Croatia
In 1918, the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a kingdom known after 1929 as Yugoslavia. Following World War II, Yugoslavia became a federal independent Communist state under the strong hand of Marshal TITO. Although Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, it took four years of sporadic, but often bitter, fighting before occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands. Under UN supervision, the last Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia was returned to Croatia in 1998.

Location:
Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea, between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia

Area:
total: 56,542 sq km
water: 128 sq km
land: 56,414 sq km

Land boundaries:
total: 2,197 km
border countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina 932 km, Hungary 329 km, Serbia and Montenegro (north) 241 km, Serbia and Montenegro (south) 25 km, Slovenia 670 km

Climate:
Mediterranean and continental; continental climate predominant with hot summers and cold winters; mild winters, dry summers along coast

Terrain:
geographically diverse; flat plains along Hungarian border, low mountains and highlands near Adriatic coastline and islands

Land use:
arable land: 23.55%
permanent crops: 2.24%
other: 74.21% (1998 est.)

Population:
4,422,248 (July 2003 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Croat(s), Croatian(s)
adjective: Croatian

Languages:
Croatian 96%, other 4% (including Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and German)