Peoples and Places
Replies to Queries
Croatia and the Balkans
The Serbs and Croatians were two separate ethnic groups of Sarmatian Culture who had emerged from the Persian-Median Empire moved from the Ukraine into
Peoples and Places
Replies to Queries
Croatia and the Balkans
The Serbs and Croatians were two separate ethnic groups of Sarmatian Culture who had emerged from the Persian-Median Empire moved from the Ukraine into Germany and Bohemia and then southwards.
In their movements they had absorbed other peoples and Slavic language and culture. The Serbs were to become Greek Orthodox in religion and orientated towards Russia. The Croats became Roman Catholic and were heavily influenced by the Hungarians and Germans.
Other peoples in the Balkan area included the Bosnians who were originally Zoroastrian-type-pagans and Christian Bogomils.
Later when the Ottoman Turks ruled over them the Bosnians became Muslims.
The Albanians were originally Illyrians or Thracians also became Muslim.
The Slovenians were possibly of the same stock as the Venetians of Italy but became Slavic and Roman Catholic.
Both Slovenia and Croatia in International Affairs may be considered "sleeping" satellites of Germany.
The Biblical Connection of the Balkans
The Venetians traditionally had links with the Ancient Philistines in addition to which there was a Philistine presence on the Adriatic Coast whose descendants possibly would include some of the inhabitants of Croatia and Slovenia.
In addition, a branch of the Canaanites along with Edomites were to be found amongst the Thracians. Some scholars suggest that from "Thrace" there was a movement into Germany.
There were also Israelite in the region amongst the Dacians and Getae.
In other words we cannot really tell.
We may note the various possibilities while concentrating on regions in the west where Israelites appear to have formed a majority and to have had a determining influence.
"The Economy Economic History of Croatia",
<<What appears to be the story is that a subtribe of Sarmatians, an Iranian-language speaking people from Central Asia, established a kingdom called White Croatia in what is now southeastern Germany. There was a companion kingdom called White Serbia in what is now the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic.
<<The people whom these Sarmatians ruled were Slavic. In due time the Sarmatian rulers were assimilated into the Slavic population.
<<In the fourteenth century the kingdoms of White Croatia and White Serbia moved south into the Balkan Peninsula. Not all of the people of these kingdoms moved south. There are descendants of those that remained still living in southeastern Germany where they are known as Sorbs or Wends<.
<<The kingdoms of Croatia and Serbia which were established in the Balkan Peninsula undoubtably Slavic and non-Slavic populations which were already living there. The relative proportions of those who were immigrants from White Croatia versus those who were indigenous is not known. However the non-Slavic elements of the population were assimilated into the Slavic Croatian culture. Thus the origins of the Croatians would include the indigenous population, possible pre-Croatian Slavs, Slavic White Croatians and possibly some remnant of the Sarmatian rulers of White Croatia.
Population ca. 4,500,000 (Serbia has more than 9 million)
(and largest city) Zagreb
45?48 N, 16?0 E
Croatia shares land borders with Slovenia and Hungary on the north, Serbia on the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina on the south and east, and Montenegro on the south, as well as a sea border with Italy to the west. It is a candidate for membership in the European Union and NATO.
The Croats settled in the Balkans in early 7th century along with Serbs and formed two principalities: Dalmatia and Pannonia.
[They had come from the Ukraine and before that possibly from the border region between Iran and Afghanistan].
In 1102, Croatia was politicly absorbed by the Hungarian Kingdom.
After the 1526 Croatia became a part of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.
After WW1 Croatia became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, from 1918-1929, and Kingdom of Yugoslavia, from 1929-1941.
In 1941-1945 an Axis puppet-state known as the Independent State of Croatia was set up, by the Ustasha which began to exterminate Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, and other non-Croatian people.
Most Croatians at that time did not support the Ustasha but rather the anti-Axis partisans.
Tito the partisan leader was himself a Croat.
In WW11 roughly speaking the Albanians helped save Jews, and so did the Serbs.
The Serbian opposition to Germany delayed the invasion of Russia by a month thus exposing the German forces to the Russian Winter which they were not prepared for.
Bosnian Muslims served in the SS and Croatian Ustashi engaged in exterminations.
After the victory of the Allies, Croatia became a constitutive republic of Yugoslavia.
In 1991 Croatia declared independence, and a long and bloody war was fought (originally between the Croatian government and the Yugoslav People's Army), and then mutating into a conflict between independent Croatia and the Serbs who lived in Croatia, with the support of Serbia proper. The war ended with a Croatian victory and the fleeing of most of the Serbs from their homes in Croatia to refugee camps in Serbia in 1995. [Germany had been actively involved in assisting the Croats].
The Croats too