Zivilkroatien

Civil Croatia originated as a territory after 1577 and survived as such until the dissolution of the military frontier in the early 1880s. The term is therefore negatively connoted, since one always endeavors the reunification of the medieval Triune Kingdom. Civil Croatia has been practically the smallest territorial unit where Croatian state law was preserved over time. Opposite of it the Habsburg monarchy established the military border. Thus, Civil Croatia was not only a result of the Turkish invasion, but also a proof of the loss of sovereignty. Civil Croatia was thus conceived only in the absence of a better solution. The reliquiae reliquiarum formed the basis for the survival of historical state law and its institutions. The incorporation of those territories first meant the renewal of territorial continuity that had been interrupted since the middle of the 16th century. Croatia and Slavonia, together with Syrmia, now formed a whole, but in the eyes of the Croats it was not yet in harmony with their national requirements. Civil Croatia had to evolve into Greater Croatia, whose maximum extent would include Slovenia, parts of Inner Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, the successive territorial forms – except for the Independent State of Croatia under Ante Pavelić 1941–1944 – never fulfilled this ambition.