Croatia
| Republika Hrvatska Republic of Croatia | |||||
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| Anthem: Lijepa naša domovino Our beautiful homeland | |||||
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| Capital | Zagreb 45°48′N 16°0′E | ||||
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| Largest city | capital | ||||
| Official languages | Croatian1 | ||||
| Government | Parliamentary republic | ||||
| - President | Stjepan Mesić | ||||
| - Premier | Ivo Sanader | ||||
| {{{sovereignty_type}}} | |||||
| - Founded | First half of 7th century | ||||
| - Medieval duchy | March 4 852 | ||||
| - Independence | May 21 879 | ||||
| - Elevated to kingdom | 925 | ||||
| - Union with Hungary | 1102 | ||||
| - joined Habsburg Empire | January 1 1527 | ||||
| - Independence from Austria-Hungary | October 29 1918 | ||||
| - SFR Yugoslavia seceded | June 25 1991 | ||||
| Area | |||||
| - Total | 56,542 km² (126th) 21,831 sq mi | ||||
| - Water (%) | 0.2 | ||||
| Population | |||||
| - July 2007 estimate | 4,555,000 | ||||
| - 2001 census | 4,437,460 | ||||
| - Density | 81/km² 208/sq mi | ||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2007 estimate | ||||
| - Total | $68.21 billion | ||||
| - Per capita | $15,355 (2007 estimate) IMF | ||||
| HDI (2004) | .png){kind=icon} 0.846 (high)
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| Currency | kuna (HRK)
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| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||||
| - Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||||
| Internet TLD | .hr | ||||
| Calling code | +385 | ||||
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia (Republika Hrvatska), is a country at the crossroads of the Mediterranean and Central Europe.
Croatia has strategic importance in that it controls most land routes from Western Europe to the Aegean Sea, and the Turkish Straits.
For that reason, the territory has been colonised and invaded by numerous different ethnic groups and empires over the 100,000 years of pre-human and human habitation.
Croatia has been known for “ethnic cleansing”, both during the Second World War, when the Fascist Ustashi government enacted racial laws and formed eight concentration camps targeting minority Roma and Jewish populations, and during the war of independence in the 1990s, when Serbs drove Croatians from their homes in the early part of the struggle.
Geography
Croatia has strategic importance in that it controls most land routes from Western Europe to the Aegean Sea, and the Turkish Straits.
Its shape resembles that of a crescent or a horseshoe. Croatia shares land borders with Slovenia and Hungary on the north, Serbia on the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina on the south and east, and Montenegro on the south, as well as a sea border with Italy to the west. Its mainland territory is split in two non-contiguous parts by the short coastline of Bosnia and Herzegovina around Neum.
Croatia occupies approximately 21,825 square miles (56,540 square kilometers), or is slightly smaller than West Virginia in the United States of America.
Its terrain is diverse. There are plains, lakes and rolling hills in the continental north and northeast (Central Croatia and Slavonia, and part of the Pannonian plain); there are densely wooded mountains in Lika and Gorski Kotar, part of the Dinaric Alps; and there are rocky coastlines on the Adriatic Sea (Istria, northern seacoast and Dalmatia).
The country is famous for its many national parks. Offshore Croatia consists of over one thousand islands varying in size. Seventy percent of the land is farmland. The highest point is Dinara, one of the more prominent mountains located on the border of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is 6000 feet (1830 meters).
Croatia has a mixture of climates. In the north and east it is a continental climate, with hot summers and cold winters. A Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and warm, dry, and brilliantly sunny summers, prevails along the coast. There is a semi-highland and highland climate in the south-central region. The average temperature in Zagreb is 32°F (0° C) in January and about 75°F (24°C) in July. Annual precipitation in Zagreb it is about 26 inches (652mm).
Croatia’s main rivers are the Sava, Drava, Danube and Kupa. The Drava and the Sava flow from the Pannonian Plain into the Danube, which forms part of Croatia’s eastern border with Serbia. The Kupa flows east along the Slovenian border into central Croatia, to join the Sava.
Croatia is rich in mineral resources, which include petroleum, some coal, bauxite, low-grade iron ore, calcium, natural asphalt, silica, mica, clays, salt, and hydropower.
Deciduous forests, including beech and oak predominate on the plains and in much of the mountainous area, and there are 50 types of protected plant life. The floodplain of the Sava has extensive wetlands that provide a habitat for numerous plant and animal species. Wildlife includes hare, fox, lynx, weasel, otter, bear, deer, marten, boar, wildcat, wolf, and mouflon (wild sheep). Dinara is host to an endemic species of rodents, a vole called "Dinarski miš" ("Dinaric mouse"), which is declared an endangered species.
Natural hazards include destructive earthquakes. Environment issues include air pollution (from metallurgical plants) and resulting acid rain is damaging the forests. Industrial and domestic waste pollution in the rivers is so bad that the water must be treated even for industrial use. The 1992-95 civil strife has left a significant number of land mines requiring removal.
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. Zagreb is the cultural, scientific, economic and governmental center of the Republic of Croatia. The city's population in 2001 was 779,145. It is situated between the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain and both northern and southern bank of the Sava river.
History
The area known as Croatia today has been inhabited throughout the prehistoric period, ever since the Stone Age. In the middle Paleolithic period, Neandertals lived in modern Zagorje, northern Croatia. Dragutin Gorjanovic-Kramberger discovered 100,000-year-old bones and other remnants of a Neandertal, subsequently named Homo krapiniensis, on a hill near the town of Krapina.
In the early Neolithic period, the Starcevo-Körös, Vinča and Sopot cultures were scattered between and around the Sava, the Drava and the Danube. Notable are the excavation sites of Ščitarjevo near Zagreb, Sopot near Vinkovci, Vučedol near Vukovar, Nakovanj on Pelješac. Traces of a somewhat isolated Hvar culture were found on the Adriatic island of Hvar.
The Iron Age left traces of the Hallstatt culture (proto-Illyrians) and the La Tène culture (proto-Celts).
Illyria and Rome
In recorded history, the area was inhabited by Illyrian tribes such as the Delmetae, who spoke an Illyrian language, an ancient branch of Indo-European. Other tribes such as the Liburni and Iapodes, whose ethnicity is less clear, inhabited various parts of the Adriatic coastline and interior between modern Istria and Herzegovina.
In the fourth century B.C.E., the northern parts of modern-day Croatia were also colonized by the Celts, the Scordisci tribe. Other Celtic peoples may also have been found elsewhere integrated among the Illyrians. The islands of Issa and Pharos as well as the locality of Tragurion became Greek colonies since the same period.
Illyria was a sovereign state until the Romans conquered it two centuries later, in 168 B.C.E. The Romans organized the land into the Roman province of Illyricum, which encompassed most of modern Croatia (Istria was part of the province of Italia). Illyricum was subsequently split into the provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia in year 10. Pannonia was further split in two by Trajan between 102 C.E. and 107 C.E.
Christian era
A four-fold split of the same province followed at the turn of the fourth century under Diocletian — an emperor of Illyrian descent, from Dalmatia. Other notable people from these areas in this period included the Christian Jerome, Saint Marinus (builder of San Marino), emperors Valentinian I and Valens, and Pope John IV.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, the Roman roads and the Illyrian population speaking Romance languages (such as Istro-Romanian or Dalmatian) remained. With the increasing amount of human migration, this population entrenched in the cities along the whole Dalmatian coast.
Lombards and Huns
The Lombards and the Huns made an incursion from the north. After 476 the area was subject to Odoacer and then to Ostrogoth rulers beginning with Theodoric the Great. Justinian I claimed the old province of Dalmatia to the Eastern Roman Empire in 535. Forebears of Croatia's current Slav population settled there in the seventh century following the Eurasian Avars, reportedly under instructions from Byzantine emperor Heraclius.
Medieval Croatian state
The Croats arrived in what is today Croatia in the seventh century. They organized into two dukedoms; the duchy of Pannonian Croatia in the north and the duchy of Littoral Croatia in the south. The biggest part of Christianization of the Croats ended in the ninth century]].
Croatian duke Trpimir I (845–864), founder of the Trpimirović dynasty, fought successfully against Bulgarians, and against Byzantine strategos in Zadar. He expanded his state in east to the Drava River. The first native Croatian ruler recognized by a pope was duke Branimir, whom Pope John VIII called dux Chroatorum in 879.
Kingdom of Croatia
The first King of Croatia, Tomislav (910–928) of the Trpimirović dynasty, was crowned in 925. Tomislav, rex Chroatorum, united the Pannonian and Dalmatian duchies and created a sizeable state. He defeated Bulgarian Tsar Simeon I in the battle of the Bosnian Highlands. The mediæval Croatian kingdom reached its peak during the reign of King Petar Krešimir IV (1058–1074).
Following the disappearance of the major native dynasty by the end of the eleventh centuryin the Battle of Gvozd Mountain, the Croats eventually recognized the Hungarian ruler Coloman as the common king for Croatia and Hungary in a treaty of 1102 (often referred to as the Pacta conventa).
Union with Hungary
The consequences of the change to the Hungarian king included the introduction of feudalism and the rise of the native noble families such as Frankopan and Šubić. The later kings sought to restore some of their previously lost influence by giving certain privileges to the towns. The primary governor of Croatian provinces was the ban.
The princes of Bribir from the Šubić family became particularly influential, asserting control over large parts of Dalmatia, Slavonia and Bosnia. Later, however, the Angevines intervened and restored royal power. They also sold the whole of Dalmatia to Venice in 1409.
As the Ottoman Empire incursion into Europe started, Croatia once again became a border area. The Croats fought an increasing number of battles and gradually lost increasing swaths of territory to the Ottoman Empire. The Battle of Krbava field (the field of blood), was fought between Croatia in union with Hungary and Ottoman forces on September 9, 1493, in southern Croatia. It resulted in the total defeat of the Croatian army led by Ban Mirko Derenčin.
Habsburg Empire, Venice, and the Ottomans
The 1526 Battle of Mohács and the death of King Louis II of Hungary meant the end of Hungarian authority over Croatia, replaced by the Habsburg Monarchy, signed by Croatian nobles at Cetingrad assembly. The Ottoman Empire further expanded in the sixteenth century to include most of Slavonia, western Bosnia and Lika.
Later in the same century, large areas of Croatia and Slavonia adjacent to the Ottoman Empire were carved out into the Military Frontier (Vojna Krajina, German Militaergrenze) and ruled directly from Vienna military headquarters. The area became rather deserted and was subsequently settled by Serbs, Vlachs, Croats and Germans and others. As a result of their compulsory military service to the Habsburg Empire during conflict with the Ottoman Empire, the population in the Military Frontier was free of serfdom and enjoyed much political autonomy unlike the population living in the parts ruled by Hungary.
After the Bihać fort finally fell in 1592, only small parts of Croatia remained unconquered. The remaining 16,800 km² were referred to as the remnants of the remnants of the once great Croatian kingdom. The Ottoman army was successfully repelled for the first time on the territory of Croatia following the battle of Sisak in 1593. The lost territory was mostly restored, except for large parts of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Croats participated in the Thirty Years' War. They were remembered for their brutality throughout the Protestant world. One Protestant church in Aachen still has a saying about Croats, as they were remembered in common prayers of German people from that time: "God save us from hunger, Croats and plague!".
By the 1700s, the Ottoman Empire was driven out of Hungary and Croatia, and Austria brought the empire under central control. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria was supported by the Croatians in the War of Austrian Succession of 1741–1748 and subsequently made significant contributions to Croatian matters.
With the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, its possessions in eastern Adriatic became subject to a dispute between France and Austria. The Habsburgs eventually secured them (by 1815) and Dalmatia and Istria became part of the empire, though they were in Cisleithania while Croatia and Slavonia were under Hungary.
Croatian nationalism
Croatian romantic nationalism emerged in mid-nineteenth century to counteract the apparent Germanization and Magyarization of Croatia. The Illyrian movement attracted a number of influential figures from 1830s on, and produced advances in the Croatian language and culture. The champion of the Illyrian movement was Ljudevit Gaj who also reformed and standardized the Croatian literary language.
Following the Revolutions of 1848 in Habsburg areas and the creation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, Croatia lost its domestic autonomy, despite the contributions of its ban Josip Jelačić in quenching the Hungarian rebellion. Croatian autonomy was restored in 1868 with the Hungarian–Croatian Settlement, which was not particularly favorable for the Croatians.
Croatia in the first Yugoslavia
Shortly before the end of the First World War in 1918, the Croatian Parliament severed relations with Austria-Hungary as the Little Entente armies defeated those of the Habsburgs. “Croatia and Slavonia” became a part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs composed out of all Southern Slavic territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy with a transitional government headed in Zagreb. Although the state inherited much of Austro-Hungary's military arsenal, including the entire fleet, the Kingdom of Italy moved rapidly to annex the state's most western territories, promised by the Treaty of London of 1915. An Italian Army eventually took Istria, started to annex the Adriatic islands one by one, and even landed in Zadar.
After Srijem left Croatia and Slavonia and joined Serbia together with Vojvodina, which was shortly followed by a referendum to join Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia, the People's Council (Narodno vijeće) of the state, guided by what was by that time a half a century long tradition of pan-Slavism and without sanction of the Croatian sabor, joined the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.
The Kingdom underwent a crucial change in 1921 to the dismay of the Croatian political leadership led by the Croatian Peasant Party of Stjepan Radić. The new constitution abolished the historical/political entities, including Croatia and Slavonia centralizing authority in the capital of Belgrade. The Croatian Peasant Party boycotted the government of the Serbian Radical People's Party throughout the period, except for a brief interlude between 1925 and 1927, when external Italian expansionism was at hand with her allies, Albania, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria that threatened Yugoslavia as a whole.
In 1928, Radić was mortally wounded during a Parliament session by Puniša Račić, a deputy of the Serbian Radical People's Party, which caused further upsets among the Croatian elite. In 1929, King Alexander of Yugoslavia proclaimed a dictatorship and imposed a new constitution which, among other things, renamed the country into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
In 1934, King Aleksandar was assassination abroad, in Marseilles, by a coalition of two radical groups: the Croatian Ustaše and the Macedonian pro-Bulgarian VMORO. The Serbian-Croatian Dragiša Cvetković-Vlatko Maček government that came to power, distanced Yugoslavia's former allies of France and the United Kingdom, and moved closer to Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the period of 1935-1941. A national Banovina of Croatia was created in 1939 out of the two Banates, as well as parts of the Zeta, Vrbas Banovina, Drina Banovina and Danube Banates. It had a reconstructed Croatian Parliament which would choose a Croatian Ban and Viceban. This Croatia included a part of Bosnia (region), most of Herzegovina and the city of Dubrovnik and the surroundings.
World War II
The Axis powers’ occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941 allowed the Croatian radical right Ustaše to come into power, forming the "Independent State of Croatia", led by Ante Pavelić, who assumed the role of Poglavnik Nezavisne Drzave Hrvatske (i.e. Leader of the Independent State of Croatia). Following the pattern of other fascist puppet regime in Europe, the Ustashi enacted racial laws, formed eight concentration camps targeting minority Roma and Jewish populations.
The main targets for persecution, however, where the minority Serbs who were reasoned to be a trojan horse of Serbian expansionism and bore the brunt of retribution for the excesses of the Serb royal dictatorship of the first Yugoslavia. Coinciding with the Ustashi abuses, was the campaign by the Četnici who sought to ethnically cleanse parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia as part of the Stevan Moljevic plan. Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have been killed in this cycle of violence, that also include the Partisans, making the conflict as much a civil war as it was ethnic.
The all-Yugoslav communist anti-fascist partisan movement emerged in Croatia early in 1941, under the command of Croat-Slovene Josip Broz Tito, spreading quickly into the other parts of Yugoslavia. The movement was originally of Croat origin illustrating the ineffectiveness of Ustaše "independance" propaganda on the disgruntled population. Serbian royalist guerrilla Četnici were formed, but acted mainly against partisans rather than the occupying fascist forces.
By 1943, the Partisan resistance movement had gained the upper hand, against the odds, and in 1945, with the some help from the Soviet Red Army, expelled the Axis forces and local supporters. The ZAVNOH, state anti-fascist council of people's liberation of Croatia, functioned since 1944 and formed an interim civil government.
Following the defeat of the Independent State of Croatia at the end of the war a large number of soldiers and civilians (ranging from sympathisers, young conscripts, anti-communists, and ordinary serfs who were motivated by rumours of Partisan atrocities) attempted to flee in the direction of Austria hoping to surrender to British forces and be given refuge. They were instead interned by British forces and then returned to the Partisans. A large number of these persons were killed in what has come to be called the Bleiburg massacre.
Second Yugoslavia
Croatia became part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945, which was run by Tito's Communist Party of Yugoslavia. Tito, himself a Croat, adopted a carefully contrived policy to manage the conflicting national ambitions of the Croats and Serbs.
Croatia was a Socialist Republic part of a six-part federation. Under the new communist system, private property was nationalized and the economy was based on a type of planned market socialism. The country underwent a rebuilding process, recovered from World War II, went through industrialization and started developing tourism.
The constitution of 1963 balanced the power in the country between the Croats and the Serbs, and alleviated the fact that the Croats were again in a minority. Trends after 1965, however, led to the Croatian Spring of 1970–1971, when students in Zagreb organized demonstrations for greater civil liberties and greater Croatian autonomy. The regime stifled the public protest and incarcerated the leaders, but this led to the ratification of a new Constitution in 1974, giving more rights to the individual republics.
In 1980, after Tito's death, economic, political, and ethnic difficulties started to mount and the federal government began to crumble. The crisis in Kosovo and, in 1986, the emergence of Slobodan Milošević in Serbia provoked a very negative reaction in Croatia and Slovenia. As communist hegemony was challenged throughout Central and Eastern Europe calls for free multi-party elections were becoming louder.
Croatian war of independence
In 1990, the first free elections were held. A people's movement called the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won by a relatively slim margin against the reformed communist Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP), led by Franjo Tuđman (former general in Tito's World War II anti-fascist Yugoslav Partisan movement) and Ivica Račan (former president of Croatia's branch of the Yugoslav Communist's League, the SKH ) respectively. However, Croatia's British-style first-past-the-post election system enabled Tuđman to form the government relatively independently. HDZ's intentions were to secure more independence for Croatia, contrary to the wishes of part of ethnic Serbs in the republic and official politics in Belgrade. The excessively polarized climate soon escalated into complete estrangement between the two nationalities and even sectarian violence.
In the summer of 1990, Serbs from the mountainous areas where they constitute a relative majority rebelled and formed an unrecognized "Autonomous Region of the Serb Krajina" (later the Republic of Serbian Krajina). Any intervention by the Croatian police was obstructed by the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA), mainly consisting of Serbs. The conflict culminated with the so-called "log revolution", when the so-called Krajina Serbs blocked the roads to the tourist destinations in Dalmatia.
After the Croatian government had declared independence from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991, the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) began military actions. Many Croatian cities, notably Vukovar and Dubrovnik, came under the attack of the Serbian forces. The Croatian Parliament cut remaining ties with Yugoslavia on October 8, 1991.
The civilian population fled the areas of armed conflict en masse: thousands of Croats moved away from the Bosnian and Serbian border, while thousands of Serbs moved towards it. In many places, masses of civilians were forced out by the Yugoslav National Army (JNA), which consisted mostly of conscripts from Serbia and Montenegro, and irregulars from Serbia, in what became known as ethnic cleansing. Ethnic Serbs in Croatian-dominated parts of Croatia were similarly forced out by the Croatian army and irregular forces.
The border city of Vukovar underwent a three month siege — the Battle of Vukovar — during which most of the city was destroyed and a majority of the population was forced to flee. The city fell to the Serbian forces on November 18, 1991. Some historians believe that the city could have been spared and defended, but was left to "fend for itself" to gain sympathy from the west.
Subsequent United Nations-sponsored cease-fires followed, and the warring parties mostly entrenched. The Yugoslav People's Army retreated from Croatia into Bosnia and Herzegovina where the Bosnian War was just about to start. During 1992 and 1993, Croatia also handled estimated 700,000 refugees from Bosnia, mainly Bosnian Muslims.
Armed conflict in Croatia remained intermittent and mostly on a small scale until 1995. In early August, Croatia started Operation Storm and quickly reconquered most of the territories of "Republic of Serbian Krajina", leading to a mass exodus of the Serbian population. An estimated 90,000-350,000 Serbs fled shortly before, during and after the operation. As a result of this exodus, a few months later the war ended with the negotiation of the Dayton Agreement. A peaceful integration of the remaining Serbian-controlled territories in Eastern Slavonia was completed in 1998 under UN supervision. Most of the Serbs who fled from the former Krajina have not returned.
Tudman dies
President Tuđman died in late 1999. In February 2000, Stjepan Mesić was elected president, ending the HDZ's rule. The country underwent many liberal reforms beginning in 2000. An economic recovery as well as healing of many war wounds ensued and the country proceeded to become a member of several important regional and international organizations. The country has started the process of joining the European Union, but a perceived lack of co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia concerning the tracking down of the indicted general Ante Gotovina long formed difficulties. After Gotovina's capture on December 8, 2005, negotiations with the aim of Croatia joining the EU have started.
Government and politics
The politics of Croatia take place in a framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the prime minister of Croatia is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in the Croatian parliament]] (Sabor). The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. It adopted its current constitution on December 22, 1990, and declared independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991.
The president (predsjednik) 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 appoints the prime minister with the consent of the parliament, and has some influence on foreign policy. The president’s official residence is predsjednički dvori.
The Croatian parliament (sabor) is a unicameral legislative body. A second chamber, the "House of Counties", which was set up by the Constitution of 1990, 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. The plenary sessions of the sabor take place from January 15 to July 15, and from September 15 to December 15.
The Croatian government]] (vlada) is headed by the prime minister who has two deputy prime ministers and 14 ministers in charge of particular sectors of activity. The executive branch is responsible for proposing legislation and a budget, executing the laws, and guiding the foreign and internal policies of the republic. The government's official residence is at Banski dvori.
Croatia has a three-tiered judicial system, consisting of the Supreme Court, county courts, and municipal courts. Court hearings are open, and judgments are made publicly, except in issues of privacy of the accused. Judges are appointed by the National Judicial Council, and judicial office is permanent (until 70 years of age). The president of the Supreme Court is elected for a four-year term by the Croatian Parliament at the proposal of the president. The Constitutional Court rules on matters regarding the Constitution. Since the 1991–1995 war, there is increased petty crime, and there are more beggars on the streets. Most are displaced peoples or refugees.
Croatia is divided into 21 counties (županija) and the capital Zagreb's city district (in italics below):
Military
Croatia’s military is officially called the Armed Forces of the Republic of Croatia, and it consists of: ground forces, naval forces, and air and air defense forces. Total active duty members of the armed forces number 32,700, including about 8000 conscripts.
Reserves number 111,000 out of which 32,360 are on the first state of alert. Available males aged 16-49 number 1,081,135, of which 856,946 are technically fit for military service. Only male citizens are subject to compulsory military service at least until 2008/09. The Croatian military budget was approximately USD 1.1 billion in 1997 (a little more than 5 percent of GDP), but it has since been reduced significantly to 2 percent of GDP in 2007.
Foreign relations
Croatian foreign policy has focused on entering the European Union and NATO. In order to gain access to European and trans-Atlantic institutions, it has had to undo many negative effects of the break-up of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the war that ensued, and improve and maintain good relations with its neighbors.
Key issues over the last decade have been the implementation of the Dayton Accords and the Erdut Agreement, non-discriminatory facilitation of the return of refugees and displaced persons from the 1991-95 war including property restitution for ethnic Serbs, resolution of border disputes with Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and general democratization.
Croatia has had an uneven record in these areas between 1996 and 1999 during the right-wing HDZ government, inhibiting its relations with European Union and the U.S. Improvement in these areas severely hindered the advance of Croatia's prospects for further Euro-Atlantic integration. Progress in the areas of Dayton, Erdut, and refugee returns were evident in 1998, but progress was slow and required intensive international engagement.
Croatia's unsatisfactory performance implementing broader democratic reforms in 1998 raised questions about the ruling party's commitment to basic democratic principles and norms. Areas of concern included restrictions on freedom of speech, one-party control of public TV and radio, repression of independent media, unfair electoral regulations, a judiciary that is not fully independent, and lack of human rights and civil rights protection.
A centre-left coalition government was elected in early 2000. The SDP-led government slowly relinquished control over public media companies and did not interfere with freedom of speech and independent media, though it didn't complete the process of making Croatian Radiotelevision independent. Judiciary reforms remained a pending issue as well.
Foreign relations were severely affected by the government's hesitance and stalling of the extradition of Croatian general Janko Bobetko to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, and inability to take general Ante Gotovina into custody for questioning by the Court.
Economy
Croatia economy is service based with service sector accounting for 67% of total GDP. Industrial sector is dominated by shipbuilding, food processing and chemical industry taking a significant portion of Industrial output.
Croatia's largest companies are Agrokor, Ina, Pliva, Podravka, HEP, Vindija and T-Hrvatski Telekom.
Industrial Sector represents 27% of Croatia’s total economic output and agriculture represents 6%.
Agricultural sector in Croatia started to thrive in recent years; exports of blue water fish experienced a surge in demand especially from Japan and South Korea. Croatia is a strong producer of organic foods and much of it as of late is being exported to EU as are Croatian wines, olive oils and lavender.
Tourism is a notable source of income during the summer. With over 8.9 million foreign tourists in 2006 generating a revenue of over 7 billion euros, Croatia is ranked as eighteenth most popular tourist destination in the world.
Trade is starting to play a major role in Croatian Economic Output. In 2006 Croatia exported goods in value of 10.4 U$ billion (FOB) (19.7 billion including service exports.
The estimated Gross Domestic Product per capita in purchasing power parity in 2006 was cca. USD 15500 or 48.9% of the EU average for the same year.
Croatian preliminary GDP data for 2007, puts Croatian GDP at 68,208 billion USD, or just over 15,355 USD per head (Real income) putting Croatia ahead of EU member-states Romania and Bulgaria.
The Croatian economy is post-communist. In the late 1980s, at the beginning of the process of economic transition, its position was favorable, but it was gravely impacted by de-industrialization, war destruction as well as losing the markets of Yugoslavia and the SEV.
Persistent economic problems still remain: unemployment (11.9% in 2006)[1] and slow progress of economic reforms. Of particular concern is the heavily backlogged judiciary system, combined with inefficient public administration, especially issues of land ownership. The unemployment is very high in eastern parts of Croatia (Slavonia and Dalmatia), reaching 20% in some areas, and relatively low in larger cities, Istria, Kvarner, Zagreb-area, being under 7%. Unemployment has been constantly declining by 5% over the last 7 years.[2]
The country has since experienced faster economic growth and has been preparing for membership in the European Union, its most important trading partner.
In February 2005, the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU officially came into force and Croatia is advancing towards full EU membership. The country expects some major economic impulses and high growth rates in the coming years (currently Croatia suffers from high export deficit and considerable debt). Croatia is expecting a major boom in investments, especially greenfield investments.
Demographics
The population of Croatia has been stagnating over the last decade. The 1991–1995 war in Croatia had previously displaced large parts of the population and increased emigration. Some Croats who fled the country during the war are returning. The natural growth rate is minute or negative (less than ± 1%), as the demographic transition has been completed half a century ago. Average life expectancy is approximately 75 years, and the literacy rate is 98.5%.
Croatia is inhabited mostly by Croats (89.9%). There are around twenty minorities, Serbs being the largest one (4.5%) and others having less than 0.5% each. The predominant religion is Catholicism (87.8%), with some Orthodox (4.4%) and Sunni Muslim (1.3%) minorities.
The official and common language, Croatian, is a South Slavic language, using the Latin alphabet. Less than 5% of the population cites other languages as their mother tongues.
Culture
Croatian culture is based on a thirteen century-long history during which the country has attained many monuments and cities, which gave birth to a number of historical figures. The country includes six World Heritage sites and eight national parks. Among a list of notable people that came from Croatia are three Nobel prize winners, and numerous inventors. Some of the world's first fountain pens came from Croatia.
Croatia also has a place in the history of clothing as the origin of the necktie (cravat). The country has a long artistic, literary and musical tradition. Of particular interest is the diverse nature of croatian cuisine.
See also
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Croatia Portal |
- Communications in Croatia
- Holidays in Croatia
- Military of Croatia
- Protected areas of Croatia
- Tourism in Croatia
- Transport in Croatia
- Sport in Croatia
- Croatian War of Independence
- List of Croatians
- Law enforcement in Croatia
- International rankings of Croatia
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- (Croatian) Agičić et al., Povijest i zemljopis Hrvatske, priručnik za hrvatske manjinske škole (History and Geography of Croatia, a handbook for Croatian minority schools), Biblioteka Geographica Croatica, 292 pages, Zagreb:2000 (ISBN 953-6235-40-4)
Notes
Further Reading
- Ivo Banac, The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics Cornell University Press, 1984.
- Mirjana Kasapovic (ur.), Hrvatska politika 1990.-2000. Zagreb: Hrvatska politologija 2001.
- Pavol Demes and Joerg Forbrig (eds.). Reclaiming Democracy: Civil Society and Electoral Change in Central and Eastern Europe. German Marshall Fund, 2007. ISBN 978-80-969639-0-4
External links
- The Croatian government's official website @ vlada.hr
- Basic facts, website of the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Croatian National Tourist Board @ croatia.hr
- General information about Croatia @ www.hr
- Croatia - Overview of History, Culture, and Science
- Tourist attractions in Croatia
- Croatia Directory
- United Nations Development Programme: Croatia
- Croatian World Network (Croatia.org)
- State Institute for Nature Protection - Croatia
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