Croatia

The Republic of Croatia is a country in southeastern Europe that was once a part of the communist state of Yugoslavia and has had a diverse history of religion, culture, and ethnic conflict. Its eastern coast covers the Balkan Peninsula and faces the Adriatic Sea. Zagreb is Croatia's capital. The earliest Croats were a community of Slavs who, leading a nomadic existence, eventually settled in their present homeland around the late sixth or early seventh century. Croatia's conversion to Christianity, on its greatest scale, took place in the ninth century, when Christian missionaries from Italy, Byzantium, and the Frankish state arrived on Croatian land. Christianization of the Croats developed from two cultural directions. Church rites in the Slavic language and script, which later developed into ...