Croatia : Croats

Croatia (in Croatian: Hrvatska) is a country of the Balkan Peninsula. Its capital is Zagreb.

Background

In 1918, Austria-Hungary disintegrated after being on the losing side in WW1. Three of its peoples, 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.

Republika Hrvatska

(In Detail[?])
National motto: None
Official language	Croatian
Capital	Zagreb
President[?]	Stjepan Mesić[?]
Prime Minister[?]	Ivica Račan[?]
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 123th 56,542 km² 0.01%
Population  - Total (2000)  - Density	Ranked 79th 4,390,751 83/km²
Independence	1991
Currency	kuna
Time zones	UTC +1
National anthem	Lijepa naša domovino
Internet TLD	.hr
Calling Code	385

• History of Croatia
• Geography of Croatia
• Demographics of Croatia
• Politics of Croatia
• Economy of Croatia
• Communications in Croatia
• Transportation in Croatia
• Military of Croatia
• Foreign relations of Croatia

See also: Music of Croatia

International rankings

• world-wide press freedom index (http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=4116) Rank 33 out of 139 countries (2 way tie)

Reference

• Much of the material in these articles comes from the CIA World Factbook 2000 and the 2003 U.S. Department of State website.