Croats (; , ) are a South Slavic ethnic group native to Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and other neighboring countries in Central and Southeastern Europe. They share a common Croatian culture, ancestry, history, and speak the Croatian language. The ethnic group is predominantly Catholic.
Croats form a sizeable minority in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and Slovenia. Many emigrated from Europe and established a sizable diaspora in the aftermath of World War II for political, social, and economic reasons. Grassroots assistance from earlier communities and the Catholic Church allowed them to settle in the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. 3.9 million people in Croatia identify themselves as Croats, constituting about 90.4% of the population. Another 553,000 live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they are one of the country's three constituent ethnic groups. This population is predominantly found in Western Herzegovina, Central Bosnia, and Bosnian Posavina. The Croat minority in Serbia numbers about 70,000 and mostly lives in Vojvodina. The ethnic Tarara people, indigenous to Te Tai Tokerau in New Zealand, are of mixed Croatian and Māori Ngāpuhi descent. Tarara Day is celebrated every 15 March to commemorate their "highly regarded place in present-day Māoridom".
The Croatian language is official in Croatia, the European Union, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatian is a recognized minority language within Croatian autochthonous communities and minorities in Montenegro, Austria (Burgenland), Italy (Molise), Romania (Carașova, Lupac), and Serbia (Vojvodina).
Etymology
The foreign ethnonym variation "Croats" of the native name "Hrvati" derives from Medieval Latin , itself a derivation of North-West Slavic , by liquid metathesis from Common Slavic period *Xorvat, from proposed Proto-Slavic *Xъrvátъ which possibly comes from the 3rd-century Scytho-Sarmatian form attested in the Tanais Tablets as (, alternate forms comprise and ). The origin of the ethnonym is uncertain, but most probably is from Proto-Ossetian / Alanian *xurvæt- or *xurvāt-, in the meaning of "one who guards" ("guardian, protector"). The earliest preserved mentions of the ethnonym in stone inscriptions and written documents in the territory of Croatia are dated to the 8th-9th century (e.g. Dux Croatorum on Branimir inscription and Dux Chroatorum on Charter of Duke Trpimir), while in native Croatian language the earliest writing is from the Baška tablet (), which in Glagolitic script reads: ("Zvonimir, king of Croats").
History
Arrival of the Slavs
Early Slavs, especially Sclaveni and Antae, including the White Croats, invaded and settled Southeastern Europe in the 6th and 7th century.
Early medieval archaeology Archaeological evidence shows population continuity in coastal Dalmatia and Istria. In contrast, much of the Dinaric hinterland appears to have been depopulated, as virtually all hilltop settlements, from Noricum to Dardania, were abandoned and few appear destroyed in the early 7th century. Although the dating of the earliest Slavic settlements has been disputed, recent archaeological data established that the migration and settlement of the Slavs/Croats were in the late 6th and early 7th century.
Croat ethnogenesis
There is considerable uncertainty surrounding the exact circumstances of their appearance given the scarcity of literary sources during the 7th and 8th century Middle Ages. Traditionally, scholarship has placed the arrival of the White Croats from White Croatia in Eastern Europe in the early 7th century, primarily on the basis of the later Byzantine document De Administrando Imperio. As such, the arrival of the Croats was seen as part of main wave or a second wave of Slavic migrations, which took over Dalmatia from Avar hegemony. However, as early as the 1970s, scholars questioned the reliability of Porphyrogenitus' work, written as it was in the 10th century. Rather than being an accurate historical account, De Administrando Imperio more accurately reflects the political situation during the 10th century. It mainly served as Byzantine propaganda praising Emperor Heraclius for repopulating the Balkans (previously devastated by the Avars, Sclaveni, and Antes) with Croats, who were seen by the Byzantines as tributary peoples living on what had always been 'Roman land'.
Scholars have hypothesized the name Croat (Hrvat) may be Iranian, thus suggesting that the (Proto-)Croatian ethnogenesis is related to the Sarmatians, the major basis for this connection being inscriptions from the Tanais dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, mentioning the name . Similar arguments have been made for an alleged Gothic-Croat link. Whilst there is possible evidence of population continuity between Gothic and Croatian times in parts of Dalmatia, the idea of a Gothic origin of Croats was more rooted in the 20th century Ustaše political aspirations than historical reality.
Other polities in Dalmatia and Pannonia
Other distinct polities and ethno-political groups existed around the Croat duchy. These included the Guduscans (based in Liburnia), Pagania (between the Cetina and Neretva River), Zachlumia (between Neretva and Dubrovnik), Bosnia, and Serbia in other eastern parts of ex-Roman province of "Dalmatia". Also prominent in the territory of future Croatia was the polity of Prince Ljudevit who ruled the territories between the Drava and Sava rivers ("Pannonia Inferior"), centred from his fort at Sisak. Although Duke Liutevid and his people are commonly seen as a "Pannonian Croats", he is, due to the lack of "evidence that they had a sense of Croat identity" referred to as dux Pannoniae Inferioris, or simply a Slav, by contemporary sources. Liudewit is considered the first Croatian prince. Constantine Porphyrogenitus has Dalmatia and parts of Slavonia populated by Croatians. But this author wrote more than a hundred years after the Frankish Royal annals which never mention the name of the Croatians although a great many Slavic tribal names are mentioned in the text. Therefore, if one applies the methods of an ethnogenetic interpretation, the Croatian Liudewit seems to be an anachronism. A closer reading of the DAI suggests that Constantine VII's consideration about the ethnic origin and identity of the population of Lower Pannonia, Pagania, Zachlumia, and other principalities is based on tenth century political rule and does not indicate ethnicity, and although both Croats and Serbs could have been a small military elite which managed to organize other already settled and more numerous Slavs, it is possible that Narentines, Zachlumians, and others also arrived as Croats or with Croatian tribal alliance.
The Croats emerged as the dominant local power in northern Dalmatia, absorbing Liburnia and expanding their name by conquest and prestige. In the south, while having periods of independence, the Naretines merged with Croats later under control of Croatian Kings. With such expansion, Croatia became the dominant power and absorbed other polities between Frankish, Bulgarian, and Byzantine empire. Although the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja has been dismissed as an unreliable record, the mentioned "Red Croatia" suggests that Croatian clans and families might have settled as far south as Duklja/Zeta. According to Martin Dimnik writing for The New Cambridge Medieval History, "at the beginning of the eleventh century the Croats lived in two more or less clearly defined regions" of the "Croatian lands" which "were now divided into three districts" including Slavonia/Pannonian Croatia (between rivers Sava and Drava) on one side and Croatia/Dalmatian littoral (between Gulf of Kvarner and rivers Vrbas and Neretva) and Bosnia (around river Bosna) on other side, and that "Croats, along with Serbs, also lived in Bosnia which at times came under the control of Croatian kings".
Early medieval age
The lands which constitute modern Croatia fell under three major geographic-politic zones during the Middle Ages, which were influenced by powerful neighbor Empires – notably the Byzantines, the Avars, and later Magyars, Franks, and Bulgars. Each vied for control of the Northwest Balkan regions. Two independent Slavic dukedoms emerged sometime during the 9th century: the Duchy of Croatia and Principality of Lower Pannonia.
Pannonian Principality ("Savia")
Having been under Avar control, lower Pannonia became a march of the Carolingian Empire around 800. Aided by Vojnomir in 796, the first named Slavic Duke of Pannonia, the Franks wrested control of the region from the Avars before totally destroying the Avar realm in 803. After the death of Charlemagne in 814, Frankish influence decreased on the region, allowing Prince Ljudevit Posavski to raise a rebellion in 819. The Frankish margraves sent armies in 820, 821, and 822, but each time they failed to crush the rebels. Aided by Borna the Guduscan, the Franks eventually defeated Ljudevit, who withdrew his forces to the Serbs and conquered them, according to the Frankish Annals.
For much of the subsequent period, Savia was probably directly ruled by the Carinthian Duke Arnulf, the future East Frankish King and Emperor. However, Frankish control was far from smooth. The Royal Frankish Annals mention several Bulgar raids, driving up the Sava and Drava rivers, as a result of a border dispute with the Franks, from 827. By a peace treaty in 845, the Franks were confirmed as rulers over Slavonia, whilst Srijem remained under Bulgarian clientage. Later, the expanding power of Great Moravia also threatened Frankish control of the region. In an effort to halt their influence, the Franks sought alliance with the Magyars, and elevated the local Slavic leader Braslav in 892, as a more independent Duke over lower Pannonia.
In 896, his rule stretched from Vienna and Budapest to the southern Croat duchies, and included almost the whole of ex-Roman Pannonian provinces. He probably died 900 fighting against his former allies, the Magyars. The subsequent history of Savia again becomes murky, and historians are not sure who controlled Savia during much of the 10th century. However, it is likely that the ruler Tomislav, the first crowned King, was able to exert much control over Savia and adjacent areas during his reign. It is at this time that sources first refer to a "Pannonian Croatia", appearing in the 10th century Byzantine work De Administrando Imperio.
Dalmatian Croats The Dalmatian Croats were recorded to have been subject to the Kingdom of Italy under Lothair I, since 828. The Croatian Prince Mislav (835–845) built up a formidable navy, and in 839 signed a peace treaty with Pietro Tradonico, doge of Venice. The Venetians soon proceeded to battle with the independent Slavic pirates of the Pagania region, but failed to defeat them. The Bulgarian king Boris I (called by the Byzantine Empire Archon of Bulgaria after he made Christianity the official religion of Bulgaria) also waged a lengthy war against the Dalmatian Croats, trying to expand his state to the Adriatic.
The Croatian Prince Trpimir I (845–864) succeeded Mislav. In 854, there was a great battle between Trpimir's forces and the Bulgars. Neither side emerged victorious, and the outcome was the exchange of gifts and the establishment of peace. Trpimir I managed to consolidate power over Dalmatia and much of the inland regions towards Pannonia, while instituting counties as a way of controlling his subordinates (an idea he picked up from the Franks). The first known written mention of the Croats, dates from 4 March 852, in statute by Trpimir. Trpimir is remembered as the initiator of the Trpimirović dynasty, that ruled in Croatia, with interruptions, from 845 until 1091. After his death, an uprising was raised by a powerful nobleman from Knin – Domagoj, and his son Zdeslav was exiled with his brothers, Petar and Muncimir to Constantinople.