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Traveller's History of Croatia
By Benjamin Curtis
198 x 129 mm • 272 pages • Line Drawings and Maps
ISBN 9781905214709 • paperback • £9.99 • Purchase From Amazon
George Bernard Shaw wrote that on the last day of Creation, ‘God desired to crown His work,’ and so fashioned the Croatian coastline ‘out of tears, stars, and breath.’ Anyone who has glimpsed that long, mountainous, island-studded coast would surely agree that its beauty is little short of divine. Croatia, quite simply, is blessed with some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet and in recent years has become a favourite tourist destination. A Traveller’s History of Croatia offers tourists and travellers an inside look at the complex roots of Croatian history. The country is a political fusion of Mediterranean, Central European and Italian culture which has given it a tumultuous past. After a look at how its geography and geology have shaped the nation, the narrative looks at the story behind the many Greek and Roman archaeological remains before detailing the coming of Christianity and how the early blooming of the Croatian state in the 9th century was thwarted by the ambitions of its huge neighbour, Hungary. Other parts of the country fell prey to Venetian dominance. From the sixteenth century it was the Ottoman Empire that held sway followed by the Hapsburgs up until the First World War. The twentieth century bought new solutions in the founding of Yugoslavia, problems with Croatian nationalism and the horrors of invasion in World War II. Under Tito a new stability came to the region until the battles of the 1990s which were finally resolved with the international recognition of an independent state in 1992.
Benjamin Curtis is a lecturer in European History and Politics at the University of Seattle. He has been a frequent visitor to Croatia as a tour guide and reads and speaks the language fluently.
Chastleton Travel
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