Stamps issued: 1991-PRESENT
For period 1918-1941 and 1945-1991 see Serbia, Yugoslavia
A district of northern Yugoslavia, bordering on the Adriatic Sea. Croatia was a province of Hungary until 1918, when it became a part of Yugoslavia. In 1941, a German puppet state was created in Croatia. Nominally a kingdom under an Italian prince, in fact the state was ruled by the Croat fascist party. Croatia was overrun by Russian and Yugoslavian partisan forces in 1945 and re-incorporated into Yugoslavia. In 1991 Croatia declared its independence, and there followed a civil war between ethnic Serbs and Croats. Initially, the Serbs, with Yugoslav support, controlled about one-third of the country, declaring their territory the republic of Krajina, which issued its own stamps. By 1995, the Croatian government had recaptured almost all of the Serb-held areas.
