Native name
Conventional long name	Republic of Croatia
Common name	Croatia
Image coat	Coat_of_arms_of_Croatia.svg‎
Map caption
National anthem	''Lijepa naša domovino''''Our beautiful homeland''File:Lijepa nasa domovino instrumental.ogg
Official languages	Croatian
Capital	Zagreb
Largest city	capital
Government type	Parliamentary republic
Leader title1	President
Leader name1	Ivo Josipović
Leader title2	Prime Minister
Leader name2	Jadranka Kosor
Leader title3	President of Parliament
Leader name3	Luka Bebić
Established event1	Principality
Established date1	785
Established event2	Independent Principality
Established date2	879
Established event3	Kingdom
Established date3	925
Established event4	Union with Hungary
Established date4	1102
Established event5
Established date5	1 January 1527
Established event6	Independence of SHS from Austria–Hungary
Established date6	29 October 1918
Established event7	Yugoslavia becomes Republic
Established date7	29 November 1943
Established event8	Decision on independence
Established date8	25 June 1991
Established event9	Declaration of independence
Established date9	8 October 1991
Area rank	126th
Area magnitude	1_E10
Area km2	56594
Area sq mi	21851
Percent water	1.09
Population census	4,290,612
Population census year	2011
Population density km2	76
Population density sq mi	196
Gdp ppp year	2010
Gdp ppp	$78.090 billion
Gdp ppp per capita	$17,683
Gdp nominal year	2010
Gdp nominal	$60.589 billion
Gdp nominal per capita	$13,720
Gini	29
Gini year	2008
Gini category	low
Hdi year	2010
Hdi	0.767
Hdi rank	51st
Hdi category	high
Currency	Kuna
Currency code	HRK
Time zone	CET
Utc offset	+1
Time zone dst	CEST
Utc offset dst	+2
Demonym	Croat, Croatian
Ethnic groups	89.6% Croats,4.5% Serbs,5.9% others and unspecified
Ethnic groups year	2001
Drives on	right
Cctld	.hr
Calling code	385
Iso 3166-1 alpha2	HR
Iso 3166-1 alpha3	CRO
Iso 3166-1 num	191
Vehicle code	HR
Alt sport code	CRO
Aircraft code	9A
Footnote1	Also Italian in Istria County. Recognised minority languages on the municipal level are Hungarian, Czech, Slovak and Serbian language.
Footnote2	Shortly after the reign of Prince Višeslav, Franks were defeated in 803.
Footnote3	Before co-founding the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia, Croatia co-founded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 1 December 1918. }}

Croatia ( ; ), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: ''Republika Hrvatska'' ), is a country in Central Europe and Southeastern Europe at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Adriatic Sea. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. Croatia borders Slovenia to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the southeast, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast.

The Croats arrived in the early 7th century in what today is Croatia. They organized the state into two dukedoms. The first king, King Tomislav was crowned in AD 925 and Croatia was elevated into the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for almost two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Peter Krešimir IV and Demetrius Zvonimir. Croatia entered a union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand from the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, Croatia was included in the short-lived State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs that declared independence from Austria–Hungary and co-founded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. A Croatian state briefly existed during World War II, but it was a Nazi/Fascist puppet-state. After World War II, Croatia became a founding member of the Second Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991, Croatia declared independence and became a sovereign state.

Since the fall of communism and the end of the Croatian War of Independence, Croatia has achieved high human development and income equality, and ranks highly amongst Central European nations in terms of education, health, quality of life and economic dynamism. Croatia is a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization and CEFTA. Croatia is an acceding state of the European Union, with entry expected in July 2013, and is a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. Croatia is classified as an emerging and developing economy by the International Monetary Fund and a high income economy by the World Bank.

History

Croatia before Croats

The area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period. Fossils of Neanderthals dating to the middle Paleolithic have been unearthed in the area of Krapina and Vindija. More recent (late Mousterian) Neanderthal remains have been discovered in Mujina pećina near the coast.

In the early Neolithic period, the Starčevo, Vučedol and Hvar cultures were scattered around the region. The Iron Age left traces of the Hallstatt culture (early Illyrians) and the La Tène culture (Celts).

Much later the region was settled by Liburnians and Illyrians, and Greek colonies were established on the islands of Vis (by Dionysius I of Syracuse) and Hvar. In 9 AD the territory of today's Croatia became part of the Roman Empire. Emperor Diocletian built a massive palace in Split where he retired from politics in AD 305. During the 5th century the last Roman Emperor Julius Nepos ruled his small empire from Diocletian's Palace before he was killed in AD 480.

The early history of Croatia ends with the Avar invasion in the first half of the 7th century and the destruction of almost all Roman towns. Roman survivors retreated to strategically better defended points on the coast, islands and mountains. The modern city of Dubrovnik was founded by those survivors.

Ethnogenesis of Croatian people (called White Croats before the migration) started with their emigration from the territory of White Croatia, located in central Europe, to the area of the present day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Kingdom of Croatia

The Croats arrived in what is today Croatia probably in the early 7th century. They organized into two dukedoms; the duchy of Pannonia in the north and the duchy of Littoral Croatia in the south. Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus wrote that Porga, Duke of the Dalmatian Croats, who had been invited into Dalmatia by Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, sent to Heraclius for Christian teachers.

According to Constantine, at the request of Heraclius, Pope John IV (640–642) sent Christian teachers and missionaries to the Croatian Provinces. These missionaries converted Porga, and also a great many of the clan that was under his immediate authority, to the Christian faith in 640. The Christianization of the Croats was mostly complete by the 9th century. Both duchies became Frankish vassals in late 8th century, and eventually became independent in the following century.

The first native Croatian ruler recognized by the Pope was duke Branimir, whom Pope John VIII called ''dux Croatorum'' ("duke of Croats") in 879. Duke Tomislav of Littoral Croatia was one of the most prominent members of the House of Trpimirović. He united the Croats of Dalmatia and Pannonia into a single Kingdom in 925. Traditionally it is stated that Tomislav's state extended from the Adriatic Sea to the Drava river, and from the Raša river to the Drina river, but the precise borders are unknown. Under his rule, Croatia became one of the most powerful kingdoms in Medieval Europe.

Tomislav defeated the invasions of the Árpáds in battle and forced them across the Drava. He also annexed a part of Pannonia. This included the area between the rivers Drava, Sava and Kupa, so his Duchy bordered with Bulgaria for a period of time. This was the first time that the two Croatian Realms were united, and all Croats were in one state. The union was later recognised by Byzantium, which gave the royal crown to Stjepan Držislav and papal crown to king Zvonimir. The medieval Croatian kingdom reached its peak during the reign of Kings Petar Krešimir IV (1058–1074) and Zvonimir (1075–1089).

The Kingdom of Croatia existed from its foundation in 925 until the end of World War I, initially as an independent kingdom and later as a crown in multiethnic empires such as the High Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg monarchy and Austria-Hungary.

Personal Union With Hungary

Following the extinction of the Croatian ruling dynasty in 1091, Ladislaus I of Hungary, the brother of Jelena Lijepa, the last Croatian queen, became the king of Croatia. Croatian nobility of the Littoral opposed this crowning, which led to 10 years of war and the recognition of the Hungarian ruler Coloman as the king of Croatia and Hungary in the treaty of 1102 (often referred to as the ''Pacta conventa''). In return, Coloman promised to maintain Croatia as a separate kingdom, not to settle Croatia with Hungarians, to guarantee Croatia's self-governance under a Ban, and to respect all the rights, laws and privileges of the Croatian Kingdom. During this union, the Kingdom of Croatia never lost the right to elect its own king, had the ruling dynasty become extinct. In 1293 and 1403 Croatia chose its own king, but in both cases the Kingdom of Hungary declared war and the union was reestablished.

For the next four centuries, the Kingdom of Croatia was ruled by the Sabor and Bans appointed by the Hungarian king. The Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia remained a legally distinct constitutional entity, but the advent of a Hungarian king brought about other consequences such as: the introduction of feudalism and the rise of native noble families such as the Frankopans and the Šubićs. The 1273 ''Congregatio Regni tocius Sclavonie Generalis'', the oldest surviving document written by the Croatian parliament, dates from this period.

Subsequent kings sought to restore some of their previously lost influence by granting certain privileges to towns. The first period of personal union between Croatia and Hungary ended in 1526 with the Battle of Mohács and the defeat of Hungarian forces by the Ottomans. After the death of King Louis II, Croatian nobles at the Cetingrad assembly chose the Habsburgs as new rulers of the Kingdom of Croatia, under the condition that they provide the troops and finances required to protect Croatia against the Ottoman Empire.

Republic of Ragusa

The city of Dubrovnik/''Ragusa'' was founded in 7th century after Avar and Slavic raiders destroyed the Roman city of Epidaurum. The surviving Roman population escaped to a small island near the coast where they founded a new settlement. During the Fourth Crusade the city fell under control of the Republic of Venice until the 1358 Zadar treaty when Venice, defeated by the Hungarian kingdom, lost control of Dalmatia and the Republic of Ragusa became a tributary of that kingdom.

Through the next 450 years the Republic of Ragusa would be a tributary Republic protected by Ottomans and Habsburgs until Napoleon abolished it in 1808 when Ragusa, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia was briefly the Illyrian Provinces. During this time the republic became rich through trade.

The republic became the most important publisher of Croatian literature during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Aside from poets and writers like Marin Držić and Ivan Gundulić, whose works were important for Croat literature development, the most famous person from the Republic of Dubrovnik was the scientist Ruđer Josip Bošković, who was a member of the Royal Society and the Russian Academy of Sciences. The republic would survive until 1808 when it was annexed by Napoleon. Today the city of Dubrovnik features on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list and is a famous tourist destination.

Ottoman Wars

Shortly after the Battle of Mohács, the Habsburgs unsuccessfully sought to stabilise the borders between the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Croatia by creating a captaincy in Bihać. However, in 1529, the Ottoman army swept through the area and captured Buda and besieged Vienna; an event which brought violence and turmoil to the Croatian border areas (see Ottoman wars in Europe). After the failure of the first military operations, the Kingdom of Croatia was split into civilian and military units in 1553. The latter became Croatian Krajina and Slavonian Krajina and both eventually became parts of the Croatian Military Frontier which was directly under the control of Vienna.

Ottoman raids on Croatian territory continued until the Battle of Sisak in 1593, after which the borders stabilised for some time. The kingdom of that time became known as the ''Reliquiae reliquiarum olim inclyti Regni Croatiae'' ("The remains of the once famous Kingdom of Croatia"). An important battle during this time was the Battle of Szigetvár (1566), when 2,300 soldiers under the leadership of ban Nikola Šubić Zrinski held back for two months 100,000 Ottoman soldiers led by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, fighting to the last man. Cardinal Richelieu was reported to have called the event "the battle that saved civilization."

During the Great Turkish War (1667–1698), Slavonia was regained but hilly western Bosnia, which had been a part of Croatia until the Ottoman conquest, remained outside Croatian control and the current border, which resembles a crescent or a horseshoe, is a remnant of this historical outcome. The southern part of the 'horseshoe' was created by the Venetian conquest following the Siege of Zara and was defined by the 17–18th century wars with the Ottomans. The ''de jure'' reason for Venetian expansion was the decision of the king of Croatia, Ladislaus of Naples, to sell his rights on Dalmatia to Venice in 1409.

During more than two centuries of Ottoman wars, Croatia underwent great demographic changes. The Croats left the riverland areas of Gacka, Lika and Krbava, Moslavina in Slavonia, and an area in present day north-western Bosnia to move towards Austria where they remained and the present day Burgenland Croats are direct descendants of these settlers. To replace the fleeing Croats, the Habsburgs called on the Orthodox populations of Bosnia and Serbia to provide military service in Croatian and Slavonian Krajina. Serbian migration into this region, which had started in the 16th century, peaked during the Great Serb Migrations of 1690 and 1737–39. The rights and obligations of new populace of the Military frontier were decided with the Statuta Valachorum in 1630.

Austria–Hungary

On January 1, 1527, Croatian noblemen gathered in the Cetin fortress in the city of Cetingrad for the Parliament on Cetin and elected Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria as the new king of the Croatian kingdom. Croatia of that time was named a triune kingdom: the Kingdom of Croatia, the Kingdom of Dalmatia, and the Kingdom of Slavonia. The kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia united in 1868, creating the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.

The Croatian answer to the Hungarian revolution of 1848 was a declaration of war. Austrian, Croatian and Russian forces together defeated the Hungarian army in 1849 and the following 17 years were remembered in Croatia and Hungary for the policy of Germanization. The eventual failure of this policy resulted in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and the creation of a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary. The treaty left unanswered the question of the status of Croatia. The following year the Croatian and Hungarian parliaments created a constitution for union of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and the Kingdom of Hungary.

After the Ottoman Empire lost military control over Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary abolished Croatian Krajina and Slavonian Krajina, restoring the territories to Croatia in 1881. During the second half of the 19th century pro-Hungarian and pro-Austrian political parties played Croats against Serbs with the aim of controlling the parliament. This policy failed in 1906 when a Croat-Serb coalition won the elections. The newly created political situation remained unchanged until the advent of World War I.

National Revival

National revival in Croatia started in 1813 when the bishop of Zagreb Maksimilijan Vrhovac issued a plea for the collection of "national treasures". At the beginning of the 1830s, a group of young Croatian writers gathered in Zagreb and established the Illyrian movement for national renewal and unity of all South Slavs within the Habsburg Monarchy. The most important focus of the Illyrians was the establishment of a standard language as a counter-weight to Hungarian, and the promotion of Croatian literature and official culture.

Important members of this movement were Count Janko Drašković, who initiated the movement by writing a pamphlet in 1832, Ljudevit Gaj who received permission from the royal government of Habsburg for printing the first newspaper in the Croatian language, Antun Mihanović, who wrote the lyrics for the Croatian national anthem, Vatroslav Lisinski, composer of the first Croatian language opera, "Ljubav i zloba" ("Love and Malice", 1846), and many others.

Fearful first of Hungarian and then Habsburg (Austrian) pressure of assimilation, the Kingdom of Croatia had always refused to change the status of Latin as its official language until the middle of the 19th century. Only on 2 May 1843 the Croatian language was first spoken in parliament, finally gaining official status in 1847 due to the popularity of the Illyrian movement.

Even with a large Slavic (Croatian) majority, Dalmatia retained large Italian communities in the coast (in the cities and the islands, largest concentration in Istria). According to the 1816 Austro-Hungarian census, 22% of the Dalmatian population was Italian-speaking. Starting in the 19th century, most Dalmatian Italians and Morlachs with an Istro-Romanian language gradually assimilated to the prevailing Croatian culture and language.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

After the defeat of the Central Powers in World War I, issues of Yugoslav unity became a major international issue.

On 29 October 1918, the Croatian ''Sabor'' (parliament) declared independence, creating the new State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Pressured by the Italian army, which was entering its territory from south and west, the National Council (Narodno vijeće) started expedient negotiations with the Kingdom of Serbia and on November 23, 1918, a delegation was sent to Belgrade with the aim of a proclamation of union. The National Council delegation delivered 11 points which needed to be fulfilled for the creation of a future state.

The most important of these points was the first, which referred to the need of a constitution for the new state, a proposal that was passed with a two thirds majority. Eventually, a constitution for a centralized state was passed with a majority of 50% + 1 vote and caused the end of state autonomy. On 1 December 1918, the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, colloquially known as Kingdom of Yugoslavia, was created. This decision created public outcry among Croats, which started a political upheaval for the restoration of state autonomy by the leadership of the Croatian Peasant Party.

Dalmatian Croat politician Ante Trumbić, a prominent Yugoslavist leader and head of the Yugoslav Committee during the war had vouched for the creation of a united Yugoslavia and represented Yugoslavia at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Trumbić successfully vouched for the inclusion of most Yugoslavs of the former Austria-Hungary to be included within the borders of Yugoslavia but failed to secure the inclusion of 500,000 Slovenes and Croats who were placed under Italian rule with the Treaty of Rapallo of 1920.

The formation of the constitution of 1921 sparked tensions between the different Yugoslav nationalities. Trumbić opposed the 1921 constitution and over time grew increasingly hostile towards the Yugoslav government that he saw as being centralized in the favour of Serb hegemony over Yugoslavia.

The unhealthy political situation in Yugoslavia became much worse after Stjepan Radić, the president of CPP, was killed in the Yugoslav parliament building in 1928 by Montenegrin Serb ultranationalist Puniša Račić.

The ensuing chaotic period ended the next year when King Alexander abolished the Constitution, prorogued the Parliament and introduced a personal dictatorship. The next four years of the Yugoslav regime were described by Albert Einstein in 1931 as a "horrible brutality which is being practised upon the Croatian People". During the dictatorship, Vladko Maček, leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, was imprisoned, only becoming free after king Alexander was killed in a plot organized by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization and Ustaše.

Upon Maček's release, the political situation was restored to that before the murder of Stjepan Radić, continuing Croatian demands for autonomy. The Croatian question was solved only on August 26, 1939 by the Cvetković-Maček Agreement, when Croatia received autonomy and an extension of its borders and Maček became Yugoslav vice-prime minister. The ensuing peace was terminated by the German invasion of 1941.

World War II

The German and Italian invasion of April 6, 1941 achieved victory over the Royal Yugoslav Army in little more than ten days, ending with the unconditional surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on April 17. The territory of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region of Syrmia became a puppet state of Nazi Germany called the Independent State of Croatia. Part of Dalmatia was occupied by Italy. Baranja and Međimurje were occupied by Hungary. The regime in the Independent State of Croatia was led by ''Ustaše'' and it's leader ''Poglavnik'' Ante Pavelić.

Only one day after entering Zagreb, on April 17, 1941, Ante Pavelić proclaimed that all people who offended, or tried to offend against the Croatian nation were guilty of treason — a crime punishable by death. The Ustashe regime introduced anti-Semitic Nuremberg-style laws, and also conducted massacres of mostly Serbs and other non-Croats, as well as running concentration camps such as the one at Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska where opponents of the Ustashe regime and other 'undesirables' were held. The Ustase murdered Serbs, Jews, Roma, as well as Croats who opposed Ustase rule.

Pavelić's Ustase regime was highly unpopular in Croatia at the time and lacked popular support due to Pavelić's secession of the largely Croat-populated region of Dalmatia to Fascist Italy and secession of territory to Hungary. In contrast Croatian politician Vlatko Macek held widespread support of a strong majority of Croatians. During this time, 200,000 Croats were sent as labourers to Nazi Germany while Germany exploited the state's natural resources.

Catholic priests who were involved in the Ustashe movement, particularly the notorious Father Miroslav Filipović were defrocked. However, others such as the Archbishop of Zagreb Alojzije Stepinac not only condemned Ustashe crimes in his sermons but also offered refuge and protection to persecuted Serbs and Jews. The Jewish Virtual Library estimates that between and Croatian Serbs were killed at Jasenovac and that between and Serbs were victims of the entire genocide campaign.

The remnants of the Royal Yugoslav Army, later reorganized into the predominantly Serbian Chetniks, offered resistance to the Nazi occupation and their Ustashe collaborators, but the Yugoslav Royalist Chetniks soon started collaborating with Nazis and Fascist Italy. Civil war broke out. Later, in response to Hitler's surprise "Operation Barbarossa" attack on the Soviet Union, a massive uprising began on June 22, 1941 with the creation of 1st Sisak Partisan Detachment.

The leadership of the Yugoslav partisan movement was in the hands of Croat Josip Broz Tito, whose policy of brotherhood and unity would in the end defeat not only the Axis occupiers, but also their various collaborators in the armed forces of the Independent State of Croatia and other quislings (which could be found in every Yugoslav social and national group). The victory of Tito's partisans against the Nazi occupiers and their allies resulted in the massacres of those Croatian Domobran (Home Guard) and Ustashe who were repatriated from Austria by the British 8th Army. During the war and in the decade after World War II, numerous Italian civilians were massacred by Tito's partisans, while up to 350,000 ethnic Italians were obliged to leave Yugoslavia.

The number of World War II victims in Yugoslavia remains a source of much controversy amongst Serb and Croat nationalist academics and historians on the one side, and independent researchers, mostly notably Vladimir Žerjavić (a Croat) and Bogoljub Kočović (a Serb), on the other.

Socialist Yugoslavia

Modern Croatia was founded on AVNOJ anti-fascist partisans' principles during World War II, and it became a constitutional federal republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A single-party socialist state was established but, because of the Tito-Stalin split, economic and personal freedom were better than in the Eastern Bloc. From the 1950s, the Socialist Republic of Croatia enjoyed an autonomy under the rule of the local Communist elite, but in 1967 a group of influential Croatian poets and linguists published a Declaration on the Status and Name of the Croatian Standard Language.

After 1968, the patriotic goals of that document morphed into a generic Croatian movement for more rights for Croatia, greater civil rights and demands for the decentralization of the economy. In the end the Yugoslav leadership interpreted the Croatian Spring as a restoration of Croatian nationalism, dismissed the movement as chauvinistic and arrested most of its important leaders. In 1974, a new Yugoslav federal constitution was ratified that gave more autonomy to the individual republics, thereby basically fulfilling the main goals of the Croatian Spring.

Independent Croatia

Nationalistic sentiment, which would bring an end to the Yugoslav federation, had been widespread among various ethnicities for some years. Albanian demands in 1981 for Kosovo to be removed from Serbia and transformed to a constituent republic within Yugoslavia led to riots, and similar attitudes surfaced among other nations with the Serbian SANU Memorandum in 1986; Croatia and Slovenia also responded negatively in 1989 after Serbia's leader Slobodan Milošević organized coups in Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro to install authorities who would be loyal to his cause.

Croatia declared independence from socialist Yugoslavia in 1991. War broke out in 1991 with Yugoslav National Army open attacks on Croatia. At the end of 1991 there was full-scale war in Croatia. The war was between the Serbs, in what had been the Republic of Serbia in the former Yugoslavia, and Croats in the newly independent Croatia. The reasons for the war are quite complex. To greatly simplify, while Croatia and Slovenia wanted to separate from Yugoslavia, Serbs were largely unwilling to allow this to happen, probably largely for economic reasons.

Under the influence of Slobodan Milošević's propaganda, the importance of who won the first Croatian multi-party elections in 50 years was diminished. Allegedly, Serbs had influenced both Croatian nationalist leader Franjo Tuđman and communist leader Ivica Račan. The electoral win of Franjo Tuđman further inflamed the situation. Croatian Serbs left the Croatian parliament and created the ''Association of the Municipalities of Northern Dalmatia and Lika'' in Knin. This was later to become the Republika Srpska Krajina. On the events of 1990–92, Milan Babić, Serbian leader and president of Republika Srpska Krajina, was later to declare that he had been "strongly influenced and misled by Serbian propaganda."

These events culminated in the full scale Croatian War of Independence between 1991 and 1995. The war ended with Croatian victory with Operation Storm (known in Croatian as ''Oluja'') in the summer of 1995. The events of August 1995 remain the subject of several cases before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, regarding the conduct of the victorious Croatian Army and the exodus of ethnic Serbs.

Croatia was internationally recognized on 15 January 1992 by the European Union, and subsequently the United Nations. During that time, Croatia controlled less than two thirds of its legal territory. The first country to recognize Croatia was Iceland on 19 December 1991.

Geography

Croatia is located in South-eastern Europe between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia, and bordering the Adriatic Sea. It lies between latitudes 42° and 47° N, and longitudes 13° and 20° E.

Its shape resembles that of a crescent or a horseshoe, which flanks its neighbours Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. To the north lie Slovenia and Hungary; Italy lies across the Adriatic Sea. Its mainland territory is split in two non-contiguous parts by the short coastline of Bosnia and Herzegovina around Neum.

Its terrain is diverse, including:

plains, lakes and rolling hills in the continental north and north-east (Central Croatia and Slavonia, part of the Pannonian Basin);

densely wooded mountains in Lika and Gorski Kotar, part of the Dinaric Alps;

rocky coastlines on the Adriatic Sea (Istria, Northern Sea coast and Dalmatia).

Phytogeographically, Croatia belongs to the Boreal Kingdom and is shared between the Central European and Illyrian provinces of the Circumboreal Region and the Adriatic province of the Mediterranean Region. According to the WWF, the territory of Croatia can be subdivided into three ecoregions: the Pannonian mixed forests, Dinaric Mountains mixed forests and Illyrian deciduous forests.

The country is famous for its many national parks. Besides national parks, Croatian laws provide special protection to ten more nature parks and two strict natural reserves. Around ten percent of total territory of Croatia enjoys special protection by law in the aforementioned forms. 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. Istra has a temperate climate, while the Palagruža archipelago is home to a subtropical climate.

Insular Croatia consists of over one thousand islands varying in size. The largest islands in Croatia are Cres and Krk which are located in the Adriatic Sea. The Danube, Europe's second longest river, runs through the city of Vukovar. Dinara, the eponym of the Dinaric Alps, is the highest peak of Croatia at above sea level.

Karst topography makes up more than 50% of Croatia and is especially obvious in the area south of Karlovac. There are 49 caves deeper than in Croatia, with 14 of them deeper than and three deeper than (the Lukina jama-Trojama, Slovacka jama and Velebita cave systems). The deepest Croatian pits are mostly found in two regions – Mt. Velebit and Mt. Biokovo.

The Croatian landscape includes numerous natural lakes. The biggest one, Lake Vrana, stretches over in Zadar and Šibenik-Knin counties. Also of note is the eponymous Lake Vrana, a crypto-depression lake located on the Cres island. It contains fresh water used to supply households on the island. Lake Dubrava in Međimurje and Varaždin counties and Lake Peruča in Split-Dalmatia County are the country's largest artificial lakes, used for hydroelectric energy generation. Croatia's most famous lakes are the Plitvice lakes, a system of 16 lakes with waterfalls connecting them over dolomite and limestone cascades. The lakes are renowned for their distinctive colours, ranging from azure to green, grey or blue. The colours change constantly depending on the quantity of minerals or organisms in the water and the angle of sunlight.

Politics

Croatia is a democratic parliamentary republic. With the collapse of the ruling communist party in Yugoslavia, Croatia adopted its present constitution in 1990 and organised its first multi-party elections. It declared independence on 8 October 1991 leading to the breakup of Yugoslavia and the country was internationally recognised by the United Nations in 1992. Under its 1990 constitution, Croatia operated a semi-presidential system until 2000 when it switched to a parliamentary system. The main institutions of government in Croatia are the President, Parliament and Government.

The President of the Republic (''Predsjednik'') is the head of state, directly elected to a five-year term and is limited by the Constitution to a maximum of two terms. In addition to being the commander in chief of the armed forces, the president has the procedural duty of appointing the Prime minister with the consent of the Parliament, and has some influence on foreign policy.

The Government of Croatia (''Vlada'') is headed by the Prime minister who has two 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. Government's official residence is at Banski dvori.

The Parliament of Croatia (''Sabor'') is a unicameral legislative body (a second chamber, the "House of Counties", which was set up by the Constitution of 1990, was abolished in 2001). The number of the Sabor's members can vary from 100 to 160; they are all elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. The plenary sessions of the Sabor take place from January 15 to July 15, and from September 15 to December 15. The two largest political parties in Croatia are the Croatian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (the latter evolved from the League of Communists of Croatia).

Law

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. Law enforcement in Croatia is the responsibility of the Croatian police force, which is under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. In recent years, the force has been undergoing a reform with assistance from international agencies, including the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe since its mission to Croatia began on 18 April 1996.

The legal system of Croatia is civil law, strongly influenced by the legal heritage of Austria-Hungary with an influx of communist law. The institutional framework was built on the base of Austrian institutions. Nowadays, it is almost completely harmonised with that of the European Union.

Military

Administrative divisions

Croatia is divided into 20 counties (županija) and the capital city of Zagreb:

{| style="background:none;" |- | style="width:20px;"| || Anglicized name || Native name | 1 || Zagreb || Zagrebačka | 2 || Krapina-Zagorje || Krapinsko-zagorska | 3 || Sisak-Moslavina || Sisačko-moslavačka | 4 || Karlovac || Karlovačka | 5 || Varaždin || Varaždinska | 6 || Koprivnica-Križevci || Koprivničko-križevačka | 7 || Bjelovar-Bilogora || Bjelovarsko-bilogorska | 8 || Primorje-Gorski Kotar || Primorsko-goranska | 9 || Lika-Senj || Ličko-senjska | 10 || Virovitica-Podravina || Virovitičko-podravska | 11 || Požega-Slavonia || Požeško-slavonska | 12 || Brod-Posavina || Brodsko-posavska | 13 || Zadar || Zadarska | 14 || Osijek-Baranja || Osječko-baranjska | 15 || Šibenik-Knin || Šibensko-kninska | 16 || Vukovar-Srijem || Vukovarsko-srijemska | 17 || Split-Dalmatia || Splitsko-dalmatinska | 18 || Istria || Istarska | 19 || Dubrovnik-Neretva || Dubrovačko-neretvanska | 20 || Međimurje || Međimurska | 21 || City of Zagreb || Grad Zagreb |}

Foreign relations

Croatia applied to become a member of the European Union (EU) in 2003 and gained candidate status in 2004. Croatia is expected to become an EU state on 1 July, 2013.

The most significant foreign relations issues for Croatia are those with its immediate neighbors, notably Slovenia due to a series of border disputes.

Economy

Privatization and the drive toward a market economy had barely begun under the new Croatian Government when war broke out in 1991. As a result of the war, the economic infrastructure sustained massive damage, particularly the revenue-rich tourism industry. From 1989 to 1993, GDP fell 40.5%. With the end of the war in 1995, tourism and Croatia's economy recovered moderately. However, corruption, cronyism, and a general lack of transparency stymied meaningful economic reform, as well as much-needed foreign investment.

Croatia's economy turned the corner in 2000 as tourism rebounded. The economy expanded in 2002, stimulated by a credit boom led by newly privatized and foreign-capitalized banks, some capital investment, most importantly road construction, further growth in tourism, and gains by small and medium-sized private enterprises.

Croatia has a high-income market economy. International Monetary Fund data shows that Croatian nominal GDP stood at $69.357 billion, or $15,633 per capita, at the same time in 2008 purchasing power parity GDP was $82.407 billion or $18,575 per capita.

According to Eurostat data, Croatian PPS GDP per capita stood at 63.2 percent of the EU average in 2008. Real GDP growth in 2007 was 6.0 per cent. and at the same time average gross salary of a Croatian worker during the first nine months of 2008 was 7,161 kuna (US$ 1,530) per month In 2007, the International Labour Organization-defined unemployment rate stood at 9.1 per cent, after falling steadily from 14.7 percent in 2002. The registered unemployment rate is higher, though, standing at 13.7 percent in December 2008.

In 2009, economic output was dominated by the service sector which accounted for 73,6% percent of GDP, followed by the industrial sector with 20,5% and agriculture accounting for 5,9% of GDP. According to 2004 data, 2.7% of the workforce were employed in agriculture, 32.8% by industry and 64.5 in services.

The industrial sector is dominated by shipbuilding, food processing, pharmaceuticals, information technology, biochemical and timber industry. Tourism is a notable source of income during the summers, with over 11 million foreign tourists in 2008 generating a revenue of €8 billion. Croatia is ranked as the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world. In 2008, Croatia exported goods to the value of $14.4 billion (FOB) ($26.4 billion including service exports).

The Croatian state still controls a significant part of the economy, with government expenditure accounting for as much as 40% of GDP. Some large, state-owned industries, such as the country's shipyards, continue to rely on government subsidies but with EU membership looming, Croatia is forced to restructure debt ridden shipyards as it is a prerequisites for Croatia before it joins the EU. Subsidies for loss making industries also reduce needed investments in to education and technology needed to ensure the economy's long-term competitiveness.

Of particular concern is the backlogged judiciary system, combined with inefficient public administration, especially issues of land ownership and corruption. Another main problem includes the large and growing national debt which has reached over 34 billion euro or 89.1% of the nations gross domestic product. Because of these problems, studies show that the population of Croatia generally has negative expectations of the country's economic future.

Croatia has so far weathered the global financial crisis reasonably well, but faces significant challenges in 2010 largely due to Croatia's external imbalances and high foreign debt, which in longer term presents problems for Croatian financial sector due to higher cost of borrowing to cover current account deficit.

The country has been preparing for membership in the European Union, its most important trading partner. In February 2005, the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU officially came into force and by the end of 2009 Croatia has closed 17 EU accessions chapters, with remaining 16 to be completed by the end of first half of 2010. Croatia is expected to join the EU on 1 July 2013.

Transport

The highlight of Croatia's recent infrastructure developments is its rapidly growing motorway network, of which plans were drawn and work commenced in the 1970s, but was realised only after independence because of the (then) Yugoslav Government plans of road projects of 'national' importance. In 1997, at the Third Ministerial Session of the European Conference of Ministers of Transport, routes of four Pan-European corridors were defined running through Croatia, giving extra importance to Croatian road network.

Croatia has now over of completed motorways connecting Zagreb to most other regions. The best known and the busiest motorways are the A1, connecting Zagreb to Split and the A3, passing east–west through northwest Croatia and Slavonia. Toll is charged at most sections of the motorways—the most notable exceptions are Zagreb bypass and Rijeka bypass. There is also a smaller and less known network of expressways connecting to the motorways. The most heavily used ones are the B8, connecting the A7 near Rijeka to the A9 north of Pula, and the D28 spanning from the A4 near Zagreb to Bjelovar. The Croatian motorway network is of very good overall quality and excellent safety, confirmed by several EuroTAP and EuroTest awards.

Croatia has an extensive rail network, although due to historical circumstances, some regions (notably Istria and even more so Dubrovnik) are not accessible by train without passing through neighboring countries. Serious investment is needed in the rail network over the coming decades to bring it up to European standards in both speed and operational efficiency. All rail services are operated by Croatian Railways (). The inter-city bus network (operated by private operators) is extensively developed, with higher levels of coverage and timetables than the railways.

Croatia has three major international airports, located in Zagreb, Split and Dubrovnik. Other important airports include Zadar, Rijeka (on the island of Krk), Osijek, Bol, Lošinj and Pula. Croatia Airlines is the national airline and flag carrier. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has assessed the Government of Croatia’s Civil Aviation Authority as being in compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) aviation safety standards for oversight of Croatia’s air carrier operations.

An extensive system of ferries, operated by Jadrolinija, serves Croatia's many islands and links coastal cities. Ferry services to Italian cities of Venice, Ancona, Pescara, and Bari from around a dozen of Croatian sea ports, most notably Rovinj, Rijeka, Zadar, Split, Korčula, and Dubrovnik, is available on a daily or weekly basis. From April to September, the schedule is more dense and can include several round trips within a day.

Demographics

Croatia's 2001 census recorded a total population of 4,437,460. The first results of the 2011 census show that the total population is 4,290,612.

Croatia is inhabited mostly by Croats (89.6%), while minority groups include Serbs (4.5%), Bosniaks, Hungarians, Italians, Slovenes, Germans, Czechs, Romani people and others (5.9%). For most of the 20th century, the population of Croatia has been rising from 3,430,270 in 1931 to 4,784,265 in 1991. The natural growth rate of the population is currently negative with the demographic transition completed in the 1970s.

Average life expectancy is 75.1 years, and the literacy rate is 98.1 percent. During recent years, the Croatian government is pressured each year to add 40% to work permit quotas for foreign workers and in accordance with its immigration policy it is trying to entice emigrants to return. The main religions of Croatia are Roman Catholic 88%, Orthodox 4.4%, other Christian 0.4%, Muslim 1.3%, other and unspecified 0.9%, none 5.2%.

{{bar box |title=Religion in Croatia |titlebar=#ddd |left1=religion |right1=percent |float=left |bars= }}

During the last decade of the 20th century the population of Croatia has been stagnating because of the Croatian War of Independence. During the war, large sections of the population were displaced and emigration increased. In 1991, in predominantly Serb areas, more than 400 000 Croats and other non-Serbs were either removed out of their homes by the Croatian Serb forces or fled the violence. During the final days of the war in 1995, more than 120,000 Serbs, and perhaps as many as 200,000 fled before the victory by Croatian forces.

Only a small fraction of Serbs have returned to their homes since 1995, according to Human Rights Watch. Most of Croatia's remaining Serbs do not live in the highlands and inland of Dalmatia but rather in the Croatian heartland and major cities. Serbs have been only partially re-settled by the Croatian Government in the regions they previously inhabited (i.e., the blue areas of the map here). Many of the towns previously settled by Serbs were settled by Croat refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly from Republika Srpska.

Education

Primary education in Croatia starts at the age of six or seven and consists of eight grades. In 2007 a law was passed to increase free but not compulsory education until 18 years of age. Compulsory education consists of eight grades (Elementary School) Secondary education is provided by gymnasiums and vocational schools.

Croatia has eight universities, the University of Zagreb, University of Split, University of Rijeka, University of Osijek, University of Zadar, University of Dubrovnik the University of Pula and Dubrovnik International University. The University of Zadar, the first University in Croatia, was founded in 1396 and remained active until 1807, when other institutions of higher education took over until the foundation of the renewed University of Zadar in 2002. The University of Zagreb, founded in 1669, is the oldest continuously operating University in Southeastern Europe. There are also 11 polytechnics and 23 higher education institutions of which 19 are private.

There are numerous public music schools on the primary and secondary education levels. Over thirty scientific institutes are registered in Croatia, the largest one being the Institute "Ruđer Bošković" in Zagreb that excels in physics. The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb is a learned society promoting language, culture, arts and science from its first conception in 1836.

According to a survey ordered by the European commission in 2005, 49% of Croats speak English, 34% speak German, 14% Italian, 4% French and Russian and 2% Spanish language.

A worldwide study about the quality of education in different countries published by Newsweek in August 2010 ranked Croatian education system on the 22nd place, to share the position with Austria.

Culture

Croatian culture is the result of a fourteen century-long history which has seen the development of many cities and monuments and also includes many adoptions from ancient Greek, Roman and Illyrian cultures. The culture of Croatia can be divided into two cultural circles: Central European and Mediterranean. The country includes seven World Heritage sites and eight national parks. Croatia is also the birthplace of a number of historical figures. Included among the notable people are three Nobel prize winners and numerous inventors. The country is also rich with Intangible culture and holds the largest number of UNESCO's World's intangible culture masterpieces in Europe.

Regional cultures are considered variations on the larger category of "Croatian", including the cultures of Dalmatia, Istria, Slavonia, and Zagorje. These regions are characterized by differences in geography, traditional economy, food, folkloric tradition, and dialect. Despite that, Croats share an overall sense of national culture but at the same time often feel strong about regional identities and about local cultural variations. Cultural variations, particularly regional cuisine, are related to geographic variations within the country. Traditional economies are also linked to geography. The capital, Zagreb, is centrally located but was not chosen for that reason. It is the largest city, but also historically the political, commercial, and intellectual center.

Some of the world's first fountain pens came from Croatia. Croatia also has a place in the history of clothing as the origin of the necktie (''kravata''). The country has a long artistic, literary and musical tradition. Also of interest is the diverse nature of Croatian cuisine and the famous Croatian Traditional gift Licitar.

Croatians are protective of the their Croatian language from foreign influences as the language was under constant change and threats imposed by previous rulers (i.e. Austrian German, Hungarian, Italian and Turkish words were changed and altered to "Slavic" looking/sounding ones).

The Croatian language has three major dialects, identified by three different words for "what" ća, kaj and što. From 1961 to 1991, the official language was Serbo-Croatian. Even under socialism, Croats often referred to their language as Croato-Serbian (instead of Serbo-Croatian) or as Croatian. Croatian and Serbian variants of the language were never recognized as different, but referred as the west and east version, and had different alphabets; Latin alphabet and Serbian Cyrillic.

In the late 19th and 20th century, Serbian and Yugoslav nationalist scholars began to impose policies to change or alter Croatian words into "Serbian" or "South Slavic" ones, which have infuriated Croats over the purity and preservation of their native language (See Croatian linguistic purism). Under the Habsburgs, Latin was the official language of the Croatian government and Sabor. At the same time, besides Croatian, many Croats used German and Italian in everyday life. A national reawakening in the 19th century focused on the establishment of a national language as the official one.

During socialist Yugoslavia, a Yugoslav identity was promoted and symbols and expressions of national identity were suppressed and punishable by jail terms. The Croatian Spring, the most notable and only large-scale nationalist movement during Tito's regime, was put down in 1971 with most of its leadership imprisoned. It was led by important Croatian communists and was based on economic disagreement with the Serb elite in Belgrade.

The newly independent state has had to recreate a national culture by drawing from history and folk culture. The modern national identity draws on its medieval roots, association with Viennese "high culture," culturally diverse rural traditions, and Roman Catholicism.

The cravat (also known in modern English as the necktie), a fashion symbol of culture and elegance, originates from 17th-century Croatia, where it was part of the uniform worn by Croatian soldiers. Its dissemination across Europe began during Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) by Croatian regiments serving under the Archduchy of Austria. From 1635 Croatian soldiers also served in France, and in 1667 a special regiment named ''The Royal Cravates'' was formed. Common soldiers wore scarves made of coarser, more basic materials, while officers wore scarves made of cotton or silk. French emperor Louis XIV fell in love with this new Croatian fashion symbol, and soon had the starched high-lace collar the French used to wear replaced with the cravat, which he deemed to be a much more dignified and beautiful piece of clothing. When Louis, the most powerful European king, himself put on the cravat, the garment became a staple of European fashion. Later the cravat was adopted the world over, and to this day carries the Croatian origins of its name in the majority of modern languages.

Architecture

Architecture in Croatia reflects the influence of the bordering nations. Austrian and Hungarian influences are visible in public space and buildings in the north and central regions. Large squares named for culture heroes, well-groomed parks, and pedestrian-only zones, are features of these orderly towns and cities. Muted colors prevail, especially tones of yellow and gold. In urban areas, houses are built right up to the street. An inner courtyard sometimes provides space for a small garden. Modern houses in cities and villages usually have two or three stories with masonry and stucco.

Along the coast, the architecture is Mediterranean. Houses are usually made of stucco and painted white, and have red tile roofs. Cities and towns still have the characteristic open markets, squares, and Catholic churches, but are less likely to be laid out in a neat grid. Generally speaking, continental architecture is of baroque architecture gauge and coastal areas are examples of renaissance architecture.

World heritage sites in Croatia include:

Historical Complex of Split with the Palace of Diocletian (1979)

Old City of Dubrovnik (1979)

Plitvice Lakes National Park (1979)

Episcopal Complex of the Euphrasian Basilica in the Historic Centre of Poreč (1997)

Historic City of Trogir (1997)

The Cathedral of St. James in Šibenik (2000)

The Stari Grad Plain – island of Hvar (2008)

Sport

The most popular sports in Croatia are football, handball, basketball, water polo, tennis, and skiing.

The Croatian national football team won a bronze medal in the 1998 FIFA World Cup and Davor Šuker won the Golden Boot as the top goal scorer. The national football team has also played in the quarter-finals of the 1996 European Championships and the 2008 European Championships. The team is currently ranked 9th in the FIFA World Rankings (as of July 2011). The most popular football players are Luka Modrić, Darijo Srna, Ivica Olić, Ivan Klasnić and Niko Kranjčar.

The Croatia national handball team is a two-time Olympic Champion (1996 and 2004). The team also won a gold medal at the 2003 World Men's Handball Championship, and silver medals in the 1995, 2003 and 2009 World Championships. Croatia won bronze medal in 1994 European Championships and silver in 2008. RK Zagreb was a 1992 and 1993 European champion and 4 times a runner-up (1995, 1997, 1998 and 1999). Croatian players Ivano Balić, Igor Vori and Domagoj Duvnjak are currently among the best handball players in the world.

The Croatian national basketball team won a silver medal at the 1992 Olympic basketball tournament, bronze medal at the 1994 FIBA World Championship and bronze medals at EuroBasket 1993 and EuroBasket 1995. Croatian basketball clubs were Euroleague champions 5 times: KK Split three times (in 1989, 1990 and 1991) and KK Cibona in 1985 and 1986. Croatian basketball players such as Dražen Petrović, Krešimir Ćosić and Toni Kukoč were amongst the first foreign players to succeed in the NBA in the United States.

The Croatia national water polo team won a gold medal at the 2007 FINA World Championships and bronze medals in 2009 and 2011. The team also won a silver medal at the 1996 Olympic water polo tournament and gold medal at the 2010 European Championship as well as silver medals in the 1999 and 2003 European Championships. Croatian water polo clubs were 13 times LEN Euroleague champions. HAVK Mladost from Zagreb was a seven time European Champion (in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1990, 1991 and 1996) and was awarded the title ''Best Club of the 20th Century'' by the LEN. VK Jug from Dubrovnik and VK Jadran from Split were both three time European champions.

The Croatian Davis Cup team (Ivan Ljubičić, Mario Ančić and Ivo Karlović with coach Nikola Pilić) won the 2005 Davis Cup tournament and reached semifinals in 2009 tournament (Marin Čilić and Ivo Karlović with coach Goran Prpić). Goran Ivanišević is one of the country's most popular sportsmen. Ivanišević won the 2001 Wimbledon Men's singles title and reached number 2 spot in ATP Rankings in July 1994. Ivan Ljubičić reached number 3 spot in ATP Rankings in May 2006. Iva Majoli won the 1997 Roland Garros Women's Singles title. Currently the best Croatian tennis player is Marin Čilić ranked 14th as of November 16, 2009.

Janica Kostelić is the most successful female alpine ski racer in the history of the Winter Olympic Games. She is the only woman to win four gold medals in alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics Alpine skiing events (in 2002 and 2006), and the only woman to win three alpine skiing gold medals in one Olympics (2002). She also won two slilver medals in 2006. Janica was the World Cup overall champion in 2001, 2003, and 2006. On February 5, 2006 Janica became only the second female skier to win all five disciplines in one season. She also holds the record for the highest number of points in one World Cup season. In 2006 she won Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year. Her elder brother Ivica Kostelić was the 2003 World Champion in slalom and the Men's Overall Champion at the 2011 Alpine Skiing World Cup, and is a three-time Winter Olympic silver medalist himself.

Blanka Vlašić is the best-known Croatian track and field athlete; she specialises in the high jump. She is 2007 and 2009 World Champion. Blanka is also 2008 World Indoor Champion and 2008 Olympic silver medalist. Her personal best is (which is only 1 cm less than the world record) set in Zagreb at August 31, 2009.

Croatia women's national volleyball team won silver medals three times at European Volleyball Championship in 1995, 1997 and 1999.

Other well-known Croatian athletes are Duje Draganja, Gordan Kožulj, Sanja Jovanović and Đurđica Bjedov in swimming, Zoran Primorac, Dragutin Šurbek, Antun Stipančić and Tamara Boroš in table tennis, Filip Ude in gymnastics, Siniša and Nikša Skelin in rowing, Martina Zubčić and Sandra Šarić in taekwondo, Snježana Pejčić in shooting, Matija Ljubek in canoeing, Željko Mavrović and Mate Parlov in boxing, and Branko Cikatić and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović in kickboxing. Biathlete Jakov Fak was a Croatian representative before 2010.

See also

Public holidays in Croatia

Protected areas of Croatia

Telecommunications in Croatia

Timeline of Croatian history

Tourism in Croatia

Lists:

Index of Croatia-related articles

List of cities in Croatia

List of twin towns and sister cities in Croatia

List of castles in Croatia

List of Croats

References

;Bibliography Agičić and others., ''Povijest i zemljopis Hrvatske, priručnik za hrvatske manjinske škole'' (''History and Geography of Croatia, a handbook for Croatian minority schools''), Biblioteka Geographica Croatica, 292 pages, Zagreb:2000 (ISBN 953-6235-40-4)

Branka Magaš. "Croatia Through History: The Making of a Modern European State" Saqi. November 2007, 680pp.

Ivo Banac, ''The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics'' Cornell University Press, 1984.

Mirjana Kasapović (ed.), ''Hrvatska politika 1990.-2000.'' Zagreb: Hrvatska politologija 2001.

Pavol Demes and Jörg Forbrig (eds.), ''Reclaiming Democracy: Civil Society and Electoral Change in Central and Eastern Europe.'' German Marshall Fund, 2007. ISBN 978-80-969639-0-4

Sharon Fisher, Political Change in Post-Communist Slovakia and Croatia: From Nationalist to Europeanist. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006 ISBN 1403972869

External links

Category:Countries of the Mediterranean Sea Category:European countries Category:Liberal democracies Category:Member states of the Union for the Mediterranean Category:Member states of NATO Category:Republics Category:Serbo-Croatian-speaking countries Category:Slavic countries Category:States and territories established in 1991 Category:Member states of the United Nations

xmf:ხორვატია

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name	Colin McRae
birth date	August 05, 1968
death date	September 15, 2007
nationality	Scottish
years	1987–2003, 2005–2006
teams	Subaru, Citroën, Ford, Škoda
races	146
championships	1 (1995)
wins	25
podiums	42
stagewins	477
points	626
first race	1987 Swedish Rally
first win	1993 Rally New Zealand
last win	2002 Safari Rally
last race	2006 Rally of Turkey }}

Colin Steele McRae, MBE (5 August 1968 – 15 September 2007) was a Scottish rally driver born in Lanark.

The son of five-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and brother of rally driver Alister McRae, Colin McRae was the 1991 and 1992 British Rally Champion and, in 1995, became the first Briton and the youngest to win the World Rally Championship Drivers' title. He still holds that record to this day.

McRae's outstanding performance on the Subaru World Rally Team enabled the team to win the World Rally Championship Constructors' title three times in succession in 1995, 1996 and 1997. After a four year spell with the Ford Motor Co. team, which saw McRae win nine events, he moved to Citroën World Rally Team in 2003 where, despite not winning an event, he helped them win the first of their three consecutive manufacturers' titles. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to motorsport in 1996. McRae died in a helicopter accident in September 2007 which also claimed the lives of his son and two family friends.

In November 2008 he was posthumously inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

Personal and early life

McRae was married to Alison, and had two children, Hollie and Johnny. McRae moved to the principality of Monaco in 1995, partly through his friendship with David Coulthard. However, as his young family grew up, he spent more time back at his home in Lanarkshire — accepting the higher tax liability of living in Scotland. The couple bought the 17th century Jerviswood House.

Career

Early career

Colin McRae began his competitive career in motorsport riding trial bikes at an early age, despite being more interested in four wheeled machines rather than two wheel bikes. At the age of sixteen, through the Coltness Car Club, McRae discovered autotesting, he soon traded his bike for a Mini Cooper and started competing. A year later, he began to negotiate with another club member to use his Hillman Avenger for the Kames Stages, a single-staged rally venue not far from McRae's home. McRae finished the event fourteenth; first in his class although he had run most of the event in a higher position.

In 1986, driving a Talbot Sunbeam, McRae entered the Scottish Rally Championship and soon made a name for himself with his speed and exciting style of driving. His driving style drew many comparisons to Finnish ex-World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, who McRae had always idolised. In 1988 he performed a giant killing act when he took the Scottish Rally Championship series crown in a humble Vauxhall Nova. Craving more power, his next car was a Ford Sierra XR 4x4.

His first WRC event was the 1987 Swedish Rally behind the wheel of his Nova, and again two years later, driving the Sierra and finishing 15th overall. Later that year, he finished 5th overall at Rally New Zealand in a rear wheel drive Sierra Cosworth. By 1990 McRae was driving a Sierra Cosworth 4x4 and achieved sixth place in that year's RAC Rally, despite several accidents. 1991 saw McRae turn professional as he was signed by Prodrive boss David Richards to his Subaru team in the British Rally Championship for an annual wage of approximately £10,000. McRae was British Rally Champion in both 1991 and 1992, soon graduating to the Subaru factory team at World Rally Championship level. 1992 also saw Colin McRae make his début in the British Touring Car Championship, with a one-off appearance for the Prodrive-run BMW factory team at the Knockhill round. In the second of the two races of the event, McRae collided with Matt Neal. Race officials found McRae to have caused an avoidable collision and subsequently disqualified him.

World Rally Championship

1993–1998: Subaru

On his promotion for 1993, McRae initially drove the Prodrive-built Group A Subaru Legacy alongside Finns Ari Vatanen, Hannu Mikkola and Markku Alén. McRae then won his first WRC rally in the car at that year's Rally New Zealand. It was also the first rally win for the newly formed Subaru World Rally Team, shortly before the Legacy was due to be pensioned off in favour of the new Subaru Impreza 555. Such were the rising fortunes of his young Subaru factory team as they competed against the frontrunning TTE ran Toyotas, aided by the latter team's exclusion from the championship after the 1995 Rally Catalunya where it was discovered that the Japanese team had been using illegal turbochargers, it took only until 1995 for McRae to win the drivers title, which he secured with victory in a straight contest with his double champion team-mate, Carlos Sainz, on the season-ending Rally of Great Britain. Although still a winner with the outfit in individual rallies in succeeding years, including, increasingly, more specialised events such as the Acropolis Rally, Safari Rally and the Tour de Corse, McRae could not better second place in the standings in either 1996 or 1997, on both occasions behind Finland and Mitsubishi Ralliart's Tommi Mäkinen. He did, however help Subaru complete their run of three consecutive manufacturers' titles during this time. In what would turn out to be his final season with the team, in 1998 he won three more rallies and placed third in the standings, as well as winning the Race of Champions in Gran Canaria, the Canary Islands.

1999–2002: Ford

After several years of varying success, McRae switched to the M-Sport-run Ford factory team for 1999, driving the new Ford Focus rally car. The deal saw McRae earning six million pounds over two years, which at the time made him the highest earning rally driver in history. This move was immediately rewarded with two consecutive wins at the Safari Rally and Rally Portugal. A number of shunts and reliability issues for the new car for much of the rest of that season, however, resulted in only sixth place in the championship standings overall. Moreover, a rare personal pointless run had begun for McRae that year which was only to be halted with a podium on the following February's Swedish Rally, the beginning of a recovery which saw McRae victorious in on the asphalt turns of Catalunya and the gravel of Greece, and post 4th in the 2000 overall standings. Midway through the 2000 season, the lacking reliability of the Focus had led to McRae threatening to leave the team if the problems continued. The upturn towards the end of the season resulted in him deciding to renew his contract with Ford for a further two years. McRae's intermittent success with Ford continued into 2001, where after failing to score in any of the first four rounds, including having momentarily led defending winner Tommi Makinen on the stages of the season opening Monte Carlo Rally prior to being forced into retirement, he then went on to score three consecutive victories in Argentina, Cyprus and Greece to tie with Mäkinen at the top of the points table. However, having again led the championship outright entering the final round in Great Britain, McRae once more missed out on a possible second title, crashing out and finishing second in the drivers championship, two points behind Subaru's Richard Burns.

With victory in the Safari Rally in 2002, McRae made the record books as the driver with most event wins in the World Rally Championship. His record has since been broken by Carlos Sainz, Sébastien Loeb and Marcus Grönholm. McRae's contract with Ford came to an end following the 2002 season, and after reportedly asking for wages of five million pounds a year, Ford decided against renewing the contract, reluctant to commit such a high amount of their budget to a drivers salary. The two parties split on amicable terms, with Ford's European director of motorsport Martin Whitaker stating "On behalf of all of us at Ford Motor Company I would like to publicly thank Colin and Nicky for their efforts during the past four years with the Ford team… I wish them both well in the future." McRae said of his time with Ford "It's been a very successful four years, we've achieved a lot of very good results and I'm quite happy that myself and Ford have had a very successful partnership."

2003: Citroën

For 2003, McRae signed for Citroën, a team of winning pedigree due to its successes of the previous year with young Frenchman Sébastien Loeb but otherwise undertaking its first complete campaign at World Rally Championship level. McRae's second place finish on his début in Monte Carlo alongside Loeb and Carlos Sainz whom, aboard the Xsara WRC, helped complete a 1-2-3 finish, transpired to be the finest result he would achieve for the team, for the season was to end with seventh in the drivers' championship, with no victories. Rule changes that were to be brought in for the 2004 season changed the previous practice of having three nominated points-scorers within a team to two. With Loeb partway through a multiple year contract, this meant the Citroën factory team, under Guy Frequelin's leadership, were forced to choose between dropping McRae or Sainz. With Sainz being the more successful of the two during the 2003 season, it was McRae who had to look elsewhere for 2004. David Richards, McRae's former boss at Subaru, who had by now taken over WRC's commercial rights holders ISC and worried that the loss of a character like McRae would damage his ability to market the sport, set about trying to help McRae find a drive for 2004. McRae was unable to find a team, and for the first time in over ten years he would not be competing in the World Rally Championship.

Later career

As the only other potential alternative suitors, Subaru instead eventually chose Mikko Hirvonen to partner Petter Solberg, McRae found himself without a drive for the 2004 season. He instead pursued other interests, including competing in the Dakar Rally and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (see below).

In 2004 and 2005 McRae represented Great Britain in the Race of Champions alongside Formula One driver and fellow Scot, David Coulthard. For the 2006 event England and Scotland entered separate teams with McRae and Coulthard re-uniting to represent Scotland.

McRae then returned to the series for one off drives for Skoda on the 2005 Rally GB and Rally Australia, respectively finishing seventh and retiring due to a clutch problem on the final leg of the rally, the latter dashing hopes for what may otherwise have been only the team's second ever podium place after the 2001 Safari Rally.

On 5 August 2006, McRae competed for Subaru in the first live televised American rally in Los Angeles as part of the X-Games. McRae rolled the car on the penultimate corner after landing awkwardly from a jump, which damaged the front bumper and left front tyre. Despite this, McRae kept the car running and continued on to the finish, his time only 0.13 seconds slower than eventual winner Travis Pastrana. McRae was, though, to have one more opportunity at world championship level: he was unexpectedly entered for his final rally by semi-works Kronos Citroën at Rally Turkey in September, where he replaced Sébastien Loeb while the Frenchman recovered from an injury he sustained in a cycling accident immediately prior to the event. A final-stage alternator problem consigned him and returning co-driver Nicky Grist, to a final placing outside the top ten.

Years
Teams	Prodrive Racing
Best finish	9th overall, 3rd in class ()
Class wins	0 }}

McRae's competitive spirit also led him to compete in racing series other than the WRC. In September 2002 he tried his hand at oval racing when he took part in the Ascar (UK version of NASCAR) race at the Rockingham Motor Speedway, Northamptonshire; eventually finishing in sixth place.

McRae rejoined Prodrive for the 2004 24 Hours of Le Mans where he took third place in the GTS class, and ninth position overall in a Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello partnering Darren Turner and Rickard Rydell. Fellow countryman, and Le Mans winner Allan McNish commented that "Colin has adapted far better than people expected" to endurance sportscar racing.

McRae, made his debut on the gruelling Dakar Rally Raid with Nissan in January 2004, and impressed the team by scoring two stage wins on his way to a memorable finish on the gruelling trans-Sahara event. He returned to the Dakar in 2005 and was fastest on two of the first three stages in Morocco, before crashing out of the rally towards the end of stage six.

In August 2007, McRae claimed to still be working on finding a seat for the 2008 WRC season, stating that "if it doesn't happen next year, then I won't (return) because you can only be out of something at that level for so long."

Colin McRae Rally

Codemasters released the first ''Colin McRae Rally'' video game in 1998. Version ''2'', known as Colin McRae 2.0, was released in the year 2000, for Sony's PlayStation and for the PC; it was also ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2002. A third version found a wide audience on the PC and Xbox. Versions ''04'' and ''2005'' arrived in 2004 on all major platforms. ''2005'' was also remade for Sony's PSP and Nokia's N-Gage. ''Colin McRae: Dirt'' was the title for the next instalment of the series, which launched in 2007 for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The PlayStation 3 edition was released in the UK on 14 September, the day before McRae's death. A special edition for mobile phones will also be available from Codemasters Mobile. ''Colin McRae: Dirt 2'' was released on the Xbox 360 and the PS3 on 11 September 2009, the PC version was released on 8 December 2009. ''Colin McRae: Dirt 3'' was released in Europe and North America on the 24 May 2011, and two days later in Australia for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Colin McRae R4

Colin McRae chose the 2006 Goodwood Festival of Speed to unveil the McRae R4, which had been conceived at the beginning of 2005. The intention was to make a cheaper alternative to WRCs (World Rally Cars) with significantly lower running costs. The McRae R4 was designed for use in rallying, rally cross, circuit racing and ice racing events, with the possibility of a one-make race series.

Designed by Colin McRae and Dave Plant and built by DJM Race Preparation, the McRae R4's chassis is based on a steel safety cage with carbon panelling front and rear, and a steel-covered cockpit area. Suspension consists of twin wishbones with Proflex dampers. The body styling has been done by Keith Burden and Tom Webster. It appears that some components of the vehicle have been taken from existing production cars, the doorline in particular appears very close to that of the Ford Ka.

The engine is a naturally-aspirated 4 cylinder, 2.5 litre Millington Diamond Engine producing 350 BHP. Transmission is via a six-speed gearbox, manual or semi-auto, and by mechanical front and rear differentials with the option of mechanical or active central differential. The car can be produced in either 2 or 4 wheel drive formats.

Alison McRae has said that she would like production of the car to continue following Colin's death.

The R4 appears in Codemasters titles Colin McRae: DiRT, Colin McRae: DiRT 2 and DiRT 3

Death

McRae died on 15 September 2007 when his helicopter, a Eurocopter AS350, crashed 1 mile north of Lanark, Scotland, close to the McRae family home. McRae was piloting the helicopter at the time of the crash. McRae's five year old son Johnny, and two family friends, Graeme Duncan and Johnny's six year old friend Ben Porcelli, also died in the crash. McRae's previously active website, ColinMcRae.com, was later replaced with a memorial screen stating a few details about the crash, and then with a short statement released on behalf of McRae's father, Jimmy, and later a book of condolences.

Funeral and celebration services

The funeral for Colin and Johnny took place on Wednesday 26 September at Daldowie Crematorium near Glasgow, conducted by the Rev Tom Houston, who had married the McRaes, and the Rev Steven Reid, chaplain at Johnny's school. An address was given by Robbie Head, a former rally driver and commentator who was a close friend of McRae's, with the Rev Houston giving the benediction. McRae's niece and nephews performed the tune Highland Cathedral, a popular funeral song. Also, the song "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding, a favourite song of McRae's, was played when the family entered the chapel; and The Proclaimers' song "I'm on My Way" was played when they left. Colin and Johnny McRae were cremated in the same coffin. Among the attendees at the funeral were fellow Scottish racing drivers Jackie Stewart and Dario Franchitti.

A "Celebration of Life" service took place at St Nicholas Church in Lanark on Sunday 30 September at 4pm. Images from McRae's career and personal life were displayed on large video screens outside the church. Around 700 mourners filled the church, with crowds of up to 15,000 outside. Shortly before 4pm, a lone bagpiper played "Flower of Scotland" as the family arrived at the church. The service was conducted by the Rev Alison Meikle, who said "Two weeks ago Lanark was struck by silence. A terrible silence bought at an enormous price. However, in our tears love is stronger than death." Later, the Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton song "Islands in the Stream", a favourite of Johnny's, was played. Friends of the pair shared poems and anecdotes from the McRaes' lives. After the service, Colin McRae's widow, brother and father bowed and applauded the crowds who had gathered outside to pay tribute to the McRaes.

Reaction

McRae's death was met by much grief from former colleagues, rivals and fans alike. Formula One driver David Coulthard, a good friend of McRae, who was due to represent Scotland along with him in the Race of Champions at Wembley Stadium on 16 December, described him as "an understated yet fantastically talented individual", he also announced that he would race the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix with a helmet paint design similar to that of McRae's as a tribute. During the finale of the 2007 Scottish Rally Championship, the "Colin McRae Forest Stages" held in Perth in September 2007, there was no number 1 car as McRae had been due to drive the course car on the event. Instead, his car was parked at the starting point of the rally, where fans were able to sign a book of condolences.

Following his win at the Brands Hatch meeting of the 2007 World Touring Car Championship season, Andy Priaulx dedicated it to McRae, commenting that his death "shows how fragile life can be". McRae's former rival, four-time World Rally Champion Tommi Mäkinen commented the helicopter accident as terrifying news, and described McRae as "a pleasant fellow and a tough rival". Valentino Rossi, who was taught the basics of driving a rally car by McRae, said he was shocked and saddened by the sudden departure of the former World Rally Champion. Valentino dedicated his win at Estoril MotoGp in 2007 to Colin McRae saying to the media "I want to dedicate this to Colin McRae. He was one of my big idols when I was very young and it's because of him I have a big passion for rally".

As a mark of respect for McRae, the Swedish Rally organisers set up an award for the longest jump over a crest on the Vargåsen stage of the rally. The inaugural winner of the award, named ''Colin's Crest'', was Ford's United Arab Emirates driver Khalid al-Qassimi who recorded a distance of 30 m.

On 27 September 2008 the ''Colin McRae Forest Stages Rally'' took place in Perth, Scotland. An enhanced entry list of several former big name rally drivers took part in memory of Colin. The impressive entry list included ex-World Championship drivers Hannu Mikkola, Ari Vatanen (partnered by his 1981 WRC winning co-driver David Richards), Björn Waldegård, Stig Blomqvist, Malcolm Wilson, Russell Brookes, Jimmy McRae, Andrew Cowan and Louise Aitken-Walker, many competing in their original cars. A handful of current WRC drivers also took part including Matthew Wilson, Kris Meeke and Travis Pastrana. The event was deemed a great success, attracting record spectator numbers to the Perthshire forests. Outright winner was Stobart VK M-Sport Ford Rally Team driver Matthew Wilson in a Ford Focus WRC. Fittingly, Colin's brother Alister McRae won the classic category.

In video game ''Colin McRae: Dirt 2'' there is a race series named "Colin McRae Challenge" that is dedicated to him. Winning the race unlocks a video that is a tribute to him.

Investigation

After the crash, an investigative team from the UK Department for Transport Air Accidents Investigation Branch attended the scene in co-operation with Strathclyde Police. The wreckage of the helicopter was removed to Farnborough for further forensic investigation. Pilots operate under strict regulations, and are expected in the case of helicopters under CAA rules to undertake a competency test every year, and renew their licenses every five years — not to do so is illegal. It later emerged that McRae had not undertaken a competency check as required in March 2006, and that effectively his license had expired in February 2005. A CAA spokesman commented "The investigators must determine why he (McRae) hasn't kept up to date with his documentation. There is no suggestion that Mr McRae was not a competent pilot."

The final report into the accident was published on 12 February 2009. In it, the AAIB did not reach a definite conclusion as to the cause of the accident, stating instead that "the helicopter crashed in a wooded valley while manoeuvering at high speed and low height. It was intact prior to impact, and the available evidence indicated that the engine was delivering power. The cause of the accident was not positively determined. Although no technical reason was found to explain the accident, a technical fault could not be ruled out entirely. However, it is more likely that the pilot attempted a turning manoeuvre at low height, during which the helicopter deviated from his intended flight path; whether due to the pilot encountering handling difficulties, misjudgement, spatial disorientation, distraction or a combination of such events. There were indications that the pilot had started a recovery but, with insufficient height in which to complete it, the helicopter struck trees in the valley and crashed, killing all four occupants."

Complete WRC results

! Year

! Entrant

! Car

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! 14

! 15

! 16

! WDC

! Points

rowspan="2"

! Colin McRae

! Vauxhall Nova

bgcolor="#CFCFFF"

—

0

! British Junior Rally Team

! Vauxhall Nova

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

! Peugeot Talbot Sport

! Peugeot 205 GTI

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

! —

! 0

rowspan="3"

! Colin McRae

Ford Sierra>Ford Sierra XR 4x4

bgcolor="#CFCFFF"

34th

8

! Gary Smith Motorsport

! Ford Sierra RS Cosworth

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

! R.E.D.

! Ford Sierra RS Cosworth

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

! Shell UK Oil

Ford Sierra RS Cosworth>Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

34th

6

! Subaru Rally Team Europe

! Subaru Legacy RS

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

—

0

! Subaru Rally Team Europe

! Subaru Legacy RS

bgcolor="#DFDFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

8th

34

rowspan=2

Subaru World Rally Team>555 Subaru World Rally Team

! Subaru Legacy RS

bgcolor="#FFDF9F"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

5th

50

! Subaru M.S.G.

Subaru Vivio>Subaru Vivio Sedan 4WD

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

! 555 Subaru World Rally Team

! Subaru Impreza 555

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

! 4th

! 49

! 555 Subaru World Rally Team

! Subaru Impreza 555

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFDF9F"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#DFDFDF"

bgcolor="#DFDFDF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

! 555 Subaru World Rally Team

! Subaru Impreza 555

bgcolor="#FFDF9F"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

! 555 Subaru World Rally Team

Subaru Impreza WRC>Subaru Impreza WRC 97

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#DFDFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

! 555 Subaru World Rally Team

Subaru Impreza WRC>Subaru Impreza WRC 98

bgcolor="#FFDF9F"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFDF9F"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

BP Ford World Rally Team>Ford Motor Co

! Ford Focus WRC

bgcolor="#000000" style="color: #ffffff"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

! 6th

! 23

! Ford Motor Co

Ford Focus WRC>Ford Focus RS WRC 00

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFDF9F"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#DFDFDF"

bgcolor="#DFDFDF"

bgcolor="#DFDFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

! 4th

! 43

! Ford Motor Co

Ford Focus WRC>Ford Focus RS WRC 01

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#CFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#FFDF9F"

bgcolor="#DFDFDF"

bgcolor="#CFCFFF"

bgcolor="#CFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

! Ford Motor Co

Ford Focus WRC>Ford Focus RS WRC 02

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#FFDF9F"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#FFFFBF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#CFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

! 4th

! 35

! Citroën Total

! Citroën Xsara WRC

bgcolor="#DFDFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#CFCFFF"

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

! 7th

! 45

! Škoda Motorsport

! Škoda Fabia WRC

bgcolor="#DFFFDF"

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

! 22nd

! 2

! Kronos Citroën World Rally Team

! Citroën Xsara WRC

bgcolor="#EFCFFF"

! —

! 0

{|class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" |- !colspan="5"|World Rally Championship victories |- !  #  ! Event ! Season ! Co-driver ! Car |- | 1 | 23rd Rothmans Rally of New Zealand | 1993 | Derek Ringer | Subaru Legacy RS |- | 2 | 24th Rothmans Rally of New Zealand | 1994 | Derek Ringer | Subaru Impreza 555 |- | 3 | 50th Network Q Rally | 1994 | Derek Ringer | Subaru Impreza 555 |- | 4 | 25th Smokefree Rally New Zealand | 1995 | Derek Ringer | Subaru Impreza 555 |- | 5 | 51st Network Q Rally | 1995 | Derek Ringer | Subaru Impreza 555 |- | 6 | 43rd Acropolis Rally of Greece | 1996 | Derek Ringer | Subaru Impreza 555 |- | 7 | 38° Rallye Sanremo — Rallye d'Italia | 1996 | Derek Ringer | Subaru Impreza 555 |- | 8 | 32° Rallye Catalunya-Costa Brava (Rallye de España) | 1996 | Derek Ringer | Subaru Impreza 555 |- | 9 | 45th Safari Rally Kenya | 1997 | Nicky Grist | Subaru Impreza WRC |- | 10 | 41ème Tour de Corse — Rallye de France | 1997 | Nicky Grist | Subaru Impreza WRC |- | 11 | 39° Rallye Sanremo — Rallye d'Italia | 1997 | Nicky Grist | Subaru Impreza WRC |- | 12 | 10th API Rally Australia | 1997 | Nicky Grist | Subaru Impreza WRC |- | 13 | 53rd Network Q Rally | 1997 | Nicky Grist | Subaru Impreza WRC |- | 14 | 31° TAP Rallye de Portugal | 1998 | Nicky Grist | Subaru Impreza WRC |- | 15 | 42ème Tour de Corse — Rallye de France | 1998 | Nicky Grist | Subaru Impreza WRC |- | 16 | 45th Acropolis Rally of Greece | 1998 | Nicky Grist | Subaru Impreza WRC |- | 17 | 47th Safari Rally Kenya | 1999 | Nicky Grist | Ford Focus WRC |- | 18 | 32° TAP Rallye de Portugal | 1999 | Nicky Grist | Ford Focus WRC |- | 19 | 36° Rallye Catalunya-Costa Brava (Rallye de España) | 2000 | Nicky Grist | Ford Focus WRC |- | 20 | 47th Acropolis Rally | 2000 | Nicky Grist | Ford Focus WRC |- | 21 | 21° Rally Argentina | 2001 | Nicky Grist | Ford Focus WRC |- | 22 | 29th Cyprus Rally | 2001 | Nicky Grist | Ford Focus WRC |- | 23 | 48th Acropolis Rally | 2001 | Nicky Grist | Ford Focus WRC |- | 24 | 49th Acropolis Rally | 2002 | Nicky Grist | Ford Focus WRC |- | 25 | 50th Inmarsat Safari Rally | 2002 | Nicky Grist | Ford Focus WRC |}

References

Journals

Evans, David (20 September 2007) Autosport,"McRae Tribute", Vol. 189, No. 12, pp. 6–11, Haymarket Publications.

Notes

External links

Official site

Official sportswear brand

Rallybase stats page

WRC Archive stats page

Obituary in ''The Times''

Obituary and Memorial

McRae R4

McRae Dakar Buggy

Category:1968 births Category:2007 deaths Category:24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Category:Accidental deaths in Scotland Category:Aviators killed in aircraft crashes in the United Kingdom Category:British Touring Car Championship drivers Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:People from Lanark Category:Scottish aviators Category:Scottish rally drivers Category:Scottish racecar drivers Category:Scottish Sports Hall of Fame inductees Category:Segrave Trophy recipients Category:Victims of helicopter accidents or incidents Category:World Rally Champions Category:World Rally Championship drivers Category:World Rally Championship people Category:X-Games athletes

an:Colin McRae bg:Колин МакРей ca:Colin McRae cs:Colin McRae cy:Colin McRae da:Colin McRae de:Colin McRae et:Colin McRae el:Κόλιν Μακ Ρέι es:Colin McRae fr:Colin McRae gl:Colin McRae ko:콜린 맥레이 hr:Colin McRae id:Colin McRae it:Colin McRae lv:Kolins Makrejs lt:Colin McRae hu:Colin McRae nl:Colin McRae ja:コリン・マクレー no:Colin McRae nn:Colin McRae pl:Colin McRae pt:Colin McRae ru:Макрей, Колин simple:Colin McRae sk:Colin McRae fi:Colin McRae sv:Colin McRae tl:Colin McRae tr:Colin McRae zh:科林·麦克雷

name	Ivica Kostelić
birth date	November 23, 1979
birth place	Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
death date
height
club	Ski club Zagreb
skis	Fischer
seasons
wins	18
additionalpodiums	25
totalpodiums	43
updated	January 30, 2011 }}

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Ivica Kostelić (; born November 23, 1979) is an alpine ski racer from Zagreb, Croatia. He won the world championship in slalom in 2003 and three Olympic silver medals in slalom (2010) and combined (2006 and 2010), along with the overall World Cup title in 2011 and 18 World Cup races during his career. He specializes in slalom and combined, but is also one of the few alpine World Cup ski racers able to score points in all disciplines. He is the elder brother of Janica Kostelić, the winner of three overall World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals before her early retirement due to injuries.

Career

After considerable success in junior competitions, Kostelić's World Cup career has alternated between triumph and injury. His main accomplishments include a World Championship gold medal in slalom in 2003, Olympic silver medal in slalom in Vancouver in 2010, and Olympic silver medals in combined in 2006 (traditional combined) and 2010 (super combined), along with 18 World Cup race victories during his career and the overall World Cup title in 2011. He won the slalom World Cup title in 2002 and 2011, and the combined World Cup title in 2011. Since 2008, he has finished among the top six in the overall World Cup standings each season (2008: sixth; 2009: fourth; 2010: fifth; 2011: first). He has also scored points in all disciplines each of those seasons, and his best race results (as of March 2011) are a seventh place in downhill, a second place in giant slalom, and victories in all other disciplines (11 in slalom, 1 in parallel-slalom, 2 in combined, 3 in super combined, and 1 in Super G).

Early World Cup years (1998–2005)

Kostelić made his first World Cup start in October 1998 in Sölden, Austria, at the age of 18, but failed to qualify for a second run. He did not finish any of his first 11 World Cup races over 3 seasons, until finally scoring World Cup points for the first time in Sestriere, Italy, in December 2000. His first three seasons on the World Cup all ended prematurely due to injuries, failing to make it past December or January each season. His big breakthrough came during the 2002 season, when he shockingly won the slalom at Aspen, Colorado, in November 2001 starting from the 64th bib number, his first finish higher than 21st place in any World Cup race. He won two more slaloms that season, and had three additional podiums (top 3), enough to clinch the slalom season title over Bode Miller while avoiding season-ending injury for the first time in his career.

Kostelić would continue his success during the next season, winning three more slalom races by mid-season, and adding a gold medal in slalom in February at the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland. He would narrowly miss repeating his slalom title, falling to second place as Kalle Palander won four consecutive slaloms in late season to clinch the globe. He would go on to win another slalom race during the 2003–2004 season, the 7th win of his career, before injuries again ended his season prematurely in January. He would return to World Cup competition in time for the start of the 2004–2005 season, but would fail to finish any of his first 7 races that year. Despite a pair of podiums later that season and occasional top-10 finishes, he would not win another World Cup race for nearly three years.

Resurgence as all-event skier (2006–2010)

Kostelić began his career as a technical specialist, racing only slalom and GS (with an occasional Super G), but started to ski the speed events including downhill during the 2006 season, primarily in order to compete in the new format of super combined, which consists of single runs of downhill and slalom. His broadened portfolio brought quick dividends, with a silver medal in the combined (a traditional combined with a single downhill and two runs of slalom) at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, in February. He would follow that success during the 2007 World Cup season with a win in the super combined in Reiteralm, Austria, in December 2006, his eighth World Cup win and first other than slalom.

Starting with the 2008 season, Kostelić joined the select group of World Cup racers who compete in all races. Although he failed to win any World Cup races during the 2008 season, he finished second 4 times and third twice in slalom and super combined races, and for the first time scored points in all disciplines. He would finish second in the combined standings and sixth in the overall. The next season brought another win in slalom, along with three more second places (including in GS for his first time) and a pair of thirds, as he moved up to fourth in the overall standings while again taking second in the slalom standings. Success in all disciplines continued in the 2010 season, with two more World Cup wins in slalom and combined (for a total of 11 in his career) along with a second in Super G, his first podium in a speed event. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, he won a pair of silver medals, in slalom and combined.

Overall World Cup title (2011)

Kostelić's skiing would reach another level during the 2011 season. Following a third in the season-opening slalom in November, however, he suffered a string of mediocre finishes outside the top-10 for the rest of 2010. Then he opened the New Year with a victory in the first-ever Munich City Event parallel slalom on January 2nd, and took second place four days later in the slalom in his hometown of Zagreb. He followed that up with three more wins over the next two weeks in slalom and super combined at Adelboden and Wengen, Switzerland, to take the lead in the overall World Cup standings for the first time. At the Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbühel, Austria, he had victories in Super-G and combined, plus a second place in slalom, which opened a gap of more than 400 points over his nearest competitors in the overall ranking. A week later, he won the super combined in Chamonix, France, his third straight win in combined and clinching the combined title for the season with one race still remaining. It was his seventh victory of January 2011, the most by any alpine ski racer in a single calendar month in World Cup history, and he scored points in all 14 World Cup races held in January, including two seconds and two fifths along with top-30 finishes in all three downhills, for a total of 999 points in January alone.

After the stunning success of January, Kostelić's results tailed off considerably and he would fail to finish higher than fifth in any of the remaining 10 World Cup races on the season. In February, Kostelić won a bronze medal in super G at the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch, but finished only 8th and 13th in the slalom and giant slalom. He chose not to race the World Championships downhill or the super combined (in which he was the clear favorite to win the gold medal) in order to avoid injury on the extremely icy course. On March 12, five races before the end of the season, he clinched his first overall World Cup title , and he would clinch the slalom title at the final race in Lenzerheide, Switzerland on March 19, despite finishing out of the points that day. Kostelić would win a total of three crystal globes for the 2011 season including the overall, slalom, and combined titles.

Personal life

Ivica Kostelić was born and raised in Zagreb. His parents, Ante and Marica, are former elite team handball players. They taught Ivica and his sister Janica (who is two years younger) to ski on the nearby hill Sljeme (now the site of the annual Snow Queen Trophy World Cup races). Ante Kostelić has remained their primary ski coach throughout their careers, and is the head coach of the Croatian ski team.

Kostelić was formerly in a relationship with American skier Caroline Lalive before they reportedly broke up in 2005. Since 2006 Kostelić has been dating Elin Arnarsdottir, a retired ski racer from Iceland.

In 2006 Kostelić passed the entrance exam at the University of Zagreb to become a part-time undergraduate student of history.

Controversy

In January 2003, after winning the slalom at Kranjska Gora, Kostelić told the reporters that before the race he had felt "powerful, all-conquering, like a German soldier ready for battle in 1941", in reference to the June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union. Although the Croatian media had largely ignored the statement, the weekly tabloid ''Nacional'' picked up the story and published an article featuring previously unreleased statements made by Kostelić from an interview that he gave to the weekly in May 2002. According to ''Nacional'' Kostelić said that he was "fascinated" with the scale of the World War II Lutwaffe attack on Britain aand gave an opinion on the differences between national socialism and communism saying that "Nationalism was still a healthy system for someone who was ambitious. In communism, we weren’t permitted to be ambitious, and both systems were totalitarian."

His remarks were interpreted by the weekly as a sign of far right political leanings and the story attracted attention from international press. Kostelić then issued a statement claiming that the sentences published by ''Nacional'' were taken out of context and that they were made in informal conversation conducted after the formal interview, and added that "my heart is neither left- nor right-oriented, only towards sports, and my mind is only on skiing".

Other journalists had dismissed his original statement as nothing more than a badly chosen metaphor due to the fact that both Ivica and his father Ante are avid World War II buffs. Since 2002 Ante Kostelić owns a publishing house which published the Croatian edition of the award-winning book ''Stalingrad'' by Antony Beevor. In April 2010 the company also published a book about the Waffen-SS which Ante Kostelić had edited.

World Cup victories

Season titles

Season	! Discipline
align=center	2002	align=center
rowspan=3 align=center	Overall
align=center

Race victories

18 victories: 11 slalom, 5 combined (3 super combined, 2 traditional), 1 parallel slalom, 1 Super G Aspen Mountain (ski area)Lauberhorn 16 Dec 2002 15 Dec 2003 10 Dec 2006 22 Dec 2008 17 Jan 2010 Hahnenkamm, Kitzbühel 02 Jan 2011 rowspan=2 rowspan=2

Season	! Date	! Location	! Race
rowspan=3 align=center	2002	25 Nov 2001	Aspen, USA ||align=center|Slalom
13 Jan 2002	Wengen, Switzerland ||align=center| Slalom
09 Mar 2002	Flachau, Austria >
rowspan=3 align=center	2003	|	Sestriere, Italy	Slalom
05 Jan 2003	Kranjska Gora, Slovenia >
12 Jan 2003	Bormio, Italy >
rowspan=1 align=center	2004	|	Madonna di Campiglio, Italy	Slalom
rowspan=1 align=center	2007	|	Reiteralm, Austria	align=center
rowspan=1 align=center	2009	|	Alta Badia, Italy	Slalom
rowspan=2 align=center	2010	|	Wengen, Switzerland	Slalom
24 Jan 2010	Kitzbühel, Austria ||align=center| Combined
rowspan=7 align=center	2011	|	Munich, Germany	Parallel slalom
09 Jan 2011	Adelboden, Switzerland >
14 Jan 2011	Wengen, Switzerland ||align=center| Super combined
16 Jan 2011	Slalom
21 Jan 2011	Kitzbühel, Austria ||align=center| Super G
23 Jan 2011	Combined
30 Jan 2011	Chamonix, France >

References

External links

Official website

Ivica Kostelić at the Alpine Ski Database

Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:Croatian alpine skiers Category:Olympic silver medalists for Croatia Category:Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Category:Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Category:Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Category:Olympic alpine skiers of Croatia Category:People from Zagreb Category:Olympic medalists in alpine skiing

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