Greater Croatia

Greater Croatia is a Croatian nationalist and irredentist idea advocating a state that includes territories considered historically or ethnically Croatian beyond Croatia’s existing borders.

Croatian national revival: A nineteenth-century cultural and political movement that promoted Croatian language, identity, and national rights. It helped establish the national claims later used to imagine a larger Croatian state.
Independent State of Croatia: An Axis puppet state that ruled parts of present-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1941 to 1945. Its borders and expansionist ambitions became a notorious wartime expression of Greater Croatian politics.
Ante Pavelić: A Croatian fascist politician who led the Ustaše and headed the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. He directed a regime that pursued an enlarged Croatian state through violence and forced population policies.
Yugoslavism: A political ideology advocating unity or cooperation among South Slavic peoples, especially in a common state. Its shared-state vision competed with projects based on an expanded Croatian national territory.
Illyrian movement: A nineteenth-century South Slav cultural movement that promoted shared literary language and political cooperation. Its South Slav unity project both shaped Croatian nationalism and differed from exclusive territorial expansion.
Ustaše: A Croatian fascist and ultranationalist movement that governed the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. Its policies linked an expansive Croatian national project to mass persecution and genocide.
Franjo Tuđman: A Croatian politician who led Croatia as it became independent from Yugoslavia and served as president from 1990 to 1999. His discussions with Slobodan Milošević over Bosnia became a lasting focus of claims about modern Greater Croatia.
Greater Serbia: A Serbian nationalist and irredentist idea advocating a state encompassing territories claimed as historically or ethnically Serbian. It was a rival territorial project, especially in conflicts over Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Ante Starčević: A nineteenth-century Croatian politician and writer who advocated Croatian national independence and developed the ideology of the Party of Rights. His conception of Croatian political nationhood informed later territorial claims.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: A country in the western Balkans whose population includes Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs. Competing Croatian claims over its territory have been central to modern versions of the idea.

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