Croatia (Croatian Hrvatska), republic in southeastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Formerly a constituent republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia declared its independence in June 1991. Civil war broke out in July and for four years ethnic Serbs, backed by the federal Yugoslav People�s Army, battled with ethnic Croats for territory. By January 1998, when all areas had reverted to Croatian control, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs had fled the country while corresponding numbers of ethnic Croats had immigrated from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Croatia is bounded on the north by Slovenia and Hungary, on the east and south by Bosnia and Herzegovina (often referred to simply as Bosnia), and on the east by Serbia, a constituent republic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). In the south, a 20km (12mi) wide section of Bosnia extends to the sea, separating a narrow coastal strip of Croatia from the rest of the country. The southern tip of this coastal strip has a short border with Montenegro, the other constituent republic of the FRY. The Adriatic Sea forms Croatia�s long western boundary. Zagreb is the capital and largest city of Croatia.

The total area of Croatia is 56,510 sq km (21,819 sq mi). The country�s diverse terrain includes flat plains, low mountains, offshore islands, and a coastline, excluding the islands, that extends 1,778 km (1,105 mi). Eastern Croatia, including the historic area of Slavonia, is part of the Pannonian Plain, a low-lying, fertile, agricultural region. In the west, Dalmatia is a narrow, barren strip of land within the Dinaric Alps that slopes down to the Adriatic Sea. The Karst, a barren limestone plateau, dominates the Croatian landscape in some areas; the island of Pag consists almost entirely of karst terrain. The Dinaric Alps consist of several parallel mountain ranges. The highest peak, on the border with Bosnia, is Mount Troglav at 1,913 m (6,276 ft). The coastal range is partially submerged, creating numerous bays, gulfs, inlets, and more than 1,000 offshore islands. The historic area of Istria, a peninsula that stretches out into the Adriatic from Slovenia, lies to the north and west of Dalmatia.

Croatia�s chief rivers are the Sava, Drava, Danube, and Kupa. Both the Drava and the Sava drain the Pannonian Plain and flow into the Danube, one of the most important waterways in Europe. The Danube forms part of the border between Croatia and Yugoslavia. The Kupa, smaller than the other three rivers, flows east along the Slovenian border into central Croatia, where it joins the Sava.

A continental climate of hot summers and cold winters predominates throughout the republic. Towns along the southern coast enjoy a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and warm, dry summers. The northern coastal area is characterized by a so-called Adriatic climate, which differs from the Mediterranean chiefly by the prevalence in winter of drier weather, often borne by a cold northeast wind known as the bura. The average temperature at Zagreb, an inland city, is 0�C (32�F) in January and 24�C (75�F) in July, while in Dubrovnik, on the coast, the average is 9�C (48�F) in January and 25�C (77�F) in July.

Like the climate, the country�s vegetation is highly varied, from grape vines and olive trees in Dalmatia to oak forests in Slavonia. Animal life is diverse, ranging from snails and lizards near the coast to wolves and bears in the continental forests. Hare, foxes, lynx, weasels, otters, deer, marten, boars, wildcats, and mouflon (wild sheep) also inhabit Croatia. The Adriatic basin is rich in sea life.

Petroleum, coal, bauxite, low-grade iron ore, and china clay are the most abundant natural resources found in Croatia. Croatia also has deposits of calcium, natural asphalt, silica, mica, and salt.

Industrial pollution is the major cause of environmental problems in Croatia, as it is in the rest of eastern Europe. Air pollution is severe, and water pollution in the rivers is so serious that the water must be treated even for industrial use. There is coastal pollution due to industrial waste as well.

Croatia�s Sava River Valley contains three bird sanctuaries, two of which are part of the Lonjsko Polje Nature Park. The floodplain of the Sava River is extensive, resulting in wetlands that provide a habitat for numerous plant and animal species. These wetlands are at risk as a result of encroaching agriculture, drainage and land reclamation, and water pollution.

Croatia protects 6.7 percent (1997) of its total land area in parks and other reserves�a higher percentage than any of the country�s eastern European neighbors, yet much lower than many western European countries. Forests make up 32.6 percent (1995) of the country�s land area. Industrial air pollution from the cities causes acid rain that is damaging to the forests.

Croatia is party to treaties concerning air pollution, biodiversity, climate change, hazardous wastes, marine dumping, and wetlands.

The total population of Croatia at the time of the 1991 census was 4,784,265; a 2001 estimate was 4,334,142. During and after the war ethnic Serbs fled Croatia while ethnic Croats moved in. Although Croatia�s natural population growth rate, which measures births and deaths, was negative in 1998, the actual population grew by 1.48 percent due to immigration. Life expectancy at birth was 74 years in 2001.

The population density in 2001 was 77 persons per sq km (199 per sq mi). In 1999, 57 percent of the population was urban. Most of the urban population is concentrated in four cities: Zagreb, the country�s capital and primary industrial center; Split, a seaport; Rijeka, also a seaport; and the agricultural and industrial center of Osijek.

The population of Croatia is overwhelmingly ethnic Croat. Ethnic Serbs comprise the most significant minority group. There also are small populations of Muslims, Hungarians, Slovenes, and others. The primary difference between Croats and Serbs is religion: by tradition, Croats are Roman Catholic while Serbs are Orthodox Christians. In Croatia, all ethnic groups speak Croatian regional dialects of Serbo-Croatian. Since the collapse of the former Yugoslavia in 1991, the Croatian government has sought to differentiate a separate Croatian language (officially Croato-Serb or simply Croatian) from Serbian or Bosnian variants of Serbo-Croatian spoken in the FRY and Bosnia. Croatia has insisted on the exclusive use of the Latin alphabet, rejecting the Cyrillic alphabet used in the FRY and parts of Bosnia.

During and after the civil war there was heavy pressure on ethnic Serbs to leave Croatia or to hide their ethnic and religious identities, especially in smaller towns. At the time of the 1991 census, which reflected the prewar population, ethnic Croats constituted 78 percent of the Croatian population, while ethnic Serbs made up 12 percent. By 1996 ethnic Serbs constituted less than 4 percent. The Dalmatian agricultural regions of Lika and Kordun, which had been populated mainly by ethnic Serbs, had become almost deserted. Most of the population fled to the FRY and other countries during and after successful Croatian military offensives in 1995, and since then the Croatian government has permitted few ethnic Serbs to return. When the last regions under Serb control, eastern Slavonia and Baranja, were restored to Croatian government control in early 1998, many of the Serb residents there also fled. Meanwhile, from 1991 to 1998 several hundred thousand ethnic Croats migrated to Croatia from Serbia and from Serb- or Muslim-controlled parts of Bosnia. The overall effect of the population movements during the Yugoslav wars was to make the population of Croatia more than 90 percent ethnic Croat.

While the Communist government of the former Yugoslavia had repressed religion, the nationalist governments elected since the fall of Communism have promoted it. In Croatia, the Roman Catholic Church enjoys strong state support. Other religions are freely practiced, including Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Since religion is linked to ethnic identity, however, the non-Catholic portion of the population remains small relative to the number of Catholics.

Preschool, elementary, and secondary education is free to all citizens, and compulsory from ages 7 to 15. The literacy rate was 99.8 percent in 2001, slightly higher for males (99.8 percent) than for females (99.8 percent). Croatia has four universities (one each in Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, and Osijek) as well as a number of polytechnic institutes.

Extremes of poverty and wealth are greater than existed under the Communist regime of the former Yugoslavia. Although few people are in danger of starving, there are more poor people in Croatia than there had been when it was part of the Communist Yugoslav state. The nuclear family, a household consisting of two adults and their children, is standard in Croatia. Croatian women enjoy a more equal status with men in comparison to women in some other Yugoslav republics. Inner-city housing consists of old stone buildings in the Central European style, while small, family-unit housing and high-rise apartment buildings predominate in the city outskirts. Traditional rural housing includes one- or two-story wooden houses, small cabins, and whitewashed stone houses. Since World War II (1939-1945) most rural houses have been built with concrete. Croatian cuisine reflects Austrian and Hungarian influences, but has its own character. Local specialties include fried cheese, chicken á la Backa (prepared with tomatoes, paprika, and onions), Zagreb veal cutlet, and gibanica, a layered cheese pastry.

While the population is increasingly homogenous ethnically, regional identities remain important, especially in the coastal Dalmatian region. Croatian folk songs display regional variations. Along the Dalmatian coast, for example, folk songs closely resemble their Italian counterparts. Elsewhere indigenous Slavic or Hungarian influences predominate. The traditional dances of Croatia include the fast-paced kolo (circle) dance. Many in Croatia enjoy jazz festivals and classical music. Sports are popular and Croatian soccer and basketball teams rank highly internationally.

The People of Croatia section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.

The regions that comprise Croatia were not unified historically, so the country�s arts show a mix of foreign and native influences. The Dalmatian coast was long connected with Italy, and architectural marvels from Roman times can still be found in Dalmatia. Split, for example, contains the remains of the Roman emperor Diocletian�s palace, while the ruins of a Roman amphitheater lie in Pula. Medieval walls and fortifications distinguish the city of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia, which was an independent city-state until the early 19th century. Continental Croatia, as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, had its own regional identity but much of its art and literature followed the empire�s styles. Croatian folk music remained linked to its locale, with styles differing greatly between Dalmatia and other regions.

Influenced by the Italian Renaissance, Croatian literature blossomed in Dubrovnik in the 16th and 17th centuries, with poems by Ivan Gundulić and Marko Marulić, and plays by Marin Držić. By the 19th century Croatian literature, like that of most other central European peoples, was dominated by themes of national liberation. Some of these took the form of promoting the Yugoslav idea, that of a common state for the South Slavic peoples, originally a Croatian idea. Other writers stressed the need for a sovereign, independent Croatian state. The tension between these two nationalist ideas continued from the second half of the 19th century until 1991, when the Yugoslav idea lost completely with the establishment of independent Croatia.

Prior to 1991 Miroslav Krleža was generally regarded as the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. However, Krleža was closely associated with Yugoslavism, and after Yugoslavia broke apart his works lost popularity in Croatia. Since 1991, Dubravka Ugrešić and Slavenka Drakulić have established themselves as major writers, but they have been criticized by the regime for being antinational and have spent most of their time outside of Croatia.

The sculptor Ivan Meštrović developed a worldwide reputation, and in the early 1900s promoted the establishment of a Yugoslav state. He emigrated from Croatia to the United States after World War II (1939-1945). Museums dedicated to his work are in Split and Zagreb.

The Culture section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.

Before the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991 Croatia was the federation�s second most prosperous and industrialized republic after Slovenia, with a per capita output approximately one-third above the Yugoslav average. Although Croatia was part of a Communist, one-party system from the mid-1940s until 1990, Yugoslav socialism was decentralized. Enterprises, although under state control, were generally free to make their own pricing and investment decisions (subject to some political interference), and were allowed to compete with one another.

Before the war in 1991 nearly two-thirds of the republic�s land was cultivated, and sugar beets, wheat, oats, rye, barley and corn (maize) were the principal agricultural products. Mining, notably of bauxite and brown coal, played some role in Croatia�s socialist economy. Other industries included food processing, petroleum refining, iron and steel production, shipbuilding, and the manufacture of chemicals, machinery, cement and concrete, metals, and textiles. Croatia also had a thriving tourist industry along the Dalmatian coast.

With the outbreak of war in 1991 Croatia�s economy went into steep decline. The country�s gross domestic product (GDP) began a downward spiral, falling from $12.4 billion in 1991 to $9.9 billion in 1992. Inflation levels increased from around 120 percent in 1991 to nearly 1,500 percent in 1993. However, a stabilization plan introduced in October 1993 brought inflation down rapidly, and by 1995 the inflation rate had been cut to less than 4 percent. In 1997 it registered again at 4 percent. Unemployment continued to climb throughout the war, reaching about 17 percent in 1993. In the late 1990s a shortage of jobs, especially for young people, was one of Croatia�s most critical economic problems, with the unemployment rate recorded at 17 percent in mid-1998. The country�s infrastructure was badly damaged during the war, and the task of rebuilding it was still incomplete by the late 1990s.

In 1993 Croatia began its slow economic recovery. In January the country was admitted to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and in April it became a member of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank). Croatia�s involvement in the Bosnian war (1992-1995) strained its relationship with the World Bank, but the relationship has since improved. By the end of 1993 the government had transferred a substantial proportion of firms to private hands. In the following years progress on privatization was fitful, but by the late 1990s only major banks and utilities remained under state control. Industrial production was again growing rapidly, increasing by 7 percent in 1997. The Dalmatian tourist industry had also largely recovered by 1997. The total GDP measured $20.4 billion in 1999.

Croatia�s labor force numbered 2.1 million in 1999, with some 53 percent of the working population employed in services, 30 percent in industry, and 17 percent in agriculture. In 1999, 32 percent of the GDP was generated by industry and 9 percent by agriculture. The country�s principal industrial products include chemicals, processed metals, wood products, building materials, textiles, ships, and food products. The recovery of the shipbuilding industry is one of the spectacular successes of Croatia�s economic transition, with output growing by more than 20 percent in the first half of 1998, making the country one of Europe�s leading ship producers. Agricultural recovery has been less impressive, with output in 1997 still only 61 percent of the average annual level for the period 1989 to 1991.

While Croatia has some oil and gas deposits, the country is heavily dependent on imported fuels for energy. Croatia has 11 hydroelectric installations and 8 thermal power plants. Electricity production is currently growing more slowly than the GDP, reflecting welcome increases in the efficiency with which energy is used.

Croatia has 23,634 km (14,686 mi) of hard-surfaced public roads and 2,726 km (1,694 mi) of railroad track. An ambitious program of highway construction is under way. The railroad system is inefficient and unprofitable, although the government is planning improvements with the help of the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Croatia�s trade deficit increased from $760 million in 1993 to $2.95 billion in 1995, and to $4.78 billion in 1997. Major trading partners include Germany, Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Exports include foodstuffs, chemicals, and complex machinery such as ships. Consumer goods, equipment, fuel, and food dominate imports.

The Croatian currency is the kuna (7.11 kuna equal U.S.$1; 1999 average). Since its introduction in 1994, the kuna has remained relatively stable against the dollar. Croatia�s central bank and the bank of issue is the National Bank of Croatia. With the help of the IMF, the National Bank has pursued a policy of tightening supervision over commercial banks. By the late 1990s the Croatian banking sector remained weak, and the collapse in April 1998 of Croatia�s fifth largest bank reflected the depth of structural problems in the sector.

The Economy section of this article was contributed by David Dyker.

Croatia�s first non-Communist constitution was proclaimed in December 1990 when the republic was part of the former Yugoslavia. The constitution was amended in December 1997. According to the constitution Croatia is a democracy, with a directly elected bicameral legislature and president. When the nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (CDU) won the first democratic elections in Croatia in 1990, the party transformed Croatia into an ethnocracy, in which sovereignty belongs to ethnic Croats. While the 1990 elections were free and fair, the CDU maintained power in subsequent elections by rigorous governmental control over mass media. Opposition parties have struggled for exposure as a result. Croatia�s voting age is 16 for those who are employed; otherwise it is 18. Croatian law permits ethnic Croats who live outside of Croatia to vote in Croatian elections, even if they have never lived in Croatia and are citizens of other countries.

The president of the republic is the head of state, and also exercises substantial governmental functions. He or she appoints and dismisses the government, composed of a council of ministers and a prime minister, and is also commander in chief of the armed forces. The president is elected by direct popular vote for a five-year term, and no person may serve more than two terms as president.

The Croatian State Assembly, or Sabor, consists of a Chamber of Representatives, which adopts all laws, and a Chamber of Counties, which can only propose or request reconsideration of laws. The Chamber of Representatives is composed of 127 directly elected members, and there are provisions for adding additional members if those directly elected do not include representatives of minority communities. The Chamber of Counties has 68 members, 3 from each of the country�s 21 counties elected by direct popular vote, and 5 nominated by the president. Members of both chambers serve four-year terms.

Croatia has a system of trial and appeals courts, headed by the Supreme Court of Croatia. Judges are appointed by a High Judiciary Council, elected by the Chamber of Representatives after nomination by the Chamber of Counties. Once appointed, a judge serves for life unless he or she resigns or is removed from office by the High Judiciary Council. Constitutional issues are decided by a separate Constitutional Court, composed of 11 judges elected for eight-year terms by the Chamber of Representatives after nomination by the Chamber of Counties.

Local governmental functions are exercised at the levels of counties, towns, municipalities, and districts. There are elected legislative and executive bodies at each of these levels.

The CDU, a party of the political center-right to far right, dominated Croatia from the first free elections in 1990 to the parliamentary elections in January 2000. Until 2000, when a center-left coalition formed by the Croatian Social Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party roundly defeated the CDU, many parties were small and disunited in their opposition to the CDU. The Croatian Party of Rights is on the extreme right. More centrist to leftist parties include the Croatian Social Liberal Party, the Croatian Peasants� Party, the Croatian People�s Party, and the Social Democratic Party. The Istrian Democratic Assembly is an important regional party. Serbs in Croatia have several political parties of their own.

Public health and medical services are subsidized by the government and are of high quality. Excellent private medical services are also available. Croatia also has a state-operated pension system. In 1998, 14.1 percent of total government expenditures were on health.

In 1995, 21 percent of total government expenditures, and 10 percent of the GDP, went to defense. By 1996, following the end of the wars, military expenditures had dropped to 7 percent of the GDP. In 1999 the Croatian armed forces numbered 61,000 on active duty, including 53,000 in the army, 3,000 in the navy, and 5,000 in the air force. Reserve forces numbered 220,000. There were also 40,000 armed military police in Croatia. Ten months of military service is compulsory for 19-year-old men.

Croatia was admitted to the United Nations(UN) and to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1992. In 1996 Croatia became a member of the Council of Europe.

The Government section of this article was contributed by Robert M. Hayden.

The earliest known inhabitants of what is now Croatia were Illyrians, who were conquered by the Romans by ad 10. Their land, Illyricum, became the Roman provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia. As Roman power declined, repeated invasions and widespread destruction by mostly Germanic tribes culminated in the 6th ^�century in conquest by the Avars, a nomadic people of Mongolian and Turkic origin. Slavic tribes, who probably came with the Avars or were simply swept along from their original homeland (most likely the area of present-day Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus), settled over most of central and southeastern Europe. In Pannonia and Dalmatia they came to be called Croats (Hrvati), a name of disputed origin.

At the end of the 8th century the armies of Frankish emperor Charlemagne destroyed the Avars. Croat and other Slavic tribal federations then established a number of small states between the Roman Catholic Frankish Empire on the west and the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Empire on the east. Most of the Slavic states frequently were dominated by one or the other empire. Those that were closer to the Frankish Empire, such as the Croats, became Roman Catholics; those closer to the Byzantine Empire became Eastern Orthodox Christians. The religious difference has been a major part of confrontations between Croats and Serbs ever since. By the reign of King Tomislav (910-929?), Croatia had become an independent kingdom and had expanded in area to include both Pannonia and Dalmatia, and sometimes Bosnia.

A disputed succession to the throne following the reigns of Kresimir IV (1058-1074) and Zvonimir (1075-1089) led to a Hungarian invasion. The two kingdoms united under the Hungarian king, either by the choice of the Croat nobility or by Hungarian force, in 1102. From then until 1918 kings of Hungary were also kings of Croatia, represented by a governor (ban), but Croatia kept its own parliament (Sabor) and considerable autonomy. After 1420 the city-state of Venice controlled all of the Dalmatian region. In 1526 King Louis II of Hungary was killed and his army destroyed by Ottoman forces in the Battle of Mohács, bringing more than 150 years of Ottoman rule to most of Hungary and Croatia. By 1699 the Austrian Habsburgs, who inherited King Louis�s crowns in 1526, had expelled the Ottomans from Hungary and Croatia.

Croatia remained divided. Dalmatia and Istria stayed under Venetian rule until French emperor Napoleon I abolished the Venetian Republic in 1797. Then when Dalmatia and Istria were joined to the Habsburg Empire in 1815 they became Austrian rather than Hungarian provinces, so remained separated from the rest of the Croatian lands. Croatia and Slavonia were formally part of Hungary, although a large portion of their territory remained under direct Austrian rule until the late 19th century as part of the Habsburg Military Frontier (Vojna krajina). Many Orthodox Serbs and Vlachs settled there, at Habsburg invitation, as privileged soldier-farmers. Serbs became the majority population in much of the Krajina area.

Ban Josip Jelačić and his Croatian army helped the Austrians put down the Hungarian revolution of 1848. Croat leaders hoped that the Habsburgs would reward their help by separating a unified Croatia from Hungary. However, the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867, which created the nation of Austria-Hungary (also called the dual monarchy), again assigned Croatia and Slavonia to Hungary and Dalmatia to Austria. Unification and greater autonomy became the primary demands of most Croatian political parties in the last years before World War I (1914-1918).

In the 19th century a number of Croats, Slovenes, and Serbs became advocates of the Yugoslav idea that these closely related peoples should have their own united country, either within the empire, like Hungary, or united with Serbia in an independent state. During World War I the second version of this idea gained more supporters, including the Serbian government and key public figures in Britain and the United States, two of the most powerful nations among the victorious Allies. In 1918, as the defeated Austro-Hungarian empire disintegrated, the independent Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was created, and it included Croatia.

The new state was ruled by the Serbian Karadjordjević dynasty. Most Croat leaders wanted it to be a federal state with full equality for Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes. Instead, the new kingdom became a centralized state run by a largely Serbian government, army, and bureaucracy.

In 1928 a Montenegrin deputy in parliament fatally shot the principal Croatian leader, Stjepan Radić. King Aleksandar I proclaimed a royal dictatorship and renamed the country Yugoslavia (�Land of the South Slavs�) in January 1929. Croatian and Macedonian nationalist extremists murdered Aleksandar in 1934. On the eve of World War II (1939-1945) an agreement between the royal government and Radić�s successor created an autonomous province (Banovina) of Croatia that included parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

World War II came to Yugoslavia with a massive invasion by German-led Axis forces in April 1941. Weak and deeply divided, Yugoslavia was quickly occupied and dismembered. The largest piece formed the so-called Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska; or NDH), including Bosnia and Herzegovina but not parts of Dalmatia annexed by Italy until Italy surrendered in 1943. The NDH was a puppet state under German and Italian control. It was ruled by the Ustaše, Fascist Croats who had organized King Aleksandar�s assassination, and whose wartime attempt to exterminate the NDH�s nearly 2 million Serbs was modeled after Adolf Hitler�s Holocaust.

At first, most Croats welcomed their new independent state, but convincing evidence indicates that most of them, appalled by Ustaše brutality, soon rejected the Ustaše regime. Inspired by patriotic or pro-Communist sentiments or fleeing from Ustaše terror and massacres, growing numbers of both Croats and Serbs joined the Partisans, a Yugoslav-wide resistance movement. The Partisans were organized and headed by Josip Broz Tito, the Croat head of the Yugoslav Communist Party.

By May 1945, the Axis powers were defeated and the Partisans had won a parallel civil war against the Ustaše, other Axis collaborators, and a rival resistance movement, the Serb Royalist Četniks. The Partisans also recreated Yugoslavia, led by Tito and under firm Communist rule, as a federal state of six republics, including Croatia. The republics were to serve as semi-autonomous �homelands.� Croatia was enlarged by the addition of Rijeka (Fiume), most of Istria, and three islands, all territories which had been under Italian rule between the world wars. Twenty percent of Yugoslavia�s Croats lived outside Croatia, most of them in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia. Croatia itself was multiethnic, with Serbs representing 15 percent of its population.

For the next 45 years Croatia was part of Tito�s Yugoslavia. First a faithful copy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Yugoslavia changed after Tito�s break with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1948. There was a gradual process of decentralization (in which greater power devolved to the republics, including Croatia, and their own Communist leaderships), easing of repression, and abandonment of collectivization. The government introduced economic experiments such as �market socialism� and �workers� self-management.� Leaders of Croatia�s branch of the Yugoslav Communist Party, renamed the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (LCY) in 1952, played prominent roles in this process of liberalization from 1965 to 1971. Freer expression of sentiments and interests, which previously had been suppressed as nationalist actions and a revival of prewar conflicts between the Yugoslav republics, were byproducts of these developments.

A new generation of Croatian Communist leaders centered around Miko Tripalo and Savka Dabčević-Kučar, initially supported by their mentor and veteran Croat leader, Vladimir Bakarić, pressed for even more liberalization and republican autonomy. They argued that richer republics like Croatia and Slovenia were being exploited for the benefit of poorer republics and held back by the remaining federal controls and taxes. A rising tide of nationalist sentiment produced a Croatian Mass Movement (masovni pokret, abbreviated as Maspok), with non- and anti-Communists competing for its control and demanding a separate army, banking system, and UN membership. In 1971 Tito moved to depose Tripalo and Dabčević-Kučar and suppress the Maspok. Party purges and numerous arrests and dismissals followed. The ensuing freeze on open dissent and liberalization lasted more than 15 years.

The death in 1980 of Tito, the ultimate and authoritative arbiter in disputes between increasingly autonomous republics, coincided with the onset of an economic crisis that by 1985 had lowered production and living standards to 1965 levels. Tito�s successors, leaders of republics with conflicting national aspirations and economic interests, could not agree on effective remedies. Acceptance of �Tito�s Yugoslavia� declined everywhere, especially in Slovenia and Croatia. An aggressive campaign to reassert Serb and the Communist party�s hegemony over a recentralized Yugoslavia was initiated in 1988 by Slobodan Milošević, president of the Serbian League of Communists and then of Serbia, but only accelerated Croat and other non-Serb opposition to the Yugoslav federation. After the collapse of Communism in the rest of Eastern Europe in 1989 the LCY disintegrated in January 1990. In multiparty elections later that year, parties with nationalist programs were victorious in each republic.

In Croatia the elections of 1990 produced a parliamentary majority for the Croatian Democratic Union (CDU; Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica or HDZ in Croatian), an anti-Communist nationalist party. Franjo Tudjman, its founder and leader, formerly a Partisan and Communist general imprisoned for nationalist activities twice after 1971, was duly elected president of Croatia. His and the CDU�s accession to power and flamboyant use of Croatian national (including Ustaše) symbols and ceremonies aroused great enthusiasm among most Croats. At the same time, Croatian Serbs, especially in the region of Krajina, where Ustaše genocide was still a living memory, feared an independent Croatia would be a new NDH. Krajina Serbs declared their secession from Croatia and union with Serbia in February 1991.

After frantic negotiations among post-Communist republic leaders failed to find a new formula to preserve some kind of Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia seceded on June 25, 1991. (The European Community (EC, now the European Union) recognized Croatia in January 1992, followed by the United States and other countries that spring.) From July to December 1991 a vicious civil war and �ethnic cleansing� (massacres and expulsion) of Croats from Krajina took place, with the Yugoslav army supporting the Krajina Serbs. By the time United Nations (UN) envoy Cyrus Vance negotiated a lasting cease-fire in December 1991, nearly one-third of Croatia was under Serb control. Under the terms of the cease-fire, Krajina was incorporated into four UN Protected Areas (UNPAs), where 14,000 UN troops kept the two sides apart. This situation endured until Croatian forces reoccupied three of the UNPAs in lightning offensives in May and August 1995, sending most Croatian Serbs fleeing to Bosnia and Serbia. Only eastern Slavonia and Baranja remained under Serb control.

Meanwhile, Croatia was also deeply involved in the war in Bosnia, which lasted from 1992 to 1995. Croatia first supported the Bosnian Croats and Muslims against the Serbs, then later backed the Bosnian Croats when they battled the Bosnian Muslims. (see Wars of Yugoslav Succession) The Croat-Muslim conflict ended with an American-imposed and largely theoretical Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in which most Croat-controlled territories, which Croats called Herzeg-Bosnia, were in effect part of Croatia. In December 1995 Tudjman joined Milošević, the Serbian president, and Bosnian president Alija Izetbegović in signing the Dayton Peace Accord, which ended the war in Bosnia. In November, during the Dayton negotiations and under pressure from the United States, Tudjman agreed that eastern Slavonia and Baranja should be placed under UN administration for a transitional year, later extended to January 1998, on the way to peaceful reintegration into Croatia.

The war and appeals to patriotism made political dissent suspect, helping to sustain Tudjman�s and the CDU�s popularity. Tudjman and the CDU also benefited from their almost total control of the mass media and manipulation of a fragmented opposition. In the general election of August 1992, the CDU again won an absolute majority in the bicameral parliament, and Tudjman won a second five-year term as president. In the Chamber of Representatives elections in October 1995, the CDU�s majority was cut to 75 of 127 seats; in municipal elections at the same time, the party lost Zagreb and several other cities. However, Tudjman refused to permit installation of a non-CDU government in Zagreb, claiming that a capital city must be governed by the same party that runs the country.

In elections to the Chamber of Counties in April 1997 the CDU increased its majority from 37 to 41 of 65 seats, and in June Tudjman won a third presidential term with 61 percent of the vote. Election monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) criticized the process, citing favoritism for Tudjman in the state-controlled media, vastly unequal campaign resources, and denial of voting rights to ethnic Serbs still living in Croatia. The European Union (EU) cited the regime�s authoritarian tendencies as a reason why Croatia was not among five formerly Communist states, including neighboring Slovenia, invited to start the process of joining the EU in 1997.

In January 1998 eastern Slavonia and Baranja were finally turned over to Croatia. The last UN troops departed, although UN observers stayed to monitor treatment of the district�s Serbs until September. A slow exodus by Serbs, complaining of job discrimination and harassment, continued.

Tudjman died of cancer in December 1999. He was succeeded by parliamentary speaker Vlatko Pavletić, who served as interim president until a special presidential election was held in February 2000. Stepjan Mesić, leader of the Croatian People�s Party, won the election, defeating Drazen Budisa of the Croatian Social Liberal Party. Mesić pledged to push for closer ties to the West, including membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the EU. Mesić�s election followed voting for seats in the Chamber of Representatives in January 2000, in which a center-left opposition coalition roundly defeated Tudjman�s CDU. The coalition included the Social Democratic Party and the Social Liberal Party, which were loosely allied with four other parties.