|
|
** CROATIA 2008 - PROLOGUE ** |
|||
Croatian History |
Bottom of Page |
|||
|
This web edition is
dedicated to the Memory of Dave Cooper, graduate of Lincoln College
Oxford, |
||||
 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. 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
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.
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
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
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
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 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 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
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 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?
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?
|
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.
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. 
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
