Did Croatia have a Civil War?

Answer 1

If you mean in the 1990's, not really. As in Bosnia and Hercegovina, although both sides in the conflict included ethinically Croatian and Serbian citizens of contemporary Croatia and figthing was within Croatia's boundaries, the war was financed and supported by contemporary Serbia and would not have occurred without Serbia's aid and intervention. A similar war was fought in the 1940's in the region, primarily within Bosnia and Hercegovina, but subsumed under the fighting of Allies and Axis in World War II. Most of the constituent states of the region lacked sovereignty from about 1400's to 1900's as vassals or territories of primarly the Ottoman and Austrian crowns. Large population displacements from east to west resulted with the Ottoman invasions of Europe of 1400's and 1500's which altered the original settlement pattern of the Slavic tribes that permanently settled in the region by about 900. As a result, economic, political and cultural divides developed without the opportunity for accommodation through self-rule until the end of the Ottoman and Austrian monarchies in 1918. However, that process was interrupted in 1941 when the region lost its neutrality, equally due to UK and Axis pressure, resulting in the region's occupation by Germany/Austria, Italy and their allies. Especially as it became clear that the Axis would loose World War II, war for control over the region accelerated among the Serbian royal restorationists, communist led national liberation movement and the fascist supported regimes in Seribia, Bosnia and Hercegovina and Croatia. The conflict resulted in the communist led movement's victory that instituted a single party, communist state in the region. This regime lasted until 1991, but its inflexibility as a result of one-party rule, heavy reliance on military institutions and economic failure created an environment in which accumulated economic, political and cultural issues remained unresolved. As constitutionally permitted, constituent states of a federal system serially voted to seced into sovereign nation states. The abundance of weapons left behind by the communist regime and their concentration under Serbian control, US, UK and French policies of disengagement and weak democratic institutions all created a vacuum in which the use of force was an alternative to diplomacy in resolving legacy issues and the complexity of dissolving a federal state. By 1995 after a great deal of destruction to people, infrastructure and the economy, the region returned to the 1991 status-quo, where each of the principal Slavic nations has its own sovereign state within the boundaries inherited from prior federal systems under which they were governed. Each will eventually become a member of the European Union. Slovenia has already become a member and Croatia is a candidate for membership. Montenegro is next country likeliest to become a candidate for membership. Bosnia and Hercegovina, Serbia and Macedonia have to make further internal reforms and find methods for democratically governing a multi-ethnic population before they would be considered for entry into the EU. Other point of view by Janus13: That is a very good answer, but since the main fighting was between the people of different ethnic minorities that lived in Croatia, I think it should be quallified as a civil war by definition.