Croatia

Croatia is a republic in south-eastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula, bordered on the north by Slovenia and Hungary, on the east and south by Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on the east by Serbia & Montenegro. The Adriatic Sea forms the republic’s long western boundary. Formerly a constituent republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia declared its independence in June 1991. Civil war broke out soon afterward in the republic as ethnic Serbs, backed by the federal Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA), battled with ethnic Croats for territory. At the end of the war, in late 1995, Serbs controlled small parts of north-eastern Croatia; these areas were returned to Croatian control in early 1998. Zagreb is the republic’s capital and largest city.