Croatia/Croatians: Development of a Nation
How Croatia became Croatia, and how the Croatians became Croatian.

How Croatians as a people, and the country of Croatia as a nation-state, evolved and materialized into current form, in terms of ancestral bloodlines, the Croat language, borders, culture, and even how they received their name.

Ancestral Background
Development of Language
Formation of Borders
Etymology (How Name Received)
Culture
Croatia in 2008

Croat Ancestral Background:

1. 3000 BC – People along the Baltic coast centered around modern Lithuania begin speaking the Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a branch off from Proto-Indo-European. This serves as the genesis of the Slavic and Baltic languages/peoples.
2. 1000 BC – A group splinters from the Proto-Balto-Slavic people, migrating southeast into modern Ukraine. This branch off group were the predecessors to Slavs, who would ultimately extend outward in all directions.
3. In the 6^th century, as Germanics migrated westward, a group of Slavs expanded southward to fill the void, inhabiting the northern border of the Byzantine Empire (continuation of the Roman Empire in the Greek world).
4. 558 – Avars, a central Asian Turkic people, driven west into Europe (through modern Ukraine) by Persians and more powerful Turkic empires, came into contact with the Byzantines. They were paid off by the Byzantines to settle the area north of the Danube River, and to subdue barbarian Germanics remaining in the territory. The Avars succeeded in driving the Germans out of area, including the Lombards, who were driven into Italy, where they become the ruling class. At this time, large groups of Slavic peoples were settled north of the Danube as well. The Avar raids forced them south into the Balkan peninsula, where they settled lands abandoned by Germanic peoples, including modern Romania and Hungary. Slavic peoples would inhabit the entire Balkan region north of the Greek-inhabited lands at the very southern portion of the peninsula by 700. The Illyrians would be driven into a remote mountainous region in modern Albania, becoming forefathers to modern Albanians, which would also include a Slavic component from intermixing.
5. In the 7^th century, Slavs in the eastern Alps (modern southern Austria/northern Slovenia) formed Principality of Carantania. They were absorbed into the Frankish Empire by 745. Frankish rule ended at the approximate modern southern Slovenian border, creating first division of those who became the ancestors of modern Slovenians and Croats.
6. 925 – The Kingdom of Croatia was established, combining independent duchies in the area approximating modern Croatia (including Pannonian Croatia, Littoral Croatia).
7. 976 – Territories approximating modern Slovenia were conquered by the Holy Roman Empire (a decentralized German political entity consisting of a collection of loosely affiliated duchies and principalities), separating Slavs in modern Slovenia from those in modern Croatia. This served as the original basis for the permanent division of the Slovenian and Croatia nationalities.
8. 1102 – Due to a succession crisis, Croatia came under the monarchy of Hungary. Croatia would receive a significant Hungarian population, resulting in a Hungarian minority in Croatia to this day, but with very little impact on genetics of modern Croats. By this point, the Croatian genetic composition is largely set.
9. In the 14th century, Venice expanded along the eastern Adriatic coastline from its perch at the northern end of the sea, absorbing the thin strip of coastline of modern Croatia.
10. 1521 – The Muslim, Turk Ottoman Empire conquered Hungary, while the Austrians battled for control of Western Hungary, including Croatia in 1526 along with other former Hungarian territories. Venice continued to retain possession of the coastal strip of territory of modern Croatia. This coastal land would be taken by Austria following the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, opening the way for Croat consolidation. Despite foreign rule, Croatia's genetic composition receives little impact.
11. Croatia maintained its distinct culture, language and nationalistic identity throughout centuries of foreign rule, under nations such as Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Austrian Empire. Upon the disbandment of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire at the conclusion of WWI in 1918, Croatia was added to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Like the other South Slav nations consolidated into this new nation-state, the Croats maintained their distinct nationality (in large part due to sectarian rivalries that persisted throughout the existence of Yugoslavia), until the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, resulting in an independent, sovereign Croat nation (Croatia).

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Development of Croat Language:

1. 3000 BC – People along the Baltic coast centered around modern Lithuania begin speaking the Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a branch off from Proto-Indo-European. This serves as the genesis of the Slavic and Baltic languages/peoples.
2. 1000 BC – A group splinters from the Proto-Balto-Slavic people, migrating southeast into modern Ukraine. This branch off group were the predecessors to Slavs, who would ultimately extend outward in all directions. Their language evolves into the original Slav language, a sub-branch of Proto-Balto-Slavic, and the ancestral language to all Slav sub-branches, including Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian and others.
3. South Slav Language begins to separate from Western Slav Language in the 9^th to 10^th century, after Magyars settled into modern Hungary, separating the West Slavs (in modern Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia) from the South Slavs (territory roughly approximating the former Yugoslavia).
4. By the 9^th century, Croat had diverged sufficiently from the other South Slav languages, becoming its own distinct language, rather than a mere dialect. It remains mutually intelligible with Serbian and Bosniak.

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Formation of Croatian Borders:

1. In the 6^th century, as Germanics migrated westward, a group of Slavs expanded southward to fill the void, inhabiting the northern border of the Byzantine Empire (continuation of the Roman Empire in the Greek world).
2. 558 – Avars, a central Asian Turkic people, driven west into Europe (through modern Ukraine) by Persians and more powerful Turkic empires, came into contact with the Byzantines. They were paid off by the Byzantines to settle the area north of the Danube River, and to subdue barbarian Germanics remaining in the territory. The Avars succeeded in driving the Germans out of area, including the Lombards, who were driven into Italy, where they become the ruling class. At this time, large groups of Slavic peoples were settled north of the Danube as well. The Avar raids forced them south into the Balkan peninsula, where they settled lands abandoned by Germanic peoples, including modern Romania and Hungary. Slavic peoples would inhabit the entire Balkan region north of the Greek-inhabited lands at the very southern portion of the peninsula by 700.
3. In the 7^th century, Slavs in the eastern Alps (modern southern Austria/northern Slovenia) formed Principality of Carantania. They were absorbed into the Frankish Empire by 745. Frankish rule ended at the approximate modern southern Slovenian border.
4. 925 – The Kingdom of Croatia was established, combining independent duchies in the area approximating modern Croatia (including Pannonian Croatia, Littoral Croatia).
5. 976 – Territories approximating modern Slovenia were conquered by the Holy Roman Empire (a decentralized German political entity consisting of a collection of loosely affiliated duchies and principalities), separating Slavs in modern Slovenia from those in modern Croatia. This served as the original basis for the Slovenian nation.
6. 1102 – Due to a succession crisis, Croatia came under the monarchy of Hungary. Croatia would receive a significant Hungarian population, resulting in a Hungarian minority in Croatia to this day, but with very little impact on genetics of modern Croats.
7. In the 14th century, Venice expanded along the eastern Adriatic coastline from its perch at the northern end of the sea, absorbing the thin strip of coastline of modern Croatia.
8. 1521 – The Muslim, Turk Ottoman Empire conquered Hungary, while the Austrians battled for control of Western Hungary, including Croatia in 1526 along with other former Hungarian territories. Venice continued to retain possession of the coastal strip of territory of modern Croatia. The easternmost section of Croatia (Slavonia) remains under Ottoman control.
9. 1699 - Austria wrests control of Slavonia (the easternmost section of Croatia) from the Ottoman Empire.
10. 1797 – The Republic of Venice was conquered by Napoleonic France, organizing the eastern coastal strip into the Illyrian Provinces. Following France's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the European powers would award this coastal strip to Austria, opening the way for Croat consolidation of the area. Bosnia was still under Ottoman rule, so this strip of coast was closed off to the Bosniak populations directly inland, creating the enclave between Croatia and Bosnia still in place today.
11. 1867 – Following Austria's defeat at the hands of Prussia, it is evicted from the German Confederation. In its weakened state, it is forced to give the Hungarian portion of its empire equal status, reconstituting the empire as Austria-Hungary.
12. Croatia was added to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes after WWI, as part of the terms of defeat of the Austrians in this war. Croats within Yugoslavia maintained their distinct nationalistic identity until the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, when Croatia fought and won its independence, becoming a sovereign nation-state.
13. In 1929, the name was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
14. Gains independence in Yugoslavia Wars as its own nation in 1991, which was followed by the Croatian War of Independence against Serbia (Serbia being the preeminent sectarian group in Yugoslavia), ending in 1995. Minor border (non-violent) disputes with Slovenia continue to this day.

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Etymology (How Name Received):

Latin translation of the Croatian name for themselves: Hrvats. Uncertain how Croats arrived to their self-appointed name.

Croatian Culture:

During the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras, Croatia was split among Venice, Austria and the Ottoman Empire, gaining exposure and access to various cultural influences and movements. The Venice coastal strip was highly influenced by the Italian Renaissance as a result, the most progressive movement within the larger European Renaissance.

Architectural landmarks represent this rich and diverse tradition. Even Roman architecture is well-represented along the Croatian coastlines.

Croatia in 2008:

Economy: Damaging warfare from 1991 to 1995 with Serbia set the economy back, causing it to miss the foreign investment dollars that poured into central and eastern Europe in the years immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Has improved slowly in recent years, and is helped by tourism, as Croatia has become the 18th most popular tourist destination, but still far behind western European economies.
Government: Democratic Republic
Religion: Roman Catholic 88%.
Demographics: Croat 90%, Serb 5% (holdover from long time Serbian/Yugoslavian rule).
Foreign Policy: Joined NATO. Normalizing relations with Serbia after end of Yugoslavia Wars, where Croatia gained independence. Currently engaged in minor border disputes with Slovenia (along with disputes over territorial waters in Bay of Piran - Adriatic Sea), Bosnia and Serbia.
Population: 4,491,543 (2008)

 

Formation of Nations (All European Nations)

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