Croatia: A Nation Forged in War

by Marcus Tanner

In this book an eyewitness to the breakup of Yugoslavia provides the first full and impartial account of the rise, fall, and rebirth of Croatia from its medieval origins to today's tentative peace. Marcus Tanner describes the turbulence and drama of Croatia's past and--drawing on his own experience and interviews with many of the leading figures in Croatia's conflict--explains its violent history since Tito's death in 1980. This second edition updates the account and follows Croatia's progress to democracy since the death of President Franjo Tudjman.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, European History, Travel, World History, Historical

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Igor Ljubuncic · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book.

I've read half a dozen books on the Balkans in the past few years, and they all focused on telling the story from the "other" side, or at least not the specific Croatian side. I thought it would be interesting to complement my understanding of the region's history by examining a work that looks at Croatia's influence from a "purely" Croatian perspective.

The title is a bit misleading, because one may assume it's all about the Balkan Boogaloo from the 90s. The book is much more than that, and it goes back to the 6th or 7th century, covers the medieval period quite extensively, touches on the Hungarian, Italian, Austrian and even French influence in the region, explains the differences between the north and the south of Croatia, and then some.

There's also a chunky part on the birth of the proto-Yugoslav ideas by the likes of Bishop Strossmayer, the brittle relation with other Slav nations in the region, the nationalism and revolutions of the 1840s, the revival of the Croatian language, and only then, we get the modern history, the last century, with strong focus on World War II, life under Tito, and finally the war of independence 1991-1995.

By and large, I found the book quite informative. I learned a bunch of new stuff, and fresh perspective on things I already knew. It's always good to complement one's knowledge with more data, and it helps understand far-reaching, strategic decisions and changes that influence nations decades and sometimes even centuries later. Like the Austro-Hungarian decision to bring Vlachs into the Military Frontier area, or the impact of the harsh Italian rule in Dalmatia.

A gripping read, excellent use of language to make even seemingly boring things fascinating, tons of detail and facts and even anectdotes, and heaps of original material. If you like history, you will like this.

Igor

[Bob Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Long-time Minor Leaguer Steps up to Plate, Hits Homer"

We start in the dim past of Slavic tribes moving into the dark realms of the collapsed Roman empire, Christianizing and warding off (sometimes unsuccessfully) the Byzantine rulers from the southeast. Then we move rapidly through the long period of Hungarian rule, coupled with the Venetian hold on the Dalmatian coast, and Turkish occupation. The lands that make up Croatia today long served as a frontier for the Hapsburg Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom, fighting the Muslims/Turks of Bosnia, the French under Napoleon, and the Italians and Russians in World War I. Ultimately Croatia wound up---not an independent state as so many had hoped under the rising tide of nationalism in Austro-Hungarian times---but as a part of Yugoslavia where they played the part of perpetual second fiddle to Serbia. More than half the book is devoted to Croatian history after World War I. Large sections cover the country between the two World Wars, under the awful Ustashe regime during German occupation, and in Tito's Yugoslavia. The slow crumbling and breakup of that country after the leader's death in 1980 is documented very well, as is the war between Croatia and Serbia in 1991-92 and then the lightning campaign in 1995 when the renewed national army drove out the Serbs who had tried to set up an independent enclave within the boundaries of Croatia. Like Ireland, Finland, Slovakia, and other small nations, Croatia endured for centuries as a minor outpost, used but not appreciated by the empires that ruled it. Its territories were often divided among different conquerors. After nearly a thousand years of passionate defence of its mere existence, the nation finally emerged into the light in the 1990s with a language and culture of its own. The perennial "minor leaguer" entered the majors at last. It was an exceedingly difficult transition.

I've read various histories of Balkan and Eastern European countries in which nationalism outpoints facts. Perhaps we might say that "certain facts are ignored" in such books. Tanner, a journalist who worked for years in Croatia and former Yugoslavia, tries to maintain a neutral stance. He neither whitewashes Croatian sins nor takes sides with their enemies. The result is a highly readable book with attention to academic sources, with a series of interesting black and white photographs, and some modern details gleaned on the spot by personal experience which standard histories might never incorporate. I felt that he tried his best to be fair. There are a number of interesting portraits of characters in Croatian history---of Jelacic, Gaj, Strossmeyer, Radic, Pavelic, Stepinac, and Tudjman among others---men hardly known in the outside world. Given that knowledge of Croatia is not particularly widespread, a better, more detailed large map would have been useful. The small maps provided are all right, but insufficient. Histories of Croatia in English aren't exactly a dime a dozen, so you've got to take what you can find. I suspect that Tanner's work, definitive or not, is the most readable. He sticks closely to political/military matters, eschewing the economic, cultural, religious, and other spheres. Croatia's artists, writers, musicians, and architects; the trade, agriculture, and industrial growth, education, even population trends---all are almost totally absent. If you want an excellent action-history of Croatia, this is it, just be aware that nobody can cover all the bases.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

As has been mentioned, this book is comprehensive. A consequence of this is that in exchange for not being twice its length, it's written briskly and is going to leave you behind if you're not at least a little bit already familiar with the people and moments in Croatian history that are outlined here. You need to do a little bit of homework before picking this book up.

But I would suggest that, particularly for someone interested in a text that provides a "Croatian point-of-view", it will be worth your while. Other books that deal with Croatia's, and Yugoslavia's history, have made an opposite compromise; they focus only on the last 50-100 years of the country's history. If you do not preface the Croatia of the 20th and 21st century with everything that came before it, then yes, you are going to see the Croatian Spring of the 1970s as irresponsible politicking, and dismiss the entirety of the wars of the 1990s as 'tribal warring' where all parties are equally guilty.

i.e. there is a common criticism of historical texts of the Balkans that they are often implicitly or explicitly pro-Serbian. Having now read this book and seen how it handles things differently, the other texts are not going into this necessarily pro-Serbian, they are simply focused on brevity and simplicity. If you go at the Balkans like that, the quickest and easiest solution will very often be to rule for Serbia, or, even worse, dismiss the entire region as incomprehensible. There is no clear timeline here. There is no definitive origin of the Croatian people, no set date for the start of Croatia, so that if you're only going to pick the last 100 years and try to make a short and simple book it's going to make conclusions that question the merits of Croatia as a people and as a nation. So if you go into these shorter, simpler books, you still need to do a bit of research beforehand, or else you're going to make the same mistake as the authors of these lighter texts - the history of the Balkans is not a matter of levity where you pick your favourite country the same way you pick your favourite sports team, and then draw conclusions from there.

Yes, its history a difficult, checkered and non-linear affair that will confound most historians (so that many texts by British authors from the 1950s - 1990s have 'picked' the Serbs, who have a much neater and organized past), but that does not call Croatia's national identity into question. Again, you have to do your homework and understand how and why it could ever be possible for the very name of Croatia to survive the last 1500-odd years. This book isn't a refreshing break because it's "pro-Croatian," it's refreshing because it does a thorough and honest job of chronicling what Croatia is and who Croatians are. It will serve anyone who would like to understand Croatia, so long as you are willing to put the time into it. Marcus Tanner deserves a great deal of thanks for his work here.

[Michael Seselja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcus Tanner does a good job delving into the sources to produce a detailed sketch of Croatian history from the 9th century to the early 2000s. I use the word detailed to refer to how he presents the early nineteenth century onwards, and sketch to refer to the first thousand years or so. I was a little disappointed with the skimming over of medieval Croatian history but in fairness the amount of sources he would have had to work with is limited.

The story gets interesting (and more fleshed out) when the Croatian national movement kicks off with Illyrianism in the nineteenth century. Tanner then moves with sufficient detail through the fall of the Habsburgs, the two Yugoslavias and the war for independence without getting bogged down.

Despite being primarily a political history he does spend time painting a picture of what life was like for everyday people in Croatia throughout all these important events. For example he didn’t shy away from describing how many clergy were killed by the Communists immediately after WW2, and the atmosphere of fear that resulted. This gave me a bit of a better sense of the way things were when my great uncle was studying to become a priest (and getting imprisoned for his troubles)

Now for my criticism; there’s a definite liberal bias. It’s the usual Enlightenment liberal attitude to the Catholic Church (it was holding people back in the Middle Ages until they were liberated by reason and blah blah blah), and at the end of the book he seems convinced that Croatia just needs to lean further into liberalism (both economic and social) to improve things going forward. Personally I’m not so sure, and one thing he pointed out in the book about liberalism’s weak roots in Croatia interested me.

Tanner pointed out that due to Croatia’s rule by Communists for much of the twentieth century, fascists for a little bit and autocratic monarchs before that, Western liberalism was never able to develop much of a base of support until recently. It’s my hope that Croats (who are fundamentally a Western people in my eyes) see the liberal West’s decline a bit higher up the slippery slope than other nations and pull back from the cliff before we too, fall over it.

[Steven Z. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always been fascinated by the History of the Balkans since I was in graduate school, studying European diplomatic history. There I came across Otto von Bismarck’s 1888 commentary that a future European war would be sparked by a conflict in the Balkans, referring to the region as a powder keg. Two of his most notable quotes illustrate his apprehension: "One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans;” and the “whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier." Obviously, Bismarck was correct based on the events of June 28, 1914, the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand while visiting Sarajevo which led to the outbreak of World War I.

My interest in the region has not waned over the decades, particularly with the Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990s. Last year my wife and I worked with a wonderful guide on a trip to Portugal and Spain who was from Zagreb. After two weeks of travel and conversation we agreed that a visit to Croatia and other Balkan areas would be a wonderful agenda. Fast forward, my wife and I traveled to Croatia, Sarajevo, and Trieste. Before leaving for our journey due to my inquisitive nature (there is a Freudian term which I will not use) I picked up a copy of Marcus Tanner’s informative book, CROATIA: A HISTORY FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE PRESENT DAY which was first published in 1997 and has gone through four printings. The original edition was the first history of Croatia written by an Anglo-Saxon author and is important because of its coverage of Croatian history from Medieval times through its transformation into a modern state with membership in the European Union and NATO. Tanner, a former reporter for London’s Independent newspaper who covered the Yugoslav wars, authored the book to fill in the gaps in understanding the former Yugoslavia and in his view Croatia deserved to be studied separately.

Overall, Tanner describes an area that for centuries has been rife with conflict and external threats. Croatian history is disjointed and experienced many attempts to bring cohesion which usually resulted in failure. The author begins with a chapter on the early Croatian kings exploring how the area was first settled in the seventh century, highlighting its relationship with the Papacy and conflict with Slavs and Hungarians, culminating in the Pacta Conventa in 1102.

Tanner describes how the Hungarians would split the kingdom into north and south. The north was treated as an appendage of Hungary, and the south had its own kingdom. Croatia would be ruled as part of the kingdom of Hungary, and Habsburgs until the end of World War I. However, before Habsburg rule that lasted until the end of the Great War took effect the Dalmatian coast experienced a great deal of political conflict and economic competition among its towns and cities exhibiting a great deal of jealousy between themselves as well as Dubrovnik, which emerged as a dominant commercial center.

Aside from internal conflict the region also faced tremendous external threats especially from Venice and the Ottoman Empire. Tanner explains Venetian interest along the Dalmatian coast which was focused on the area between Zadar and Dubrovnik. In addition, the Croats were confronted by the Mongols who were beaten back by the Hungarian army in 1241. A century later the Ottoman Turks began to take hold of the region and slowly made their way through the Balkan peninsula seizing Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and by the 1490s it was Hungary and Croatia’s turn at the Battle of Kosovo in 1493; though the fighting continued into the 16th century. With the accession of Suleyman the Magnificent, the greatest of the Ottoman Sultan in 1521, the remainder of Croatia began to fall in the 1520s. As Hungary withered away the Croatian nobles turned to Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor who was more interested in crushing Martin Luther.

Tanner’s monograph is very detailed, and the reader has to pay careful attention to the myriad of names, places, and analysis that is presented. At times, the writing is a bit dense, but that goes with the detail presented. Once Tanner reaches the late 1800s his prose becomes crisper, and my interest piqued as the information is more easily digested as the writing seems to become more fluid. Despite any drawbacks, Tanner does a good job explaining the intricacies of Ottoman inroads into Croatia. One must realize the Croatia of today was split into three parts in the 16th century; Croatia to the north, Venitia along the Dalmatian coast; and Dubrovnik. Each was treated differently by the Turks. Tanner explains the relationship among the diverse groups in the region and concludes that the Croatians were willing to accept Habsburg suzerainty, while Venitia and Dubrovnik were not. The high water mark for the Ottoman Empire in the region was the 1590s, then their interest began to slowly recede.

Tanner is spot on as he describes Ottoman rule over Croatia as “an unmitigated disaster with no redeeming characteristics.” Croatia was Catholic and the Turks had not forgotten the Crusades which led to the almost complete destruction of civilized life, the burning of towns, villages, and the mass flight of peasants. As they laid waste to the countryside their persecution of Roman Catholics was intense and forced many Catholics to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy as the Turks allowed it to become part of the Millet System which granted a measure of religious autonomy. By the early 17th century, the two main noble dynasties in Croatia were defeated and from that point on there was no one to rally Croat nationalism.

Tanner is once again correct as he points to the failure of the Ottoman attempt to conquer Vienna as a watershed moment in Central European and Balkan history. It would lead to the end of Turkish control over most of Croatia as the Sultan’s Grand Vizier, Kara Musrtafa tried to renew the tradition of conquest but was unable to defeat the largely unprepared Viennese. The failure was due to the combined army of Poles, Austrians, Bavarians, Germans, and Saxons under the leadership of Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland. It was as a result of this defeat that the Ottoman Empire earned the nickname, “the sick man of Europe.” In 1699 the Ottoman Empire signed a treaty resigning any claims to Hungary or Croatia.

Tanner points to a number of historical figures that greatly impacted Croatian history. One of these individuals is Josip Jelacic, an officer in the Austrian army during the Revolutions of 1848 as well as the Ban of Croatia, another is another 19th century Croatian Ante Starcevic, a politician and writer who believed in self-determination for the Croatian people. He wanted a separate Croatian state, not unification with other southern Slavic states, and came to be known as “the father of the nation.” By the late 19th century other individuals emerged as dominant politicians like Charles Khuen-Hedervary, the Ban of Croatia who tried to Magyarize his country. As we approach World War I Hungary and Habsburg’s discredit themselves in the eyes of Croatians with their political machinations and in 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia Herzegovina. What follows are the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913, a rehearsal for the world war that was to follow. The impact of World War I on the Balkans was significant as the nation of Yugoslavia emerged in Paris with the Treaty of Versailles. From this point on the narrative picks up in intensity but Tanner should devote more time to the events leading up to war, the war itself, and the role of the Croats in Paris after the war.

Tanner succinctly recounts the diplomatic intrigues that produced a unified state in the Balkans and argues that Croats favored the creation of the new country. A constitutional monarchy emerges, but constant ethnic tensions dominate the 1920s as Serbs wanted a centralized state, and Croats favored a federal structure. These issues would dominate the remainder of the 20th century as Croatia opposed unification, favoring regional autonomy.

The dominant Croatian politician of the period was Ante Pavelic who created the Ustashe Croatian Liberation Movement in 1929. He would come under the protection of Benito Mussolini who allowed him to train his own fascist fighting force in Italy. Pavelic spent the 1930s in and out of prison, but his movement continued to expand. By March 1940 under his leadership Yugoslavia would join the Axis powers as Pavelic morphed into the dictator of the Croatian state. To acquire credibility among the Croatian people Tanner points to the support of the Archbishop of Zagreb, Alojzije Stepanic, an extremely controversial historical figure. Here Tanner goes into depth concerning the transformation of a Palevic supporter to saving Jews from perishing and being nominated as a “Righteous Christian” after the war.

The actions of Pavelic’s Ustashe during the war would scar Croatia to this day as Pavelic modeled his reign, racial ideas, and militarism on Nazi Germany resulting in the death of about 80,000 people (20,000 of which were children) in concentration camps, the most famous of which was Jasenovac, Croatia’s most notorious camp which I visited during my trip. As with other subjects, Tanner devotes a paragraph to the camp. Pavelic was a firm believer in ethnic cleansing and during the war for the homeland in the 1990s the Serbs accused Croatia of following the program Pavelic laid down decades before.

Tanner seems more comfortable analyzing events after World War II focusing on the rise of Josip Broz Tito who led a partisan movement that defeated the Ustashe. Tito would assume power after the war, setting up his own brand of socialism with a foreign policy that played off the United States and the Soviet Union. Tanner explores this period but does not provide the depth of analysis that is needed in discussing the 1948 split between Tito and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin which was highlighted by extreme vitriolic accusations, one must remember that Tito’s partisans liberated Yugoslavia, not the Russians which was the case in most of Eastern Europe. Tito would institute his own brand of communism and during his reign allowed more and more private enterprise. However, Tito brooked no opposition and ruled with a heavy hand which was the only way Yugoslavia remained united. A.J.P. Taylor, the noted British historian, explained Tito’s success as his ability to rule over different nations by playing them off against one another and controlling their nationalist hostilities.” The problem delineated by CIA report warned in the early 1970s that once Tito passed from the scene the Balkans would deteriorate into civil war.

Tito will die in 1980, and Tanner carefully outlines the deterioration of the Yugoslav experiment which resulted in a number of wars in the 1990s. The two men who dominated the period in the Balkans was Franjo Tudjman, a former communist whose platform rested on Croatian nationalism and by the mid-1990s would prove the most successful Croatian politician of the 20th century. His main adversary was Slobodan Milosevic, a Serbian nationalist who rose to power in Serbia who believed in the creation of a “Greater Serbia” by uniting all Serbs. The fact that tens of thousands of Serbs lived within the borders of other Yugoslav republics was a problem he would try to overcome.

From Tanner’s narrative it is clear that Serbia was responsible for instigating the blood and carnage that tore Yugoslavia apart. Tanner expertly details Slovenian and Croatian independence announced in 1991 and the war that ensued. Many argue that the Yugoslav Civil War was less a bloodletting of one state against another and more like a series of wars that was conducted with mini-civil wars in Croatia and Bosnia. My own view parallels Tanner’s that a series of separate wars took place once Milosevic used the civil war within Croatia as an excuse to redraw the borders of Yugoslavia. Further once the bloodletting ensued the European community and the United States were rather feckless in trying to control and end the fighting. Milosevic pursued what he called a “cleansing of the terrain” of non-Serb elements in Croatia and Bosnia, and Tanner does his best to disentangle the complexity of the fighting and the failure of European diplomacy. Further, after speaking with people in Croatia, the war should not be called, the Yugoslav Civil War, more accurately it should be described as the War for the Homeland.

It is clear that the first war was fought between Serbia and Croatia in 1991 and 1992 and Tudjman seemed to sacrifice a quarter of Croatian territory, i.e.; half of Slavonia and the Dalmatian coast excluding Dubrovnik to the Serbs. However, Milosevic’s hunger for a Greater Serbia and the atrocities that ensued particularly in Vukovar led German Foreign Minister Hans Dietrich-Genscher to manipulate the situation allowing Croatia to emerge victorious with Tudjman emerging as a hero for the Croatian people, but at an unbelievable cost. For Zagreb, it was insidious and horrible for the Croatian people as 6,651 died, 13,700 went missing, 35 settlements raised to the ground, 210,000 houses destroyed…….. People described to me what the war was like and how the Croatian people suffered.

The second war of the period was the situation in Bosnia in early 1992 between Serbs and Muslims. Within a few weeks of the fighting Serbia controlled 70% of Bosnia and after repeated atrocities against the Muslim community the United Nations voted sanctions, finally the Clinton administration and its European allies employed an arms embargo against the Muslims which Tanner does not really explain. Further, the siege of Sarajevo receives a cursory mention which is a mistake. The siege of Sarajevo and the massacre at Srebrenica deserved detailed exploration.
By April 1993, a third war ensued with Croat-Muslim fighting in Bosnia. Croat actions angered the United States and Germany who helped bring the fighting to an end. In discussing the conflict Tanner presents an interesting comparison of Tudjman and Milosevic which is worth exploring. Finally, the Clinton Administration pushed for peace through the work of Richard Holbrook to produce the Dayton Accords in 1995, but yet again Tanner only provides a cursory mention of the diplomacy that ended the third war. The final war takes place as the 1990s ends in Kosovo whose detail is beyond the scope of Tanner’s narrative.

Tanner’s effort is the first of its kind since the end of communism and the rise of Croatia. Tanner’s work is essential reading for anyone interested in Croatian history, despite the fact that his coverage of the pre-18th century is not as well written and dynamic as the periods that follow. In addition, the book rests on research in mostly secondary sources and there is little evidence of the use of primary materials. However, I found the book a wonderful companion as I explored Croatia, the Dalmatian coast, and Sarajevo and it appears now that Croatia is a member of the European Union and NATO it has tremendous potential for the future.

[James Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

In preparation for a vacation in Croatia, I thought I’d pick up a book to familiarize myself with the country. I was surprised to find that this book was a remarkably fascinating and complete history of Croatia - and actually of a lot of European History!

Turns out that Croatia has been mixed up in conflicts between the Hapsburgs, Italians and Ottomans throughout history - as well as 19th century revolutions, World Wars, and of course the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. This book finally gave me a way to understand all that a was going on there.

[Garrett Lewis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t know where to start with this review other than to say that journalists are not historians. It doesn’t appear that Marcus Tanner set out to write a poorly researched book report that is packaged as a monograph, but that doesn’t excuse the utter lack of forethought that went into this project. Tanner cites no original source material for any period prior to the time that he started covering the Balkans for a newspaper in the UK and even after that point there is very little being cited. Yet, despite this, he speaks as if he is an authority on the subject. No historian would venture to act as an authority on a subject they have not consulted primary source material from, yet to a journalist, a monograph is a primary source. So, while I understand how this book was made and the thought process Tanner went through, it still doesn’t excuse some of the utter nonsense he spews. Ultimately this book has use. It gives sane, interested, non-historians a good starting point to learn more about Croatian history, but ultimately it should be read with caution and a keen eye for spotting bullshit. I think if academic presses like Yale (who published this book) weren’t unfortunately thrust into a capitalist system that requires profits these books would be less common. But, faced with the reality that historians and academics take a long time to reach a point in research where they feel confident to write with authority on a subject, journalists are a logical substitute to publish books on more recent historical events. If academic presses could simply focus on purely academic projects I feel as though historical knowledge of events wouldn’t be clouded by books like this.

[Will · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book provides a concise overview of the history of conflict in Croatia, as well as broader conflicts in the Croatian region from a Croatian perspective. Marcus Tanner adopts a descriptive approach in this book, seeking to weave a narrative discussing the political and military intrigue in the country from the time that the ancestors of modern Croatians first migrated to the region in the 7th century. The book is divided into twenty chapters, the first of which describes the control of the region by the Byzantines and Franks, and the conversion of the region to Christianity. The following three chapters analyze the manner in which the Hungarians came to dominate the Croatian kingdom, while also providing some description on how the clan leaders slowly began the transition to a feudal system. Following the attacks by Crusaders in the Second Crusade, as well as the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century, analysis then proceeds to discuss the Ottoman invasion and control of the region. The fourth and fifth chapters discuss Austrian influence over Croatia, and the manner in which they drove the Ottomans from Croatia in the 1690s.
The effects of the rise of Croatian nationalism is discussed in chapters six through nine. Tanner emphasizes the importance of French Revolution and the revolutions of 1848. The former he argues was of minimal importance beyond urban areas, while the latter demonstrated the increasing desire for an independent state. This nationalism was strengthened as the Croatian monarchy was subjected under the Hungarian, with the creation of the Dual Monarchy in the 1860s. Focus is then turned to the creation of the Yugoslav state, and the jostling of Croatian leaders to bring about a favourable status for their nation within the ‘Sporazum’ (or ‘agreement’) which sought Croatian parity with Serbia as an autonomous region within the new state. Chapters 11 and 12 focus on the experience in Croatia under the Ustashe – the fascist group who collaborated with German invades during the Second World War. After discussing in great detail the Ustashe’s political and military operations during the war, attention is turned to the rise of Tito. A chapter devoted to the Croatian Spring of the 1960s, seeking increasing democratic and economic reforms, is followed by one on the death of Tito and the rise of Milosevic and Serbian nationalism as it increasingly asserted control over the Yugoslav state.
The fifteenth through nineteenth chapters discuss the independent state of Croatia, and the descent into regional conflict in the 1990s. Tanner places specific emphasis on Croatia’s role with Serbia, while largely leaving out regional conflict and geopolitical concerns. Whereas one chapter – entitled “Danke Deutschland” – discusses briefly external concerns and involvement, this is secondary to Tanner’s emphasis on the Croatian perspective, which was largely foucssed on Serbia regardless of external actors. Emphasis is placed on the conflict with the Republic of Krajina (ethnically Serb republic within Croatia’s borders), Serbian support for their co-ethnics, as well as the Croatian military campaign to seize it back. The nineteenth chapter focuses on the post-conflict independence, and the state’s struggles to rebuild infrastructure, joining the EU, and struggling with its post-Yugoslav identity and post-conflict legacy. As the third edition of this book, this book adds a twentieth chapter to the second edition, in which the author discusses Croatian political and economic strengthening in the post-2000 period. He discusses the continued difficulty of Croatia in constructing a new nationalism and identity, including the rights of previously persecuted communities such as the Serbs and Jews, as well as the increasing gay rights movement in the country. A brief discussion is dedicated to the attempts of Croatia to join the European Union.

For the beginner on Croatian history, this book will provide an in depth overview of the history of the recently independent country, as well as its historical and cultural origins as they relate to war and conflict. For the expert however, the book may seem long on detail and short on analysis. Naturally, any attempt to cover the entire history of a state and ethnicity will necessarily leave out much, and Tanner should be commended for sticking to his goals of discussing Croatia and its experience in conflict. However, the book might benefit from increased analysis on how the conflict has led to the nationalism in specific, and how those nationalism and forms of identity within Croatia both contributed to and were defined by the conflict it experienced over time. The discussion is descriptive in approach, focussing largely on military history and political manoeuvre as it relates to the key individuals in each period. There is much on coalitions, political jostling and interpersonal relationships between the key figures in each of Croatia’s historical periods, while there is little in terms of socio-cultural development and change beyond the manner in which the country was a microcosm of larger religious conflict.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

a clear, concise overview of croatia's turbulent history. good coverage of croatian self-identity & its evolution over the years.

[John Kusmec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Without having a personal connection to the history of Croatia, I would have rated this three stars, but I found a lot of enjoyment learning about the history of the country that part of my family is from. It was cool to imagine my great-grandparents living through the period at the end of the 1800s and what may have influenced their immigration to the US. The biggest drawbacks to this book were the lack of maps and subheadings to help guide the reader. Regardless, I feel like I’ve come away with valuable knowledge about a piece of my ancestry, so I’m pretty satisfied with this one.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

While visiting Croatia a few years ago, I stopped into a book store and asked what was the best book about the history of Croatia, and they recommended this book. It was an excellent recommendation. However, if anyone should decided to read this, it would be wise to do a bit of homework up front. Several times I had to stop and look up (Google) references to historical people and events to put together a concise picture. I believe the author expected the reader to be a little more knowlegdeable about it's history. But it was an excellent look at Croatia's early history dating back to the Romans, and it's relationships with Hungary, France, the Habsburg Empire, the Ottomans, and the Venetians. Also to it's relationships with the countries comprising the Yugoslav nation.

From the ashes of former Yugoslavia an independent Croatian state has arisen, the fulfillment, in the words of President Franjo Tudjman, of the Croats' "thousand-year-old dream of independence." Yet few countries in Europe have been born amid such bitter controversy and bloodshed: the savage war between pro-independence forces and the Yugoslav army left about one-third of the country in ruins and resulted in the flight of a quarter of a million of the country's Serbian minority.

[Gabo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been interested in the Balkans as it is a complicated area and thanks to this book I was able to get a little better understanding of it. There were times when the names of important figures got mixed up for me but overall it gave me a better understanding of the origins of what we now know as Croatia. I started reading this before my trip to Zagreb and I do have to say it made my stay there more interesting and fascinating. I would definitely recommend this book.

[Brody Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most thorough exploration of the history of Croatia I have encountered. Because of this, it was a very difficult read, but it helped tremendously with my "Pan-Slavism" paper for my senior seminar class.

[Erik Champenois · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of Croatian history, albeit one that focuses more on modern history - especially the breakup of Yugoslavia and the wars of the early 1990s. As the author puts it in the introduction, "it was impossible to write about the war of the 1990s without referring back to the war of the 1940s, and impossible to write about that without referring to the first Yugoslavia and the political climate of the 1920s and 1930s, which then threw me back to the national awakening of the 1840s. In the end, I decided to start with the first Croat principalities of the Dark Ages."

The book reflects that decision - as earlier chapters cover a lot of ground much too quickly, with one barely being able to follow some of the personalities and events. On the other hand, once one gets to the 1940s, the pace slows down and one is better able to follow the text and get to know the characters and events in more than a brushstroke way.

What I learned from this book, as the author himself wished to explain, was how the war of the 1990s really cannot be understood without understanding the war of the 1940s - when Croatia was under fascist Ustaše rule, under a German and Italian spheres of influence, leading to the mass killing of hundreds of thousands of Serbs and tens of thousands of Jews and Romas. The Serbian Chetniks, in response, killed tens of thousands of Croats (and Bosnians). (The Communists did not kill many Croats, but instead killed many of their own, as well as Germans and Hungarians).

Combine the historical memory of the Ustaše killings with a Yugoslavia dominated by the Serbs - and Serb leaders wanting to respond to the breakup of Yugoslavia by creating a Greater Serbia could successfully appeal to a supposed resurgence of Ustašism to justify taking Croatian territory (and of course, both Serbia and Croatia occupied Bosnian territory as well).

The book ends almost immediately before Croatia became a member of the EU (in 2013), the second former Yugoslav country to become an EU member (with Slovenia having joined in 2004). Today - in 2023 - these two countries remain the only former Yugoslav EU member countries, though Albania and Northern Macedonia might be on their way to join in the next few years (and possibly Montenegro after that). The former Yugoslav countries - and some of the surrounding countries, like Bulgaria and Greece - still have their frictions with each other, though thankfully not as violent as before, and are (especially Serbia and Bosnia) vulnerable to Russian influence. With the current Ukraine war having accelerated attention to this region of Europe, hopefully (though, not at all certainly) local populations and Western leaders will be able to help consolidate improved relations, neighborliness, good governance, and eventual EU membership for the region as a whole.

[Melsene G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having just returned from Croatia, I wanted to learn more about its history, so this book showed up in a search and did the job. There's a lot to digest so I'll give some highlights or general comments. We start back in the 600s. The area was settled by Roman Catholics. The lines moved constantly. You had the Mongols, Slavs, Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian empire, Venetians, the Habsburgs, to name a few overlords. There was always fighting between the Catholics and the Orthodox, and then add in the Muslims and the Serbs.

There were thousands and thousands killed, tortured, enslaved, etc., and 'ethnic cleansing' got its start in these parts. There was some sort of government but it sounded corrupt, run by the wealthy landowners, monarchy, etc. Peasants didn't stand a chance and out of that came communism which saw the extermination of thousands as it always does throughout history. Then comes Tito, nee Josip Broz, half Croat, half Slovene. He was the leader of the Yugoslavia Communist Party. Partisans-were anti Germany, pro Soviets. Tito killed thousands of Ustashe (nationalists), clergy, stole land, all business nationalized in 1948. In 1945 the monarchy was abolished.

Yugoslavia was a nation of 7 republics: Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia. Tito died in 1980 after 35 years of ruling Yugoslavia. Milosevic was a tyrant leader in Serbia and massacred thousands. So much corruption. He wanted to take over Croatia and neighboring countries. Croatia's economy was destroyed, thousands killed and displaced. Constant battles between and among the above players. The US and West was slow to act and the UN was involved but there was so much corruption.

The names of all the leaders are hard to pronounce/recall and there are so many groups and players in this long tumultuous history. The media was so corrupt, too, this is nothing new and it continues today. A glossary of terms would help and possibly of list of important characters, kings, rulers, etc. In sum, if you think our country is troubled, one only needs to learn some history and you'll see that where there are people, there will always be war, hatred, and greed.

[Margaret Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am currently reading two books similar to this, the first about modern Greece, which is dry, and another on the history of Serbia, which plays to the sensationalistic market. Marcus Tanner’s ‘Croatia’ lies between these two extremes. I am interested in the former Yugoslavia, and found this book an agreeable read. Certainly, the more compassionate a Western author can be when discussing Yugoslavia, the more wonder he will create about an area whose very real qualities have been overshadowed by the horrors of its breakup in the 1990’s. I will never forget the two weeks I spent in Yugoslavia in 1985, and the lovely memories that underwent such a severe beating only five years later. Tanner has achieved compassion, I believe, at the same time weaving into his work large amounts of intriguing Mediaeval and early modern Croatian history, as well as contemporary politics.

[Filip · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Croatian I read a lot of books about Croatian history from Croatian authors so it was really interesting to read how someone abroad sees our history. Reading about us from foreign perspective was really wholesome for some reason. Our history is fascinating, tragic and tourbulent to say the least. Marcus Tanner is good writer who was journalist in Croatia during the war, he saw our coutry first hand and he did his reaserch really well. There are some historic facts he wrote wrong and some of the events in our history are written as his personal opinions that most of my countrymen would disagree, also someone not familiar with Croatian historic figures will need google search to put things in perspective. But apart from that this is great book to understand us Croats, its a great start.
I recommend this book!

[Peter Corrigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Amazon review on August 20, 2018

This book attempts to do a lot in a fairly short space and for someone new to the history it is pretty tough going at times. Between the names of people and places it can by mighty confusing. Additional maps would have been highly beneficial and a glossary of important names and chronology of key dates would have been really useful. It does its best work from the breakup of Yugoslavia on through the emergence of modern Croatia. I would have enjoyed some moments of more subjectivity as to what makes a 'Croatian' versus a Bosnian or Serb, other than the obvious historical-religious divergences. Are they really different in personality and behavior traits? The Croats have produced some really good soccer players, too bad they lost to France in the World Cup, it would have been one of the great upsets in sport!

[Ka'tje · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked this book up when visiting Dubrovnik, Herzegovina area and Montenegro, and thoroughly enjoyed reading it as its concisely written. It was my 2nd visit to Croatia and only read about Yugoslavia before. Upon my visit I had so many questions and this book gave a great insight by answering some of them.

Austro-Hungarian, Italian, German, Vlachs, influences and of course the brief touching on the slavic origins, putting a lot in perspective, as I was quite confused with getting a grip on their cultural identity when there.

The book is walking through all major political events, which clarifies the inter-ethnic tensions (of hopefully the past).

Great intro book!

[Ethan Marstella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even with ending in 2001, this book was extremely helpful in understanding current realities in Croatia. That being said, the first 150 pages were tough to power through. The author does a great job of making events more engaging and personal when you start getting to pre-World War timelines, and for the most part doesn’t feel the need to rehash every atrocity of the Yugoslav wars. The book is helpful and informative, but I couldn’t give it more stars because I just didn’t enjoy the work it took.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to give this more, as, when it's in the middle and up to the wars of the 90s, this really does tell a lot. The early stuff is, like most of these kind of books, left feeling like lists of names and occasional big events that we know about, so it doesn't grab for a while.

The biggest fault - for which the author doesn't really deserve any stars being knocked off - the font and setting were, to me, extremely difficult to read. There is little space between lines and letters; it just makes it hard to follow and I found myself drifting away.

[TroTro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a good read, after I slogged through the initial chapters on the early history. To be fair, it is probably my lack of interest in the early days, rather than the author's writing, that made it slow going. I really enjoyed it after 1800. In fact, I read most of it in one weekend. The details about the Croatian spring, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the thinking of the old partisans versus the nationalists was well done.

[Garret Cahill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent and clearly-written history of this fascinating country. The only caveat I have is that this "fourth edition" (2019) is really the same book as that published in 2010, with the addition of a short generalizing preface. Readers expecting an account of Croatia's situation over the last decade - and in particular its accession to the EU - will be disappointed.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

A non-fiction that keeps its focus, as stated in the title, on Croatia's political and military struggles throughout its history. I appreciated the balanced stance; the author sheds lights both on crimes perpetuated against, and by, the Croatian people. This was a great introduction to the history of a country I knew little about last year.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of Croatian history and the major events and politicians of the 19th and 20th centuries. You can see how lots of little ominous events just spiral into large conflicts.

But don't come here looking for what the experience of normal people were during these period.

Three and a half freedom trains out of five

[Jimmy Royston · Rating 3 out of 5]

An expansive and detailed history of the past 1000 years that was really fun to read while touring Croatia! Learned a ton, but this book is detailed and sometimes left me behind in what it assumed I already knew about the regional history.

[Nicolas Ivanovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente libro para introducirse en la historia de Croacia. La escritura es muy clara y amena. El autor expone con bases sólidas, incluso narrando en primera persona las partes más recientes que tienen que ver con la guerra contra los serbios y en Bosnia.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall enjoyed, not the most flowy book I’ve read. Lost me a bit in the middle but picked up again around ww1.
Might return to earlier chapters at a later point cus more interred in that period, although would have liked more of a focus on pre 1500. Would like to find a book which covers that.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since i grew up there, and beign there during the war, i can't agree with all the facts this author has produced.

[ShuT · Rating 4 out of 5]

for learning a history of one country, this is quite good.