Croatia: an overview of educational reforms, 1950–2014

As an independent state, Croatia has a relatively short history of less than twenty-five years and is one of the youngest members of the European Union; nonetheless, since ancient times its culture and history have been deeply embedded in the Central European and Mediterranean heritage. Until the nineteenth century, Croatia had been divided into two social and cultural circles. The northern part was predominantly linked with the Hungarian and later the Austrian Empire, whereas the Mediterranean (Adriatic) region was ruled or influenced by the Republic of Venice. In the nineteenth century, similar to other national tendencies across Europe, Croatian nobility and intellectuals initiated political and cultural movements with the idea of preservation and enhancement of Croatian national culture and life, but at the same time new notions of entering into a political union with other South Slavs were also emerging. These ideas came into life after the First World War..