Croatia Self Catering Holiday Sources of Croatia Self Catering Holiday resources from the Web

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Roman roads and the Illyrian population speaking Romance languages (such as Istro-Romanian or Dalmatian) remained. With the increasing amount of human migration, this population entrenched in the cities along the whole Dalmatian coast.

The negative effects of feudalism escalated in 1573 when the peasants in northern Croatia and Slovenia rebelled against their feudal lords over various injustices such as unreasonable taxation or abuse of women in the Croatian and Slovenian peasant revolt.

Empress Maria Theresia ignored and eventually disbanded the Croatian Parliament and in 1779, Croatia was relegated to just one seat in the governing council of Hungary, held by the ban of Croatia.

Curiously enough, the Croats were never obliged to use Latin - rather, they held masses in their own language and used the Glagolitic alphabet. This was officially sanctioned in 1248 by Pope Innocent IV, and only later did the Latin alphabet prevail. The Latin Rite prevailed over the Byzantine Rite rather early due to numerous interventions from the Holy See.

The Croatian Government (Vlada) is headed by the Prime minister who has 2 deputy prime ministers and 14 ministers in charge of particular sectors of activity. The executive branch is responsible for proposing legislation and a budget, executing the laws, and guiding the foreign and internal policies of the republic.

Croatian culture is based on thirteen century long history during which the country has attained many monuments and cities, which gave birth to a fair number of brilliant individuals. The country includes six World Heritage sites and eight national parks. Three Nobel prize winners came from Croatia, as did numerous important inventors and other notable people — notably, some of the first fountain pens came from Croatia.

The governments of Austria and Hungary each tried to colonize Croatia over a period of several centuries: they imposed their languages on the Croatian people and settled many Austrian and Hungarian colonists in Croatia. Croatian romantic nationalism emerged to counteract the non-violent but apparent Germanization and Magyarization.

The princes of Bribir from the Šubic family became particularly influential, asserting control over large parts of Dalmatia, Slavonia and Bosnia. Later, however, the Angevines intervened and restored royal power. They also sold the whole of Dalmatia to Venice in 1409.

In the Revolutions of 1848 in Habsburg areas, the Croatian ban Jelacic cooperated with the Austrians in quenching the rebellion in Hungary by leading a military campaign into Hungary, successful until the Battle of Pakozd. Despite this contribution, Croatia was later subject to Bach's absolutism as well as the Hungarian hegemony under ban Levin Rauch when the Empire was transformed into a dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary in 1867.

Croatia has an economy based mostly on various services and some, mostly light industry. Tourism is a notable source of income. The Gross Domestic Product per capita in purchasing power parity terms for 2002 was USD 9,800 or 42.7% of the EU average.

Following the Battle of Mohács, in 1527 some of the Croatian (and Hungarian) nobles supported Ivan Zapolja, while some preferred suzerainty to the Austrian king Ferdinand of Habsburg. The latter option prevailed by 1540, when Zapolja died.

The consequences of the change to the Hungarian king included the introduction of feudalism and the rise of the native noble families such as Frankopan and Šubic. The later kings sought to restore some of their previously lost influence by giving certain privileges to the towns. The primary governor of Croatian provinces was the ban.