Prehistory and antiquity The area known as modern Croatia was inhabited throughout the
prehistoric period.
Neanderthal fossils dating to the middle
Palaeolithic period were unearthed in northern Croatia, best presented at the
Krapina site. Remnants of
Neolithic and
Chalcolithic cultures were found in all regions. The largest proportion of sites is in the valleys of northern Croatia. The most significant are
Baden,
Starčevo, and
Vučedol cultures.
Iron Age hosted the early Illyrian
Hallstatt culture and the Celtic
La Tène culture. The region of modern-day Croatia was settled by
Illyrians and
Liburnians, while the first Greek colonies were established on the islands of
Hvar,
Korčula, and
Vis. In 9 AD, the territory of today's Croatia became part of the
Roman Empire. Emperor
Diocletian was native to the region. He
had a large palace built in
Split, to which he retired after abdicating in AD 305. During the 5th century, the
last de jure Western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos ruled a small realm from the palace after fleeing Italy in 475.
Middle Ages c. 925, during the reign of
King Tomislav The Roman period ends with
Avar and
Croat invasions in the late 6th and first half of the 7th century and the destruction of almost all Roman towns. Roman survivors retreated to more favourable sites on the coast, islands, and mountains. The city of
Dubrovnik was founded by such survivors from
Epidaurum. There's some uncertainty about the
ethnogenesis of Croats. The most accepted theory, the Slavic theory, proposes migration of
White Croats from
White Croatia during the
Migration Period. Conversely, the Iranian theory proposes
Sarmatian-
Alanic origin of Proto-Croats, based on
Tanais Tablets containing
Ancient Greek inscriptions of given names
Χορούαθος,
Χοροάθος, and
Χορόαθος (Khoroúathos, Khoroáthos, and Khoróathos) and their interpretation as
anthroponyms related to the
Croatian ethnonym. According to the work
De Administrando Imperio written by 10th-century Byzantine Emperor
Constantine VII,
Croats settled in the
Roman province of Dalmatia in the first half of the 7th century after they defeated the
Avars. Although there exist some scholarly disputes about the account's reliability and interpretation, recent archaeological data has established that the migration and settlement of the Slavs/Croats was in the late 6th and early 7th century. Eventually, a
dukedom was formed,
Duchy of Croatia, ruled by
Borna, as attested by chronicles of
Einhard starting in 818. The record represents the first document of Croatian realms,
vassal states of
Francia at the time. Its neighbor to the North was
Principality of Lower Pannonia, at the time ruled by duke
Ljudevit who ruled the territories between the
Drava and
Sava rivers, centred from his fort at
Sisak. This population and territory throughout history was tightly related and connected to Croats and Croatia.
Christianisation of Croats began in the 7th century at the time of archon
Porga of Croatia, initially probably encompassed only the elite and related people, but mostly finished by the 9th century. The Frankish overlordship ended during the reign of
Mislav, or his successor
Trpimir I. The native Croatian royal dynasty was founded by duke Trpimir I in the mid 9th century, who defeated the Byzantine and Bulgarian forces. The first native Croatian ruler recognised by the Pope was duke
Branimir, who received papal recognition from
Pope John VIII on 7 June 879.
Tomislav was the first
king of Croatia, noted as such in a letter of
Pope John X in 925. Tomislav defeated Hungarian and Bulgarian invasions. The medieval Croatian kingdom reached its peak in the 11th century during the reigns of
Petar Krešimir IV (1058–1074) and
Dmitar Zvonimir (1075–1089). When
Stjepan II died in 1091, ending the Trpimirović dynasty, Dmitar Zvonimir's brother-in-law
Ladislaus I of Hungary claimed the Croatian crown. This led to a
war and
personal union with Hungary in 1102 under
Coloman.
Union with Hungary and Austria at the opening of the first modern
Croatian Parliament (
Sabor), 5 June 1848. The Croatian tricolour flag can be seen in the background. For the next four centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia was ruled by the
Sabor (parliament) and a
Ban (viceroy) appointed by the king. This period saw the rise of influential nobility such as the
Frankopan and
Šubić families to prominence, and ultimately numerous Bans from the two families. An increasing threat of
Ottoman conquest and a struggle against the
Republic of Venice for control of coastal areas ensued. The Venetians controlled most of Dalmatia by 1428, except the
city-state of Dubrovnik, which became independent.
Ottoman conquests led to the 1493
Battle of Krbava field and the 1526
Battle of Mohács, both ending in decisive Ottoman victories. King
Louis II died at Mohács, and in 1527, the
Croatian Parliament met in Cetin and chose Ferdinand I of the
House of Habsburg as the new ruler of Croatia, under the condition that he protects Croatia against the Ottoman Empire while respecting its political rights. To replace the fleeing population, the Habsburgs encouraged Bosnians to provide military service in the
Military Frontier. The
Croatian Parliament supported
King Charles III's
Pragmatic Sanction and signed their own
Pragmatic Sanction in 1712. Subsequently, the emperor pledged to respect all privileges and political rights of the
Kingdom of Croatia, and
Queen Maria Theresa made significant contributions to Croatian affairs, such as introducing compulsory education. was an autonomous kingdom within
Austria-Hungary created in 1868 following the
Croatian–Hungarian Settlement. Between 1797 and 1809, the
First French Empire increasingly occupied the eastern
Adriatic coastline and its hinterland, ending the Venetian and the
Ragusan republics, establishing the
Illyrian Provinces. In response, the
Royal Navy blockaded the Adriatic Sea, leading to the
Battle of Vis in 1811. The Illyrian provinces were captured by the Austrians in 1813 and absorbed by the
Austrian Empire following the
Congress of Vienna in 1815. This led to the formation of the
Kingdom of Dalmatia and the restoration of the
Croatian Littoral to the Kingdom of Croatia under one crown. The 1830s and 1840s featured
romantic nationalism that inspired the
Croatian National Revival, a political and cultural campaign advocating the unity of
South Slavs within the empire. Its primary focus was establishing a standard language as a counterweight to
Hungarian while promoting
Croatian literature and culture. During the
Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Croatia sided with Austria. Ban
Josip Jelačić helped defeat the Hungarians in 1849 and ushered in a
Germanisation policy. This is around the time that
Nikola Tesla was born in
Smiljan. By the 1860s, the failure of the policy became apparent, leading to the
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. The creation of a
personal union between the Austrian Empire and the
Kingdom of Hungary followed. The treaty left Croatia's status to Hungary, which was resolved by the
Croatian–Hungarian Settlement of 1868 when the kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia were united. The Kingdom of Dalmatia remained under de facto Austrian control, while
Rijeka retained the status of
corpus separatum previously introduced in 1779. Renewed efforts to
reform Austria-Hungary, entailing
federalisation with Croatia as a federal unit, were stopped by
World War I.
The World Wars and Yugoslavia with the
Kingdom of Serbia in 1918 On 29 October 1918, the Croatian Parliament (
Sabor) declared independence and decided to join the newly formed
State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, The Croatian Parliament never ratified the union with Serbia and Montenegro. The political situation deteriorated further as Radić was assassinated in the
National Assembly by
NRS member,
Serbian nationalist politician
Puniša Račić in 1928, culminating in King
Alexander I's establishment of the
6 January Dictatorship in 1929. The dictatorship formally ended in 1931 when the king imposed a more unitary constitution. The HSS, now led by
Vladko Maček, continued to advocate federalisation, resulting in the
Cvetković–Maček Agreement of August 1939 and the autonomous
Banovina of Croatia. The Yugoslav government retained control of defence, internal security, foreign affairs, trade, and transport while other matters were left to the Croatian Sabor and a crown-appointed Ban. on 12 May 1945 by
Croatian Partisans In April 1941,
Yugoslavia was invaded by
Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy. Following the invasion, a German-Italian installed puppet state named the
Independent State of Croatia (NDH) was established. Most of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the region of
Syrmia were incorporated into this state. Parts of Dalmatia were
annexed by Italy, Hungary annexed the northern Croatian regions of
Baranja and
Međimurje. The NDH regime was led by
Ante Pavelić and the ultranationalist
Ustaše, a fringe movement in pre-war Croatia. With German and Italian military and political support, the regime introduced
racial laws and launched a
genocide campaign against Serbs,
Jews, and
Roma. Many were imprisoned in
concentration camps; the largest was the
Jasenovac complex.
Anti-fascist Croats were targeted by the regime as well. Several
concentration camps (most notably the
Rab,
Gonars and
Molat camps) were established in Italian-occupied territories, mostly for
Slovenes and Croats. aided by Italy. Nazi German forces committed crimes and reprisals against civilians in retaliation for Partisan actions, such as in the villages of
Kamešnica and
Lipa in 1944. A
resistance movement emerged. On 22 June 1941, the
1st Sisak Partisan Detachment was formed near
Sisak, the first military unit formed by a resistance movement in
occupied Europe. That sparked the beginning of the
Yugoslav Partisan movement, a communist, multi-ethnic anti-fascist resistance group led by
Josip Broz Tito. In ethnic terms, Croats were the second-largest contributors to the Partisan movement after Serbs. By May 1944 (according to Tito), Croats made up 30% of the Partisan's ethnic composition, despite making up 22% of the population. The movement grew fast, and at the
Tehran Conference in December 1943, the Partisans gained recognition from the
Allies. with the Croatian communist leader
Vladimir Bakarić at the celebration of
May Day in 1945. With Allied support in logistics, equipment, training and airpower, and with the assistance of
Soviet troops taking part in the 1944
Belgrade Offensive, the Partisans gained control of Yugoslavia and the border regions of
Italy and
Austria by May 1945. Members of the
NDH armed forces and other Axis troops, as well as civilians, were in retreat towards Austria. Following their surrender, many were killed in the
Yugoslav death march of Nazi collaborators. In the following years,
ethnic Germans faced
persecution in Yugoslavia, and many were interned. The political aspirations of the Partisan movement were reflected in the
State Anti-fascist Council for the National Liberation of Croatia, which developed in 1943 as the bearer of Croatian statehood and later transformed into the Parliament in 1945, and
AVNOJ—its counterpart at the Yugoslav level. Based on the studies on
wartime and post-war casualties by demographer
Vladimir Žerjavić and statistician
Bogoljub Kočović, a total of 295,000 people from the territory (not including territories
ceded from Italy after the war) died, which amounted to 7.3% of the population, among whom were 125–137,000 Serbs, 118–124,000 Croats, 16–17,000 Jews, and 15,000 Roma. In addition, from areas joined to Croatia after the war, a total of 32,000 people died, among whom 16,000 were Italians and 15,000 were Croats. Approximately 200,000 Croats from the entirety of Yugoslavia (including Croatia) and abroad were killed in total throughout the war and its immediate aftermath, approximately 5.4% of the population. led
Yugoslavia from 1944 to 1980; Pictured: Tito with the US president
Richard Nixon in the
White House, 1971 After
World War II, Croatia became a
single-party socialist
federal unit of the
SFR Yugoslavia, ruled by the
Communists, but having a degree of autonomy within the federation. In 1967, Croatian authors and linguists published a
Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language demanding equal treatment for their language. The declaration contributed to a national movement seeking greater civil rights and redistribution of the Yugoslav economy, culminating in the
Croatian Spring of 1971, which was suppressed by Yugoslav leadership. Still, the
1974 Yugoslav Constitution gave increased autonomy to federal units, basically fulfilling a goal of the Croatian Spring and providing a legal basis for independence of the federative constituents. At the same time, there was a substantial Croatian diaspora during the Cold War, which included efforts aimed at forming a government in exile. Following Tito's death in 1980, the political situation in Yugoslavia deteriorated. National tension was fanned by the 1986
SANU Memorandum and the
1989 coups in Vojvodina, Kosovo, and Montenegro. In January 1990, the Communist Party fragmented along national lines, with the Croatian
faction demanding a looser federation. In the same year, the
first multi-party elections were held in Croatia, while
Franjo Tuđman's win exacerbated nationalist tensions. Some of the
Serbs in Croatia left Sabor and declared autonomy of the unrecognised
Republic of Serbian Krajina, intent on achieving independence from Croatia.
Independence — the central site of the
National Remembrance Day, commemorating all war victims and the
Vukovar massacre in 1991As tensions rose, Croatia
declared independence on 25 June 1991. The full implementation of the declaration only came into effect after a
three-month moratorium on the decision on 8 October 1991. In the meantime, tensions escalated into
overt war when the Serbian-controlled
Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and various Serb paramilitary groups attacked Croatia. By the end of 1991, a high-intensity conflict fought along a wide front reduced Croatia's control to about two-thirds of its territory. Serb paramilitary groups then began a campaign of killing, terror, and expulsion of the Croats in the occupied territories, killing thousands of Croat civilians and expelling or displacing as many as 400,000–500,000 Croats and other non-Serbs from their homes. Serbs living in Croatian towns, especially those near the front lines, were subjected to various forms of discrimination. Croatian Serbs in Eastern and Western Slavonia and parts of the Krajina were forced to flee or were expelled by Croatian forces, though on a restricted scale and in lesser numbers. The
Croatian Government publicly deplored these practices and sought to stop them, indicating that they were not a part of the Government's policy. On 15 January 1992, Croatia gained
diplomatic recognition by the
European Economic Community, followed by the United Nations. The war effectively ended in August 1995 with a
decisive victory by Croatia; the event is commemorated each year on 5 August as
Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders. Following the Croatian victory, about 200,000 Serbs from the self-proclaimed
Republic of Serbian Krajina fled the region Approximately half have returned since then. The
remaining occupied areas were restored to Croatia following the
Erdut Agreement of November 1995, concluding with the
UNTAES mission in January 1998. Most sources number the war deaths at around 20,000. in 2013 and the
Eurozone a decade later in 2023. At the turn of the 21st century, Croatia experienced sustained economic growth as the nation democratized but struggled with public corruption and bouts of unemployment. The Croatian Parliament passed a set of constitutional amendments in November 2000 and March 2001 to convert from a bicameral to a unicameral body, later limiting presidential powers. Croatia joined the
Partnership for Peace in May 2000 and the
World Trade Organization in November 2000. It joined the military alliance
NATO in April 2009. Croatia
was elected to serve on the non-permanent seat of the
UN Security Council from 2008 to 2009. Adversely impacted by the
2008 financial crisis, austerity measures led to wide-spread anti-government protests in 2009 and 2011. In the latter year, parliament was dissolved in May, with Croatian president
Ivo Josipović calling for new elections to quell the protests by December. After successfully completing
negotiations from 2004 to 2013, Croatia joined the
European Union (EU) as its 28th member in July 2013. Croatia was affected by the
2015 European migrant crisis when Hungary's closure of borders with Serbia pushed over 700,000 refugees and migrants through Croatia. On 19 October 2016,
Andrej Plenković began serving as the current Croatian Prime Minister. The most recent presidential elections, held on 12 January 2025, elected
Zoran Milanović as president. In 2022, Croatia began the process to join the
OECD, due to complete membership proceedings by 2026. The nation joined the
Eurozone and
Schengen Area in 2023, adopting the
euro as its official currency. == Geography ==