- Greater Croatia
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This article is about a Croatian nationalist ideology. For the Croatian ancient homeland before migrating to the Balkans, see White Croatia.
Greater Croatia (Croatian: Velika Hrvatska) is a term applied to certain currents within Croatian nationalism. In one sense, it refers to the territorial scope of the Croatian people, emphasising the ethnicity of those Croats living outside Croatia. In the political sense, though, the term refers to an irredentist belief in the equivalence between the territorial scope of the Croatian people and that of the Croatian state.
Contents
Background
See also: Illyrian movementThe concept of a Greater Croatian state has its modern origins with the Illyrian movement, a cultural and political campaign of Croatian national revival in the first half of the 19th century. Although this movement arose in the developing European nationalist context of the time, it particularly arose as a response to the more powerful nationalist stirrings in the then-Kingdom of Hungary, of which Croatia was a part.
Because the kingdom was so large, Hungary attempted processes of Magyarisation on its constituent territories. As a reaction, Ljudevit Gaj led the creation of the Illyrian movement.[1] 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.
Alternative concept
Other ideas of Greater Croatia were developed by Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik, who founded the nationalist 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. Starčević was an early opponent of Croatia's unification with Serbs and Slovenes (chiefly the Kingdom of Serbia); their 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).
Independent State of Croatia
Districts of the Independent State of Croatia in 1943
Main article: Independent State of CroatiaThe first modern development of a Greater Croatia came about with the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska NDH). Following occupation of the country by Axis forces in 1941, Slavko Kvaternik, deputy leader of the Ustaše proclaimed the establishment of the NDH.
The Ustaša, a fascist[2] movement founded in 1929 supported a Greater Croatia that would extend to the River Drina and to the edge of Belgrade.[3] Ante Pavelić, the Ustaše's Poglavnik (leader) had been in negotiations with Fascist Italy since 1927. These negotiations included Pavelić supporting Italy's annexation of its claimed territory in Dalmatia in exchange for Italy supporting an independent Croatia.[4] In addition, Mussolini offered Pavelić the right for Croatia to annex all of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Pavelić agreed to this controversial exchange.
Bosnian War
The most recent expression of a Greater Croatia arose in the aftermath of the breakup of Yugoslavia. When the multiethnic Yugoslavian 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.
The subsequent war was principally a territorial conflict, initially between the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Bosnian Croat forces on the one side, and Bosnian Serb forces on the other. However, the Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian.[5] With the 1991 Karađorđevo agreement between Croatian president Franjo Tuđman and Serbian president Slobodan Milošević, and with the Graz agreement of 1992, the Serb and Croat political leaderships agreed on a partition of Bosnia, resulting in the Croat forces turning on the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, leading to the Croat-Bosniak war.[6]
The policies of Croatia and Franjo Tuđman towards Bosnia and Herzegovina were never totally transparent and always included Tuđman's aim of expanding Croatia's borders.[5][7] After Tuđman's death, his successor, Stjepan Mesić, revealed thousands of documents and audio tapes recorded by Tuđman about his plans in regards to Bosnia and Herzegovina.[8][9] The tapes reveal that both Milosević and Tuđman ignored pledges to respect Bosnia's sovereignty, even after signing the Dayton accord.[8][9] In one conversation Tuđman told an official: Let's make a deal with the Serbs. Neither history nor emotion in the Balkans will permit multinationalism. We have to give up on the illusion of the last eight years... Dayton isn't working. Nobody- except diplomats and petty officials - believes in a sovereign Bosnia and the Dayton accords.[9]
References
- ^ Despalatovic, Elinor Murray. Ljudevit Gaj and the Illyrian Movement. New York: East European Quarterly, 1975.
- ^ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/620426/Ustasa
- ^ Viktor Meier. Yugoslavia: a history of its demise. English edition. London, England, UK: Routledge, 1999 Pp. 125.
- ^ Bernd Jürgen Fischer (ed.). Balkan strongmen: dictators and authoritarian rulers of South Eastern Europe. Purdue University Press, 2007. Pp. 210.
- ^ a b "ICTY: Naletilić and Martinović verdict - A. Historical background". http://www.icty.org/x/cases/naletilic_martinovic/tjug/en/nal-tj030331-e.pdf.
- ^ Silber, L (1997), Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation. Penguin Books, p.185
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=NlRD4yaHrEYC&pg=PA279
- ^ a b Sherwell, Philip; Petric, Alina (2000-06-18). "Tudjman tapes reveal plans to divide Bosnia and hide war crimes". London: Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/bosnia/1343702/Tudjman-tapes-reveal-plans-to-divide-Bosnia-and-hide-war-crimes.html. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
- ^ a b c Lashmar, Paul; Bruce, Cabell; Cookson, John (2000-11-01). "Secret recordings link dead dictator to Bosnia crimes". London: Independent News. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/secret-recordings-link-dead-dictator-to-bosnia-crimes-635184.html. Retrieved 2010-05-02.
External links
- Croatia after Tuđman
- Serbian Unity Congress
- Serbian Unity Congress
- Mesić Spurns Greater Croatia
- Tuđmans plans for a Greater Croatia discontinued
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