Croatian national-identity constitution and attempts to negate it

The process of the Croatian national identity constitution took place in complex historical circumstances. During the Middle Ages, there were several independent state formations in the areas where the Croatian nation was formed. In addition to Croatia and the closely integrated (Kingdom) of Slavonia (today’s northwestern Croatia and Bosnia), there were other state formations, i.e. Principality of Neretva, Zahumlje / Hum, Travunija, Duklja, Bosnia. The areas of all these creations, with the exception of Travunija and Duklja, which were Orthodoxized by Serbia during the 13th century, welcomed the Ottoman incursions and Islamic rule as Catholic. In addition to the fact that Croatia was extremely territorially reduced for Ottoman domination, far-reaching ethnic changes also took place in the area. Vast areas of the central Croatian lands were devastated (parts of northern Dalmatia, Lika, Banovina, Kordun, western Slavonia, Bosnian Krajina, etc.) and were inhabited by the Ottomans primarily with Orthodox people, usually originating from eastern Herzegovina and Montenegro. At the same time, the largest part of the domiciled, Catholic population of Bosnia and part of Herzegovina converts to Islam, forming a special ethnic community. During the national-formative processes, which have been taking place since the beginning of the 19th century, all Catholics who use dialects and dialects of the central South Slavic diasystem, based on the previous integrative processes, acquire Croatian national consciousness. As national Croats, in accordance with the very “nature” of nations, they strive to restore Croatian national independence, that is, to protect their national identity where it cannot be protected by Croatian statehood. At the same time, the once-immigrated Orthodox community develops Serbian national consciousness and thus the ambition for the national expansion of Serbia in the areas of today’s Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over time, the Islamized population is constituted into a special Bosniak national community, within which the decisive political aspiration is reduced to the transformation of the entire BiH into a Bosniak national entity. The indicated “intersection” of different state-building and national ambitions necessarily led to a sharp political and even armed confrontation. Its result is the existing, largely unresolved geopolitical context, especially at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro. In this sense, the prevailing Serbian policy constructs far-reaching plans (“Serbian world”) aiming at the annexation of Republika Srpska and Montenegro to Serbia, while also calculating with the positions of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and expressing pretensions towards parts of Croatia. The accompanying part of this policy is the strong production of content aimed at the almost complete negation of the Croatian national-identity constitution. In the range from the negation of the Croatian language to the negation of the historical foundation of the Croatian identity in practically all Croats with the possible exception of those who traditionally use the Chakavian language. On the other hand, the prevailing Bosniak politics has an extremely stimulating effect on the creation of content primarily aimed at negating the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Croats. Accordingly, Croatia as a state and Croats as a nation must reckon with the fact that in addition to political action aimed at changing the existing (geo)political context, which would be detrimental to Croatian positions, there are also continuous attempts to negate Croatia as an identity phenomenon and the desire for its decomposition. Members of the Croatian nation in Serbia, BiH and Montenegro are directly exposed to these attempts, which are supported by the appropriate part of the scientific community in the Serbian and Bosniak social milieu, which has its impact on the decline in the number of self-proclaimed Croats in those countries. The purpose of the reported project would be to analyze and highlight the historical determinants that, despite the complex conditions, enabled the Croatian national-identity constitution, cohesion and duration. From such established positions, they would focus on the breakdown of the content that is produced with the aim of its negation, pointing out their worthlessness and unscientific nature. Considering the difficulty of the topic itself and its extensiveness, it is certain that it cannot be comprehensively completed during the one-year project. As part of the reported project, they would primarily focus on the collection of literature that enables a more complete analysis of the research subject. At the same time, they would write three scientific articles in highly categorized scientific journals or proceedings of scientific meetings. With the fact that in these works they would be focused on the essential importance of the research subject. Its further development, in all relevant segments, would be followed by the eventual continuation of the project and the probable presentation of the achieved results in the form of a book.