|
Croatia
Zagreb
Croatian Islands |
|
Find a premier Hotel & Resort at
Hilton Hotels.
or book
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Republic of Croatia is a
crescent-shaped country in Europe bordering the
Mediterranean to the South, Central Europe to
the North and the Balkans to the Southeast. Its
capital is Zagreb. In recent history, it was a
republic in the SFR Yugoslavia, but it achieved
independence in 1991. It is a candidate for
membership of the European Union and has
observer status in La Francophonie.
Name
Croatia is the Latinized version of the native
name of the country: Hrvatska. The letter "r" in
the first syllable "hrv" is rolled or
continuant, which is a linguistic trait strange
to languages such as English, making the word
seemingly impossible to pronounce by some of
those speakers.
However, instead of the Latinized version, many
languages use a form more similar to the native
one. Various forms are listed in Wiktionary.
The country code for Croatia is HR (per ISO
3166), so Croatian Internet domains end with
.hr.
History
Main article: History of Croatia
Croatia's predecessors, the Principalities of
Dalmatia and Pannonia were founded by White
Croats in the 7th century. Ruled by various
Croatian Princes, Dukes since 852, Dalmatia
evenutally absorbed Pannonia and after periods
of nominal Eastern Roman and then Frankish
Imperial rule, Croatia eventually became a
strong independent Kingdom in 924. In 1102 the
Croatians ended a decades-long dynastic struggle
by agreeing to submit themselves to Hungarian
Royal authority.
By the mid-1400s, the Hungarian kingdom was
gravely hurt by the Ottoman expansion as much of
the mountainous country now known as Bosnia and
Herzegovina fell to the Turks. At the same time,
Dalmatia became mostly Venetian. Dubrovnik was a
city-state that was firstly Byzantine (Roman)
and Venetian, but later, unlike other Dalmatian
city-states, it became independent as Republic
of Dubrovnik, even if it was often under the
suzerainty of neighboring powers.
The Battle of Mohács in 1526 led the Croatian
Parliament to invite the Habsburgs to assume
control over Croatia. Habsburg rule eventually
did prove to be successful in thwarting the
Ottomans, and by the 18th century, much of
Croatia was free of Turkish control. The odd
crescent shape of the Croatian lands remained as
a mark, more or less, of the frontier to the
Ottoman advance into Europe. Istria, Dalmatia
and Dubrovnik all eventually passed to the
Habsburg Monarchy between 1797 and 1815.
Map of CroatiaFollowing World War I, Croatia
joined the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs
(comprising what is today, Slovenia, Croatia and
Bosnia). Shortly thereafter, this joint state in
turn formed a union with Serbia to form the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (which
eventually became Yugoslavia in 1929).
Yugoslavia was invaded during World War II and
Croatia was turned into a fascist puppet-state
named Independent State of Croatia. When the
Axis powers were defeated, Yugoslavia became a
federal socialist state.
Along with Slovenia, Croatia declared her
independence from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991,
which triggered the Croatian War of
Independence. Belgrade rejected the new country
and the ensuing months saw combat between
various Croatian armed forces and the
Belgrade-based YNA (Yugoslav National Army). In
early 1992, Germany recognised Croatia, with
many other influential countries following suit;
finally the remainder of Yugoslavia was
compelled to recognise the newly independent
states, and as such, the Yugoslav security
forces withdrew.
A Serb poplation living in some areas of Croatia
then revolted and proclaimed their own state -
Republic of Serbian Krajina. They were supported
by the Yugoslav army. In 1995, the Croatian Army
successfully launched two major offensives to
retake the rebel areas by force, leading to a
mass exodus of the Serbian population. A few
months later, as a result, the war ended upon
the negotiation of the Dayton Agreement. A
peaceful integration of the remaining
Serbian-controlled territories was completed in
1998 under UN supervision.
Croatia is currently in the process of joining
the European Union, accession negotiations
started in December 2005.
Geography
Main article: Geography of Croatia
The Plitvice Lakes, a UNESCO-World Heritage Site
Hell's Islands (Pakleni otoci) near Hvar
Brela, Southern DalmatiaCroatia is situated
between central, southern, and eastern Europe.
It has a rather peculiar shape that resembles a
crescent or a horseshoe which helps account for
its many neighbours: Slovenia, Hungary, the
Serbian part of Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, the Montenegrin part of Serbia
and Montenegro, and Italy across the Adriatic
(disputed, see Slovenia-Croatia border dispute).
Its mainland territory is split in two
non-contiguous parts by the short coastline of
Bosnia and Herzegovina around Neum.
Its terrain is diverse, containing:
plains, lakes and rolling hills in the
continental north and northeast (Central Croatia
and Slavonia, part of the Pannonian plain);
densely wooded mountains in Lika and Gorski
Kotar, part of the Dinaric Alps;
rocky coastlines on the Adriatic Sea (Istria,
Northern Seacoast and Dalmatia).
The country is famous for it's many beautiful
national parks.
Croatia has a mixture of climates. In the north
and east it is continental, Mediterranean along
the coast and a semi-highland and highland
climate in the south-central region.
|
|
|
Background:
|
In
1918, the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a
kingdom known after 1929 as Yugoslavia. Following
World War II, Yugoslavia became an independent
communist state under the strong hand of Marshal
TITO. Although Croatia declared its independence
from Yugoslavia in 1991, it took four years of
sporadic, but often bitter, fighting before
occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from
Croatian lands. Under UN supervision the last
Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia was returned
to Croatia in 1998. |
|
Location:
|
Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea,
between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia
|
|
Geographic coordinates:
|
45 10
N, 15 30 E
|
|
Map references:
|
Europe |
|
Area:
|
total: 56,542 sq km
water: 128 sq km
land: 56,414 sq km |
|
Area - comparative:
|
slightly smaller than West Virginia |
|
Land boundaries:
|
total: 2,197 km
border countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina 932
km, Hungary 329 km, Serbia and Montenegro (north)
241 km, Serbia and Montenegro (south) 25 km,
Slovenia 670 km |
|
Coastline:
|
5,835
km (mainland 1,777 km, islands 4,058 km) |
|
Maritime claims:
|
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth
of exploitation
territorial sea: 12 NM |
|
Climate:
|
Mediterranean and continental; continental climate
predominant with hot summers and cold winters; mild
winters, dry summers along coast |
|
Terrain:
|
geographically diverse; flat plains along Hungarian
border, low mountains and highlands near Adriatic
coastline and islands |
|
Ethnic groups:
|
Croat
78.1%, Serb 12.2%, Bosniak 0.9%, Hungarian 0.5%,
Slovene 0.5%, Czech 0.4%, Albanian 0.3%, Montenegrin
0.3%, Roma 0.2%, others 6.6% (1991) |
|
Religions:
|
Roman
Catholic 76.5%, Orthodox 11.1%, Muslim 1.2%,
Protestant 0.4%, others and unknown 10.8% (1991)
|
|
Languages:
|
Croatian 96%, other 4% (including Italian,
Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and German) |
|
Currency:
|
kuna
(HRK) |
|
Currency code:
|
HRK
|
|
Exchange rates:
|
kuna
per US dollar - 8.452 (January 2002), 8.340 (2001),
8.277 (2000), 7.112 (1999), 6.362 (1998), 6.101
(1997) |
|
Internet country code:
|
.hr
|
|
|
|
|
|
