Croatian nationalism

Croatian nationalism is the nationalism that asserts the nationality of Croats and promotes the cultural unity of Croats.

Modern Croatian nationalism first arose in the 19th century in response to Magyarization of Croatian territories under Hungarian rule. It was based on two main ideas: a historical state right based on a continuity with the and an identity associated with the Slavs. This period started with the Illyrian movement, which created the Matica hrvatska and promoted "Illyrian" language. Illyrianism spawned two political movements - the Party of Rights named after the state right concept (pravaštvo), led by Ante Starčević, and the Yugoslavism under Josip Juraj Strossmayer, both of which were limited to intelligentsia.

Advocacy in favour of Yugoslavism as a means to achieve the unification of Croatian lands in opposition to their division under Austria-Hungary began with Strossmayer advocating this as being achievable within a federalized Yugoslav monarchy.

After the foundation of Yugoslavia in 1918, a highly centralized state was established in the St. Vitus Day Constitution of 1921 in accordance with Serbian nationalist desires to ensure the unity of the Serbs, this caused resentment amongst Croats and other peoples in Yugoslavia. Dalmatian Croat and the principal World War I-era Yugoslavist leader Ante Trumbić denounced the St. Vitus Day Constitution for establishing a Serb hegemony in Yugoslavia contrary to the interests of Croats and other peoples in Yugoslavia. Croatian nationalists opposed the centralized state with moderate nationalists demanding an autonomous Croatia within Yugoslavia. Croatian nationalism became a mass movement in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia through Stjepan Radić's Croatian Peasant Party. The demand by moderate Croatian nationalists for an autonomous Croatia within Yugoslavia was accepted by the Yugoslav government in the Cvetković–Maček Agreement of 1939. The agreement angered Serbian nationalists who opposed the agreement on the grounds that it weakened the unity of Serbdom in Yugoslavia, asserting its importance to Yugoslavia with the slogan "Strong Serbdom, Strong Yugoslavia". The agreement also angered Bosniaks (then known as Yugoslav Muslims), including the Yugoslav Muslim Organization (JMO) that denounced the agreement's partition of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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