Greater Croatia

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This article is about a Croatian nationalist ideology. For the Croatian ancient homeland before migrating to the regions presently inhabited by Croatians, see White Croatia.
One of the visions of the borders of Greater Croatia as advocated by Dobroslav Paraga[1][2]

Greater Croatia (

irredentist belief in the equivalence between the territorial scope of the Croatian people and that of the Croatian state
.

Background

See also: Illyrian movement

The concept of a Greater Croatian state has its modern origins with the

nationalist context of the time, it particularly arose as a response to the more powerful nationalist stirrings in the then-Kingdom of Hungary, with whom Croatia was in a personal union.[citation needed
]

The foundations of the concept of Greater Croatia are laid in late 17th and early 18th century works of Pavao Ritter Vitezović.[3] He was the first ideologist of Croatian nation who proclaimed that all South Slavs are Croats.[4] His works were used to legitimize expansionism of the Habsburg Empire to the east and south by asserting its historical rights to claim Illyria.[4]</ref>[5] "Illyria" as Slavic territory projected by Vitezović would eventually incorporate not only most of the Southeastern Europe but also parts of Central Europe such as Hungary.[6] Vitezović defines territory of Croatia which, besides Illyria and all Slavic populated territory, includes all the territory between Adriatic, Black and Baltic seas.[7]

Because the Kingdom of Hungary was so large, Hungary attempted processes of

Magyarisation on its constituent territories. As a reaction, Ljudevit Gaj led the creation of the Illyrian movement.[8] This movement aimed to establish Croatian national presence within Austria-Hungary through linguistic and ethnic unity among South Slavs. This was the first and most prominent Pan-Slavic
movement in Croatian history.

An early proponent of Croatian-based Pan-Slavism was the politician, Count Janko Drašković. In 1832, he published his Dissertation to the joint Hungarian-Croatian Diet, in which he envisioned a “Great Illyria” consisting of all the South Slav provinces of the Habsburg Empire.

Likewise, the influential Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer, although a supporter of the Habsburg monarchy, nonetheless advocated merging the Kingdom of Dalmatia with Croatia.

The concept of a Greater Croatia was developed further by

Party of Rights (HSP) in 1861. Unlike Strossmayer and the proponents of the Illyrian movement, HSP advocated a united Croatia that stood independently of a Pan-Slavic umbrella state.[10][12] For Starčević, a Greater Croatia covered modern-day Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia and he viewed all South Slavs who inhabited the regions as Croats, regardless of their religion.[13] In his view, Croatia included all the territory from the Alps in the north to Macedonia and the Bulgarian border to the south. The Bulgarians and Croats were the only South Slavic nations.[14] He was an early opponent of Croatia's unification with Serbs and Slovenes (chiefly the Kingdom of Serbia). Starčević and Kvaternik's ideologies gradually gained popularity during the interwar period as tensions grew in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between the Croatian and the more influential Serbian political leaders. Ensuing events surrounding the ideology culminated in the World War II conflict between the Independent State of Croatia and its opponents including Chetnik
Serbs and Communists of all ethnicities (including Croatian).

Cvetković–Maček Agreement

Map of the Banovina of Croatia.

Amid rising ethnic tensions between Croats and Serbs in the 1930s, an autonomous state within Yugoslavia, called the Banovina of Croatia was peacefully negotiated in the Yugoslav parliament via the Cvetković–Maček Agreement of 1939.[15] Croatia was united into a single territorial unit and was provided territories of parts of present-day Vojvodina, Posavina, and parts of Herzegovina and Central Bosnia, which had Croatian majority at the time.[citation needed]

Independent State of Croatia

Districts of the Independent State of Croatia in 1943
Main articles: Independent State of Croatia and Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia

The first modern development of a Greater Croatia came about with the establishment of the

Axis forces in 1941, Slavko Kvaternik, deputy leader of the Ustaše
proclaimed the establishment of the NDH.

The Ustaša, an

Porajmos in the NDH carried out by Ustaše.[19][20][21] The NDH's territory encompassed most of modern-day Croatia, all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, part of modern-day Serbia, and a small portion of modern-day Slovenia (the five settlements of Bregansko Selo, Nova vas pri Bregani, Jesenice na Dolenjskem, Obrežje and Čedem).[22][23]

Bosnian War

Main articles: Bosnian War, Partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia

The most recent expression of a Greater Croatia arose in the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia. When the multiethnic Yugoslav republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in 1992, Bosnian Serb political representatives, who had boycotted the referendum, established their own government of Republika Srpska, whereupon their forces attacked the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  Croat-populated areas
Territorial ethnic changes before and after the Bosnian War

At the beginning of the

Bosnian war, the Croats and Bosniaks formed an alliance against the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS). The main Croat army was the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), and the Bosniak was the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ARBiH).[24] In November 1991, the Croatian Community of Herzeg-Bosnia was established as an autonomous Croat territorial unit within Bosnia and Herzegovina.[25]

The leaders of Herzeg-Bosnia called it a temporary measure during the conflict with the Serb forces and claimed it had no secessionary goal.[26] The Croatian Defence Forces (HOS), a paramilitary wing of the Croatian Party of Rights, supported a confederation between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina,[27] but on the basis of the NDH.[28] Over time, the relations between Croats and Bosniaks worsened, resulting in the Croat–Bosniak War,[29] which lasted until early 1994 and the signing of the Washington Agreement.[30]

Croatian President Franjo Tuđman was criticised for trying to expand the borders of Croatia, mostly by annexing Herzegovina and parts of Bosnia with Croat majorities.[31] In 2013, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) ruled, by a majority, that the Croatian leadership had a goal to join the areas of Herzeg-Bosnia to a "Greater Croatia", in accordance with the borders of the Banovina of Croatia in 1939.[32] Judge Jean-Claude Antonetti, the presiding judge in the trial, issued a separate opinion in which he disputed the notion that Tuđman had a plan to divide Bosnia.[33] On 29 November 2017, the Appeals Chamber concluded that Tuđman shared the ultimate purpose of "setting up a Croatian entity that reconstituted earlier borders and that facilitated the reunification of the Croatian people".[34]

Recent events

Main articles: Proposed Croat federal unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina and 2021 Balkan non-papers
Map of the Western Balkans according to the first non-paper:

The 2021 Balkan non-papers, were two documents of unknown origin, with several sources claiming that they had been drafted by the government of Slovenia. The first non-paper called for the "peaceful dissolution" of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the annexation of Republika Srpska and great parts of Herzegovina and Central Bosnia into a Greater Serbia and Greater Croatia, leaving a small Bosniak state in what is central and western Bosnia.[35][36]

Lands of Greater Croatia

Most commonly encompassed regions include:[1][37]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Čanak, Nenad (1993). Ratovi tek dolaze. Nezavisno društvo novinara Vojvodine. p. 12.
  2. ^ Gow, James (2003). The Serbian Project and Its Adversaries: A Strategy of War Crimes. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 229.
  3. ISBN 978-0-87436-935-9
    . Retrieved 4 September 2013. The concept of Greater Croatia...It has its roots in the writings of Pavao Ritter Vitezovic,...
  4. ^ a b Banac 1988, p. 73.
  5. ^ Fine 2010, p. 486.
  6. ^ Trencsényi & Zászkaliczky 2010, p. 364

    By Slavic territories, Vitezović meant the Illyria of his dreams (Greater Croatia) which, in its boldest manifestation, would have incorporated Hungary itself.
  7. ^ Fine 2010, p. 487.
  8. ISBN 978-0-914710-05-9
    . Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  9. ^ Banac 1988, pp. 85–88.
  10. ^
    ISBN 9780295803609
    .
  11. ISBN 9781134583287
    .
  12. ISBN 978-615-5053-85-6
    .
  13. ISBN 978-9-63924-182-4
    .
  14. ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 3.
  15. ^ Yugoslav Communism: A Critical Study. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1961. p. 21.
  16. ^ "Ustasa (Croatian political movement)". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2011-12-22.
  17. ISBN 978-0-415-18595-0
    . Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  18. ISBN 978-1-55753-455-2
    . Retrieved 23 December 2011.
  19. ISBN 9789639241824
    .
  20. ISBN 9781576079409
    .
  21. ISBN 978-1-55753-455-2
    .
  22. ISBN 978-0-253-02386-5
    .
  23. ISBN 9783110712766
    .
  24. ^ Christia 2012, p. 154.
  25. ^ Marijan 2004, p. 259.
  26. ^ Malcolm 1995, p. 318.
  27. ^ Hewitt 1998, p. 71.
  28. ^ Marijan 2004, p. 270.
  29. ^ Christia 2012, p. 157-158.
  30. ^ Tanner 2001, p. 292.
  31. ^ Goldstein 1999, p. 239.
  32. ^ Prlic et al. judgement vol.6 2013, p. 383.
  33. ^ Prlic et al. judgement vol.6 2013, p. 388.
  34. ^ "Summary of Judgement" (PDF). ICTY. 29 November 2017. p. 10.
  35. ^ Rettman, Andrew; Krasniqi, Ekrem (April 16, 2021). "US rejects Slovenia-linked plan to break up Bosnia". EUobserver. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  36. ^ Suljagic, Emir (May 7, 2021). "ANALYSIS - Notorious non-paper's implications on Bosnia". www.aa.com.tr. Archived from the original on 7 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-06-14.
  37. ^ Kolstø, Pål (2016). Strategies of Symbolic Nation-building in South Eastern Europe. Routledge. p. 45.

Sources

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