CROATS

[s. 217] : To the Servian branch of the Slavic race belong also the Croats, who inhabit Dalmatia, Slavonia, Croatia, and the western part of Bosnia, numbering hardly a million and a half of souls. The linguistic differences between the Servians and the Croats are insignificant; their chief distinction lies in their religious confe ion and in their alphabets. The Servians belong to the Eastern or Orthodox branch of the Christian Church, while the Croats are almost all Roman Catholics, and use the Latin alphabet in their literature. This distinction has led to a great deal of coolne and even hatred between the two peoples. The Croats appeared on the Balkan Peninsula almost simultaneously with the Servians, and, like them, they received Christianity first from Rome, and then, in the second half of the ninth century, from Byzantium; but, unlike the Servians, they soon fell under the dominion of the Roman Church. Politically, the Croats remained independent till 1102 a. d., when they united themselves to Hungary and shared in the vici itudes of Hungarian history. This union was a free and spontaneous union on the part of the Croats, and the Hungarian kings were styled kings of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia. The Croatians had a constitution of their own, and the country was ruled over by royal commi ioners or bans. But in the present century the claims of the Hungarians to domineer over the Croats led to di ensions between the two nationalities, and to the bloody conflicts in 1848-50, since when the relations between them have been strained. The Dalmatian Croats, especially in the little republic of Ragusa, attained in the latter part of the 15th, the 16th, and 17th centuries a great literary development. A number of writers, especially poets, flourished in Ragusa, CroiTstand Cyprus who were educated and trained under the influence of the Italian Renai ance, and who produced some very important poetical worlcs. Other men who have gained a world-wide reputation, born in Ragusa, were the archeologist, Banduri, the mathematicians Boslicovitch, Ghetalditch, etc. Aside from the worli of the Bible societies in distributing the Scriptures, no regular mi ionary work has been opened among the Croats. 218