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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.

After the death of Domitar Zvonimir, Ladislaus I of Hungary was the strongest candidate for the throne, but the Croatian lords struggled for independence from Hungary. Following the death of the last Croat king Petar Svacic in the defeat at the Gvozd hill in 1097 to Coloman of Hungary, they eventually recognized him as the common king for Croatia and Hungary in a treaty of 1102 (often referred to as the Pacta Conventa), thus making a personal union with Hungary. The two crowns would remain connected until the end of World War I.

The country was ruled by a ban in the name of the king, elevating that previously existing rank to a position of highest importance in Croatia. A single ban governed all Croatian provinces until 1225, when the authority was split between one ban of The Whole of Slavonia and one ban of Dalmatia and Croatia. The positions were intermittently held by the same person after 1345, and officially merged back into one by 1476.

In recorded history, the area was inhabited by the Illyrians, and since the 4th century BC also colonized by the Celts and by the Greeks.

The natural growth rate is minute, as the demographic transition is long done. Life expectancy and literacy rates are reasonably high.

Illyria was a sovereign state until the Romans conquered it in 168 BC. The Romans organized the land into the Roman province of Illyricum which encompassed most of modern Croatia (Istria was part of the province of Italia). Illyricum was subsequently split into the provinces of Pannonia and Dalmatia in year 10. Pannonia was further split in two by Trajan between 102 and 107.

The President of the Republic of Croatia is the head of state and is elected by popular vote for a five-year term.

The Republic of Croatia is a crescent-shaped country in Europe bordering the Mediterranean, Central Europe and the Balkans. Its capital is Zagreb. In recent history, it was a republic in the SFR Yugoslavia, but it achieved independence in 1991. It is a candidate for membership of the European Union.

The Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska) is a parliamentary democracy with an elected president. It adopted its current constitution on December 22, 1990, and declared independence from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991.

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.

With the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797, its possessions in eastern Adriatic mostly came under the authority of France which passed its rights to Austria the same year. Eight years later they were restored to France as the Illyrian provinces, but won back to the Austrian crown by 1815. Though now part of the same empire, Dalmatia and Istria were part of Cisleithania while Croatia and Slavonia were under Hungary.

The first native Croatian ruler recognized by a pope was Duke Branimir, whom Pope John VIII called dux Chroatorum in 879.

Most economic indicators remained positive in this period, except for the external debt. The Croatian National Bank had to take steps to curb further growth of indebtedness of local banks with foreign banks (commonly the same foreign banks that own the local ones). The dollar debt figure is quite adversely affected by the EUR/USD ratio — over a third of the increase in debt since 2002 is due to currency value changes.