Croatia in personal union with Hungary

Kingdom of Croatia after the succession crisis become a part of Kingdom of Hungary and — depending on sources — either was incorporated (only by force) into Hungary or Croatia existed in a personal union (willingly) with Hungary.

Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary was from 1102, a personal union

Personal union

A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...

of two kingdoms, Kingdom of Croatia

Kingdom of Croatia (medieval)

The Kingdom of Croatia , also known as the Kingdom of the Croats , was a medieval kingdom covering most of what is today Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Balkans.Established in 925, it ruled as a sovereign state for almost two centuries...

and Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...

, united under the Hungarian king. At first, they were united under Arpad

Árpád dynasty

The Árpáds or Arpads was the ruling dynasty of the federation of the Hungarian tribes and of the Kingdom of Hungary . The dynasty was named after Grand Prince Árpád who was the head of the tribal federation when the Magyars occupied the Carpathian Basin, circa 895...

dynasty, and after its extinction, under Anjou

Anjou

Anjou is a former county , duchy and province centred on the city of Angers in the lower Loire Valley of western France. It corresponds largely to the present-day département of Maine-et-Loire...

dynasty. The last common king, came from Jagiello dynasty. The act of unions was dealt in Pacta conventa

Pacta conventa (Croatia)

Pacta conventa was an alleged agreement concluded between King Coloman of Hungary and the Croatian nobility. While some claim it was a voluntary union of the two crowns, leaving Croatia as a sovereign state, others argue that Hungary simply annexed Croatia outright and forced an agreement...

. Croatia retained its independence under native kings until 1102, when the crown passed into the hands of the Hungarian dynasty. The precise terms of this relationship later became a matter of dispute; nonetheless, even under dynastic union with Hungary, institutions of separate Croatian statehood were maintained through the Sabor (an assembly of Croatian nobles) and the ban (viceroy). In addition, the Croatian nobles retained their lands and titles.

Cause of Croatia's union with Hungary

Dmitar Zvonimir (died 1089) was the King of Croatia of the Svetoslavić branch of the House of Trpimirović. He began as a ban of Slavonia

Ban of Slavonia

The Ban of Slavonia was the governor of Slavonia, later appointed by the kings of Hungary in the 12th-15th centuries. According to the public law of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Bans were counted among the "barons of the realm" and thus they enjoyed several privileges connected to their office...

in the service of Stjepan I of Croatia

Stjepan I of Croatia

Stephen I Krešimirović was a King of Croatia from c. 1030 until 1058 and a member of House of Trpimirović, first of the Krešimirović branch. Stephen I is actually not first Croatian king that bore the name "Stephen" , but second...

and then as duke of Croatia for his successor Petar Krešimir IV

Petar Krešimir IV of Croatia

Peter Krešimir IV, called the Great , was a notably energetic King of Croatia from 1059 to his death in 1074/1075. He was the last great ruler of the Krešimirović branch of the House of Trpimirović....

. Peter declared him his heir and, in late 1074 or early 1075, Dmitar Zvonimir succeeded to the Croatian throne. Zvonimir married in 1063 to his distant relative Jelena Lijepa

Jelena Lijepa

-Biography:Helen was born a Hungarian princess and was the daughter of Árpád dynasty's King Bela I, sister to King Ladislaus I of Hungary, granddaughter of Polish King Mieszko II Lambert, and a great-granddaughter of Tsar Samuil of Bulgaria....

. Jelena was born as Hungarian

Kingdom of Hungary

princess (Ilona) and was the daughter of Árpád dynasty

Árpád dynasty

King Bela I, sister to King Ladislaus I of Hungary. They had a son, Radovan, who died in his late teens or early twenties. After Zvonimir's death, he was succeeded by Stephen II

Stjepan II of Croatia

Stephen II was the last member of the Trpimirović dynasty and last native Croatian king to rule the entire medieval Croatian Kingdom...

, last of the House of Trpimirović. Stjepan's rule was relatively ineffectual and lasted less than two years. He spent most of this time in the tranquillity of the monastery of St. Stephen beneath the Pines (Sv. Stjepan pod Borovima) near Split

Split (city)

Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...

. Stjepan II died peacefully at the beginning of 1091, without leaving an heir. Since there was no living male member of the House of Trpimirović, civil war and unrest broke out in Croatia shortly afterward.

Some Croatian nobles (especially from northern parts of Croatia) contesting the succession after the death of Zvonimir offered the Croatian throne to King Ladislaus I of Hungary. Some Croatian nobles (especially from southern parts of Croatia) refused the idea of Hungarian being kings of Croatia, and they supported Petar Svačić as their lord. Finally, in that struggle Petar Svačić

Petar Svacic

Petar Svačić was the last king of Croatia. It is assumed that he began as a ban serving under king Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia and was then elected king by the Croatian feudal lords in 1093. Petar's seat of power was based in Knin. His rule was marked by a struggle for control of the country...

was elected king by Croatian feudal lords in 1093. Petar's seat of power was based in Knin

Knin

Knin is a historical town in the Šibenik-Knin county of Croatia, located near the source of the river Krka at , in the Dalmatian hinterland, on the railroad Zagreb–Split. Knin rose to prominence twice in history, as a one-time capital of both the Kingdom of Croatia and briefly of the...

. His rule was marked by a struggle for control of the country with Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

. During his reign he was able to expel Prince Álmos

Prince Álmos

Álmos was a Hungarian prince, the son of King Géza I of Hungary, brother of King Kálmán. He held several governmental posts in the Kingdom of Hungary....

from Slavonia

Slavonia

Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...

, and unite Croatia to the river Drava

Drava

Drava or Drave is a river in southern Central Europe, a tributary of the Danube. It sources in Toblach/Dobbiaco, Italy, and flows east through East Tirol and Carinthia in Austria, into Slovenia , and then southeast, passing through Croatia and forming most of the border between Croatia and...

. But, Ladislaus I of Hungary used his sister's marriage to king Zvonimir as justification for his inheritance of the Croatian Crown. He attacked Kingdom of Croatia with his army. Ladislaus launched an offensive and managed to breach Croatian lines along the Drava

Drava

River. The well-prepared Hungarians soon occupied the entire province of Slavonia

Slavonia

Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...

but were halted by the Croats at Mount Gvozd (nears today's Karlovac

Karlovac

Karlovac is a city and municipality in central Croatia. The city proper has a population of 49,082, while the municipality has a population of 59,395 inhabitants .Karlovac is the administrative centre of Karlovac County...

). Shortly after his army's success, Ladislaus died (1095), leaving his nephew Coloman to continue the campaign. King Petar's troops maintained their resistance repelling Hungarian assaults for nearly two years. Coloman grew frustrated at his army's impotence and in 1097 assembled an enormous force at the eastern foot of Mount Gvozd. The subsequent offensive was brutal and absolute, resulting in Petar's death. His heroism was commemorated in the renaming of Mount Gvozd to Petrova Gora

Petrova Gora

Petrova Gora is a mountain range in central Croatia. The mountain used to be named Gvozd , but was renamed after 1097 to honour Petar Svačić, the last native king of Croatia who died on the mountain in a battle against Coloman of Hungary.During World War II, Petrova Gora was the location of the...

(Peter's Mountain).

Hungarians realized that conquering Croatia wouldn't be so easy. They had major success in battles over Slavonia, but when they engaged with Croatian forces on mountain terrain, they suffered great losses. Coloman saw that Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

would be even harder to conquer, because it had numerous fortified towns that needed years of occupation. He started to negotiate with Croatian feudal lords. As Croatians didn't have a king any more, they saw that war with Coloman could destroy them, so they accepted to negotiate with Coloman. Five years of negotiations between Croatia's remaining noblemen and Coloman followed thereafter. Finally, in 1102, an historic settlement was reached (Pacta Conventa

Pacta conventa (Croatia)

) by which the Croats

Croats

Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...

agreed to recognise Coloman as king. In return, he promised to maintain Croatia as a separate kingdom, not to settle Croatia with Hungarians, to guarantee Croatia's self-governance under a ban (royal governor), and to respect all the rights, laws and privileges of the Croatian Kingdom.

Historians disagree whether Croatia was conquered by force, or Croatian nobles and their subjects willingly elected Coloman as their king. Either way, Coloman became king of Croatia because he was the best choice at the time, since Croatians didn't have living male member of the House of Trpimirović, or outstanding powerful noble such as Pavao I Šubić Bribirski two hundred years later.

Historical context, terms, controversies

The events surrounding the union of Croatia and Hungary are the source of a major historical controversy. Croatian historians argue that the union was a personal one in the form of a shared king, while Hungarian historians insist that Croatia was conquered. The significance of the debate lies in the Croatian claim to an unbroken heritage of historical statehood which is clearly compromised by the other claim. The Hungarian claim was made in the 19th century during the Hungarian national reawakening, while the same argument could also be levelled about the idea of a personal union first articulated in the fourteenth century. The actual nature of the relationship is inexplicable in modern terms because it varied from time to time. Sometimes Croatia acted as an independent agent and at other times as a vassal of Hungary. However, Croatia retained a large degree of internal independence. The degree of Croatian autonomy fluctuated throughout the centuries as did its borders.

According to the research of the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

a faction of Croatian nobles contesting the succession after the death of Zvonimir offered the Croatian throne to King Ladislaus I of Hungary. In 1091 Ladislaus accepted, and in 1094 he founded the Zagreb bishopric, which later became the ecclestictical center of Croatia. King Coloman of Hungary crushed opposition after the death of Ladislaus I of Hungary and won the crown of Dalmatia and Croatia in 1102. The crowning of Coloman forged a link between the Croatian and Hungarian crowns that lasted until the end of World War I. Croats have maintained for centuries that Croatia remained a sovereign state despite the voluntary union of the two crowns, but Hungarians claim that Hungary annexed Croatia outright in 1102. In either case, Hungarian culture permeated Croatia, the Croatian-Hungarian border shifted often, and at times Hungary treated Croatia as a vassal state. Croatia, however, had its own local governor, or ban; a privileged landowning nobility; and an assembly of nobles, the Sabor.

Other sources say King Coloman established the personal union

Personal union

of the Kingdom of Croatia

Kingdom of Croatia (Medieval)

and the Kingdom of Hungary

Kingdom of Hungary

by an alleged agreement called Pacta conventa

Pacta conventa (Croatia)

. Although, the precise time and terms of Pacta Conventa

Pacta conventa (Croatia)

later became a matter of dispute; nonetheless there was at least a non-written agreement that regulated the relations between Hungary and Croatia in approximately the same way. According to Daniel Power Croatia became part of Hungary in the late 11th and early twelfth century. The official entering of Croatia into a personal union with Hungary, becoming part of the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen

Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen

The historical term Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen was used to denote a group of territories connected to the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary...

, had several important consequences. Institutions of separate Croatian statehood were maintained with the Sabor (parliament) and the ban (viceroy) in the name of the king. A single ban governed all Croatian provinces until 1225, when the authority was split between one ban of The Whole of Slavonia

Slavonia

Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...

and one ban of Dalmatia

Dalmatia

and Croatia. The positions were intermittently held by the same person after 1345, and officially merged back into one by 1476.

Feudalism

The Hungarian king also introduced a variant of the feudal system. Large fiefs were granted to individuals who would defend them against outside incursions thereby creating a system for the defence of the entire state.
However, by enabling the nobility to seize more and more economic and military power, the kingdom itself lost influence to the Frankopan

Frankopan

The Frankopans are a Croatian noble family. Also called Frankapan, Frangepán in Hungarian, and Frangipani in Italian.The Frankopan family is the leading princely Croatian aristocratic family which dates back to the 12th Century and even earlier to Roman times...

, Šubić

Šubic

The Šubić were one of the twelve tribes which constituted Croatian statehood in the Middle Ages; they held the county of Bribir in inland Dalmatia.-Origins:...

, Lacković

Lackovic

The Laczkovich family is a noble family from Hungary and Croatia, which ruled Transylvania in the 14th century. The Laczkovich were the wealthiest family in 14th century Hungary, owning much of what is today Northern Croatia, Eastern Slovenia, and Western Hungary...

, Nelipčić

Ivan I Nelipac (Prince Nelipić)

Ivan I Nelipac or Prince Nelipić , a Croatian prince and member of the Nelipić noble family, was a ruler of Knin and Drniš and region around rivers Cetina, Čikola, Krka and Zrmanja. He ruled from his seat in fortified town Knin....

, Kačić, Kurjaković, Drašković

Draškovic

Drašković is a surname used in Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia, and may refer to:* House of Drašković, Croatian noble family** Juraj Drašković , Croatian cardinal and ban...

, Babonić and other families. During this period, the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

and the Knights Hospitaller

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

also acquired considerable property and assets in Croatia.

The later kings sought to restore their influence by giving certain privileges to the towns, making them Royal Boroughs or Free Royal Towns (similar to the Free Cities in the Holy Roman Empire), which the kings defended from the feudal lords in return for the town's support.

The princes of Bribir from the Šubić family became particularly influential during the time of Pavao Šubić Bribirski

Pavao Šubic Bribirski

Paul I Šubić of Bribir was a Croatian leader and most outstanding member of the Šubić noble family from Bribir, was a Ban of Croatia and Lord of all of Bosnia. He ruled from his seat in the fortified town of Bribir, where he erected, along with his castle, the three-aisled basilica of St...

(1272–1312) who asserted control over large parts of Dalmatia

Dalmatia

, Slavonia

Slavonia

Slavonia is a geographical and historical region in eastern Croatia...

and Bosnia

Bosnia (region)

Bosnia is a eponomous region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It lies mainly in the Dinaric Alps, ranging to the southern borders of the Pannonian plain, with the rivers Sava and Drina marking its northern and eastern borders. The other eponomous region, the southern, other half of the country is...

during an internal conflict between the Árpád and Anjou

Capetian House of Anjou

The Capetian House of Anjou, also known as the House of Anjou-Sicily and House of Anjou-Naples, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct House of Capet. Founded by Charles I of Sicily, a son of Louis VIII of France, the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century...

ruling dynasties. Later, however, the Anjouvines intervened and scattered the Šubić and Babonić (1322 ad) families across the country (an important offspring being the Zrinski

Zrinski

The Zrinski family was a Croatian noble family, influential during the period in history marked by the Ottoman wars in Europe in the Kingdom of Croatia and Hungary and in the later Austro-Hungarian Empire...

family). During that time, Angevian kings won a full control over Slavonia and Croatia. Hungarian power was restored in Dalmatia in 1358 AD by the Treaty of Zadar (later, in the time of reign king Sigismund I Luxembourg this province was sold to the Republic of Venice

Republic of Venice

The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice in Northeastern Italy. It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century until 1797. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is often referred to as La Serenissima, in...

in 1409.

The Ottoman wars

As the Turkish incursion into Europe

Ottoman wars in Europe

The wars of the Ottoman Empire in Europe are also sometimes referred to as the Ottoman Wars or as Turkish Wars, particularly in older, European texts.- Rise :...

started, Croatia was once again a border area between two major forces in this part of the world. While Croats under Italian Franciscan priest fra

Friar

A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders.-Friars and monks:...

John Capistrano

Giovanni da Capistrano

Saint John of Capistrano, O.F.M., was a Franciscan friar and Catholic priest from Italy...

contributed to the Christian victory over the Ottomans

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

in the Siege of Belgrade of 1456, they suffered a major defeat in the battle of Krbava field

Battle of Krbava field

The Battle of Krbava field , was fought between the Ottoman Empire of Bayezid II and a Croatian army of the Kingdom of Croatia in personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary on September 9, 1493 in the Krbava field, a part of Lika region, southern Croatia...

(in Lika

Lika

Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. On the north-west end Lika is bounded by Ogulin-Plaški basin, and on the south-east by the Malovan pass...

, Croatia) in 1493 and gradually lost increasing amounts of territory to the Ottoman Empire.

Pope Leo X

Pope Leo X

Pope Leo X , born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses...

called Croatia the forefront of Christianity (Antemurale Christianitatis

Antemurale Christianitatis

Antemurale Christianitatis was a country defending frontiers of Christian Europe from the Ottoman Empire....

) in 1519, given that several Croatian soldiers made significant contributions to the struggle against the Turks

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

. Among them there were ban

Ban (title)

Ban was a title used in several states in central and south-eastern Europe between the 7th century and the 20th century.-Etymology:The word ban has entered the English language probably as a borrowing from South Slavic ban, meaning "lord, master; ruler". The Slavic word is probably borrowed from...

Petar Berislavić

Petar Berislavic

Petar Berislavić , a member of the noble family of Berislavić, was the ban of Croatia from 1513 to 1520 and also bishop of Veszprém....

who won a victory at Dubica on the Una river in 1513, the captain of Senj

Senj

Senj , German Zengg, Hungarian Zeng and Italian Segna) is the oldest town on the upper Adriatic, and it was founded in the time before the Romans some 3000 years ago on the hill Kuk. It was the center of the Illyrian tribe Iapydes. The current settlement is situated at the foot of the slopes Mala...

and prince of Klis

Klis

Klis is a village located around a mountain fortress bearing the same name. It is located in central Dalmatia, Croatia, located just northeast of Solin and Split near the eponymous mountain pass...

Petar Kružić

Petar Kružić was a Croatian knez, captain, soldier and defender of Klis, and the captain of Senj.In the early 16th century Petar Kružić defended the Klis Fortress against Turk invasion...

, who defended the Klis Fortress

Klis Fortress

The Klis Fortress is a medieval fortress situated above a village bearing the same name, near the city of Split, in central Dalmatia, Croatia. From its origin as a small stronghold built by the ancient Illyrian tribe Dalmatae, becoming a royal castle that was the seat of many Croatian kings, to...

for almost 25 years, captain Nikola Jurišić

Nikola Jurišic

Baron Nikola Jurišić was a Croatian nobleman, soldier, and diplomat, who led the armies of the territory of the Croatian Krajina in defense against the invasion of the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman I, advancing towards Vienna.After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Jurisic's vote helped Ferdinand of...

who deterred by a magnitude larger Turkish force on their way to Vienna in 1532, or ban Nikola Šubić Zrinski

Nikola Šubic Zrinski

Nikola Šubić Zrinski , was a Croatian nobleman and general in service of Habsburg Monarchy, ban of Croatia from 1542 to 1556, and member of the Zrinski noble family...

who helped save Pest

Pest (city)

Pest is the eastern, mostly flat part of Budapest, Hungary, comprising about two thirds of the city's territory. It is divided from Buda, the other part of Budapest, by the Danube River. Among its most notable parts are the Inner City, including the Hungarian Parliament, Heroes' Square and...

from occupation in 1542 and fought in the Battle of Szigetvar

Battle of Szigetvár

The Siege of Szigetvár or Battle of Szigeth was a siege of the Szigeth Fortress in Baranya which blocked Suleiman's line of advance towards Vienna in 1566 AD...

in 1566.

The 1526 Battle of Mohács

Battle of Mohács

The Battle of Mohács was fought on August 29, 1526 near Mohács, Hungary. In the battle, forces of the Kingdom of Hungary led by King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia were defeated by forces of the Ottoman Empire led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent....

was a crucial event in which the rule of the Jagiellon dynasty

Jagiellon dynasty

The Jagiellonian dynasty was a royal dynasty originating from the Lithuanian House of Gediminas dynasty that reigned in Central European countries between the 14th and 16th century...

was shattered by the death of King Louis II. The defeat emphasized the overall inability of the Christian feudal military to halt the Ottomans, who would remain a major threat for centuries. The Croatian historical narrative insists that the decision to join the Habsburg Empire was the result of a free choice made by the Sabor. Austrian historians never claimed they conquered Croatia by force and there appears to be little reason to doubt Croatian claims about the events of 1526.

Union after Battle of Mohács

The 1526 Battle of Mohács

Battle of Mohács

and the death of King Louis II meant the end of Hungarian authority over Croatia. Hungarian parliament has in 1526 elected János Szapolya for new king of Hungary. On other side Croatian parliament sitting at Cetin on January 1, 1527, unanimously elected Ferdinand Habsburg of Austria for King of Croatia. Few years afterward both crown will be again united in Habsburgs hands and union will be restored. The Ottoman Empire further expanded in the 16th century to include most of Slavonia, western Bosnia and Lika

Lika

.

Later in the same century, Croatia has been so weak that it's parliament has authorized Ferdinand Habsburg to carve out large areas of Croatia and Slavonia adjacent to the Ottoman Empire for creation of Military Frontier

Military Frontier

The Military Frontier was a borderland of Habsburg Austria and later the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which acted as the cordon sanitaire against incursions from the Ottoman Empire...

(Vojna Krajina, German Militaergrenze) which will be ruled directly from Vienna military headquarters. The area became rather deserted and was subsequently settled by Serbs

Serbs

The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...

, Vlachs

Vlachs

Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs...

, Croats and Germans

Ethnic German

Ethnic Germans historically also ), also collectively referred to as the German diaspora, refers to people who are of German ethnicity. Many are not born in Europe or in the modern-day state of Germany or hold German citizenship...

and others. As a result of their compulsory military service to the Habsburg Empire during conflict with the Ottoman Empire, the population in the Military Frontier was free of serfdom and enjoyed much political autonomy unlike the population living in the parts ruled by Hungary.

After the Bihać

Bihac

Bihać is a city and municipality on the river Una in the north-western part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the Bosanska Krajina region. Bihać is located in the Una-Sana Canton in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-History:...

fort finally fell in 1592, only small parts of Croatia remained unconquered. The Ottoman army was successfully repelled for the first time on the territory of Croatia following the battle of Sisak

Battle of Sisak

The Battle of Sisak was fought on June 22, 1593, between Ottoman forces of the Bosnian governor-general, or Beylerbeyi, Hasan-paša Predojević, and forces of the Holy Roman Empire under the supreme command of the Styrian general Ruprecht von Eggenberg...

in 1593. The lost territory was mostly restored, except for large parts of today's Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

By the 1700s, the Ottoman Empire was driven out of Hungary , and Austria brought the empire under central control. Empress Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...

was supported by the Croatians in the War of Austrian Succession of 1741–1748 and subsequently made significant contributions to Croatian matters.

With the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, its possessions in eastern Adriatic became subject to a dispute between France and Austria. The Habsburgs eventually secured them (by 1815) and Dalmatia and Istria became part of the empire, though they were in Cisleithania

Cisleithania

Cisleithania was a name of the Austrian part of Austria-Hungary, the Dual Monarchy created in 1867 and dissolved in 1918. The name was used by politicians and bureaucrats, but it had no official status...

while Croatia and Slavonia were under Hungary.

Croatian romantic nationalism

Romantic nationalism

Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs...

emerged in mid-19th century to counteract the apparent Germanization and Magyarization of Croatia. The Illyrian movement

Illyrian movement

The Illyrian movement , also Croatian national revival , was a cultural and political campaign with roots in the early modern period, and revived by a group of young Croatian intellectuals during the first half of 19th century, around the years of 1835–1849...

attracted a number of influential figures from 1830s on, and produced some important advances in the Croatian language

Croatian language

Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...

and culture.

In the Revolutions of 1848 Croatia, driven by fear of Magyar nationalism, supported the Habsburg court against Hungarian revolutionary forces. However, despite the contributions of its ban Jelačić

Josip Jelacic

Count Josip Jelačić of Bužim was the Ban of Croatia between 23 March 1848 and 19 May 1859...

in quenching the Hungarian war of independence

Hungarian Revolution of 1848

The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was one of many of the European Revolutions of 1848 and closely linked to other revolutions of 1848 in the Habsburg areas...

, Croatia, not treated any more favourably by Vienna than the Hungarians themselves, lost its domestic autonomy. In 1867 the Dual Monarchy

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

was created; Croatian autonomy was restored in 1868 with the Croatian–Hungarian Agreement

Croatian–Hungarian Agreement

Croatian–Hungarian Settlement was a pact signed in 1868, that governed Croatia's political status in the Hungarian-ruled part of Austria-Hungary...

which was not particularly favourable for the Croatians.

Cause of Croatia's union with Hungary

Historical context, terms, controversies

Feudalism

The Ottoman wars

Union after Battle of Mohács

See also