History History

Arrival of the Illyrians then of the tribes coming from the north of the Carpathians and the Celts on the current Croatian territory. From the^5th century B.C. onwards, it was the Greeks who sailed the Adriatic Sea and set up colonies in the archipelagos and on the coast

The Romans opposed the Illyrians in a military campaign area along the Adriatic coast (Histria, Liburnia, Dalmatia)

The beginning of the imperial conquests in the Adriatic Sea.

The Roman emperor leaves Rome to end his life on his native land in Dalmatia. He left Salona, the ancient metropolis in the hinterland, and had a fortified palace built on the coast at Split from 285 AD

The territory of present-day Croatia saw the collapse of the ancient Roman civilization, which was followed by a prosperous period for the region dominated by the Byzantine Empire, which adorned it with superb religious monuments.

After the Germanic invasions, it was Slavic pirates who destroyed the village of Sipar (Istria) and directly opposed the authority of Basil I, the Roman Emperor of the East. He later succeeded in reintegrating them into Byzantine Dalmatia.

Treaty of Aachen. In the High Middle Ages, Charlemagne dominates a large area of Western Christendom. With this treaty, Illyria is integrated into the Frankish Empire, with the exception of three cities, Zadar, Trogir and Split, plus a few Adriatic islands, territorial fiefdoms which, until the last two world wars, when the borders were redrawn, were still claimed on the Italian side

Tomislav I, the first Croatian king. The crowned Duke becomes the true independent ruler of Croatia. Upon his death, a long period of inter-regional rifts and succession struggles follows, which ruins any attempt to reunify kingdoms and dukedoms. The war of the clans will benefit Byzantium, which takes possession of some cities on this coveted Adriatic coastline.

Pacta Conventa. The Croats accepted the protection of the kings of Hungary and signed this treaty, which was supposed to guarantee the country's autonomy.

The Counts of Anjou and the Kings of Naples are on the Hungarian-Croat throne. Defeat of the Venetians against Charles of Anjou. Dalmatia is attached to the crown.

Gaining ground in Croatia's territorial waters was a way for the Serenissima to dominate the "world economy" at the beginning of the 13th century. It controlled most of the coast and most of the Dalmatian city-states. After the conquest of the islands (Korčula, Lastovo, Hvar...), Venice strengthened its ties with Istria. The port cities, Pula, Poreč, Rovinj, accepting military and maritime protection against the Hungarian overflows, had to hand over the surrounding lands to the doge, who was then recognized as the sole master of the peninsula. From the 14th century onwards, the Republic of Venice extended its political, economic and artistic influence, undertaking a veritable "venitization" of the Croatian coastline. From Cavtat, Ragusa (formerly Dubrovnik), Ston, Split, Zadar, Šibenik, Trogir to the main archipelagos (ports of Pag, Rab, Osor, Krk) and Istria, the maritime empire became a formidable source of income thanks to the resources and trade routes it mastered. This colonization, at its height from the 16th to 18th centuries, left behind an organized urbanization (ramparts, fortifications, pavement), a refinement in the architecture of churches, campaniles, monasteries, town halls, municipal lodges, palaces, etc., a clear taste for fine arts.

Beginning of the Ottoman threat. From 1493 until 1526, the Croatian armies were regularly attacked by Turkish battalions. They lost several towns and whole parts of its territory.

Battle of Mohács. On the west bank of the Hungarian Danube, armed men from the Ottoman Empire clashed with soldiers from the Hungarian kingdom. King Ludwig II dies in battle. This overwhelming victory of the Turks signs the partition of Hungary between the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg rulers of Austria and the principality of Transylvania.

Faced with political anarchy in Hungary, the pragmatic Croatian lords chose Ferdinand of Habsburg as their new king.

Birth of the Croatian Parliament. An assembly recognized by Austria-Hungary, the Hrvatski sabor, settles in Zagreb, a city that never fell into Ottoman hands. Throughout the country, on the Adriatic coast, fortifications are built. At the same time, an "administrative rather than military "border" allowed the representatives of the Habsburg lands to levy duties and taxes on imported goods, especially by the Turks.

As relations between the Austro-Hungarian and Venetian empires stabilized, the "Uskoks War", named after the legendary Croatian warriors protected by Vienna, took place. When, in 1537, the Turks laid siege to the fortress of Klis, the Uskoks withdrew to the port of Senj, where they built another impregnable stronghold, which still dominates the Nehaj hill. They then begin to foment lightning attacks against the Venetian sea routes. These important trade routes were also used by Ottoman ships, normally protected by the Serenissima armada, which had guaranteed them safe passage since the peace of 1540. But in their small, light boats, these highly mobile sea pirates were organized for real guerrilla warfare, causing more damage to the rich galleons of the Serenissima than to the Ottoman ships. The Venetians tried to eliminate them militarily, but the Uskoks' well-established strategy thwarted all allied counter-attacks, leading to an open war between the Republic of Venice and Austria in the Marquisate of Friuli in 1616 (Gradisca War). Finally in 1617 a cease-fire was signed, the Uskoks had to entrench themselves inland (Karlovac region). Their ships destroyed, it is the end of their warlike legend even if a last attack occurred in 1707

Peace of Vasvár. The pact signed between the King of Hungary, Leopold I of Habsburg, and Mehmed IV, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, put an end to the hostilities between the two states while leaving the Ottomans free to take over parts of Croatian territory. The ban of Croatia, Petar Zrinski (1621-1671), did not accept this "shameful" peace treaty. The Croatian viceroy prepares an insurrection, helped in his undertaking by the Marquis Fran Krsto Frankopan, the last member of a great aristocratic family, writer, poet and political lover. The two men travel to Vienna with the intention of pleading the sovereign cause of their country. But the Viennese military council orders their beheading in public.

An earthquake destroys Dubrovnik.

The siege of Vienna fails. The Turkish army is retreating. Militarily asphyxiated by its adversaries, the Ottoman Empire enters a period of stagnation. After the last Austro-Turkish war (1699), a peace treaty is signed (Sremski Karlowitz) which gives the House of Habsburg the Croatian territories lost in 1664.

The Ottoman Empire is definitely being pushed back. Austria establishes its central power in Croatia. During the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), the Croatians militarily support the Empress Maria Theresa, a strong head and fine strategist, who is crowned "king" of Hungary, Queen Croatia and Bohemia.

Fall of the Republic of Venice. Dalmatia and Istria return to Austria.

Napoleonic wars. Under the First Empire, the incursion of Napoleon Bonaparte's regime into Croatia was short lived but full of repercussions. At the end of the two Dalmatian campaigns, Napoleon conceded the southern Adriatic possessions to Austria and founded the Illyrian Provinces (Istria, Kvarner, Dalmatia, the Bay of Kotor) in 1809. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Austria recovered parts of Istria and Dalmatia that had belonged to Venice. The Austro-Hungarians took over ports (Pula, Rijeka), traced new routes to connect the maritime infrastructures to the capitals (Vienna, Budapest, Zagreb), built shipyards for their war arsenal.

Croatian identity awakening. Parallel to the economic boom, we are witnessing in Croatia a policy of Germanisation and Italianisation carried out by the imperialist regimes. In reaction, a feeling of romantic nationalism was born, in a context of protestant ideas spurred on by the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. A new generation of intellectuals(the Illyrian movement), following the first complete national programme, drawn up by Count Janko Drašković (Karlovac), committed all the territories to reunify into a single political entity, the Great Illyria, uniting Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Vojna Krajina, Rijeka, Bosnia, Carniola (Slovenia), Styria and Carinthia (now Austria), with the constitution of an autonomous government and the adoption of Croatian as the official language. Encouraged by the uprisings that shook Europe in 1848, the Croatian political forces voted their first measures: abolition of the feudal system, unification of the regions, election of a representative assembly. But that same year, after the Austrian revolution, before the creation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, Croatia again lost its autonomy.

After the failure of the Illyrian movement, the country is politically divided. Ante Starčević, elected to the Sabor, pleads again for an independent Croatian state. His rival, Strossmayer (bishop of Bosnia), with his nationalist party, calls for the union of the South Slavs. Movements not in favour of Croatian sovereignty also appeared. In the northern Adriatic region, opponents of Croatian unification create a pro-Italian autonomist movement. Serbs have their sights set on Dalmatia. But Austria-Hungary is annexing Bosnia and Herzegovina and at the same time thwarting Serbia's expansionist aims.

The (so-called) Sarajevo bombing. Perpetrated against Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip, this double murder triggered the First World War through the play of alliances.

Activists in exile. A committee of Yugoslav politicians is founded by Slovenes, Croats and Serbs for the creation of a common Yugoslav state.

Treaty of Rapallo. Important Croatian territories are attributed to Italy: Istria, Zadar and its region, the islands of Cres, Lošinj and Lastovo.

Alexander II of Serbia, self-proclaimed Alexander I in his kingdom of Yugoslavia, imposes a new Constitution on all. He will be killed in Marseille by a Macedonian activist of the Croatian separatist organization Ustaše(Ustashi), which means Insurgents. This extreme right-wing, pro-independence party, led by Ante Pavelić, was complimenting in the shadows. It played another role in the Second World War.

World War II. German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941. Axis forces install satellite regimes of the Third Reich. In Zagreb, power is handed over to the Ustashi Party. Its territory includes Bosnia-Herzegovina and all the interior, with Istria and a large part of Dalmatia annexed by Mussolini's Italy. Establishment of a systematic policy of persecution of political opponents (Serbs, Croatian Communist antifascists, Jews, Gypsies). Pavelić, which abolished the Croatian Parliament, introduced racial laws, opened deportation and/or concentration camps, including the infamous Jasenovac. Tens of thousands of prisoners will die there. The stakes of domestic politics and ultra-nationalist ideologies are superimposed on those of the Second World War, which was particularly deadly in Croatia (nearly 300,000 victims). From the summer of 1941, the Croatian resistance began to organise itself. Two main movements were born: the Antifascist Partisans led by the Croatian Josip Broz, known as Tito, and the Party of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Chetniks), led by the Serbian General Draža Mihajlović. In June 1943, the Croatian maquis acquired a civil staff, which became the Federalna Država Hrvatska (Federal State of Croatia)

Proclamation of the Yugoslav Federation. Marshal Tito is put at the head of six republics (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia) and two autonomous regions (Kosovo and Vojvodina).

The Constitution organizes the second Yugoslavia as a totalitarian collectivist state on the Soviet model, a regime dominated by the personification of the leader.

Non-Aligned Movement. Marshal Tito's desire to break with the Soviet Union has led to economic difficulties for Yugoslavia, which will not give up the titism. Based on self-management, decentralisation, more flexible collectivisation and planning, the famous Non-Aligned Movement was established in the eyes of the world by the Brioni Declaration (19 July 1956). It commits the signatory countries to protect themselves from the influence of the United States and the USSR, the two powers at the height of the Cold War

Croatian Spring. The 1963 Constitution had strengthened the autonomy of the federated states and left room for a market economy, but the strategic institutions were dominated by Serbia. In 1970, the Croatian Communist Party began to openly criticise unitarism. It called for more state reforms, more autonomy within the framework of a new people's republic. Students and workers went on a general strike throughout the country. Tito puts an abrupt end to the movement with violent repression and a severe purge. He dissolves the Procroat section of the CP (KPH) and dismisses the reformist leadership. The only concession, the 1974 constitutional change, outlined the contours of a confederal Yugoslavia. Twenty years later, when Croatia gained independence, the nationalist, anti-federal sentiment returned to the forefront of the political scene.

Tito's dead. With the end of the titist era, the break-up of the Federation brought the former Yugoslavia to the brink of a final war (1991-2001).

Wars of Yugoslavia.

Stability Pact. Croatia participates in this pact for South-Eastern Europe.

After the death of President Franjo Tuđman, victory of the opposition coalition in the parliamentary elections.

Stjepan Mesić is elected President of the Republic of Croatia.

Cooperation agreement with the European Union.

Croatia is a candidate for NATO membership.

Resumption of tourism. The French "discover" Croatia.

Re-elections of Stjepan Mesić and Ivo Sanader, Prime Minister.

Jadranka Kosor succeeds Ivo Sanader and becomes Prime Minister.

Talks for Europe. Establishment of an organisational chart of Croatian state structures for accession negotiations with the European Union.

Ivo Josipović is elected President of the Republic of Croatia; negotiations for EU membership continue.

Referendum on accession to Europe, with 66% of the votes cast in favour of accession.

Croatia joins the EU, which becomes the 28th Member State with 12 Members of the European Parliament.

European elections. Only 25% of Croatian voters elected 11 MEPs.

Presidential election. Conservative Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, who defeated Ivo Josipović with 50.74% of the vote, was elected head of government. Zoran Milanović has been Prime Minister since 23 December 2011.

Political crisis. In at the beginning of the year, the President appointed her new Prime Minister, Tihomir Orešković, a nationalist, against the backdrop of a migration crisis. In June, after Parliament passed a motion of censure (125 votes in favour, 15 against and 2 abstentions), the cabinet of Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković was overthrown. The new Prime Minister, a conservative, Andrej Plenković, formed the fourteenth government, a centre-right coalition between the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Bridge of Independent Lists (Most).

In a context marked by the financial scandals of the agro-food giant Agrokor (15% of Croatian GDP), the HDZ won the local elections and changed government coalition by opening up to the HNS (centre left).

Football World Cup. Croatia's access to the final, where it was beaten by France in July. The Prime Minister remains in office due to a more favourable economic situation, boosted by a record tourist season. For the government, a constant search for balance between its most conservative wing and its declared objectives, such as the reform of national education.

European elections. The conservatives of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) are retreating (23% of the vote) against a split opposition between the social democrats, the list of magistrate Mislav Kolakušić, anti-corruption, the Eurosceptic anti-system party Human Shield, liberal centrists, the outgoing ultra-conservative MEP Ruža Tomašić. On the other hand, far-right parties fail to win a seat.

Former Social Democratic Prime Minister Zoran Milanović (centre left) won the presidential election on 5 January ahead of outgoing conservative Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. The second round of the election was held with 52.73% of the vote against 47.27%, a few days after Croatia took over the rotating presidency of the European Union