Croatian History

Although Croatia developed under the impact of many different cultures – Greek, Roman, Celtic, Illyrian, Austrian, Hungarian, Byzantine, Islamic – it gave its own and unique imprint to the history of European civilization. See Prehistoric Archaeology in Croatia. Let us first give a very rough sketch of the main historical periods of the Croatia’s past: the arrival of the Croats to the Balkan peninsula at the beginning of the 7th century, the period of Croatian Princes and Kings of native…

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The origins of the Croatian name are Iranian. The earliest mention of the Croatian name as Horovathos can be traced on two stone inscriptions in Greek language and script, dating from around the year 200, found by the Black Sea (more precisely in the seaport Tanais on the Azov sea, Krim). Both tablets are held in the Archeological museum in St Petersburg, Russia. One of the confluents to Don river near the region of Azov is called Horvatos (see [Pascenko],…

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Constantine Porphyrogenitus (905-959), a Byzantine emperor and writer, mentions the state bearing the name of White Croatia. His description shows that it occupied a wide region around its capital Krakow, in parts of Bohemia, Slovakia, and Poland. The state disappeared in 999. St. Adalbert (Vojtech, 10th century) was a descendant of the White Croats, son of the White-Croatian prince Slavnik. He was spreading Christianity, education and culture, and to this end founded the benedictine monastery in Brevnov in 993. Also…

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The earliest known Croatian prince was Borna, who ruled from around 812 to 821. Prince Trpimir ruled from 845 to 864. In 852 he issued the oldest known governmental document in the Latin script, where the Croatian name was mentioned (dux Chroatorum). The fact that his name is recorded in the Cedad Gospels (from today’s Italian city Cividale) shows the cultural level of his state. The most famous Benedictine monk Gottschalk found refuge at the Croatian court from 846 to…

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