The Historical Link Between Croatia And Austria

Croatia's history is marked by its position as a borderland between the central European and Mediterranean worlds. The country bridges the two, and its history reflects this.

The Croats settled in the western Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries CE, gradually merging with the indigenous Latinized population. In the 9th century, an independent Croatian state developed with its centre in northern Dalmatia, later incorporating Croatia proper and Slavonia as well. This state grew into a powerful military force under King Tomislav (c. 910–928). Croatia retained its independence under native kings until 1102, when the crown passed into the hands of the Hungarian dynasty.

The Austrian Habsburgs were elected to the Croatian throne in 1527, and Croatia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1867 to 1918. During the First World War, as the defeat of the Central Powers became obvious, Croatia severed its ties with Austria, joining the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, soon after transformed into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

After World War II, the former prewar kingdom was replaced by a federation of six equal republics. The Serb-dominated kingdom was now a socialist dictatorship ruled by Marshal Tito, an iron-fisted Croat. A decade after his death in 1980, Yugoslavia divided along ethnic lines. In the early 1990s, Croatia fought a civil war with Serbian separatists and was involved in the fighting in neighbouring Bosnia. In 1995, Croatia mounted a successful military offensive and reclaimed the territory ruled by Serbian separatists, returning to the boundaries it held previously as a Yugoslavian state.

Croatia's Kingdom and the Habsburg Monarchy

Croatia has a long and complex history, with its territory having been part of various empires and kingdoms over the centuries. One of the most significant periods in Croatian history was its time within the Habsburg Monarchy, which had a lasting impact on the region.

Croatia's association with the Habsburgs began in the 16th century when the region was threatened by the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. In 1527, facing the advance of Ottoman forces, Croatian nobles elected Ferdinand of Austria as their king, marking the beginning of Croatia's long association with the Habsburg Monarchy. This decision was made in the hope that the powerful Habsburgs would provide protection against the Ottoman threat.

However, despite this appeal to the Habsburgs, much of Croatia fell under Ottoman rule in the following decades. It was only in the late 17th and early 18th centuries that the Habsburgs, through a series of military campaigns, managed to expel the Ottomans and bring all of Croatia back under their control. This led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Croatia, a autonomous kingdom within the larger Habsburg Monarchy.

The Kingdom of Croatia enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy, with its own parliament, known as the Sabor, and a ban, or viceroy, appointed by the Habsburg emperor to rule in his stead. The kingdom encompassed much of present-day Croatia, as well as parts of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it had its own laws, customs, and a degree of self-governance. The period of Habsburg rule saw the introduction of various reforms, including the establishment of new administrative and judicial systems, the promotion of education and the arts, and the development of infrastructure.

The Habsburgs also had a significant impact on the cultural and demographic landscape of Croatia. German, as the language of the Habsburgs, became widely spoken among the elite, and many Croatian towns and cities adopted a more Central European character. The Habsburgs encouraged the settlement of Croats in the military border regions with the Ottoman Empire, leading to the establishment of new communities and the spread of Croatian culture and influence.

In summary, the period of Croatia's Kingdom within the Habsburg Monarchy was a significant era in the region's history, shaping its culture, demographics, and political systems. While the Croats enjoyed a degree of autonomy, their fate was nonetheless closely tied to that of the wider Habsburg Empire, and their association with this powerful European dynasty left a lasting imprint on the region.

Croatia's Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire

Croatia was an independent kingdom from 925 until 1102, when it entered a personal union with Hungary. It retained its institutions of statehood, including the Sabor (an assembly of Croatian nobles) and the ban (viceroy), and its nobles retained their lands and titles. However, the Hungarian king became the ruler of Croatia.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia was involved in a long series of conflicts with the Ottoman Empire, known as the Hundred Years' Croatian-Ottoman War. The Ottoman Empire's expansion into Europe posed an existential threat to the kingdom, and it lost significant territory in the 16th century, including most of Slavonia, western Bosnia, and Lika. The conflict included both small-scale border warfare and major conquest campaigns by the Ottomans.

In 1527, following the death of King Louis II of Hungary at the Battle of Mohács, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg as the new ruler of Croatia. The Kingdom of Croatia became part of the Habsburg Monarchy, and later the Austrian Empire, though it retained a degree of autonomy.

The Ottoman Empire continued to make territorial gains in Croatia throughout the 16th century, and by the end of the century, the kingdom had been reduced to a small north-western part of present-day Croatia around Zagreb and a strip of coastline around Rijeka. The Habsburg Monarchy, and later the Austrian Empire, gradually regained territory from the Ottoman Empire, and by the end of the Great Turkish War in 1699, the Ottoman Empire had been driven out of Hungary and Croatia.

Croatia's Kingdom and the Hungarian Crown

Croatia was part of the Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary, which was ruled by the Hungarian Crown. The Kingdom of Croatia was part of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown but was subject to direct Imperial Austrian rule for significant periods of time, including its final years. The Kingdom of Croatia was also a part of the lands of the Habsburg monarchy from 1527, following the Election in Cetin, and the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1867.

The Kingdom of Croatia was established as a medieval kingdom of Croats in the 11th century. In 1102, most Croats were brought under the Hungarian Crown, marking the beginning of eight centuries of Hungarian domination. The relation between Croatia and Hungary was agreed upon in the Pacta Conventa (alleged agreement) of 102. Hungarian sovereignty was undisputed in Slavonia and central Croatia (around Zagreb), while mountainous Dalmatia was difficult to control and was contested with Venice. The city of Ragusa was effectively an independent kingdom.

In 1102, a rankling crisis of succession and a Hungarian claim to the Croatian throne culminated in war: the last Croatian king, Petar Svačić, was killed, and Coloman of Hungary united the Hungarian and Croatian thrones in a personal union that would last for over 800 years. Throughout the 12th century, the Hungarian-Croat kingdom was in sporadic conflict with Byzantium and at near-constant war with Venice, all wrestling for dominance over the cities of the Dalmatian Coast. Venice, emerging as the new major power in the Adriatic, took Zadar and most of the islands. In 1205, following the defeat of Byzantium in the Fourth Crusade, Venice further gained control of Ragusa; in 1267 it annexed Istria. Meanwhile, the Mongol invasion of the 1240s, ravaging Zagreb, was followed by a long period of infighting within the Croatian-Hungarian nobility. In 1358, Ragusa gained independence from Venice and established itself as a Republic. After its conquest of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Empire rapidly swept through the Balkans, taking Bosnia by 1463. From then on, Croatia/Hungary was a border state involved in constant warfare with the Ottomans. Meanwhile, in 1481, the Republic of Ragusa became an Ottoman protectorate.

After the disastrous 1526 Battle of Mohács against Suleyman the Magnificent, resulting in the loss of much of Hungary and the death of the last Hungarian King, Louis II, the remaining Hungarian/Croatian nobility offered the throne to the Austrian and Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand I of Habsburg, hoping for greater protection. Internal autonomy was retained. Nonetheless, Croatia remained a military border zone under constant threat: in 1592, the Ottomans briefly conquered nearly all of Croatia, only to be repelled the following year. This period of uncertainty lasted until the failed Second Ottoman Siege of Vienna in 1683. During the same era, the Republic of Ragusa was thriving as a commercial power and a cultural centre in the Adriatic. The 18th century was an era of peace and prosperity for Austrian-ruled Croatia.

In 1797, after Napoleon’s conquest and dissolution of the Venetian Republic, France and Austria wrestled over control of Venice’s erstwhile Dalmatian possessions, leading to the eventual defeat of France and the permanent unification of Dalmatia. The Republic of Ragusa, initially a main profiteer of the war, was its main victim in the region: it was dissolved and annexed to Austrian Croatia in 1814. Austria now owned Dalmatia and Istria, but administered the coastal regions separately from her inland Croatian and Hungarian territories.

In 1849, after the Austrian defeat in the Battle of Königgrätz, the Austrian Empire had to be placed on a wider power basis. To achieve this, Emperor Franz Joseph I initiated the Austrian-Hungarian Ausgleich of 1867, in which the Hungarian Kingdom was given far-ranging autonomy. Croatia formed part of the Hungarian Kingdom. In 1881/1886, the Militärgrenze was dissolved. In 1887, the Serbian Orthodox Church in Croatia-Slavonia was granted autonomy. During World War I, many natives of Croatia served in the Austro-Hungarian army.

In 1918, following the defeat and dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the southern Slav people formed a new kingdom that included historic Croatian lands. It was known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929, the name of this new nation was changed to Yugoslavia. After World War II, the former prewar kingdom was replaced by a federation of six equal republics. The Serb-dominated kingdom was now a socialist dictatorship ruled by Marshal Tito, an iron-fisted Croat. A decade after his death in 1980, Yugoslavia divided along ethnic lines. In the early 1990s, Croatia fought a civil war with Serbian separatists and was involved in the fighting in neighbouring Bosnia. In 1995, Croatia mounted a successful military offensive and reclaimed the territory ruled by Serbian separatists, returning to the boundaries it held previously as a Yugoslavian state.

Croatia's Kingdom and the Republic of Ragusa

Croatia's Kingdom

Croatia was part of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown but was subject to direct Imperial Austrian rule for significant periods of time, including its final years. Its capital was Zagreb. It was also a part of the lands of the Habsburg monarchy from 1527, following the Election in Cetin, and the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1867.

The Kingdom of Croatia had large territorial losses in wars with the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. Until the 18th century, the kingdom included only a small north-western part of present-day Croatia around Zagreb, and a small strip of coastland around Rijeka, that were not part of the Ottoman Empire or part of the Croatian Military Frontier.

The Kingdom of Croatia was divided into counties: Zagreb County, Varaždin County, and Križevci County. These were direct continuations of the medieval counties of Croatia.

The Republic of Ragusa

The Republic of Ragusa was an aristocratic maritime republic centred on the city of Dubrovnik (Ragusa in Italian, German, and Latin) in South Dalmatia (today in southernmost Croatia). It carried that name from 1358 until 1808. It had a population of about 30,000 people, of whom 5,000 lived within the city walls. Its motto was "Non bene pro toto libertas venditur auro", a Latin phrase that can be translated as "Liberty is not well sold for all the gold".

Ragusa was founded by Latinized colonists, but by the 14th century, it had been largely Slavicized and had acquired its alternate name of Dubrovnik. The largely Croat republic of Ragusa maintained a precarious autonomy under the suzerainty of Venice, Hungary, and (after 1397) the Ottoman Empire. Its wealth as a trading power was based on its role as an intermediary between East and West, and it nurtured a flourishing cultural life. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Ragusa and other Dalmatian cities under the rule of Venice became the centre of the Croat Renaissance, which produced works of art and science and an extensive and powerful literature that had a lasting influence on the development of the Croatian literary language.

In 1808, Marshal Marmont issued a proclamation abolishing the Republic of Ragusa and amalgamating its territory into the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, himself claiming the newly created title of "Duke of Ragusa". In 1810, Ragusa, together with Dalmatia and Istria, went to the newly created French Illyrian Provinces.

Croatia's Kingdom and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes

Croatia was part of the Kingdom of Croatia (Croatian: Kraljevina Hrvatska) which was part of the Lands of the Hungarian Crown. However, for significant periods, it was subject to direct Imperial Austrian rule, including its final years. Its capital was Zagreb.

The Kingdom of Croatia was part of the lands of the Habsburg monarchy from 1527, following the Election in Cetin, and the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1867. In 1867, the Austrian Empire became the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Croatia and Kingdom of Slavonia were joined to create the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia within the Hungarian part of the empire.

The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia was ruled by Hungary, and the Kingdom of Dalmatia remained a crown land in the Austrian part of the empire. The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia was autonomous in administrative, educational, religious, and judicial affairs. However, the governor (ban) was appointed by Hungary, and 55% of all tax money went to Budapest.

Now, onto the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

The State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs was a political entity constituted in October 1918, at the end of World War I, by Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs residing in the southernmost parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was the first incarnation of a Yugoslav state founded on Pan-Slavic ideology. After 33 days, this state joined the Kingdom of Serbia to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was officially called the Kingdom of Yugoslavia from 1929 onwards. It was ruled by the Serbian dynasty of Karađorđević, previously the ruling dynasty of the Kingdom of Serbia. The kingdom was formed by the merger of the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs (itself formed from territories of the former Austria-Hungary) and Banat, Bačka, and Baranja (that had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary) with the formerly independent Kingdom of Serbia.

The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was made up of the formerly independent kingdoms of Serbia and Montenegro and a substantial amount of territory that was formerly part of Austria-Hungary. The main states that formed the new Kingdom were the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs; Vojvodina; and the Kingdom of Serbia with the Kingdom of Montenegro.

The kingdom was short-lived, existing only from 1918 until 1941.

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