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Croatian nationalism is the set of political, economic, civic, cultural, and ethnic ideologies that promotes the interests and influences withinCroatia, theCroat people,Croatian citizens and theCroatian diaspora.[1][page needed][failed verification][2][page needed] It indicates the aspects that characterize and distinguish Croatian society as an autonomous community. The national identity and self-determination of Croatia has seen significant dynamism throughoutits history. The cultural and ethnic unity of Croats has been a key component of nationalism since the 19th century.[1][page needed][failed verification][3][page needed]Roman Catholicism and theIllyrian movement influenced early-stage nationalist ideas.[1][page needed][failed verification][4] The claim and promise of historic statehood for Croats has informed many varieties of modern Croatian nationalism. This created the concept ofGreater Croatia, the belief in the equivalence between the territorial scope of the Croatian people and that of theCroatian state.[5] This regionalsphere of influence spreads Croatian nationalism acrossSoutheast Europe.[1][page needed][failed verification]
Following theindependence of Croatia in 1991, modern Croatian society has been dominated byethnic nationalism andhistorical revisionism.[1][page needed][6][page needed] Its deepening integration within Europe and the broaderWestern world, has led to increased legal and rational concepts of nationalism such as the sharedCroatian language,cultural traditions,national values, and citizenship.[1][page needed][failed verification][7][page needed] Croatian nationalism exists across the ideological spectrum – fromthe left-wing tothe right-wing – of the country's political establishment. Croatia has strongultranationalist (or hyper-nationalist) currents that advocate for extreme interpretations of Croatianhegemony, which has at times led to ethnic tension andpolitical violence.[1][page needed][8][page needed] Many national symbols andcultural exports define Croatian nationalism, including itsnational flag,anthem,soccer team,tourism sector, andcuisine, among others.[citation needed]
Modern Croatian nationalism first arose in the 19th century after Budapest exerted increasing pressure forMagyarization of Croats; the movement started to grow especially after theApril Laws of 1848 which ignoredCroatian autonomy within theHungarian Kingdom.[9][10] Croatian nationalism was based on two main ideas: a historical right to statehood based on a continuity with themedieval Croatian state and anidentity associated with otherSlavs – especiallySouthern Slavs.[11] A Croatian revival started with theIllyrian movement (c. 1835 onward), which founded theMatica hrvatska organisation in 1842 and promoted"Illyrian" language.[9] Illyrianism spawned two political movements: theParty of Rights (founded in 1861 and named after the concept of theCroatian state right (pravaštvo); led byAnte Starčević), andYugoslavism (the term means "South-Slav-ism") underJosip Juraj Strossmayer (1815–1905). Both Starčević and Strossmayer were largely limited in their influence to the Croatianintelligentsia.[12]
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In the 19th century, opposition by Croats to Magyarization and desire for independence fromAustria-Hungary led to the rise of Croatian nationalism.[9] TheIllyrian movement sought to awaken Croatian national consciousness and a standardize regional literary traditions which existed in a various dialects on a single standard language.[13] Once the Croatian lands were culturally unified, the movement aimed at unifying the rest of theSouth Slavs under the resurrectedIllyrian name.[13] Illyrianists during theRevolutions of 1848 sought to achieve political autonomy of Croatia within a federalized Habsburg monarchy.[14]Ante Starčević founded theParty of Rights in Croatia in 1861 that argued that legally, Croatia's right of statehood had never been abrogated by the Habsburg monarchy and thus Croatia was legally entitled to be an independent state.[14] Starčević regarded Croatia to include not only present-day Croatia but also what is nowBosnia and Herzegovina,Slovenia (Duchy of Carinthia,Carniola,Styria) and parts of what is todaySerbia (Sanjak of Novi Pazar,Syrmia)—all people in thisGreater Croatia whetherCatholic,Muslim, orOrthodox were defined as Croats.[14]
During the 19th to mid-20th century Croatian nationalists competed with the increasingly Pan-SlavicIllyrian movement andYugoslavists over the identity of Croats.[14] The founder of Yugoslavism, CroatianBishopJosip Juraj Strossmayer advocated the unification of Croat lands into a Yugoslav monarchical federal state alongside otherYugoslavs.[14] In spite of both Starčević's and Strossmayer's competing visions of identity, neither of their views had much influence beyond Croatia's intelligentsia.[14]
Croatian nationalism became a mass movement under the leadership ofStjepan Radić, leader of theCroatian People's Peasant Party after 1918 upon the creation ofYugoslavia.[14] Radić opposed Yugoslav unification, as he feared the loss of Croats' national rights in a highly centralized stated dominated by the numerically largerSerbs.[14] Theassassination of Radić in 1928 provoked and angered Croatian nationalists with the centralized Yugoslav state, and from 1928 to 1939, Croatian nationalism was defined as pursuing either some form of autonomy or independence fromBelgrade.[14] In 1939, a compromise between the Yugoslav government and the autonomist Croatian Peasant Party led byVladko Maček was made with the creation of an autonomous Croatia within Yugoslavia known called theBanovina of Croatia.[14] After the foundation ofYugoslavia in 1918, a highly centralized state was established under theSt. Vitus Day Constitution of 1921 in accordance withSerbian nationalist desires to ensure the unity of the Serbs; this caused resentment amongst Croats and other peoples in Yugoslavia. Dalmatian Croat and the principalWorld War I-era Yugoslavist leaderAnte Trumbić denounced the St. Vitus Day Constitution for establishing a Serb hegemony in Yugoslavia – contrary to the interests of Croats and other peoples in Yugoslavia.[15] Croatian nationalists opposed the centralized state, with moderate nationalists demanding an autonomous Croatia within Yugoslavia.[14] Croatian nationalism became a mass movement in theKingdom of Yugoslavia throughStjepan Radić'sCroatian Peasant Party.[14] The demand by moderate Croatian nationalists for an autonomous Croatia – theBanovina of Croatia – within Yugoslavia was accepted by the Yugoslav government in theCvetković–Maček Agreement of August 1939.[14] This agreement angered Serbian nationalists, who opposed it on the grounds that it weakened the unity ofSerbdom in Yugoslavia; they asserted the importance of Serbian unity to Yugoslavia with the slogan "Strong Serbdom, Strong Yugoslavia".[16] The agreement also angeredBosniaks (then known as "Yugoslav Muslims"), including theYugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO), that denounced the agreement'spartition of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[17]
Croatian nationalism reached a critical point in its development duringWorld War II, when the Croatian extreme nationalist andfascistUstaše movement took to governing theIndependent State of Croatia (NDH) after the invasion of Yugoslavia by theAxis powers and the creation of the NDH at the behest ofFascist Italy andNazi Germany as an Italo-Germanclient state.[14] The Ustaše committed mass genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma, and persecuted political opponents, including the communistYugoslav Partisans andChetniks who fought against them.[14] A violent sectarian Croatian nationalism developed prior toWorld War II withinAnte Pavelić's Ustaše movement (founded in 1929), whichcollaborated withNazi Germany andFascist Italy in its government.[14]
After the defeat of the Axis Powers in 1945 and the rise of communistJosip Broz Tito as leader of a new communist-led Yugoslavia, Croatian nationalism along with other nationalisms were suppressed by state authorities.[14] Under post-warcommunist rule inYugoslavia, dominated by the part-CroatTito (in power from 1944 to 1980), Croatian nationalism became largely dormant, except for theCroatian Spring of 1967 to 1971, until thebreakup of Yugoslavia in 1991–1992 and theCroatian War of Independence of 1991 to 1995.[14] During the communist era, some Croatian communists were labeled as Croatian nationalists, respectively Ivan Krajačić andAndrija Hebrang. Hebrang also advocated change of Croatian borders, since, according to him, Croatian boundaries were clipped byMilovan Đilas' commission. He argued against unfair exchange rates imposed on Croatia after 1945 and condemning show trials against people labeled as collaborationists. Hebrang wasn't a serious threat to Serbian interests, since he was demoted several times and in 1948 he was put under house arrest, and later killed.[18] Advocacy in favour of Yugoslavism as a means to achieve the unification of Croatian lands in opposition to their division underAustria-Hungary began with Strossmayer advocating this as being achievable within a federalized Yugoslav monarchy.[14][failed verification]
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Croatian nationalism remained dormant until the late-1960s to early-1970s with the outbreak of theCroatian Spring movement calling for a decentralized Yugoslavia and greater autonomy for Croatia and the other republics from federal government control.[14] These demands were effectively implemented by Tito's regime.[14] Croatian communists started to indicate on Serbian dominance in commanding party posts, posts in the army, police and secret police.[19] Their main contention was the perceived subordinate status of standardCroatian, at that time regarded as a Western variety of Serbo-Croatian.[19] In 1967Croatian Writers' Association called for designation of Croatian as a distinct language both for educational and publishing purposes.[19] Because of such demands Tito gave an order to purge reformers in 1971 and 1972.[19] Some 1,600 Croatian communists were ejected from the Communist Party or arrested.[19]
Such measures stopped the rise of nationalism in Yugoslavia, but Croatian nationalism continued to grow among Croat diaspora in South America, Australia, North America and Europe.[19] Croatian political emigration was well-financed and often closely co-ordinated.[19] Those groups were anti-communist since they originate from political emigrants who left Yugoslavia back in 1945.[19] Croatian nationalism revived in both radical, independentist, and extremist forms in the late 1980s in response to the perceived threat of theSerbian nationalist agenda ofSlobodan Milošević who sought a strongly centralized Yugoslavia.[14] Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991 leading to theCroatian War of Independence from 1991 to 1995.[14]
Beginning in the 1980s, the Croatian nationalist movement was led by former communist general and historianFranjo Tuđman.[19] Tuđman was, at first, a prominent communist, but in the 1960s he began to embrace nationalism.[20] He soon earned the favor of the Croatian diaspora, helping him to raise millions of dollars toward the goal of establishing an independent Croatia.[20] Tuđman gatheredMASPOK intellectuals and sympathisers from among diaspora Croats and founded theCroatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989.[20] In 1990, Tuđman's HDZ won the first democratic elections in theSocialist Republic of Croatia. In 1991,war erupted in Croatia and the following year, theBosnian War broke out. The Croatian ruling elite helped the BosnianHDZ to rise to power within Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first leaders of the Bosnian HDZ opposed Tuđman's idea of division of Bosnia and Herzegovina between Croatia and Serbia; in response,Mate Boban was installed as leader of the HDZ. He founded theCroatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia with the goal to merge it with Croatia at the end of the war.[21] Boban's project was discontinued in 1994 with the creation of theFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.[21]
Since the late-2010s,ultranationalist currents withinCroatian politics have remained stable with after initial efforts to moderate nationalism during Croatia'saccession to the European Union in 2013.[22] Resurgent nationalism since 2020 has induced morecoalition governing in Croatia, often between moderate and ultranationalist political parties.[23]
Both Starčević and Strossmayer had an important role in shaping Croatian identity, but their influence was limited largely to Croatia's intelligentsia.
Two factors have been of immense importance in shaping modern Croatian national identity and nationalism. The first is the concept of historical state right, the belief that the medieval Croatian state never completely lost its independence. The second is various forms of identity associated with other Slavs, especially the Southern Slavs.
Both Starčević and Strossmayer had an important role in shaping Croatian identity, but their influence was limited largely to Croatia's intelligentsia.
