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Croatian nationalism

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The Croatian checkerboard (šahovnica) is the national symbol of Croatia and Croats.
Mother Croatia is the personification of Croatia as its national emblem.

Croatian nationalism is the set of political, economic, civic, cultural, and ethnic ideologies that promotes the interests and influences within Croatia, the Croat people, Croatian citizens and the Croatian diaspora.[1][2] It indicates the aspects that characterize and distinguish Croatian society as an autonomous community. The national identity and self-determination of Croatia has seen significant dynamism throughout its history. The cultural and ethnic unity of Croats has been a key component of nationalism since the 19th century.[1][3] Roman Catholicism and the Illyrian movement influenced early-stage nationalist ideas.[1][4] The claim and promise of historic statehood for Croats has informed many varieties of modern Croatian nationalism. This created the concept of Greater Croatia, the belief in the equivalence between the territorial scope of the Croatian people and that of the Croatian state.[5] This regional sphere of influence spreads Croatian nationalism across Southeast Europe.[1]

Following the independence of Croatia in 1991, modern Croatian society has been dominated by ethnic nationalism and historical revisionism.[1][6] Its deepening integration within Europe and the broader Western world, has led to increased legal and rational concepts of nationalism such as the shared Croatian language, cultural traditions, national values, and citizenship.[1][7] Croatian nationalism exists across the ideological spectrum – from the left-wing to the right-wing – of the country's political establishment. Croatia has strong ultranationalist (or hyper-nationalist) currents that advocate for extreme interpretations of Croatian hegemony, which has at times led to ethnic tension and political violence.[1][8] Many national symbols and cultural exports define Croatian nationalism, including it's national flag, anthem, soccer team, tourism sector, and cuisine, among others.

History

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Austria-Hungary

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Ante Starčević (1850), a Father of the Nation, is considered to be father of Croatian nationalism

Modern Croatian nationalism first arose in the 19th century after Budapest exerted increasing pressure for Magyarization of Croats; the movement started to grow especially after the April Laws of 1848 which ignored Croatian autonomy within the Hungarian Kingdom.[9][10][dead link] Croatian nationalism was based on two main ideas: a historical right to statehood based on a continuity with the medieval Croatian state and an identity associated with other Slavs – especially Southern Slavs.[11] A Croatian revival started with the Illyrian movement (c. 1835 onward), which founded the Matica hrvatska organisation in 1842 and promoted "Illyrian" language.[9] Illyrianism spawned two political movements: the Party of Rights (founded in 1861 and named after the concept of the Croatian state right (pravaštvo); led by Ante Starčević), and Yugoslavism (the term means "South-Slav-ism") under Josip Juraj Strossmayer (1815–1905). Both Starčević and Strossmayer were largely limited in their influence to the Croatian intelligentsia.[12]

A statue of Ban Josip Jelačić (1801–1859) in capital city Zagreb, a symbol of historic Croatian military endeavor.

In the 19th century, opposition by Croats to Magyarization and desire for independence from Austria-Hungary led to the rise of Croatian nationalism.[9] The Illyrian movement sought to awaken Croatian national consciousness and a standardize regional literary traditions which existed in a various dialects on a single standard language.[13] Once the Croatian lands were culturally unified, the movement aimed at unifying the rest of the South Slavs under the resurrected Illyrian name.[13] Illyrianists during the Revolutions of 1848 sought to achieve political autonomy of Croatia within a federalized Habsburg monarchy.[14] Ante Starčević founded the Party of Rights in Croatia in 1861 that argued that legally, Croatia's right of statehood had never been abrogated by the Habsburg monarchy and thus Croatia was legally entitled to be an independent state.[14] Starčević regarded Croatia to include not only present-day Croatia but also what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia (Duchy of Carinthia, Carniola, Styria) and parts of what is today Serbia (Sanjak of Novi Pazar, Syrmia)—all people in this Greater Croatia whether Catholic, Muslim, or Orthodox were defined as Croats.[14]

During the 19th to mid-20th century Croatian nationalists competed with the increasingly Pan-Slavic Illyrian movement and Yugoslavists over the identity of Croats.[14] The founder of Yugoslavism, Croatian Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer advocated the unification of Croat lands into a Yugoslav monarchical federal state alongside other Yugoslavs.[14] In spite of both Starčević's and Strossmayer's competing visions of identity, neither of their views had much influence beyond Croatia's intelligentsia.[14]

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

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Croatian nationalism became a mass movement under the leadership of Stjepan Radić, leader of the Croatian People's Peasant Party after 1918 upon the creation of Yugoslavia.[14] Radić opposed Yugoslav unification, as he feared the loss of Croats' national rights in a highly centralized stated dominated by the numerically larger Serbs.[14] The assassination of Radić in 1928 provoked and angered Croatian nationalists with the centralized Yugoslav state, and from 1928 to 1939, Croatian nationalism was defined as pursuing either some form of autonomy or independence from Belgrade.[14] In 1939, a compromise between the Yugoslav government and the autonomist Croatian Peasant Party led by Vladko Maček was made with the creation of an autonomous Croatia within Yugoslavia known called the Banovina of Croatia.[14] After the foundation of Yugoslavia in 1918, a highly centralized state was established under the St. Vitus Day Constitution of 1921 in accordance with Serbian nationalist desires to ensure the unity of the Serbs; this caused resentment amongst Croats and other peoples in Yugoslavia. Dalmatian Croat and the principal World War I-era Yugoslavist leader Ante Trumbić denounced the St. Vitus Day Constitution for establishing a Serb hegemony in Yugoslavia – contrary to the interests of Croats and other peoples in Yugoslavia.[15] Croatian nationalists opposed the centralized state, with moderate nationalists demanding an autonomous Croatia within Yugoslavia.[14] Croatian nationalism became a mass movement in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia through Stjepan Radić's Croatian Peasant Party.[14] The demand by moderate Croatian nationalists for an autonomous Croatia – the Banovina of Croatia – within Yugoslavia was accepted by the Yugoslav government in the Cvetković–Maček Agreement of August 1939.[14] This agreement angered Serbian nationalists, who opposed it on the grounds that it weakened the unity of Serbdom in Yugoslavia; they asserted the importance of Serbian unity to Yugoslavia with the slogan "Strong Serbdom, Strong Yugoslavia".[16] The agreement also angered Bosniaks (then known as "Yugoslav Muslims"), including the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO), that denounced the agreement's partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[17]

An ultranationalist personification of the Independent State of Croatia on 1942 propaganda.

Independent State of Croatia

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Croatian nationalism reached a critical point in its development during World War II, when the Croatian extreme nationalist and fascist Ustaše movement took to governing the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis Powers and the creation of the NDH at the behest of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany as an Italo-German client state.[14] The Ustaše committed mass genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma, and persecuted political opponents, including the communist Yugoslav Partisans and Chetniks who fought against them.[14] A violent sectarian Croatian nationalism developed prior to World War II within Ante Pavelić's Ustaše movement (founded in 1929), which collaborated with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in its government.[14]

Communist Yugoslavia

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A headline in 1971 detailing the Croatian Spring, a period of renewed Croatian nationalism.

After the defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945 and the rise of communist Josip Broz Tito as leader of a new communist-led Yugoslavia, Croatian nationalism along with other nationalisms were suppressed by state authorities.[14] Under post-war communist rule in Yugoslavia, dominated by the part-Croat Tito (in power from 1944–1980), Croatian nationalism became largely dormant, except for the Croatian Spring of 1967 to 1971, until the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991–1992 and the Croatian War of Independence of 1991 to 1995.[14] During the communist era, some Croatian communists were labeled as Croatian nationalists, respectively Ivan Krajačić and Andrija Hebrang. Hebrang also advocated change of Croatian borders, since, according to him, Croatian boundaries were clipped by Milovan Đilas' commission. He argued against unfair exchange rates imposed on Croatia after 1945 and condemning show trials against people labeled as collaborationists. Hebrang wasn't a serious threat to Serbian interests, since he was demoted several times and in 1948 he was put under house arrest, and later killed.[18] Advocacy in favour of Yugoslavism as a means to achieve the unification of Croatian lands in opposition to their division under Austria-Hungary began with Strossmayer advocating this as being achievable within a federalized Yugoslav monarchy.[14][failed verification]

The Croatian language was a key part of 20th century nationalism, pictured here next to the Italian language in Croatia, 2011

Croatian nationalism remained dormant until the late-1960s to early-1970s with the outbreak of the Croatian Spring movement calling for a decentralized Yugoslavia and greater autonomy for Croatia and the other republics from federal government control.[14] These demands were effectively implemented by Tito's regime.[14] Croatian communists started to indicate on Serbian dominance in commanding party posts, posts in the army, police and secret police.[19] Their main contention was the perceived subordinate status of standard Croatian, at that time regarded as a Western variety of Serbo-Croatian.[19] In 1967 Croatian Writers' Association called for designation of Croatian as a distinct language both for educational and publishing purposes.[19] Because of such demands Tito gave an order to purge reformers in 1971 and 1972.[19] Some 1,600 Croatian communists were ejected from the Communist Party or arrested.[19]

Such measures stopped the rise of nationalism in Yugoslavia, but Croatian nationalism continued to grow among Croat diaspora in South America, Australia, North America and Europe.[19] Croatian political emigration was well-financed and often closely co-ordinated.[19] Those groups were anti-communist since they originate from political emigrants who left Yugoslavia back in 1945.[19] Croatian nationalism revived in both radical, independentist, and extremist forms in the late 1980s in response to the perceived threat of the Serbian nationalist agenda of Slobodan Milošević who sought a strongly centralized Yugoslavia.[14] Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 leading to the Croatian War of Independence from 1991 to 1995.[14]

Modern Croatia

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The flag of Croatia has increased nationalism in modern Croatia, particularly among football supporters, 2018

Beginning in the 1980s, the Croatian nationalist movement was led by former communist general and historian Franjo Tuđman.[19] Tuđman was, at first, a prominent communist, but in the 1960s he began to embrace nationalism.[20] He soon earned the favor of the Croatian diaspora, helping him to raise millions of dollars toward the goal of establishing an independent Croatia.[20] Tuđman gathered MASPOK intellectuals and sympathisers from among diaspora Croats and founded the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989.[20] In 1990, Tuđman's HDZ won the first democratic elections in the Socialist Republic of Croatia. In 1991, war erupted in Croatia and the following year, the Bosnian War broke out. The Croatian ruling elite helped the Bosnian HDZ to rise to power within Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first leaders of the Bosnian HDZ opposed Tuđman's idea of division of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croatia and Serbia; in response, Mate Boban was installed as leader of the HDZ. He founded the Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia with the goal to merge it with Croatia at the end of the war.[21] Boban's project was discontinued in 1994 with the creation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[21]

Since the late-2010s, ultranationalist currents within Croatian politics have remained stable with after initial efforts to moderate nationalism during Croatia's accession to the European Union in 2013.[22] Resurgent nationalism since 2020 has induced more coalition governing in Croatia, often between moderate and ultranationalist political parties.[23]

Political parties

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Current

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Historical

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Personalities

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g Bellamy, Alex (2003). The formation of Croatian national identity: A centuries-old dream?. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719065026.
  2. ^ Magas, Branka; Zanic, Ivo (2013-09-05). The War in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina 1991-1995. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-34099-4.
  3. ^ Žanić, Ivo (2007). Flag on the Mountain: A Political Anthropology of War in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, 1990-1995. Saqi. ISBN 978-0-86356-815-2.
  4. ^ Motyl, Alexander J., ed. (2000-10-27). "Croatian nationalism". Encyclopedia of Nationalism. Elsevier. p. 105. ISBN 9780080545240. Retrieved 3 October 2022. Both Starčević and Strossmayer had an important role in shaping Croatian identity, but their influence was limited largely to Croatia's intelligentsia.
  5. ^ Blamires 2006, p. 155.
  6. ^ Baker, Catherine (2010). Sounds of the Borderland: Popular Music, War and Nationalism in Croatia Since 1991. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 978-1-4094-0337-1.
  7. ^ Ramet, Sabrina P. (2007). Democratic Transition in Croatia: Value Transformation, Education, and Media. Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-1-60344-452-1.
  8. ^ Batovic, Ante (2017-06-30). The Croatian Spring: Nationalism, Repression and Foreign Policy Under Tito. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78673-184-5.
  9. ^ a b c Motyl 2001, p. 104.
  10. ^ "Nationalism in Hungary, 1848-1867".
  11. ^ Motyl, Alexander J., ed. (2000-10-27). "Croatian nationalism". Encyclopedia of Nationalism. Elsevier. p. 104. ISBN 9780080545240. Retrieved 3 October 2022. Two factors have been of immense importance in shaping modern Croatian national identity and nationalism. The first is the concept of historical state right, the belief that the medieval Croatian state never completely lost its independence. The second is various forms of identity associated with other Slavs, especially the Southern Slavs.
  12. ^ Motyl, Alexander J., ed. (2000-10-27). "Croatian nationalism". Encyclopedia of Nationalism. Elsevier. p. 105. ISBN 9780080545240. Retrieved 3 October 2022. Both Starčević and Strossmayer had an important role in shaping Croatian identity, but their influence was limited largely to Croatia's intelligentsia.
  13. ^ a b "hrvatski narodni preporod", Croatian Encyclopedia (in Croatian), Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, 1999–2009
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Motyl 2001, p. 105.
  15. ^ Spencer Tucker. Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara, California, USA: ABC-CLIO, 2005. Pp. 1189.
  16. ^ Motyl 2001, p. 471.
  17. ^ Motyl 2001, p. 57.
  18. ^ MacDonald 2002, p. 191.
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i MacDonald 2002, p. 99.
  20. ^ a b c MacDonald 2002, p. 100.
  21. ^ a b Nizich 1992, p. 29.
  22. ^ Delauney, Guy (8 September 2016). "Croatia vote overshadowed by nationalist rhetoric". BBC News. Retrieved 5 July 2025.
  23. ^ Hopkins, Valerie (3 June 2020). "Croatia's nationalist revival points to role for far-right". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 July 2025.

Further reading

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