Croatia

## Croatian State

"Bog i Hrvati" -Croatian National Motto, "God and the Croat!"

## History

### Wars

Croatian War of Independence, First Croatian War of Unification (Against the Kingdom of Ragusa), Russian War of Liberty (supplier of military goods)

## General

The Croatian State (Croatian & Serbian: *Država Hrvatska;* German*: Staat Kroatien;* Italian*: Stato Croazio)*  is an Eastern European nation located in the Western Balkans and along the Adriatic Sea, separating it from the Kingdom of Italy. The nations capital city is Zagreb, and it is also the nation's largest city. The nation has an overwhelming majority of Roman Catholic Christians, with small minorities of Orthodox Christians clustered near the border of the Ottoman Empire, which also used to contain large numbers of Sunni Muslims, which were expelled or killed during the reign of the King Lazar Jovanovich, the last King of Croatia. The nation is known for its unique government type, retaining a dictatorship in the form of the office known as *Zapovjednik* (akin to the word Commander or Leader), while merging the Catholic Church with the state in a similar way as real-world clerical fascist organizations do. The nation's official party, known as the National Salvation Party, also keeps a very left-wing stance on economics akin to authoritarian centrism.

## History

The Croatian State formed out of a revolt within the former Kingdom of Croatia, which declared its own independence from the crippled Danubian Federation, known as the Grand Populist Revolt of 1793. During the revolt, the ambitious leader of the underground National Salvation Party, Damir Radich, rallied the people within the Croatian capital city of Zagreb against King Lazar Jovanovich. The reasons behind this was the king's overwhelmingly lazy and detached attitude towards his people, allowing them to be economically exploited by boundlessness, ambitious businessmen along with the generally high amount of corruption in the state, along with alleged rumors that the King was not Croatian, but a Serb. The people had enough, and Damir Radich took advantage of this, rallying the people against the King, killing the Royal Guard which manned the streets and having many defect to the side of the revolt. Being a heavily pious and religious man, and not wanting more Croatians to die, said he'd fight the ambitious man in a duel to the death for the rule of the nation. "Whoever has God on their side shall win the duel", he was noted saying. In the fight, known later the "Duel of Sovereignty", Damir Radich successfully killed the king in single combat, with Castle Jovanovich at the heart of Zagreb surrendering to the rebels a day later. For the many good things the former King had done which were good, the new dictator, who styled himself as *Zapovjednik,* Damir Radich, allowed the remnants of the House of Jovanovich to keep several of their lands and live in peace.

With the establishment of the Zapovjednik in Zagreb, and the new Croatian National Army's success against loyalist forces around the city of Zagreb, the Party would begin decrees of land reform in 1798. These reforms, known as "Executive Initiative 45", titles of nobility were officially abolished, calling the practice immoral and unchristian for its "Inherent nature to corrupt the Croat with greed and deeming him unable to submit to the divine collective, causing his fellow member of the nation to starve and suffer poverty." Most noble families had half of their land taken in the bill, and as a result, they formed a coalition to remove the new dictatorship, known as the "Pact of Varaždin" in 1802, with their main goal being the reestablishment of the monarchy. However, their forces were defeated in the same year, and Zapovjednik Damir Radich continued his reign of terror, while growing ever popular within the common folk and the clergy for his retainment of traditional Croatian values and the extensive land reforms, which crippled the few German noble families holding lands in Croatia, resulting in many to move or flee to western monarchies. A notable amount of Croatian monarchical loyalists, which included the heads of several ruined noble houses, after their defeat at the 1802 Battle of Zagreb, boarded ships in the nearby Italian city of Venice in the late summer of 1804, fleeing to the United States, Great Britain, and several other states. Among them were Croatian republicans, who were to expelled from the state with the rise of the Zapovjednik.

For the past several decades after the coming of official stability to the Croatian State around 1809, with various enemy gorilla groups consisting of Communists, Monarchists, and other groups fighting, the nation began a time of rapid industrialization mandated by the Party. Many businesses were nationalized directly under the control of Zapovjednik Damir Radich to make things go by faster, while still allowing many companies to exist with heavy restrictions to prevent worker's abuses in factories. The navy was also modernized, with the Croatian ports seeking their fleets renovated with proper guns. Soon after, Croatia began flexing its muscles in the Adriatic Sea, attacking and annexing the short-lived Kingdom of Ragusa in the Croatian War of Unification. With the annexation of the wealthy trade port and the installation of a governor with the title of *Ban*, Croatia grew wealthy and the nation experienced economic growth. The year is currently 1820, and Croatia remains prosperous, waiting for the right time to continue to unite all Croats under one roof.

## Notable Residents

-Zapovjednik Damir Radich, Commander of the Croatians

-former King Lazar Jovanovich, war hero and winner of Croatian independence

## Notable Landmarks

-Jovanovich Castle, a military fortress located at the heart of Zagreb

-St Stephen's Cathedral

## Settlements

-Zagreb, Capital of the Croatian State

-Gospich, an Adriatic port city.

-Dubrovnik, a very rich Adriatic port city.