Geographically diverse; flat plains along Hungarian border low mountains and highlands near Adriatic coastline and islands
Climate
Mediterranean and continental; continental climate predominant with hot summers and cold winters; mild winters dry summers along coast
Natural Hazards
Geographically diverse; flat plains along Hungarian border low mountains and highlands near Adriatic coastline and islands
Note:
Controls most land routes from Western Europe to Aegean Sea and Turkish Straits; most Adriatic Sea islands lie off the coast of Croatia - some 1 200 islands islets ridges and rocks
The lands that today comprise Croatia were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the close of World War I. 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. In January 2008 Croatia assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2008-09 term and in April 2008 it joined NATO. Croatia is a candidate for eventual EU accession. Read more on Wikipedia
