Capital : Zagreb (Agram)
Dalmatia
The Slav tribes who became the Croats had completed their south-west
migration and arrived on the Dalmatian coast by AD 600. Like the
Serbs, who speak a similar language, they may have had some Iranian
blood. They conquered and absorbed the existing population of
Christian Romanized Illyrians and remained largely pagan for the
next three hundred years. The first Croatian king, Tomislav, was
recognised by Byzantium in AD 910, partly to revent further expansion
by the Venetian empire which was to control much of the Dalmatian
coast and Istrian peninsula at various times until the C18th.
The threat from Venice meant that the Croatian kings became closer
to the kingdom of Hungary to the north, and when the line died
out in the late C11th, the Pacta Conventa was agreed, leading
to the king of Hungary becoming king of Croatia and Slavonia in
1102. (Croatia was to remain under Hungarian control until 1918.)
The country remained a separate political entity, with the nobility
keeping their tiles and their own assembly or 'Sabor' but never
had equal power.
Croatia was divided into five areas, three under the control of
the Habsburg monarchy, and two (Istria and Dalmatia) under Venetian
control. Civil Croatia and Slavonia were separated by the Croatian
Military Border which originated when the Bosnian Serb refugees
from Ottoman advances came under Habsburg command in 1553. The
Serbs settled in family groups and developed a patriarchal community
called a 'zadruga'. These were recognised as legal entities by
the Habsburg statute of 1630 which drafted all males over sixteen
for military service. There were Croats among the borber settlers
or 'Grenzer' but over half were Serbs who were resented by the
Croatian nobles because they did not have to pay feudal dues.
Croatia was much poorer than Civil Croatia and trade was reduced
further by the Habsburg 'Sanitats Kordon' which was established
along the Ottoman border in 1770 to prevent the spread of plague
and stock diseases.
The Habsburgs made the Military Border their legal property in
1754 but although they later promised agricultural reform, the
area remained poor. There were no large towns (only 3000 people
lived in Karlovac, the largest) and emigration had left many rural
settlements deserted. Serbs and Croats seem to have been peaceful
neighbours and served together in the military without any problems.
There were far fewer Serbs in Civil Croatia (total population
only 650 000 at the end of the C18th) and Slavonia and most of
the landlords were Croats with 90% of the Croats north of the
Military Border registered as serfs in the census of 1784.
Further constraints against Croatian unity were the many Italians
living in Dalmatia, but a Triune Kingdom of Croatia, slavonia
and Dalmatia was suggested by the Dalmatian nobleman, Pavao Ritter
Vitezovic in the C17th. Dubrovnik (then called Ragusa) in Dalmatia
remained an independent city state and was recognised as a republic.
In the C19th, the first suggestions that there could be a single
South Slav nation were made. France under Napoleon revived the
old name for the area, Illyria, and created the Illyrian provinces
from 1809-13.
The idea of unity was supported by a few Croatian noblemen and
their leader, Ljudevit Gaj, tried to unite the South Slavs during
the 1830s. Following the work of the Slovak Jan Kollar, Gaj amalgamated
the various Slavic dialects to form one Croato-Serbian or Illyrian
language based on the most common 'stovakian' dialect which he
hoped would overcome Catholic and Orthodox religious differences.
Slovenians and Bosnians felt that it was too different from their
own languages and did not support the movement in any great numbers
but Hungarian reforms reducing the power of the Croat nobility
encouraged them to adopt the new language in government.
The 1848 Hungarian revolt against Habsburg rule led to the suppression
of Serbian and Croatian activities and a much more authoritarian
Austrian regime was imposed although nationalist and liberal elements
survived. In 1861, Ante Starcevic and Eugen Kvaternik founded
the Party of Right to campaign for the rights of the state. Starcevic
(half Serb, half Croat) believed that all the Bosnian and Military
Border Serbs were really Croats and woul want to join his Croatian
nation. Vuk Karadzic, a Serbian linguist, believed that all Stovakian
speakers (most of the Croats) were Serbs whatever religion they
followed. In 1863, the Croatian National Party split into two
groups, one wanting to co-operate with Hungary and one with Austria
in order to gain autonomy. In the Sabor elections, they and the
Unionists or Magyarones (who wanted integration with Hungary)
all won more seats than the Party of Right and the Independent
National Party under Ivan Muzuranic had a majority by 1871.
In 1883, resentment of Hungary led to a peasant revolt which began
as a Croatian nationalist protest in Zagreb and several new nationalist
parties were formed around the turn of the century. The Serbian
victories in the Balkan Wars encouraged Croatians to join the
campaign for a Yugoslav state and the Croatian-Serbian coalition
was strengthened although some Croatians wanted a Croatian led
state which would absorb Serbia.
Representatives of Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia met in Belgrade
after the First World War and proclaimed the Kingdom of the Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes under the Serbian ruler, Alexander Karadjordjevic.
This lasted until WWII when the monarchy was deposed and the second
Yugoslavia was founded after further Balkan conflict in 1945-6
as the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia under Josip Broz
Tito, a Croatian. There were six republics: Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia,
Slovenia, Macedonia and Montenegro, and two autonomous regions,
Kosovo and Vojvodina.
The Communist state, against expectation, outlasted the death
of Tito in 1980. There was much rivalry amongst the various Communist
parties of the different republics and the collapse of the Soviet
Union in 1989 further weakened and eventually destroyed the single
League of Communists.
Cultural complaints had been made by Croatian intellectuals sinec
the 1960s and there were demands for more Croatian elements in
the Serbo-Croat language which tended to favour Serbian variants.
The Roman Catholic hierarchy of Croatia had begun to hold public
meetings in which Croatian nationalist synbols were displayed
in 1975. Although Croatians formed 30% of the Yugoslav population,
in 1981 they had only 20% of the communist party membership (possibly
due to the low birth rate and many Croatians working abroad).
In 1990, the Croatian Democratic Alliance leader, Franjo Tudjman,
was elected President. Slovenia's attempt to secede and the military
intervention by the Yugoslav army (which was mostly Serb) helped
to provoke the Croatian conflict. The Croats accused the Serbs
of trying to make a 'Greater Serbia' and fighting intensified.
In September 1991, the Serb and Croat leaders signed an agreement
letting unarmed EC observers in to monitor the latest cease-fire
and the former British foreign secretary was appointed to oversee
negotiations. Fighting continued but Croatia seceded from tne
federation in October. Early in 1992, a UN peacekeeping force
arrived but unrest and fighting had spread to the other republics.
| Alen | Alojzije | Andrija | Ante | Anto | Antun |
| August | Augustin | Borna | Bozidar | Bozo* | Branimir |
| Branko* | Davor | Dragan | Dragomir | Drazen | Dubravko |
| Eugen | Franjo | Frano | Franu | Goran | Igor |
| Ivan | Ivica | Ivo | Janko | Jerko | Josip |
| Juraj | Jurica | Kresimir | Kreso* | Ljuderit | Lovro |
| Luka | Marijan | Mario | Marko | Maro* | Maroje |
| Maryjan | Mate | Matija | Mika | Mile | Mirko |
| Miroslav | Nikica | Nino | Pavao | Pavle | Pedrag |
| Robert | Rudi | Savka | Sime | Slaven | Slavko |
| Smelian | Stipe* | Stjepan | Tomica* | Tomislav | Viktor |
| Vladko | Vlado | Zan | Zarko | Zvonimir | Zvonko* |
| Ana | Branka | Dora | Dubravka | Dunja | Franka |
| Jadranka | Jasminka | Kaja* | Katarina | Katica* | Manda |
| Mandica | Marija | Milka | Mirta | Sanja | Snjezana |
| Vesna |
* diminutives
Names of Serbian origin also occur in Croatia.
| Abelovsky | Alanovic | Andric | Asanovic | Bacid | Bakaric |
| Balas | Banac | Barich | Batelka | Bicanic | Bilic |
| Blazevic | Boban | Bogatec | Boksic | Brajkovic | Broz |
| Brozovic | Budak | Budisa | Cesarac | Cvitanovic | Dezulovic |
| Djodan | Djuga | Dragicevic | Dragovic | Draskovic | Feyers |
| Franic | Frankovic | Gabric | Gaj | Garaj | Gojgco |
| Gosnjak | Gotovac | Grbasic | Gubec | Hebrang | Hirszon |
| Horvat | Horvath | Ivanic | Ivanisevic | Jarni | Jelacic |
| Jerkan | Jovanovic | Jurcevic | Karlovac | Kljujic | Kowatschitza |
| Kranjer | Krizanic | Krleza | Kukoc | Kvaternik | Ladic |
| Latkovic | Liptak | Ljubicic | Lucic | Maanolic | Macek |
| Markovic | Mazuranic | Mesic | Mestrovic | Mikulic | Mirmic |
| Mladenovic | Nancic | Pabcevic | Parmic | Pavelic | Pavlicic |
| Petrasch | Pinter | Pirker | Planinc | Prpa | Puhovski |
| Racan | Racki | Radic | Reichl-Kir | Remac | Rennich |
| Roncevic | Sarkotic | Sikavica | Simek | Simic | Skansky |
| Smodlaka | Soldo | Spegelj | Stanic | Starcevic | Stepinac |
| Stimac | Suker | Supek | Supilo | Susak | Tabak |
| Talaja | Tepavac | Tito | Tripalo | Trumbic | Tschorba |
| Tucman | Tudjman | Ujevic | Valentic | Veslica | Vinski |
| Visnij | Vitezovic | Vlaovic | Vlasto | Vrdoljak | Vrhovec |
| Vuksic | Zamometic | Zanko | Zorko | Margetic |
| Tomislav | c 925 | first king | |
| 1102 Hungary |
This collection of names compiled by Kate Monk. Copyright January
1997, Kate Monk. Last updated November, 97. Copies may be made
for personal use only.