Posted on 07.02.2012 and 17.09.2014
When Croatia has separated from Yugoslavia and it has declared independence, I thought that its territory's shape (as the jaws of a crocodile - isn't at all a political allusion) will be very difficult to defend. And probably so it's, but the war of four years that followed proved that this mission isn't impossible to accomplish. The upper "jaw" is Slavonia (closely linked with the Croatia itself in the last thousand years), and the lower "jaw" is Dalmatia. In fact the present border between Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina (located between "jaws") is, with certain approximation, the boundary which separated, for centuries, Austrian Empire and Ottoman Empire.
The area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period, fossils of Neanderthals being unearthed in northern Croatia, with the most famous and the best presented site in Krapina. The Iron Age left traces of the early IllyrianHallstatt culture and the CelticLa Tène culture. Much later, the region was settled by Liburnians and Illyrians, the first Greek colonies were established on the islands of Korčula, Hvar and Vis. In 9 AD the territory became part of the Roman Empire. Emperor Diocletian built a large palace in Split when he retired in AD 305. The period ends with Avar and Croat invasions in the first half of the 7th century and destruction of almost all Roman towns. Tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom, which retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries. Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102, and in 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament electedFerdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the throne.
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