Croats are a Slavic people, who migrated from areas of what is today Galicia (in Ukraine and Poland) and settled in present-day Croatia during the 7th century. It became one of the most powerful kingdoms in the region. In 1102 the Croatians ended a civil war by agreeing to submit themselves to Hungarian authority. By the mid-1400s, the Hungarian kingdom was gravely impacted by the Ottoman expansion.
Although Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, it took four years of sporadic and often bitter fighting with the Serbs before the end of the war in 1995. Peaceful reintegration of all rebel territories in was completed in 1998 under UN supervision.
Croatia applied for European Union membership in 2003 and the EU leaders accepted it as an official candidate country in 2004. Accession talks will begin in early 2005, with entry into the EU expected around 2007-2010.
The President of the Republic (Predsjednik Republike) is head of state and elected for a five-year term. In addition to being the commander in chief of the armed forces, the president appoints the Prime minister with the consent of the Parliament.
The Croatian Parliament (Hrvatski Sabor) is a unicameral legislative body of up to 160 representatives, all elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. The Sabor meets twice a year--from January 15 to July 15 and from September 15 to December 15.
The Croatian Government (Vlada) is headed by the Prime minister who has 2 deputy prime ministers and 14 ministers in charge of particular sectors of activity. The executive branch is responsible for proposing legislation and a budget, executing the laws, and guiding the foreign and internal policies of the republic.
Croatia has a three-tiered judicial system, consisting of the Supreme Court, county courts, and municipal courts. The Constitutional Court rules on matters regarding the Constitution.
Croatia is situated between central, southern and eastern Europe, because it has a rather peculiar shape that resembles a crescent or a horseshoe. This accounts for its many neighbours: Slovenia, Hungary, Serbian part of Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegrin part of Serbia and Montenegro, and Italy across the Adriatic.
Its terrain is diverse, containing:
plains, lakes and rolling hills in the continental north and northeast (Central Croatia and Slavonia, part of the Pannonian plain);
densely wooded mountains in Lika and Gorski Kotar, part of the Dinaric Alps;
Croatia has a mixture of climates. In the north and east it is continental, Mediterranean along the coast and a semi-highland and highland climate in the south-central region.
Croatian economy is post-communist. In the late 1980s, at the beginning of the process of economic transition, its position was favourable, but it was gravely impacted by de-industrialization and war damages.
Main problems include massive structural unemployment followed by an insufficient amount of economic reforms, deterred by public resistance. Of particular concern is the gravely backlogged judiciary system combined with inefficient public administration, especially involving land ownership.
The country has since experienced faster economic growth and has been preparing for membership in the European Union, its most important trading partner.
The population of Croatia has been stagnating over the last decade. The natural growth rate is minute, as the demographic transition has been completed half a century ago. Life expectancy and literacy rates are reasonably high.
Croatian culture is based on thirteen century long history during which the country has attained many monuments and cities, which gave birth to a fair number of brilliant individuals. The country includes six World Heritage sites and eight national parks. Three Nobel prize winners came from Croatia, as did numerous important inventors and other notable people.
Interestingly enough, Croatia also has an place in the history of neckwear as the origin of the necktie (cravat). The country has a long artistic, literary and musical tradition.
