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| Croatia | Introduction | Back to Top |
Croatia (in Croatian, Hrvatska), republic in south-eastern Europe, in the Balkan Peninsula, bordered on the north by Slovenia and Hungary, on the east and south by Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on the east by Serbia. The area around the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, located at the southernmost tip of the republic's long western coastline on the Adriatic Sea, has a short border with Montenegro. Serbia and Montenegro since 1991 have established themselves as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Formerly a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia declared its independence on June 25, 1991. The country has an area of about 56,538 sq km (21,829 sq mi). Zagreb is the republic's capital and largest city.
Official Name - Republic of Croatia| Croatia | Provinces | Back to Top |
20 counties (zupanije, zupanija - singular), 1 city (grad -singular)*: Bjelovarsko-Bilogorska Zupanija, Brodsko-Posavska Zupanija, Dubrovacko-Neretvanska Zupanija, Istarska Zupanija, Karlovacka Zupanija, Koprivnicko-Krizevacka Zupanija, Krapinsko-Zagorska Zupanija, Licko-Senjska Zupanija, Medimurska Zupanija, Osjecko-Baranjska Zupanija, Pozesko-Slavonska Zupanija, Primorsko-Goranska Zupanija, Sibensko-Kninska Zupanija, Sisacko-Moslavacka Zupanija, Splitsko-Dalmatinska Zupanija, Varazdinska Zupanija, Viroviticko-Podravska Zupanija, Vukovarsko-Srijemska Zupanija, Zadarska Zupanija, Zagreb*, Zagrebacka Zupanija
| Croatia | People | Back to Top |
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.
While most of Croatia's Serbs live in urban centres, just over one-quarter are scattered in villages and towns, mostly in lightly populated parts of the central mountain belt, in Lika and Banija, and in northern Dalmatia. There is also a smaller concentration in Slavonia. Many of the Serbs in Croatia are descendants of people who migrated to the border areas of the Austrian empire between the 16th and 18th centuries, following the Ottoman conquest of Serbia and Bosnia. Their original role as frontiersmen against Ottoman incursions, in addition to their poverty and geographic isolation, ensured that Croatia's Serbs would remain among the least-educated and often better-armed and more violence-prone residents of the region.
| Croatia | History | Back to Top |
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.
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.
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.
| Croatia | Culture | Back to Top |
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.
Croatian literature are the much-translated novelist, poet, essayist, dramatist, polemicist, and critic Miroslav Krleza (1893–1981) and the lyric poet, essayist, and translator Tin Ujevic (1891–1955), both of whom treat man's psychological and sociopolitical struggles at both individual and universal levels. The monumental sculptures of Ivan Meštrovic (1883–1962), whom the French sculptor Auguste Rodin once called “the biggest phenomenon among sculptors,” synthesize a particularly Croatian national romanticism with the entire European tradition. Croatian naive painting, through a simple depiction of the timeless concerns of men and women caught within the cycles of the seasons and of life, has struck a universal chord and has brought worldwide fame to its main exponents, Ivan Generalic (1914–92), Ivan Rabuzin (1919– ), and Ivan Lackovic-Croata
The Yugoslav version of communism—which, following the 1948 break with the Soviet Union and the Cominform, evolved into a more flexible national path to socialism—allowed far greater autonomy and self-expression in cultural and other spheres of life than did most of its socialist neighbours. As a result, Croatian culture has been able to develop in continuity with the Western heritage of which it has long been a part and to which it has contributed for the last 1,000 years.
| Croatia | Life | Back to Top |
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.
| Croatia | Land | Back to Top |
Croatia is composed of three major geographic regions. In the north and northeast, running the full length of the upper arm of the Croatian crescent, are the Pannonian and para-Pannonian plains. Enriched with alluvial soil deposited by the Sava and Drava rivers, these plains are the most fertile agricultural regions of Croatia and form the country's breadbasket. To the north of Zagreb, the Zagorje Hills, fragments of the Julian Alps now covered with vines and orchards, separate the Sava and Drava river valleys. To the west and south of the Pannonian region, linking it with the Adriatic coast, is the central mountain belt, itself part of the Dinaric Alps. The karst plateaus of this region, consisting mostly of limestone, are barren at the highest elevations; lower down, they are heavily forested. The soil here is rather poor, offering some cultivable land in the fields and meadows and some grazing land in the plateaus. The highest mountain in Croatia, Mount Troglav (6,276 feet, or 1,913 metres), is located in the central mountain belt.
| Croatia | Plants and Animal | Back to Top |
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.
| Croatia | Economy | Back to Top |
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.
Rich deposits of oil and natural gas, sufficient to meet Croatia's needs and provide surplus for export, are found in the Pannonian valleys of eastern Slavonia. There are also bauxite deposits in Istria and Dalmatia, coal in northwestern Croatia, Istria, and Dalmatia, and smaller deposits of zinc, iron, lead, mercury, manganese, and salt throughout the country. Other natural resources are the numerous rivers with hydroelectric potential and the large forests that form the basis of the wood and pulp industry. Croatia's beautiful coastline and its numerous islands supply excellent natural harbours for the shipbuilding and fishing industries; they also form the basis of the country's single most important source of foreign exchange—tourism.
with a per capita output perhaps one-third above the Yugoslav average. Croatia faces considerable economic problems stemming from: the legacy of longtime communist mismanagement of the economy; damage during the internecine fighting to bridges, factories, power lines, buildings, and houses; the large refugee and displaced population, both Croatian and Bosnian; and the disruption of economic ties. Stepped-up Western aid and investment, especially in the tourist and oil industries, would help bolster the economy. The economy emerged from its mild recession in 2000 with tourism the main factor. Massive unemployment remains a key negative element. The government's failure to press the economic reforms needed to spur growth is largely the result of coalition politics and public resistance, particularly from the trade unions, to measures that would cut jobs, wages, or social benefits.
| Croatia | Communications | Back to Top |
domestic: reconstruction plan calls for replacement of all analog circuits with digital and enlarging the network; a backup will be included in the plan for the main trunk international: digital international service is provided through the main switch in Zagreb; Croatia participates in the Trans-Asia-Europe (TEL) fiber-optic project which consists of two fiber-optic trunk connections with Slovenia and a fiber-optic trunk line from Rijeka to Split and Dubrovnik; Croatia is also investing in ADRIA 1, a joint fiber-optic project with Germany, Albania, and Greece (2000)
| Croatia | Languages | Back to Top |
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.
| Croatia | Politics | Back to Top |
Alliance of Croatian Coast and Mountains Department or PGS [Luciano SUSANJ]; Croatian Christian Democratic Union or HKDU [Marko VESELICA]; Croatian Democratic Union or HDZ [Ivo SANADER]; Croatian Party of Rights or HSP [Dobroslav PARAGA]; Croatian Peasant Party or HSS [Zlatko TOMCIC]; Croatian People's Party or HNS [Vesna PUSIC]; Croatian Social Liberal Party or HSLS [Drazen BUDISA]; Independent Democratic Serb Party or SDSS [Vojislav STANIMIROVIC]; Istrian Democratic Assembly or IDS [Ivan JAKOVCIC]; Liberal Party or LP [leader NA]; Social Democratic Party of Croatia or SDP [Ivica RACAN]
| Croatia | Government | Back to Top |
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.
| Croatia | Legal | Back to Top |
Legal system: based on civil law system Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal (16 years of age, if employed) Executive branch: chief of state: President Stjepan (Stipe) MESIC (since 18 February 2000) head of government: Prime Minister Ivica RACAN (since 27 January 2000); Deputy Prime Ministers Goran GRANIC (since 27 January 2000), Zeljka ANTUNOVIC (since 27 January 2000), Slavko LINIC (since 27 January 2000) cabinet: Council of Ministers named by the prime minister and approved by the House of Representatives elections: president elected by popular vote for a five-year term; election last held 7 February 2000 (next to be held NA 2005); prime minister nominated by the president in line with the balance of power in the Assembly election results: Stjepan MESIC elected president; percent of vote - Stjepan MESIC (HNS) 56%, Drazen BUDISA (HSLS) 44% note: government coalition - SDP, HSLS, HSS, LP, HNS, IDS Legislative branch: bicameral Assembly or Sabor consists of the House of Counties or Zupanijski Dom (68 seats, 63 directly elected by popular vote, 5 appointed by the president; members serve four-year terms; note - House of Counties to be abolished in 2001) and House of Representatives or the Zastupnicki Dom (151 seats; members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms) elections: House of Counties - last held 13 April 1997; House of Representatives - last held 2-3 January 2000 (next to be held NA 2004) election results: House of Counties - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - HDZ 42, HSLS/HSS 11, HSS 2, IDS 2, SDP/PGS/HNS 2, SDP/HNS 2, HSLS/HSS/HNS 1, HSLS 1; note - in some districts certain parties ran as coalitions, while in others they ran alone; House of Representatives - percent of vote by party - NA%; seats by party - HDZ 46, SDP 44, HSLS 24, HSS 17, HSP/HKDU 5, IDS 4, HNS 2, independents 4, minority representatives 5 Judicial branch: Supreme Court; Constitutional Court; judges for both courts appointed for eight-year terms by the Judicial Council of the Republic, which is elected by the House of Representatives
| Croatia | organization | Back to Top |
BIS, CCC, CE, CEI, EAPC, EBRD, ECE, FAO, IADB, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Inmarsat, Intelsat, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, NAM (observer), OAS (observer), OPCW, OSCE, PCA, PFP, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNIDO, UPU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO
| Croatia | Education | Back to Top |
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.
| Croatia | Defence | Back to Top |
Military branches: Ground Forces, Naval Forces, Air and Air Defense Forces
Military manpower - military age: 19 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 1,085,877 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 859,621 (2001 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 30,037 (2001 est.)
| Croatia | International Disputes | Back to Top |
Croatia and Italy made progress toward resolving a bilateral issue dating from World War II over property and ethnic minority rights; progress with Slovenia on discussions of adjustments to land boundary, but problems remain in defining maritime boundary in Gulf of Piran; Croatia and Yugoslavia are negotiating the status of the strategically important Prevlaka Peninsula, which is currently under a UN military observer mission
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| Croatia | Time | Back to Top |
| Croatia | Currency and General Information | Back to Top |
| Croatia Kuna | United States Dollars |
| 1 HRK | 0.118850 USD |
| 8.41400 HRK | 1 USD |
| Countries Currency Unit | USD/Unit | Units/USD | |
| DZD | Algeria Dinars | 0.0129554 | 77.1877 |
| USD | United States Dollars | 1.00000 | 1.00000 |
| ARS | Argentina Pesos | 0.341293 | 2.93004 |
| AUD | Australia Dollars | 0.533413 | 1.87472 |
| ATS | Austria Schillings ** | 0.0632609 | 15.8076 |
| BSD | Bahamas Dollars | 1.00000 | 1.00000 |
| BBD | Barbados Dollars | 0.502513 | 1.99000 |
| BEF | Belgium Francs ** | 0.0215788 | 46.3417 |
| BMD | Bermuda Dollars | 1.00000 | 1.00000 |
| BRL | Brazil Reals | 0.430318 | 2.32386 |
| GBP | United Kingdom Pounds | 1.42399 | 0.702251 |
| BGL | Bulgaria Leva | 0.447293 | 2.23567 |
| CAD | Canada Dollars | 0.627606 | 1.59336 |
| CLP | Chile Pesos | 0.00152392 | 656.202 |
| CNY | China Yuan Renminbi | 0.120813 | 8.27726 |
| CYP | Cyprus Pounds | 1.49883 | 0.667186 |
| CZK | Czech Republic Koruny | 0.0281883 | 35.4758 |
| DKK | Denmark Kroner | 0.117155 | 8.53568 |
| XCD | East Caribbean Dollars | 0.370370 | 2.70000 |
| EGP | Egypt Pounds | 0.217271 | 4.60255 |
| EUR | Euro | 0.870489 | 1.14878 |
| FJD | Fiji Dollars | 0.447227 | 2.23600 |
| FIM | Finland Markkaa ** | 0.146406 | 6.83034 |
| FRF | France Francs ** | 0.132705 | 7.53550 |
| DEM | Germany Deutsche Marks ** | 0.445074 | 2.24682 |
| XAU | Gold Ounces | 301.977 | 0.00331151 |
| GRD | Greece Drachmae ** | 0.00255463 | 391.447 |
| HKD | Hong Kong Dollars | 0.128215 | 7.79939 |
| HUF | Hungary Forint | 0.00358416 | 279.006 |
| ISK | Iceland Kronur | 0.00999868 | 100.013 |
| INR | India Rupees | 0.0205205 | 48.7319 |
| IDR | Indonesia Rupiahs | 0.000102055 | 9,798.61 |
| IEP | Ireland Pounds ** | 1.10529 | 0.904738 |
| ILS | Israel New Shekels | 0.212386 | 4.70841 |
| ITL | Italy Lire ** | 0.000449570 | 2,224.35 |
| JMD | Jamaica Dollars | 0.0210041 | 47.6099 |
| JPY | Japan Yen | 0.00754183 | 132.594 |
| JOD | Jordan Dinars | 1.41057 | 0.708931 |
| LBP | Lebanon Pounds | 0.000660937 | 1,513.00 |
| LUF | Luxembourg Francs ** | 0.0215788 | 46.3417 |
| MYR | Malaysia Ringgits | 0.263330 | 3.79751 |
| MXN | Mexico Pesos | 0.111007 | 9.00848 |
| NZD | New Zealand Dollars | 0.440474 | 2.27028 |
| NOK | Norway Kroner | 0.113022 | 8.84780 |
| NLG | Netherlands Guilders ** | 0.395011 | 2.53158 |
| PKR | Pakistan Rupees | 0.0166945 | 59.9000 |
| PHP | Philippines Pesos | 0.0196386 | 50.9202 |
| XPT | Platinum Ounces | 510.962 | 0.00195709 |
| PLN | Poland Zlotych | 0.243488 | 4.10699 |
| PTE | Portugal Escudos ** | 0.00434198 | 230.310 |
| ROL | Romania Lei | 0.0000303433 | 32,956.21 |
| RUR | Russia Rubles | 0.0321342 | 31.1195 |
| SAR | Saudi Arabia Riyals | 0.266668 | 3.74998 |
| XAG | Silver Ounces | 4.65692 | 0.214734 |
| SGD | Singapore Dollars | 0.542540 | 1.84318 |
| SKK | Slovakia Koruny | 0.0208441 | 47.9751 |
| ZAR | South Africa Rand | 0.0883340 | 11.3207 |
| KRW | South Korea Won | 0.000759354 | 1,316.91 |
| ESP | Spain Pesetas ** | 0.00523174 | 191.141 |
| XDR | IMF Special Drawing Rights | 1.24862 | 0.800882 |
| SDD | Sudan Dinars | 0.00384615 | 260.000 |
| SEK | Sweden Kronor | 0.0964189 | 10.3714 |
| CHF | Switzerland Francs | 0.593789 | 1.68410 |
| TWD | Taiwan New Dollars | 0.0286531 | 34.9002 |
| THB | Thailand Baht | 0.0230087 | 43.4619 |
| TTD | Trinidad and Tobago Dollars | 0.163399 | 6.12000 |
| TRL | Turkey Liras | 0.000000763622 | 1,309,549.07 |
| VEB | Venezuela Bolivares | 0.00108696 | 920.000 |
| ZMK | Zambia Kwacha | 0.000239866 | 4,169.00 |
| Croatia : Geographic coordinates | 45 10 N, 15 30 E |
| Croatia : Population growth rate | 1.48% |
| Croatia : Birth rate | 12.82 births/1,000 population |
| Croatia : Death rate | 11.41 deaths/1,000 population |
| Croatia : People living with HIV/AIDS | 350 |
| Croatia : Independence | 25 June 1991 |
| Croatia : National holiday | Republic Day/Statehood Day, 30 May |
| Croatia : Constitution | 22 December 1990 |
| Croatia : GDP | purchasing power parity - $24.9 billion |
| Croatia : GDP - per capita | purchasing power parity - $5,800 |
| Croatia : Electricity - consumption | 13.643 billion kWh |
| Croatia : Exports | $4.3 billion transport equipment, textiles, chemicals, foodstuffs, fuels |
| Croatia : Imports | $7.8 billion machinery, transport and electrical equipment, chemicals, fuels |
| Croatia : Telephones | 1.488 million |
| Croatia : Mobile cellular | 187,000 |
| Croatia : Radio broadcast stations | AM 16, FM 98, shortwave 5 |
| Croatia : Radios | 1.51 million |
| Croatia : Television broadcast stations | 36 |
| Croatia : Televisions | 1.22 million |
| Croatia : Internet country code | .hr |
| Croatia : Internet Service Providers (ISPs) | 9 |
| Croatia : Internet users | 100,000 |
| Croatia : Railways | 2,296 km |
| Croatia : Highways | 27,840 km |
| Croatia : Waterways | 785 km |
| Croatia : Pipelines | crude oil 670 km; petroleum products 20 km; natural gas 310 km |
| Croatia : Ports and harbors | Dubrovnik, Dugi Rat, Omisalj, Ploce, Pula, Rijeka, Sibenik, Split, Vukovar |
| Croatia : Merchant marine | 53 ships |
| Croatia : Airports | 67 |
| Croatia : Heliports | 1 |
| Croatia : Military branches | Ground Forces, Naval Forces, Air and Air Defense Forces |
| Croatia : Military expenditures | $575 million |