Croats () are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have migrated throughout the world, and established a notable Croatian diaspora. Large Croat communities exists in The United States, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Serbia, New Zealand and South Africa. Croats are noted for their culture, which has been influenced by a number of other neighbouring cultures through the ages. The strongest influences came from Central Europe and the Mediterranean where, at the same time, Croats have made their own contribution. The Croats are predominantly Catholic with minor groups of Protestants, Muslims, Ortodox, Jews and secular non religious atheists, agnostics and their language is Croatian.

Locations

Croatia is the nation state of the Croats, while in the adjacent Bosnia and Herzegovina they are one of the three ''constituent peoples'' alongside Bosniaks and Serbs.

Native Croat minorities exist in or among:

Vojvodina, the northern autonomous province of Serbia, where the Croatian language is official (along with five other languages); the vast majority of the Šokci consider themselves Croats, as well as many Bunjevci (the latter, as well as other nationalities, settled the vast, abandoned area after the Ottoman retreat; this Croat subgroup originates from the south, mostly from the region of Bačka).

The Šokci and Bunjevci communities in Bács-Kiskun county in Hungary.

Croats are a recognized people in Montenegro, where the Croatian language is in use; they mostly live in the Bay of Kotor.

a very small community in the Carso and Trieste area, in Italy. This is the northwesternmost area populated by Croats. They are mostly assimilated, but traces remain in surnames and some place names.

Primorska, Prekmurje and in the Metlika area in Dolenjska regions in Slovenia.

Zala, Baranya and Somogy counties in Hungary, which are border areas with Croatia).

Krashovans in Romania mostly consider themselves Croatian - see ''Croats of Romania''.

Burgenland in the eastern part of Austria, and the bordering areas of western Hungary (the counties of Vas and Győr-Moson-Sopron) and Slovakia - the Croats of ''Gradišće'' - Burgenland Croats.

Kosovo - Janjevci (Letničani).

Molise area in Italy - Molise Croats.

Szentendre town in Hungary, magyarized, but preserving a memory of their Croat origins (from Dalmatia).

The area around Bratislava in Slovakia: the villages of Chorvátsky Grob, Čunovo, Devínska Nová Ves, Rusovce and Jarovce. Most have assimilated but a small minority still preserves its Croatian identity.

The Moravia region in the Czech Republic. The villages of Jevišovka (Frielištof), Dobré Pole (Dobro Polje) and Nový Přerov(Nova Prerava).}

The population estimates are reasonably accurate domestically: around four million in Croatia and nearly 600,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or 15% of the total population.

Diaspora

A large number of Croats were forced to leave their traditional homeland over the course of time, for economic or political reasons. Thus today there exists quite a large Croat diaspora outside their traditional homeland in southern Central Europe.

The first large emigration of Croats took place in the 15th and 16th centuries, at the beginning of the Ottoman conquests in today's Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. People fled into safer areas in what is today Croatia, and other areas of the Habsburg Empire (today's Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and small parts of Italy, Germany and the Ukraine). This migration resulted in Croat communities in Austria and Hungary.

At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, larger numbers of Croats emigrated, particularly for economic reasons, to overseas destinations. These included North America (Croatian American and Canadians of Croatian ancestry); South America, above all Chile (Croatian Chilean) and Argentina (Croatian Argentine) with smaller communities in Bolivia and Peru; Australia and New Zealand; and South Africa.

A further, larger wave of emigration, this time for political reasons, took place immediately after the end of the Second World War. At this time, both collaborators of the Ustaša regime and refugees who did not want to live under a communist regime fled the country.

In the second half the 20th century numerous Croats left the country as immigrant workers, particularly to go to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In addition, some emigrants left for political reasons. This migration made it possible for communist Yugoslavia to achieve lower unemployment and at the same time the money sent home by emigrants to their families provided an enormous source of foreign exchange income. During this period, tens of thousands of Croats also emigrated to neighboring Slovenia; to this day, Croats of Slovenia represent the second largest ethnic group in the country after the Slovenes.

The last large wave of Croat emigration occurred during and after the Yugoslav Wars, when many people from the region (not only Croats but Serbs, Bosniaks and others) left as refugees. Migrant communities already established in countries such as Australia, the USA, and Germany grew as a result.

Abroad, the count is approximate because of incomplete statistical records and naturalization, but the highest estimates suggest that the Croatian diaspora numbers as much as a third and a half of the total number of Croats. The largest emigrant groups are in Western Europe, mainly in Germany, where it is estimated that there are around 450,000 people with direct Croatian ancestry.

Overseas, the United States contains the largest Croatian emigrant group (544,270 in the 1990 census; 374,271 in the 2000 census), mostly in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California, with a sizable community in Alaska, followed by Australia (105,747 according to 2001 census, with concentrations in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth) and Canada (Southern Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Newfoundland). Croats have also emigrated in several waves to Latin America, mostly to South America: chiefly Chile, Argentina, and Brazil; estimates of their number vary wildly. There are also smaller groups of Croatian descendants in the UK, France, Romania, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and South Korea. The most important organizations of the Croatian diaspora are the Croatian Fraternal Union, Croatian Heritage Foundation and the Croatian World Congress.

Origins

thumb|left|Temple of Augustus (Pula):"ROMAE · ET · AUGUSTO · CAESARI · DIVI · F · PATRI · PATRIAE" - "''Roma and Augustus Caesar, son of the deity, father of the fatherland''" The origin of the Croatian tribe before the great migration of the Slavs is uncertain. According to the most widely accepted ''Slavic theory'' concerning the migrations of the 7th century, the Croatian tribe moved from the area north of the Carpathians and east of the river Vistula (referred to as White Croatia) and migrated into the western Dinaric Alps. White Croats formed the Principality of Dalmatia in the upper Adriatic. Another wave of Slavic migrants from White Croatia subsequently founded the Principality of Pannonia. However, some scholars doubt the above theory, which is based primarily on ''De Administrando Imperio'', a tenth-century work by Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. The doubt rests primarily on archaeological and historiographical grounds. In 603 AD, according to the codices of the church of Thessaloniki, Croats, who had invaded Dalmatia and Istria, have been confusing Maximus the bishop of Salona, because they wrote him back. He described the Croats as the ''"insightful"'' Slavs. According to a letter of Pope Gregory, the colonization by Slavs of Imperial estates in Istria, which were available to the public, was known since the 6th Century, but was still in the 9th Century on the agenda for a People's Assembly in Istria, which brought forth some very remarkable documents. ''D.A.I.'' states that the Croats arrived during Heraclius' regnal years (610–640 AD) from ''"Bagibareja"'', which translated means that they arrived from ''"a prominent town"''. However, there is little archaeological supporting such a migration. Moreover, it is unlikely that any political entity such as White Croatia ever existed, because the justification for it is only in the clearly erroneous translation of the word Bagibareja. Instead, Curta points to some burial assemblages in the northern Dalmatia region, which he dates to 800 AD. Here, there are some exceptionally rich burials showing Byzantine, Avar, Frankish and Slavic material elements, perhaps representing a "community of Croats". That is, Curta suggests that the Croats emerged as some kind of an elite caste of Slavic-speaking warriors, consequently spreading their influence, thus their name, over much of Dalmatia and parts of Pannonia. A theory of migration from the north to the south may be interpreted in this context as a philosophical balance with the propagation of the faith from the south to the north. Subsequent papal recognition ensured the evolution from ''"a prominent tribe"'' to a medieval kingdom. However, because of events such as the earthquakes between 350 and 450 AD, a migration theory cannot be ruled out; also because Ostrogorski claims that the Slavs, who had tried to take Thessaloniki in 597, invaded Crete in 623, but the sources for his thesis are not clearly known, and because Alexandria was taken by Khosrau II of Persia in 616, but Heraclius recovered it a few years later. Here could be a link to the linguistic Persian theory, too.

According to the Gothic theory, Croats would be descendants of Ostrogoths/eastern Goths. This theory is based on a historic chronicle from Thomas the Archdeacon called ''Historia Salonitana'' where he mentions Croats as Goths. Also, Slavs in the area of modern Croatia are equated to Goths in Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja.

According to the ''autochthonous model'', mostly promoted by the Illyrian Movement in the 19th century and abandoned by the mid-19th century, the Slav homeland is actually in the area of southern Croatia, and they spread northwards and westwards rather than the other way round. A revision of the theory, developed by Ivan Muzić argues that Slav migration from the north did happen, but the actual number of Slavic settlers was small and that the Illyrian ethnic substratum was prevalent in the formation of Croatian ethnicity.

The Iranian theory suggests that the Croats are a tribe from Arachosia. This theory is based solely on linguistic evidence, namely the spread of the Old Croatian ethnonym *''xъrvatъ'', almost certainly a borrowing into Slavic, probably from the Middle Persian ''"harw, hrw"'', which means ''"all, each, every"'', from the Middle Persian ''"xwad, hwt"'', which means ''"self"'', or from the Sanskrit ''"kratu"'', which means ''"insightful"''; and the use of the Sanskrit ''"Bagibareja"'', which means ''"a prominent town"''.

It is important to note that 'origin' theories are often developed amidst a wider context of ideological-political discourse. Nevertheless the Gothic and Iranian origins theories have at times been supported by scholars such as Ivan Muzic. They represent an attempt to distance Croats from other Slavs, especially Serbs, during the volatile period of late 1970s until recently.

For all the theories, the documentary and archaeological evidence is quite clear that the ''Croats'' emerged within ninth-century northern Dalmatia. At this time, there was no migration to account for, rather, political circumstances created a climate conducive to the emergence of a new polity in the northern Adriatic, between the Carolingian and Byzantine Empire. Ruled by local notables - the 'Croats' - the Croat ethonym later spread (and contracted) following the political fortunes of the Croat Kingdom. The creation of a Christianized Croat kingdom, recognized by Byzantium and the Papacy, cemented its existence and membership of a 'club' of European Christian Monarchic states. As Danijel Dzino summarizes, "the question whether the Croats were migrants to Dalmatia or the indigenous population is not important. The earliest Croat identity we know of appeared with the disappearance of a structural Avar continuum and the establishment of new power structures in Dalmatia which were established on a new social and spiritual system from the West, indigenous regional polities - ''zupanias'', and the use of the ancient past as a justification of that power". The Croats, based in the Nin-Knin-Skradin triangle, might have taken over local rule from an earlier socio-political collective- the ''Guduscani'' of Lika.

Genetics & Anthropology

Anthropologically, the craniometrical measurements made on the Croat population show Croats from Croatia are predominantly dolichocephalic, suggesting that they are more prone to dolichocephalic sub-racial types such as Nordic and Mediterranean than brachycephalic ones like Alpine and Dinaric.

Croats from the northern regions generally have blonde-brown hair, and lighter eye colours, similar to the pigmentation of surrounding peoples such as Slovenians, Bosnians and Austrians. Croats from Dalmatia and Herzegovina generally have slightly darker hair, and higher incidence of brown eyes, although lighter hair and eyes are also common.

Genetically, on the Y chromosome line, a majority (>85%) of Croats belong to one of the three major European Y-DNA haplogroups - Haplogroup I (45%), Haplogroup R1a (27%) and Haplogroup R1b (13%).

Later neolithic lineages which originated in the Middle East and brought agriculture to Europe, are present in surprisingly low numbers. The haplogroups J, E and T constitute together about 13% - significantly lower than other populations in the region. The dominant presence of haplogroup I is rather interesting. This group exists only in Europe and is fairly widespread, but in relatively small percentages. Its frequency in the western Balkans is very high and the only population that has similar levels of the I group are the Scandinavians. Haplogroup I among Croatians is divided in two major subdivisions - I2a1 (33%), typical for the populations of eastern Adriatic and the Balkans, and I1 (9%), typical for north-western Europeans. Haplogroup I is believed to have weathered the last glacial maximum in the western Balkans, migrating north as the ice sheets retreated.

There are a number of relevant conclusions that can be drawn from the genetic data.

First of all it gives strong support to the theory that the region of modern day Croatia served as a refuge for northern populations during the last glacial maximum (LGM). The eastern Adriatic coast was much further south. The northern and western parts of that sea were steppes and plains, while the modern Croatian islands (rich in Paleolithic archeological sites) were hills and mountains. After the LGM, the offspring of these survivors (haplogroup I) repopulated much of central-eastern and southeastern Europe. Those who remained in the Balkans were the direct male-line ancestors of about 45% of modern day Croats in Croatia and 73% Croats in Herzegovina.

It can be said that the Croats are "the most European people", as no other people have such a high share of this major (and probably the only) Paleolithic European haplogroup.

The second conclusion that can be drawn is that the theory of an Iranian origin . Nonetheless Modern-day Iranians have a significantly different haplogroup distribution, although Iranic communities have lived in eastern Europe for centuries. The low frequency of ''Anatolian'' haplogroups suggests that agriculture spread into the region of Croatia primarily by way of cultural contact.

And the third conclusion from the genetic evidence points to the fact Croats are genetically heterogeneous, pointing to a high degree of mixing of newly arrived medieval migrant tribes (such as Slavs) with the indigenous populations that were already present in the region of modern day Croatia. Hence, most modern day Croats are directly descended from the original European population of the region who have lived in the territory by other names, such as Illyrians, and their forebears. These original inhabitants also served an important role in re-populating Europe after the last ice age.

History

thumb|300px|left|Map of demographic distribution of main religious confessions in [[Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia|Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro in 1901:

{| style="background:transparent;" cellspacing="5" |- valign="middle" | | |} ]]

The earliest Croatian state was the Principality of Dalmatia. Prince Trpimir of Dalmatia was called Duke of Croats in 852. In 925 Croatian Duke of Dalmatia Tomislav of Trpimir united all Croats. He organized a state by annexing the Principality of Pannonia as well as maintaining close ties with Pagania and Zahumlje.

Since the creation of the personal union with Hungary in 1102, the Croats were at times subjected to enforced Germanization and Magyarization, especially from the 17th century onward. The ensuing Ottoman conquests and Habsburg domination broke the Croatian lands into disunity again, with the majority of Croats living in Croatia proper and Dalmatia. Large numbers of Croats also lived in Slavonia, Istria, Rijeka, Herzegovina and Bosnia. Over the centuries ensued a wave of Croatian emigrants, notably to Molise in Italy, Burgenland in Austria and eventually the United States of America and Western Europe.

After the First World War, most Croats were united within the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, created by joining South Slavic lands under the former Austro-Hungarian rule with the Kingdom of Serbia. Croats became one of the constituent nations of the new kingdom. The state was transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929 and the Croats were united in the new nation with their neighbours – the South Slavs-Yugoslavs. In 1939, the Croats received a high degree of autonomy when the Banovina of Croatia was created, which united almost all ethnic Croatian territories within the Kingdom. In the Second World War, the Axis forces created the Independent State of Croatia led by the Ustaše movement which sought to create an ethnically pure Croatian state on the territory corresponding to present-day countries of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Post-war Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia became a federation consisting of 6 republics, and Croats became one of two ''constituent peoples'' of two – Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (in the latter one of the three since 1968). Croats in Serbian autonomous province of Vojvodina are one of six main ethnic groups composing this region. Following the democratization of society, accompanied with ethnic tensions that emerged in the post-Tito era, in 1991 the Republic of Croatia declared independence, which was followed by war with its Serb minority, backed up by Serbia-controlled Yugoslav People's Army. In the first years of the war, over 200,000 Croats were displaced from their homes as a result of the military actions. In the peak of the fighting, around 550,000 ethnic Croats were displaced altogether during the Yugoslav wars.

Post-war government's policy of easing the immigration of ethnic Croats from abroad encouraged a number of Croatian descendants to return to Croatia. The influx was increased by the arrival of Croatian refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina. After the war's end in 1995, most Croatian refugees returned to their previous homes, while some (mostly Croat refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Janjevci from Kosovo) moved into the formerly-held Serbian housing.

Culture and traditions

The area settled by Croats has a large diversity of historical and cultural influences, as well as diversity of terrain and geography. The coastland areas of Dalmatia and Istria were subject to Roman Empire, Venetian and Italian rule; central regions like Lika and western Herzegovina were a scene of battlefield against the Ottoman Empire, and have strong epic traditions. In the northern plains, Austro-Hungarian rule has left its marks.

In spite of foreign rule, Croats developed a strong, distinctive culture and sense of national identity, a tribute to the centuries in which they remained distinct, avoiding assimilation of the overlords' population. The most distinctive features of Croatian folklore include klapa ensembles of Dalmatia, tamburitza orchestras of Slavonia. Folk arts are performed at special events and festivals, perhaps the most distinctive being Alka of Sinj, a traditional knights' competition celebrating the victory against Ottoman Turks. The epic tradition is also preserved in epic songs sung with gusle. Various types of kolo circular dance are also encountered throughout Croatia.

The Croatian language has a long written tradition with documents like Baška Tablet dating as early as 1100. The modern standard language is based on ijekavian shtokavian dialect. There are two other dialects, chakavian (spoken in Istria and Dalmatia) and kajkavian, (spoken in Zagorje and wider Zagreb area), which to an extent have been influenced and superseded by the standard, yet they still color the respective vernacular speeches. Despite that diversity, Croats take their language as a strong issue of national consciousness and are fairly negative towards foreign influences.

Croats are vastly Roman Catholic, and the church has had a significant role in fostering of the national identity. The confession played a significant role in the Croatian ethnogenesis.

Ragusan Republic and Dalmatia are the homeland of Croatian literature. It was developed largely in the renaissance period, with works of Dalmatian and Ragusan authors like Marko Marulić and Marin Držić, and continued through baroque with Ivan Gundulić, romanticism with Ivan Mažuranić and August Šenoa up to the modern days.

Art

thumb|left|Portal of Trogir chatedral by sculptor Majstor Radovan, c. 1240 In the 7th century the Croats, with other Slavs and Avars, came from Northern Europe to the region where they live today. The Croats were open to Roman art and culture, and first of all to Christianity. The first churches were built as royal sanctuaries, and the influences of Roman art were strongest in Dalmatia where urbanization was greatest, and where there were most monuments. Gradually, that influence diminished and there was a certain simplification and alteration of inherited forms; original buildings even appeared.

The largest and most complicated centrally based church from the 9th century is St Donatus in Zadar, for its time comparable only in its size and beauty with the chapel of Charlemagne in Aachen.

The altar enclosures and windows of these churches were highly decorated with transparent shallow string-like ornamentation called Croatian ''pleter'' (meaning 'to weed', because the strings were threaded and rethreaded through themselves). Some engravings appeared in early Croatian script – Glagolitic. Soon, Glagolitic writing was replaced with Latin on the altar boundaries and architraves of old-Croatian churches.

right|thumb|260 px|The Walls of Dubrovnik, UNESCO Heritage By joining the Hungarian state in the twelfth century, Croatia lost its independence, but it did not lose its ties with the south and the west, and instead this ensured the beginning of a new era of Central European cultural influence.

Early Romanesque art appeared in Croatia at the beginning of the 11th century, when the monasteries had become strongly developed and the church was undergoing reform. Many valuable monuments and artefacts were created along the Croatian coast, including the 13th century Cathedral of St. Anastasia, Zadar (in Croatian, ''St. Stošija'').

In Croatian Romanesque sculpture there was a move away from decorative interlaced relief work (Croatian ''pleter'') towards the figurative. The best examples of Romanesque sculpture are the wooden doors of Split cathedral by Andrija Buvina (c.1220) and the stone portal of Trogir cathedral by artisan Radovan (c. 1240).

Early frescoes are numerous and best preserved in Istria. In them can be seen evidence of the mix of influences from Eastern and Western Europe. The oldest miniatures are the 13th century gospels from Split and Trogir.

left|thumb|Cathedral of St Stephen in the capital of Croatia, Zagreb, interior from 14th century Gothic art in the 14th century was supported by city councils, preaching orders (such as the Franciscans), and knightly culture. It was the golden age of the free Dalmatian cities as they engaged in trade with the Croatian feudal nobility on the continent. The largest urban project of the time was the complete construction of two new towns – Great and Little Ston and about a kilometre of wall with guard towers between them, after Hadrian's Wall in England the longest wall in Europe.

The Tatars destroyed the Romanesque cathedral in Zagreb during their scourge of 1240, but immediately after their departure the Hungarian king Bela IV granted Zagreb the title of Free City. Soon after, bishop Timotej began rebuilding the cathedral in the new Gothic style.

Zadar was an independent Venetian city. The most beautiful examples of Gothic humanism in Zadar are its gilded metal reliefs, such as the Arch of St Simon by a Milanese artisan of 1380.

Gothic painting is less well preserved, and the finest works are in Istria, such as the fresco-cycle of Vincent of Kastv in the Church of St. Mary in Škriljinah near Beram, from 1474. From that period also are two of the most ornately illuminated liturgies done by monks from Split, – Hvals’ Zbornik (now in Zagreb) and the Missal of Bosnian Duke Hrvoje Vukčić Hrvatinić (now in Istanbul).

In the 15th century, Croatia was divided among three states – northern Croatia was part of the Austrian Empire, Dalmatia (with the exception of Dubrovnik) was under the rule of the Venetian Republic and Slavonia was under Ottoman occupation. Dalmatia was on the periphery of several influences: religious and public architecture clearly influenced by the Italian renaissance flourished. Three works of that period are of European importance, and contributed to the further development of the Renaissance: the Cathedral of St. James in Šibenik, by Juraj Dalmatinac (1441); the Chapel of Blessed John of Trogir by Nikola Firentinac (1468); and Sorkočević’s Villa in Lapad, near Dubrovnik (1521).

In northwestern Croatia the outbreak of war with the Ottoman Empire caused many problems, but in the long term it reinforced the influence of the north, where the Austrians held power. With permanent danger from the Ottomans in the east, the influence of the Renaissance was modest, while [fortification]]s proliferated, like the fortified city of Karlovac, built in 1579, and the Ratkay family's fort in Veliki Tabor, also from the 16th century.

Some famous Croatian Renaissance artists lived and worked in other countries, like the brothers Laurana (Vranjanin, Franjo and Luka), miniaturist Juraj Klović (also known as Giulio Clovio) and the famous mannerist painter Andrija Medulić (teacher of El Greco).

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Croatia was reunited with the parts of the country that had been occupied by the Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire. Reunification contributed to a sudden flourishing of the arts in every form.

Large fortifications, with radial plan, ditches and numerous towers were built because of the constant Ottoman threat. The two largest were Osijek and Slavonski Brod; later they become large cities. Urban planning in the baroque style was in evidence in numerous new towns such as Karlovac, Bjelovar, Koprivnica and Virovitica. Some old Dalmatian cities also had baroque towers and bastions incorporated in their walls, as in Pula, Šibenik and Hvar. The biggest baroque undertaking was in Dubrovnik in the 17th century, after the catastrophic earthquake of 1667 when almost the entire city was destroyed. Wall painting flourished all over Croatia, from the illusionist frescoes in the church of St. Mary in Samobor and the church of St Catherine in Zagreb to the Jesuit church in Dubrovnik. An exchange of artists between Croatia and other parts of Europe took place. The most famous Croatian painter was Federiko Benković, who worked almost his entire life in Italy, while an Italian – Francesco Robba, did the best baroque sculptures in Croatia.

The Romantic movement in Croatia, arriving from Austria and the north at the beginning of the 19th century, was sentimental, gentle and subtle.

At the end of the 19th century, the architect Herman Bolle undertook one of the largest projects of European historicism – a half-kilometer long neo-renaissance arcade with twenty domes at the Zagreb cemetery Mirogoj. At the same time the cities of Croatia underwent significant urban renewal.

A structure that emphasizes all three visual arts is the former building of the Ministry of Prayer and Education (the so-called Golden Hall) in Zagreb (by Bolle, 1895). Vlaho Bukovac brought the spirit of impressionism from Paris, strongly influencing Croatia's young artists, including those who worked on the Golden Hall). At the Millennium Exhibition in Budapest they overshadowed all other artistic traditions of Austro-Hungary.

The turbulent twentieth century re-oriented Croatia politically many times and affected it in many other ways, but this could not significantly alter its already unique position at the crossroads of many different cultures.

Symbols

The Flag of Croatia consists of a red-white-blue tricolor with the Coat of Arms of Croatia in the middle. The red-white-blue tricolor was chosen as these were the colours of Pan-Slavism, popular in the 19th Century.

The coat-of-arms consists of the traditional red and white squares or ''grb'', which simply means 'coat-of-arms'. It has been used to symbolise the Croats for centuries; some speculate that it was derived from Red and White Croatia, historic lands of the Croatian tribe but there is no generally accepted proof for this theory. The current design added the five crowning shields which represent the historical regions from which Croatia originated.

The red and white checkerboard has been a symbol of Croatian kings since at least the 10th century, ranging in number from 3×3 to 8×8, but most commonly 5×5, like the current coat. The oldest source confirming the coat-of-arms as an official symbol is a genealogy of the Habsburgs dating from 1512 to 1518. In 1525 it was used on a votive medal. The oldest known example of the ''šahovnica'' (chessboard in Croatian) in Croatia is to be found on the wings of four falcons on a baptismal font donated by king Peter Krešimir IV of Croatia (1058–1074) to the Archbishop of Split.

Unlike in many countries, Croatian design more commonly uses symbolism from the coat-of-arms, rather than from the Croatian flag. This is partly due to the geometric design of the shield which makes it appropriate for use in many graphic contexts (e.g. the insignia of Croatia Airlines or the design of the shirt for the Croatia national football team), and partly to the fact that neighbouring countries like Slovenia and Serbia use the same Pan-Slavic colours on their flags as Croatia.

The Croatian wattle (''pleter'' or ''troplet'') is also a commonly used symbol which originally comes from monasteries built between the 9th and 12th century. The wattle can be seen in various emblems and is also featured in modern Croatian military ranks and Croatian police ranks insignia.

Maps

See also

List of Croats

Croatian diaspora

Croatian literature

Croatian Chilean

Croatian Argentine

Croatian Brazilian

Croatian Australian

Croatian Peruvian

Croatian Greek Catholic Church

Croatian Muslims

Croatian Eastern Orthodox Christians

Timeline of Croatian history

List of Medieval Slavic tribes

References

Notes

External links

Matica hrvatska

Review of Croatian History at Central and Eastern European Online Library

Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina: History

The Croatian nation at the beginning of the 20th century

* Famous Croats and Croatian cultural heritage

*Croatian Heritage Foundation Hrvatska matica iseljenika

*Croatians in Arizona

Category:Croatian society Category:Slavic nations Category:South Slavs

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partof	the Bosnian War
conflict	Croat-Bosniak War
date	June 19, 1992 – February 23, 1994
place	Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly in Central Bosnia and along the Neretva river
territory	Prior to the war the HVO controlled more than 20 percent of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina but at the signing of the Washington agreement less than 10 percent.
result	Stalemate, Washington Agreement and creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
combatant1
combatant2	Republic ofBosnia and Herzegovina ---- Croatian Defence Forces
commander1	Franjo Tuđman (President of Croatia) Mate Boban(President of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia) Milivoj Petković(HVO Chief of staff) Dario Kordić(political leader of Croats in central Bosnia) Valentin Ćorić(commander, HVO military police)
commander2	Alija Izetbegović(President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina) Sefer Halilović(ARBiH chief of staff 1992-1993) Rasim Delić(ARBiH chief of staff 1993-1995) Arif Pašalić(commander, IV Corps ARBiH) ---- Blaž Kraljević (commander, Croatian Defence Forces)
strength2	}}

The Croat–Bosniak War was a conflict between the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia supported by the Republic of Croatia, that lasted from June 19, 1992 – February 23, 1994. The ICTY effectively determined the war's nature to be international between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in numerous verdicts against Croat political and military leaders. The Croat-Bosniak war is often referred to as the ''war in a war'' because it was part of the larger Bosnian War.

There are no precise statistics dealing with the casualties of the Croat-Bosniak conflict along ethnic lines. The Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center's (IDC) data from 2007 on human losses in the regions caught in the Croat-Bosniak conflict as part of the wider Bosnian War, however, can serve as a rough approximation. According to this data, in Central Bosnia most of the 10,448 documented casualties (soldiers and civilians) were Bosniaks (62%), with Croats in second (24%) and Serbs (13%) in third place. The municipalities of Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje and Bugojno also geographically located in Central Bosnia (known as Gornje Povrbasje region), with the 1,337 documented casualties are not included in Central Bosnia statistics, but in Vrbas region statistics. Approximately 70-80% of the casualties from Gornje Povrbasje were Bosniaks. In the region of Neretva river of 6,717 casualties, 54% were Bosniaks, 24% Serbs and 21% Croats. The casualties in those regions were mostly but not exclusively the consequence of Croat-Bosniak conflict. To a lesser extent the conflict with the Serbs also resulted in a number of casualties included in the statistics.

Background

thumb|[[Peace plans offered before and during the Bosnian War#Vance-Owen|Vance-Owen Peace Plan ]]

During the Yugoslav wars, the objectives of nationalists from Croatia were shared by Croat nationalists in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The ruling party in the Republic of Croatia, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), organized and controlled the branch of the party in Bosnia and Herzegovina. By the latter part of 1991, the more extreme elements of the party, under the leadership of Mate Boban, Dario Kordić, Jadranko Prlić, Ignac Koštroman and local leaders such as Anto Valenta, and with the support of Franjo Tuđman and Gojko Šušak, had taken effective control of the party.

Following the declaration of independence, the Serbs attacked different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The state administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina effectively ceased to function having lost control over the entire territory. The Croats and their leader Franjo Tuđman also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian. Secret discussions between Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević on the division of Bosnia and Herzegovina were held as early as March 1991 known as the Karađorđevo agreement. The policies of the Republic of Croatia and its leader Franjo Tuđman towards Bosnia and Herzegovina were never totally transparent and always included Franjo Tuđman’s ultimate aim of expanding Croatia’s borders.

On November 18, 1991, the party branch in Bosnia and Herzegovina, proclaimed the existence of the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia, as a separate "political, cultural, economic and territorial whole," on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The ICTY illustrated this with the minutes of a meeting held on November 12, 1991 and signed by Mate Boban and Dario Kordić: "the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina must finally embrace a determined and active policy which will realise our eternal dream – a common Croatian state". On April 10, 1992, Mate Boban decreed that the Bosnian Territorial Defence (TO), which had been created the day before, was illegal on self-proclaimed Croat territory. On May 11, Tihomir Blaškić declared the TO illegal on the territory of the Kiseljak municipality. The HVO favoured an ethnic partition of the republic while the HOS fought together with the Muslims for the territorial integrity of the state. One of the primary pro-union Croat leaders, Blaž Kraljević (leader of the HOS armed group) was killed by HVO soldiers in August 1992, leading to the dissolution of the primary group in support of a Bosniak-Croat alliance. The situation became more serious in October 1992 when Croat forces attacked Bosniak civilian population in Prozor burning their homes and killing civilians. According to ''Jadranko Prlić indictment'', HVO forces cleansed most of the Muslims from the town of Prozor and several surrounding villages.

The ICTY Trial Chamber in the ''Kordić and Čerkez case'' decided that the weight of the evidence points clearly to the persecution of Bosniak civilians in the Central Bosnian municipalities taken over by the Croat forces: Busovača, Novi Travnik, Vareš, Kiseljak, Vitez, Kreševo and Žepče. The persecution followed a consistent pattern in each municipality and demonstrated that the HVO had launched a campaign against the Bosniaks in them with the hope that the self-proclaimed Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia should secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina and with a view towards unification with Croatia.

Up till 1993 the HVO and the Bosnian Army (ARBiH) had been fighting side by side against the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in some areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though armed confrontation and events like the Totić kidnappings strained the relationship between the HVO and ARBiH the Croat-Bosniak alliance held in Bihać pocket (northwest Bosnia) and the Bosanska Posavina (north), where both were heavily outmatched by Serb forces.

Chronology

Gornji Vakuf shelling

On January 1993 Croat forces attacked Gornji Vakuf again in order to connect Herzegovina with Central Bosnia.

On January 10, 1993, just before the outbreak of hostilities in Gornji Vakuf, the Croat Defence Council (HVO) commander Luka Šekerija, sent a "Military – Top Secret" request to Colonel Tihomir Blaškić and Dario Kordić, (later convicted by ICTY of war crimes and crimes against humanity i.e. ethnic cleansing) for rounds of mortar shells available at the ammunition factory in Vitez. Fighting then broke out in Gornji Vakuf on January 11, 1993, sparked by a bomb which had been placed by Croats in a Bosniak-owned hotel that had been used as a military headquarters. A general outbreak of fighting followed and there was heavy shelling of the town that night by Croat artillery. The HVO demands were not accepted by the Bosnian Army and the attack continued, followed by massacres on Bosnian Muslim civilians in the neighbouring villages of Bistrica, Uzričje, Duša, Ždrimci and Hrasnica. During the Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing it was surrounded by Croatian Army and Croatian Defence Council for seven months and attacked with heavy artillery and other weapons (tanks and snipers). Although Croats often cited it as a major reason for the attack on Gornji Vakuf, the commander of the British Britbat company claimed that there were no Muslim ''holy worriors'' in Gornji Vakuf (commonly known as Mujahideen) and that his soldiers did not see any. The shelling campaign and the attackes during the war resulted in hundreds of injured and killed, mostly Bosnian Muslim civilians.

Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing

The Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing campaign against Bosniak civilians planned by the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia's political and military leadership from May 1992 to March 1993 and erupting the following April, was meant to implement objectives set forth by Croat nationalists in November 1991., deliberately discriminated against in the context of a widespread attack on the region's civilian population and suffered mass murder, rape, imprisonment in camps, as well as the destruction of cultural sites and private property. This was often followed by anti-Bosniak propaganda, particularly in the municipalities of Vitez, Busovača, Novi Travnik and Kiseljak. Ahmići massacre in April 1993, was the culmination of the Lašva Valley ethnic cleansing, resulting in mass killing of Bosnian Muslim civilians in just a few hours. It is the biggest massacre committed during the conflict between Croats and the Bosnian government.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has ruled that these crimes amounted to crimes against humanity in numerous verdicts against Croat political and military leaders and soldiers, most notably Dario Kordić. Based on the evidence of numerous HVO attacks at that time, the ICTY Trial Chamber concluded in the ''Kordić and Čerkez case'' that by April 1993 Croat leadership had a common design or plan conceived and executed to ethnically cleanse Bosniaks from the Lašva Valley. Dario Kordić, as the local political leader, was found to be the planner and instigator of this plan. According to the Sarajevo-based Research and Documentation Center (IDC), around 2,000 Bosniaks from the Lašva Valley are missing or were killed during this period. The events inspired the British television drama serial ''Warriors''.

War in Herzegovina

The Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia took control of many municipal governments and services in Herzegovina as well, removing or marginalising local Bosniak leaders. Herzeg-Bosnia took control of the media and imposed Croatian ideas and propaganda. Croatian symbols and currency were introduced, and Croatian curricula and the Croatian language were introduced in schools. Many Bosniaks and Serbs were removed from positions in government and private business; humanitarian aid was managed and distributed to the Bosniaks' and Serbs' disadvantage; and Bosniaks in general were increasingly harassed. Many of them were deported into concentration camps: Heliodrom, Dretelj, Gabela, Vojno and Šunje.

According to ICTY judgment in ''Naletilić-Martinović case'' Croat forces attacked the villages of Sovici and Doljani, about north of Mostar in the morning on April 17, 1993. The attack was part of a larger HVO offensive aimed at taking Jablanica, the main Bosnian Muslim dominated town in the area. The HVO commanders had calculated that they needed two days to take Jablanica. The location of Sovici was of strategic significance for the HVO as it was on the way to Jablanica. For the Bosnian Army it was a gateway to the plateau of Risovac, which could create conditions for further progression towards the Adriatic coast. The larger HVO offensive on Jablanica had already started on April 15, 1993. The artillery destroyed the upper part of Sovici. The Bosnian Army was fighting back, but at about five p.m. the Bosnian Army commander in Sovici, surrendered. Approximately 70 to 75 soldiers surrendered. In total, at least 400 Bosnian Muslim civilians were detained. The HVO advance towards Jablanica was halted after a cease-fire agreement had been negotiated.

Siege of Mostar

Mostar was surrounded by the Croat forces for nine months, and much of its historic city was severely destroyed in shelling including the famous Stari Most bridge. Slobodan Praljak, the commander of the Croatian Defence Council, is currently on trial at the ICTY for ordering the destruction of the bridge, among other charges.

The Croats took over the west side of the city and expelled thousands Further complications were caused with the incident between Croats and UNPROFOR known as ''The Convoy of Joy Incident''. This convoy of aid supplies was made up of several hundred trucks, was seven kilometres in length and was bound for Tuzla. On June 7, 1993, two members of the delegation wrote to the European Community Monitor Mission (ECMM) at Zenica about their fears for the safety of the convoy when it reached the area of Travnik and Vitez in the light of threats made to it by Mate Boban (whom the delegation had met). As a result the ECMM decided to monitor the convoy. The convoy then made its way to Central Bosnia and the area of Novi Travnik. There it was stopped at a roadblock formed by a large crowd of Croat women at Rankovići, north of Novi Travnik. Eight of the drivers were shot and killed, vehicles were driven away and the convoy was looted by civilians and soldiers. Eventually the convoy was released. In defending the convoy Britbat shot and killed two HVO soldiers. The ICTY Trial Chamber concluded that the crowds which stopped the Convoy of Joy were under the control of Dario Kordić and colonel Blaškić.

Bosnian Army attacked the HVO in the Travnik municipality in the first week of June. By June 13, the Bosnian Army had taken Travnik and the surrounding villages. Several witnesses testified that 20,000 Croat refugees had come from Travnik as a result of the Bosnian Army offensive. However, according to an ECMM Report the first reports of ethnic cleansing and destruction were exaggerated. On June 8, there was fighting in Guča Gora with reports of atrocities and destruction, the Catholic church in flames and thousands fleeing. These reports were investigated by two ECMM monitors. They found the church still standing and the claims of destruction to be exaggerated. The movement of population was organised by the HVO. According to report dated June 9, 1993 it is the first time that the Bosnian Army have taken the military initiative against the HVO in Central Bosnia. On all other occasions the Bosnian Army have responded to HVO aggression (Gornji Vakuf, Vitez and Mostar).

On June 9, 1993 HVO retaliated in Novi Travnik. On June 12-13, 1993 the HVO attacked villages in the Kiseljak municipality, beginning with Tulica on June 12 resulting in the deaths of at least twelve men and women and the destruction of the village. The attack began with heavy shelling of the village followed by an infantry attack from several directions. The surviving men were loaded onto a truck and taken to Kiseljak barracks. Shortly after the attack on Tulica, the associated villages of Han Ploča and Grahovci were also subject to attack. The HVO issued an ultimatum to the Bosniaks to surrender their weapons. After the ultimatum expired, the village was shelled by the HVO and the Serb Army, and houses were set on fire. An HVO infantry attack followed. Having come into the village, HVO soldiers lined up three Bosniak men against a wall and shot them. In all 64 people were killed during the attack or after HVO capture. The ICTY Trial Chamber found that the attacks on Tulica and Han Ploca–Grahovci were part of a sustained HVO attack in which civilians were murdered and subjected to inhumane treatment.

The Remaining Offensives

Bosnian Army launched an operation known as ''Neretva 93'' against the Croatian Defence Council and Croatian Army in September 1993 in order to end the siege of Mostar and to recapture areas of Herzegovina, which were included in self-proclaimed Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia. The operation was stopped by Bosnian authorities after it received the information about the massacre on Croat civilians in the village of Grabovica and very difficult fight for the village of Uzdol which resulted in losses on both sides.

The entire conflict caused the creation of more ethnic enclaves and further bloodshed in the already war-ruined Bosnia. The conflict was particularly devastating for Mostar and Gornji Vakuf.

War ends

The Croat-Bosniak war officially ended on February 23, 1994 when the Commander of HVO, general Ante Roso and commander of Bosnian Army, general Rasim Delić, signed a ceasefire agreement in Zagreb. In March 1994 a peace agreement mediated by the USA between the warring Croats (represented by Republic of Croatia) and Bosnia and Herzegovina was signed in Washington and Vienna which is known as the Washington Agreement. Under the agreement, the combined territory held by the Croat and Bosnian government forces was divided into ten autonomous cantons, establishing the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the start of the war the HVO controlled more than 20 percent of the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina; however, just before the signing of the Washington agreement it was less than 10 percent.

The Croat leadership (Jadranko Prlić, Bruno Stojić, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petković, Valentin Ćorić and Berislav Pušić) is presently on trial at the ICTY on charges including crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva conventions and violations of the laws or customs of war. Dario Kordić, political leader of Croats in Central Bosnia was convicted of the crimes against humanity in Central Bosnia i.e. ethnic cleansing and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Croatia's Regret

Croatia's president Ivo Josipović made an official visit to Bosnia in April 2010 during which he expressed a "deep regret" for Croatia's involvement in efforts to divide Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s, resulting in the Croat-Bosniak war and suffering for many people on both sides.

Gallery

External links

The war in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1991-1995 - by Branka Magaš, Ivo Žanić, Noel Malcolm

James Mason, photographs: War in Central Bosnia

ICTY: Prlić et al. Initial Indictment - The Joint Criminal Enterprise (Herzeg-Bosnia case)

ICTY: Initial indictment for the ethnic cleansing of the Lasva Valley area - Part I

ICTY: Initial indictment for the ethnic cleansing of the Lasva Valley area - Part II

ICTY: Kordić and Čerkez verdict

ICTY: Blaškić verdict

ICTY: Aleksovski verdict

ICTY: Miroslav Bralo verdict

ICTY: Naletilic and Martinovic verdict

HRW: Conflict between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia

United States Institute of Peace: Washington Agreement

Institute for War & Peace Reporting - Plan to Divide Bosnia Revealed

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Paško Ljubičić indictment

The Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Krešo Lučić indictment

arhivcroTV

Related films

- Part III. The Struggle for Bosnia

References

Category:Conflicts in 1992 Category:Conflicts in 1993 Category:Conflicts in 1994 Category:Bosnian War Category:Civil wars involving the states and peoples of Europe Category:Wars involving Croatia

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