Basic Information About Pre-War
The Croatian Independence War occurred between 1991 and 1995 between the local Serb forces, the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), and the Croat forces who paid their loyalty to the Government of Croatia. Before this war, the Croatia and Serbia territories were being ruled under the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On the other hand, Bosnia- Herzegovina primarily belonged to or was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The area was occupied by various ethnic groups, including the Bosnians, Croats, Serbs, Albanians, and Macedonians. Each ethnic community had its ideas and customs, although religion was a factor that would have united or separated them. After World War I, the primary idea was to form the Yugoslavia republic, which significantly divided the Serbs and Croats. The Yugoslavia kingdom was later formed in 1929 (Bieber & Galijaš, 2016). Nevertheless, Yugoslavia encountered a crisis that resulted from significant differences between the Croats and the Serbs since the Croats were eager to secede from the Yugoslavia-dominated State. The Croats ethnic group comprised 11.3 percent of the Serbs, and the two communities had differing political ideologies and motives (Bieber & Galijaš, 2016). On the one hand, Croatian leaders were devoted to struggling for independence for the Croat nation-state. At the same time, the Serbs were inclined toward the unitarist goal of creating a solid federal state of Yugoslavia. In addition, most Serbs sought Serb states within the Yugoslavia kingdom, including the regions of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Croatia that had ethnic Serb significant minorities or majorities. Serbs attempted to conquer Croatia as much as possible, although Croatia was declared independent on June 25, 1991 (Bieber & Galijaš, 2016). It agreed to cut all ties with Yugoslavia and postpone Brioni Agreement.
The Event Itself: The Croatian Independence War
The Macedonians, Serbs, Slovenes, and Croatian ethnic communities were a significant part of the great Slav, originating from the northeast to the Balkan peninsula during the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries (Anderson, 2005). During these times, the western Balkans was inhabited by Illyrians, the present-day ancestors of the Albanians. The Slovenian and Croatians came under the Rome sway, while the Macedonians and Serbs in the East came to occupy the region during the Byzantine influence. Notably, different writings, including Cyrillic for Macedonians and Serbs alongside Latin for Slovenes and Croats, exemplify their early influences.
During the initial settlements, there were significant tribal disputes, although there was the gradual development of principalities, such as Bosnia and Croatia. The resulting principalities underwent short-lived and drastic contraction and expansion. Two empires eventually emerged, specifically the Hapsburgs and Ottomans, and began to exert hegemony over other South Slav ethnic communities. They retained their control until the early 20th century. Nevertheless, Hungary took control of Croatia, and their alliance lasted until 1918, when Croatia became a kingdom within the Hungarian empire, which later evolved into the Hapsburg dynasty (Anderson, 2005). Following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918, the thought of forming a Slavic state was realized with the creation of new kingdoms of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs. The new Slavic kingdom was referred to as Yugoslav, although it changed its name to Yugoslavia in 1929 to minimize nationalist antagonisms. The new State was, however, a formation of victorious powers from Britain and France, and their ally Serbia was appreciated or given new territories, including Albanian Kosovo and Hungarian Vojvodina.
The central constitution also ensured that all the significant decisions taken by the Belgrade government were dominated by the Serbs, exemplifying that Great Serbia generally dominated the Yugoslav State and that the primary source of tension was the Croatians, as they wished for devolution of power. Thus, there developed differing political perceptions as the Croatians were focused on seeking independence and becoming a fully independent Croat nation-state while the Serbs favored the unitarist Yugoslav nation.
On July 1917, the Yugoslav Committee leaders and Serbian government representatives signed the Corfu Declaration, which publicly announced the government’s intention to unify the South Slav state, conceived as a constitutional, democratic, and parliamentary monarchy through the Karadjordjević dynasty (Anderson, 2005). The agreement was significant since it protected Croatia from being partitioned by various allies following the vanquished Austria-Hungary kingdom. However, the declaration failed to specify whether the new State formed a federation of equal partners or represented the extension of the Serbian administrative system. The unification movement also developed among the South Slav politicians under Croatia via the Habsburg authority.
With the peasantry revolt, a collapsing Habsburg monarchy, and Italian and Serbian armies backing up the Croatian territory, the Croatian Sabor could vote in October 1918 and broke the political ties with Austria-Hungary. The vote also declared the unification of the lands of Slavonia, Croatia, and Dalmatia in preparation for an independent Croatian state. Later, the Sabor announced that Croatia was being incorporated into the South Slav state, transferring its powers to the newly created Serbs, Croats, and National Council of Slovenes in Zagreb (Anderson, 2005). However, the Croatian Peasant Party leader, Stjepan Radic, opposed this unification without considering the people’s will and without guaranteeing national equality in the future. The Serbian government and the Yugoslav Committee did not consider the party’s objections and moved forward to sign the Geneva declaration that called for the South Slav state establishment in November 1918.
Croatia’s discontent was demonstrated by the success of Radic’s Croatian Peasant Party election, where members refused to accept the unification act and pushed for an independent Croatian republic. The peasant party continued pressuring for a federal system that would allow Croatia autonomy, although its leader was assassinated by 1928. Following King Alexander’s dictatorship in 1929, the Yugoslav State was changed to Yugoslavia to symbolize patriotism and to shun ethnic divisions (Anderson, 2005). The country’s internal borders were also redrawn, and Croatia was divided into provinces named after natural features and rivers. Croatian opposition and nationalism were not entirely eradicated by the unitarism policy nor by the Serbian hegemony.
Instead, it was referred to as Yugoslavism. Alexander was later assassinated in 1934 under a plot conducted by Croatian leaders. Yugoslavia was taken over by Prince Paul Karadjordjević, who was not supporting democracy fully. His government was challenged by the Croatian opposition, fighting for democracy reinstatement. Paul negotiated with the opposition in August 1939 and created a broadly self-serving autonomous Croatian province (Anderson, 2005). The sentiments led to resentment among the Serbs, and war broke out after this agreement was signed. This was followed by partition, invasion, and occupation in 1941. However, by 1944 most of the Croatian territory was liberated from the Italians, and Germans and Croats had joined Partisan ranks in significant numbers.
By 1945 Croatia was among the republics within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Political leaders aimed to use this federation to satisfy the country’s and people’s national aspirations. Nevertheless, it was undermined by the central control of the Communist Party and the insatiable push for Yugoslav unity. Croats’ influence continued to increase with their economic centralization, which produced a significant part of the republic’s investment income by 1960 (Glaurdić & Vuković, 2016). In addition, Croatia encountered a blossoming period the between 1969-71 following the government’s economic reforms. These reforms contributed to significant calls for greater Croatian autonomy. However, Tito reimposed and intervened in enhancing democratic centralism to prevent a civil war.
The centralized control started breaking down at the end of the 1980s, and in 1989 the communist hegemony was significantly challenged in Eastern Europe, pushing Croatian and Slovene communists to embrace multiparty elections. The Croatian Democratic Union emerged victorious during the 1990 elections, and Croatia promulgated a new constitution in December 1990. The new constitution omitted the Serbs as constituent people. Croatian independence was declared on June 25, 1991.
Post-Event Co-operation and Conflict
After attaining independence, Croatia Serbs that occupied the country’s East expanded to expelling other Croats with the help of the Yugoslav army. By the end of 1991, approximately one-third of the Croatian territory was under the rule or control of the Serbs. The United Nations (UN) played a significant role in protecting the Croatians and preventing war by setting up four manned areas with approximately 14,000 UN troops to prevent war between the Serbs and the Croats in 1992 (O’Balance, 2016). Later, Croatia is involved in the war between 1992 and 1995 in Bosnia- Herzegovina (Suljagić, 2019). They play a significant part in supporting the Bosnian Croats against their rivals, the Bosnian Serbs, and later on against the Bosniaks. In 1995, Croat forces retook the four protected areas created by the UN while Croatian Serbs escaped to Serbia and Bosnia (Suljagić, 2019). Later in life, specifically in 1996, Croatia restored diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia before joining the Council of Europe. The following year (1997), Tudjman was re-elected as the Croatian president. However, the EU denied him an invitation to conduct the membership talks following their negative criticisms of his authoritarian regime. The State could also resume its control over Eastern Slavonia, which the UN initially controlled.
References
Anderson, D. (2005). The collapse of Yugoslavia: Background and summary. https://policycommons.net/artifacts/1604837/the-collapse-of-yugoslavia/2294606/
The article provides important information concerning the role of the UN in Yugoslavia. It also provides data about the co-existence of the Serbs, Croatia, and other ethnic groups before the Croatia War for independence.
Bieber, F., & Galijaš, A. (2016). Debating the end of Yugoslavia. Routledge. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=PwspDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=The+Croatian+Independence+War+of+1991-1992+Serbia+(Yugoslavia)&ots=BETf3l7JAg&sig=bxTHgoxmkLBIl1PquDkaCQHWtsM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
The book provides details about the fall of the Yugoslavia State. The authors argue that it led to the most significant war in Europe following World War II’s end due to massive human rights violations, amounting to approximately 100,000 victims. It provides detailed information on the formation and collapse of Yugoslavia.
Glaurdić, J., & Vuković, V. (2016). Voting after the war: Legacy of conflict and the economy as determinants of electoral support in Croatia. Electoral Studies, 42, 135-145. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379416000317
The article provides a novel initiative that reveals the electoral patterns in different states, giving details about how Croatians won elections due to their economic privileges.
O’Ballance, E. (2016). Civil War in Bosnia 1992–94. Springer. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Kpu-DAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR18&dq=UN+and+the+Croatian+war&ots=cv6NVlKtcO&sig=S0UuA840ecR5wPwdZhtDX1ki_00&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=UN%20and%20the%20Croatian%20war&f=false
The book is significant for this project as it presents essential details concerning the role of the UN and its peacekeeping missions. It details the steps taken by the UN to prevent civil war between the Serbs and the Croatians.
Suljagić, E. (2019). The Role of Croatia in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Insight Turkey, 21(2), 23–36. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26776071
The commentary provides more information about the steps taken by Croatia after its independence from Herzegovina and Bosnia. Mainly, it looks at Croatian’s policy towards Bosnia and provides historical information about its roots or origin.
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