Croatia

**Croatia**, officially the **Republic of Croatia** is a sovereign state in Central and Southeast Europe on the Mediterranean Sea, at the apex of the Balkans Peninsula. Croatia is bordered by Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

## History

### Yugoslavia

On 29 October 1918 the Croatian Sabor declared independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and decided to join the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which in turn entered into union with the Kingdom of Serbia on 4 December 1918 to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The 1921 constitution defining the country as a unitary state and abolition of historical administrative divisions effectively ended Croatian autonomy. The new constitution was opposed by the most widely supported national political party—the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) led by Stjepan Radić.

The political situation deteriorated further as Radić was assassinated in the National Assembly in 1928, leading to the dictatorship of King Alexander in January 1929. The dictatorship formally ended in 1931 when the king imposed a more unitarian constitution, and changed the name of the country to Yugoslavia. The HSS, now led by Vladko Maček, continued to advocate federalisation of Yugoslavia, 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

In April 1941, Yugoslavia was occupied by Germany and Italy. Following the invasion the territory, parts of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the region of Syrmia were incorporated into the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a Nazi-backed puppet state. This sparked the beginning of the Yugoslav Partisan movement, a communist multi-ethnic anti-fascist resistance group led by Josip Broz Tito. With Allied support in logistics, equipment, training and air power, 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, during which time thousands of members of the Ustaše, as well as Croat refugees, were killed by the Yugoslav Partisans.

After the World War II, Croatia became a single-party Socialist federal unit of the SFR Yugoslavia, ruled by the Communists, but enjoying 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 greater autonomy for Croatian language. The declaration contributed to a national movement seeking greater civil rights and decentralisation of the Yugoslav economy, culminating in the Croatian Spring of 1971, 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.

In the 1980s the political situation in Yugoslavia deteriorated with national tension fanned by the 1986 Serbian 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, with Franjo Tuđman's win raising nationalist tensions further. Serbs in Croatia left Sabor and declared the autonomy of areas that would soon become the unrecognised Republic of Serbian Krajina, intent on achieving independence from Croatia.

### Independence

As tensions rose, Croatia declared independence in June 1991, however the declaration came into effect on 8 October 1991. In the meantime, tensions escalated into the Croatian War of Independence when the Yugoslav National Army and various Serb paramilitaries attacked Croatia. By the end of 1991, a high intensity war fought along a wide front reduced Croatia to control of about two-thirds of its territory. On 15 January 1992, Croatia gained diplomatic recognition by the European Economic Community members, and subsequently the United Nations. The war effectively ended in 1995 with a decisive victory by Croatia in August 1995. The remaining occupied areas were restored to Croatia pursuant to the Erdut Agreement of November 1995, with the process concluded in January 1998. Croatia became a World Trade Organization (WTO) member on 30 November 2000. The country signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the European Union in October 2001. Croatia became member of NATO on 1 April 2009, and joined the European Union on 1 July 2013.

### Second Yugoslav War

*See Full Article: Second Yugoslav War*

In August 2021, Serbia called for all Serbs to unite into a signal state, once more flaring tensions between Serbia and Bosnia. As tensions escalated, Croatia recommended a solution in which Bosnia would be partitioned along ethnic lines. NATO deployed forces to Bosnia in order to reinforce Bosnian sovereignty over the Republika Srpska, while Serbian forces were invited into the Republika Srpska. On 30 September, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro issued an ultimatum to Serbia to withdraw forces from Republika Srpska.

NATO enforced a no-fly zone after the ultimatum ran out, and war broke out. Croatian forces exchanged fire with Serbian forces across the Danube on 5 October, and managed to create a buffer zone between Serbian forces and the river. However, the buffer zone within 24 hours of its establishment. Croatia deployed forces to Bosnia and were engaged in the fighting there. Croatia allowed Slovenia to move her troops through the country to assist the Bosnians.

Several diplomatic breakthroughs were made by NATO and the United Nations, managing to establish exclusion zones around Podgorica in Montenegro and reaching a ceasefire along the Danube between Croatia and Serbia. Furthermore, a heavy-weapon exclusion zone around Sarajevo, and a following ten mile de-militarized zone around Sarajevo brought an end to the siege of Sarajevo in June 2022. In July, a general ceasefire was declared by all sides while negotiations took place in Vienna. The Vienna Accords were agreed to on 17 August, and officially signed on 2 September. As part of the deal, the Croatian-Serbian border dispute was settled as per Serbian dictates.

## Government and Politics

The President of the Republic is the head of state, directly elected to a five-year term and is limited by the Constitution to a maximum of two terms. In addition to being the commander in chief of the armed forces, the president has the procedural duty of appointing the prime minister with the consent of the parliament, and has some influence on foreign policy.

The government is headed by the prime minister, who has four deputy prime ministers and 17 ministers in charge of particular sectors of activity. As the executive branch, it is responsible for proposing legislation and a budget, executing the laws, and guiding the foreign and internal policies of the republic. The government is seated at Banski dvori in Zagreb. The parliament (Sabor) is a unicameral legislative body. A second chamber, the House of Counties, set up in 1993 pursuant to the 1990 Constitution, was abolished in 2001. The number of Sabor members can vary from 100 to 160; they are all elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms.

### Administrative Divisions

Croatia is divided into 20 counties and one Capital city - Zagreb. The counties are then further subdivided into 127 cities and 429 municipalities. Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) division of Croatia is performed in several tiers. NUTS 1 level places the entire country in a single unit, while there are three NUTS 2 regions. Those are Northwest Croatia, Central and Eastern (Pannonian) Croatia and Adriatic Croatia.

### Foreign Relations

Croatia is a member of NATO, the European Union, the UN and WTO. A recurring obstacle to the negotiations for joining the EU was Croatia's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) co-operation record and Slovenian blocking of the negotiations because of Croatia–Slovenia border disputes. Croatia maintains close relations with it's NATO and EU allies, with a particularly strong bond with Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the country maintains a permanent military deployment.