Page 45 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Croatia

THE HIST OR Y OF CRO A TIA  43

Jelačić, into war against Hungary, now rule, sparking
ruled by rebels. The Austrian monarchy was reaction from
saved but then became, if anything, even the Kingdom
more keen on centralization. In 1867, Franz of Serbia, which
Joseph, the Austrian emperor, modified the had been
structure of the state and established the established in
Austro-Hungarian empire. Hungary was 1882 after the
granted autonomy and a corridor to the expulsion of
sea. Rijeka and the hinterland became the Turks. The
part of the Magyar state. However, under Serbian ruling
pressure from the Sabor, in 1868 the classes aspired
Austrian emperor granted Croatia the to unify the
status of “a nation with territory within southern Slavs Bishop Josip Juraj Strossmayer, founder
the Austro-Hungarian Empire”, and Zagreb and intended of the University of Zagreb
became its cultural and political centre. to extend their
In 1863 the bishop of Đakovo, Josip Juraj territories towards Dalmatia and Slavonia,
Strossmayer, founded the Croatian Academy which they regarded as Serbian land.
of the Arts and Sciences and the University In the last decade of the 19th century a
(1874), the first in the Balkans. political battle developed in Dalmatia
Political contention continued to develop and Istria. It formed between a
along different lines. Some people dreamed movement supported by the bourgeoisie
of a confederation of states within the in the cities formerly under Venetian
Habsburg monarchy, others felt that the rule, which pushed for autonomy, and
moment had come to unite the Slav other groups which aimed at a union
peoples in one state, and lastly, others felt with Serbia. Austria, which as always
it was time for Croatian independence. took advantage of these internal
Tension increased in 1878 when Bosnia controversies, did not concede any
and Herzegovina came under Austrian form of autonomy.
World War I
In 1914, with the assassination of
Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo,
World War I broke out, which caused
the dissolution of the Habsburg
Empire. Croatians paid dearly for their
involvement in the war, as did many
other countries, but finally the Croatian
population was able to free itself
Flag of the Hungarian-Croatian Imperial regiment from foreign rule.

1881 Vienna dissolves
the Vojna Krajina
Ljudevit Gaj, head 1860 Austrian and those areas are 1904 Antun and Stjepan 1914 Assassination
of the Croatian emperor reinstates part of the Croatian Radić found the People’s in Sarajevo; World
national revival the Sabor state again Peasant Party War I begins
1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910
1908 Austria annexes Bosnia 1912 Slavko Cuvaj
1868 Birth of United and Herzegovina proclaimed Ban of
Kingdom of Croatia and Croatia, dissolves the
Slovenia supported by Sabor and abolishes
Emperor Franz Joseph Emperor Franz Joseph the Constitution

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