When was croatia founded

Croatia is a former Yugoslav republic on the Adriatic Sea. It is about the size of West Virginia. Part of Croatia is a barren, rocky region lying in the Dinaric Alps. The Zagorje region north of the capital, Zagreb, is a land of rolling hills, and the fertile agricultural region of the Pannonian Plain is bordered by the Drava, Danube, and Sava Rivers in the east.

Over one-third of Croatia is forested. Croatia, at one time the Roman province of Pannonia, was settled in the 7th century by the Croats. They converted to Christianity between the 7th and 9th centuries and adopted the Roman alphabet under the suzerainty of Charlemagne. In , the Croats defeated Byzantine and Frankish invaders and established their own independent kingdom, which reached its peak during the 11th century. A civil war ensued in , which later led to the country being conquered by the Hungarians in The signing of the Pacta Conventa by Croatian tribal chiefs and the Hungarian king in united the two nations politically under the Hungarian monarch, but Croatia retained its autonomy.

Following the defeat of the Hungarians by the Turks at the battle of Mohcs in , Croatia along with Hungary elected Austrian archduke Ferdinand of Hapsburg as their king.

After the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian kingdom in , Croatia became part of Hungary until the collapse of Austria-Hungary in following its defeat in World War I. On Oct. The name was changed to Yugoslavia in When Germany invaded Yugoslavia in , Croatia became a Nazi puppet state. Croatian Fascists, the Ustachi, slaughtered countless Serbs and Jews during the war. After Germany was defeated in , Croatia was made into a republic of the newly reconstituted Communist nation of Yugoslavia; however, Croatian nationalism persisted.

After Yugoslavian leader Josip Broz Tito's death in , Croatia's demands for independence increased in intensity. In , free elections were held, and the Communists were defeated by a nationalist party led by Franjo Tudjman. In June , the Croatian parliament passed a declaration of independence from Yugoslavia. Six months of intensive fighting with the Serbian-dominated Yugoslavian army followed, claiming thousands of lives and wreaking mass destruction.

A UN cease-fire was arranged on Jan. The UN Security Council in February approved sending a 14,member peacekeeping force to monitor the agreement and protect the minority Serbs in Croatia. In a referendum, the Serb-occupied portion of Croatia Krajina resoundingly voted for integration with Serbs in Bosnia and Serbia proper. Although the Zagreb government and representatives of Krajina signed a cease-fire in March , further negotiations broke down.

In a lightning-quick operation, the Croatian army retook western Slavonia in May Similarly, in August, the central Croatian region of Krajina, held by Serbs, was returned to Zagreb's control. Announcing on television in that? President Tudjman continued to alienate Croatians with his authoritarian rule, out-of-touch nationalism, and disastrous handling of the war-shattered economy. In Dec. The city of Ragusa was effectively an independent kingdom. The Venetians established their rule over all of Dalmatia in It was to last until Dalmatia suffered the first Ottoman raid in ; Bosnia submitted to the Ottoman Empire in ; in a Croatian army was annihilated by their Ottoman foes in the Battle of Krbava.

In , the Ottomans captured Hungarian border fortress of Belgrade, and in crush the Hungarian army. In , the Sabor decided that any confession other than the Catholic faith should be outlawed in Croatia. Muslims emigrate. Ethnic Germans immigrated into the cities of Croatia.

These territories were amalgamated into the Illyrian Provinces. Battle of Sadowa, the Austrian Empire had to be placed on a wider power basis. To achieve this, Emperor Franz Joseph I. Memories Overview Gallery People Find. Sign in Create Account. Family Tree. From FamilySearch Wiki. Categories : Croatia History. The Croats accepted Christianity around AD, and soon established their own state ruled by princes or dukes.

The first prominent ruler in Croatia was Branimir, who was a duke of Dalmatia from to The Croatia of this time was a reasonably strong country within Europe. Tomislav was succeeded by the Kings Kresimir and Zvonimir. It was in , however, that an official union with Hungary was established; Croatia retained its existence as a separate Kingdom with its own Ban governor appointed by the Hungarian King. This union with Hungary, under various guises and rulers, would last until World War I.

Along the coast, a different history was progressing. Of probably the greatest importance, Dubrovnik was established in the 7th century. It then became part of the Byzantine Empire until , after which it was taken over by Venice.

In , Dubrovnik gained independence. The Republic of Ragusa, as it was known, prospered for a number of centuries due to shipping and trade. Both the inland and coastal regions — the latter after the fall of Venice — were swallowed up by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the early part of the 19th century.