralised control over their internal affairs; while Tito lived, this remarkably effective strategy held the federal state together, enforced however by ruthless suppression of any opposition. In 1961, Tito joined Nehru of India and Nasser of Egypt in forming the Non-Aligned Movement; this delicate balancing act between East and West gained Yugoslavia international credibility. Croatia benefitted from the economic growth of the 1960s; relaxation of visa requirements led to a tourist boom, but this comparative prosperity created further tensions: the developed republics of Croatia and Slovenia resented what was seen as mal-distribution of their income by the central Belgrade government. In Croatia, this nationalistic unrest reached a crescendo with increased demands for economic liberalisation and autonomy; the so-called Croatian Spring of 1971 was however ruthlessly suppressed by Tito, with reformers purged and demands crushed. Nationalistic sentiments simmered ominously as Yugoslavia entered a period of economic and ideological stagnation during the 1970s. Tito died in 1980, and his funeral was attended by official mourners from 120 countries, including 4 kings, 32 presidents and other heads of state, and 22 prime ministers.

For insights into Tito's life visit the so-called  Tito's Home Page Listen to Tito speaking about the  Non-Aligned Movement

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Post-Tito break up of Yugoslavia:  Tito's death left the country without effective leadership; an eight-man presidency with each republic supplying a head of state in turn was incapable of dealing with the country's worsening economic plight with crippling foreign debt, soaring inflation and rampant unemployment. Without Tito's personal charisma and unifying strength, the underlying problems of resentful nationalism, unfair distribution of wealth between republics and government corruption resurfaced during the 1980s. At this crucial point, enter Slobodan Milošević, a little-known Serbian apparatchik who rapidly gained popularity by opportunistic support for the Serb minority in the Serbian province of Kosovo against the majority ethnic Albanians. Milošević was elected Serbian president in 1989 and exploited nationalistic sentiment to remould Yugoslav communism towards an ethnically pure Serbia. As the rest of eastern Europe moved towards democratic multi-party rule, Yugoslavia reverted to centralised hard-line communism. The Slovenes and Croats had to assert themselves before it was too late. In 1990, the ultra-nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) led by former army general and dissident historian Franjo Tuđman won the elections, calling for Croatia's right to secede from the federation; Tuđman was elected President and Croatian statehood declared. The fears of Croatia's 600,000 Serbs were inflamed by openly discriminatory measures and further provoked by anti-Croat propaganda from Belgrade. In the summer of 1990, Croatia's Serbs, armed by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), rebelled and declared an autonomous region around the town on Knin, seeking union with Serbia. The revolt spread to Slavonia, and clashes between Croatian armed police and the JNA produced the first casualties of the Serb-Croat war. The break-up of Yugoslavia was now inevitable, and Milošević moved to create a Greater Serbia incorporating all parts of Croatia and Bosnia occupied by ethnic Serbs.

Croatian War of Independence:  Slovenia declared independence in June 1991; Milošević immediately sent tanks into Ljubljana but after a brief stand-off the JNA withdrew. Croatia also now declared independence, but JNA forces concentrated in the Serb-inhabited areas of Croatia. Serbian paramilitaries armed by the JNA proclaimed an autonomous state, the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK), in the Serb-occupied border regions of Croatia (shaded green on map right). During late 1991, rebellious Serbs reinforced by JNA air strikes and bombardments ethnically 'cleansed' occupied Croatia; 1000s of Croats were killed or forced to flee their homes. Many towns were besieged and bombarded by the Serbs with wholesale destruction and loss of life. The worst atrocities occurred in the eastern Slavonia town of Vukovar where after a lengthy siege, Serb irregulars committed appalling acts of barbarity against the local Croat population. In the south, Serbian forces also besieged and shelled Dubrovnik causing immense damage to the ancient city. As the fighting went on, Serb advances were halted and Croatian counter-offences recovered some occupied territory. It was now however Croatian paramilitaries who committed war crimes, with revenge attacks resulting in murder of Serb civilians and destruction of Serb-owned properties. By 1992, a UN-brokered ceasefire secured JNA withdrawal, but with Serbs still occupying Croatian territory, an international peace-keeping force policed the ceasefire line. With its war-shattered industry and economy, immense destruction of homes and property, 1000s of refugees to accommodate, and fragmented borders, Croatia was all but impossible to administer. But in early 1992, Croatia finally emerged from diplomatic isolation with EU recognition of its independence and UN membership albeit on condition of constitutional protection of minority rights. In 1995, Croatian forces liberated Serb-held areas of western Slavonia, and then launched an attack on Knin. In 3 days the Serbian Krajina Republic collapsed and, fearing reprisals the Serb population fled to Serbia, abandoning the land they had inhabited for centuries in the worst episodes of terror and ethnic cleansing of the war. The homes they had left were looted and destroyed and remaining Serbs murdered, while the authorities turned a blind eye and the West's attention was distracted by atrocities being committed in neighbouring Bosnia. In late 1995, the Dayton Accord brought an end to the Bosnian wars; in 1996 the US-sponsored Erdut Agreement was signed by Croats and Serbs, with the last Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia remaining under UN supervision until reintegration into Croatia in 1998. Croatia at last had achieved a unified independence, but at what cost: appalling loss of life, atrocities and war crimes, ethnic cleansing and displaced refugees, and immeasurable economic and physical destruction.
                                                                                                                                                                    
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Croatia after the war:  during the war, the HDZ party had unified Croats while the nation was fighting for survival against an outside menace. As the 1990s progressed however, Tuđman's authoritarian style began to seem increasingly anachronistic and damaging to Croatia's international standing: dubious involvement with Bosnian hardliners, poor human rights record and lack of support for Serb refugees to return, refusal to extradite to the Hague International Tribunal Croatians suspected of war crimes, lack of free democratic government, ensured that Croatia was kept at arm's length by the EU, subjected to UN sanctions, and excluded from aid programmes available to other former communist states. The HDZ's autocratic exercise of power, Tuđman's high-handedness, and corruption in business in contrast with desperately low public standards of living, was an increasing source of political resentment. Tuđman's death in 1999 was mourned by a genuine outpouring of popular grief, but democratic opposition parties united to defeat the HDZ in the 2000 general elections. With Stjepan Mesić (see right) elected President and more liberal democratic government, Croatia's diplomatic standing began to improve.

Current Croatian Politics and Society: the political, humanitarian and economic mal-inheritance of the 1990s left the incoming Liberal-Democrat government with a monumental task. Although the country has regained a degree of stability, the most problematic issue has been dealing with the war crimes issue: should suspects be extradited to the Hague or be tried in Croatia? The other major conditions of EU and NATO membership have been human rights, refugee return and property rights, issues far from satisfactory outcome. A vast reconstruction programme has resulted in repairs to property damaged in the war, but although the Zagreb government has made refugee return a priority in accordance with the international community's demands, efforts have often been subverted by local authorities intent on maintaining ethnic homogeneity. No one knows how many Serbs have actually returned. Homes abandoned by Serb owners have since been occupied by Croat refugees from Bosnia, and returning Serbs face insuperable legal obstacles to reclaiming their former property or finding employment in economically precarious regions. Just as the Croatian economy needed healing support, so also has Croatian society suffered traumatically; clearly with so much bloodshed, anguish and suffering across the country, reconciliation is a painful process

Breaking news:  Kosovo's majority Albanian population declared independence from Serbia on 17 March 2008; despite recognition of this by the US and most EU states, Serbia's strident anti-reaction backed by Putin's Russia raises the question: is this the final nail in the coffin of Federal Yugoslavia, or the Balkans yet again casting a chilling spectre over world peace?

So that's Croatia's story so far. As always, we are looking forward to visiting the country, learning much, renewing acquaintance with a Slavic language, Hrvatski, and most importantly meeting lots of interesting people. As usual we'll be publishing regular updates to our web site, with news and pictures of our travels. Add the site to your Favourites and share our travels; we should welcome your companionship.

Sheila and Paul

   Published: Tuesday 19 February 2008

 

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Music this week: Croatian National Anthem
Lijepa naša Domovino

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