Državna Matura History key terms

The shift from hunting and gathering to settled farming, animal domestication, and permanent villages, beginning around 10,000 BCE in the Fertile Crescent. It enabled surplus food, pottery, and the first towns such as Çatalhöyük.

A Copper Age culture (c. 3000–2200 BCE) named after a site near Vukovar on the Danube. Known for the Vučedol dove vessel, advanced metallurgy, and the earliest evidence of a calendar-like notation on pottery.

The fortified frontier line of the Roman Empire. In the Croatian lands the Danube limes ran through eastern Slavonia and Syrmia, guarding against incursions from beyond the river and anchoring legionary camps and roads.

The gradual adoption of Roman language, law, urban life, and customs by conquered peoples. In Istria, Dalmatia, and Pannonia it produced cities, Latin inscriptions, and a Romance-speaking coastal population.

The capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia, near modern Split. It was a large urban centre with an amphitheatre and early Christian basilicas; Diocletian built his palace nearby at Split.

The massive fortified residence the emperor Diocletian built around 300 CE near Salona. After antiquity, its walls sheltered a settlement that became the core of the city of Split, making it a key example of reused Roman architecture.

A medieval system of land holding in which a lord granted land (a fief) to a vassal in return for military service and loyalty. It linked personal bonds of obligation with control over peasants and land.

The economic side of the medieval rural order: a lord's estate worked by dependent peasants who owed labour, rent, or produce. It organized agriculture and peasant obligations rather than military service.

The agreement of 1102 by which the Croatian nobility recognised the Hungarian king Koloman as their ruler while preserving Croatian rights, institutions, and nobility. It is the foundation of the Croatian–Hungarian personal union.

A union of two states that share the same monarch but keep separate laws, institutions, and administration. Croatia and Hungary were joined this way from 1102, which shaped Croatian autonomy debates for centuries.

The representative assembly of the Croatian nobility and, later, of the modern Croatian state. It met from the Middle Ages onward and became the forum for decisions on autonomy, language, and statehood.

The treaty by which Venice, defeated by Hungary, gave up its hold on Dalmatian towns. Dalmatia came under the Hungarian-Croatian crown, though Venice later regained much of the coast.

The expansion of the Ottoman Empire into southeastern Europe from the 14th century. It removed much of the Croatian nobility's territory, pushed borders north, and reshaped demography, landholding, and military organization.

A battle in which the Ottoman army under Suleiman the Magnificent defeated and killed the Hungarian king Louis II. It triggered the split of Hungary and the Habsburg succession in Croatia and Hungary.

A strip of land along the Habsburg–Ottoman border governed directly by Vienna and settled by free peasant-soldiers, including many Orthodox refugees (Vlachs, later Serbs). It was a buffer zone with its own military administration.

The multi-ethnic dynasty-led state centred in Vienna that ruled Croatia from 1527. Its centralizing reforms, religious policy, and later absolutism repeatedly clashed with Croatian noble autonomy.

A Habsburg law allowing a woman to inherit the dynasty's lands. The Croatian Sabor accepted it in 1712, confirming the link with the Habsburgs and later enabling Maria Theresa's rule.

The reform programme of Emperor Joseph II in the 1780s: religious toleration, abolition of serfdom's personal restrictions, centralization, and German as administrative language. It modernized the state but provoked noble and clerical resistance.

The French-administered territory (1809–1813) along the Adriatic, with Ljubljana as its capital, created after Napoleon's victories. French rule introduced legal equality and ended feudal dues, influencing later Croatian and Slovene national ideas.

A Croatian national and cultural movement from the 1830s led by Ljudevit Gaj. It promoted a common South Slavic literary language, the štokavian dialect, and national awakening under the name 'Illyrian'.

The 19th-century process of building a modern Croatian national identity through language standardization, cultural institutions, and political demands for autonomy. It is often dated from the 1830s to the 1860s.

The standardized Latin script for Croatian devised by Ljudevit Gaj in 1830, using diacritics such as č, š, and ž. It was adopted widely and remains the basis of modern Croatian spelling.

The settlement between Croatia and Hungary that gave Croatia limited autonomy within Hungary, with its own Sabor and administration, while Hungary controlled finance and military affairs. It was resented by many Croatian nationalists.

The 1867 arrangement creating Austria-Hungary, with separate parliaments in Vienna and Budapest and a shared monarch, army, and foreign policy. Croatia was placed within the Hungarian half.

The legal and economic bonds tying peasants to a lord's land. In Croatia, personal servitude was ended by Joseph II in 1785 and remaining feudal obligations were abolished by the Sabor in 1848.

The legally defined social orders of the pre-modern period - nobility, clergy, and burghers - each with distinct rights and representation. The Croatian Sabor long represented mainly the noble estate.

A body founded in 1915 in exile by Croatian, Slovene, and Serbian politicians, led by Ante Trumbić, to work for the creation of a Yugoslav state from Austria-Hungary's South Slav lands.

The 1917 agreement between the Yugoslav Committee and the Serbian government on founding a parliamentary monarchy under the Karađorđević dynasty. It left the future constitution and internal structure open.

The short-lived state proclaimed in Zagreb in October 1918 after Austria-Hungary's collapse. Unable to secure recognition or order, it joined with Serbia and Montenegro to form the new Yugoslav kingdom.

The Yugoslav state created on 1 December 1918 under Serbian king Peter I. Centralist rule, the 1921 Vidovdan Constitution, and later dictatorship fed Croatian dissatisfaction until the 1939 Banovina agreement.

The 1921 constitution of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, adopted by a narrow majority. It established a centralized, unitary state and was opposed by Croatian and other federalist parties.

An autonomous Croatian unit created in 1939 by the Cvetković–Maček agreement. It united Croatian and some neighbouring territories within Yugoslavia but was abolished after the Axis invasion in 1941.

The Axis puppet state proclaimed in April 1941, ruled by the Ustaša regime under Ante Pavelić. It carried out mass persecution of Serbs, Jews, and Roma and fought a war against Partisans and Chetniks.

A Croatian fascist movement founded in 1929 by Ante Pavelić. Installed in power by the Axis in 1941, it pursued a policy of terror, forced conversion, and mass murder against Serbs, Jews, Roma, and political opponents.

The largest Ustaša concentration and extermination camp complex in the NDH, operating from 1941 to 1945. It was a site of mass killings of Serbs, Jews, Roma, and others, and is a central symbol of NDH crimes.

The communist-led resistance movement under Josip Broz Tito, fighting Axis forces and collaborators across Yugoslavia. Its military success and political programme enabled the communists to take power by 1945.

Serbian nationalist guerrilla forces loyal to the royal government in exile, led by Draža Mihailović. They initially resisted the Axis but increasingly collaborated with occupation forces against the Partisans.

The Anti-Fascist Council of the People's Liberation of Yugoslavia, the Partisan political body. Its 1943 session in Jajce laid the basis for a future federal Yugoslavia with equal republics and a planned return of the monarchy.

The communist Yugoslav state (1945–1991), a federation of six republics with Tito as leader. It combined one-party rule with market elements, workers' self-management, and a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement.

A grouping of states that refused to join either Cold War bloc, formally launched at Belgrade in 1961. Yugoslavia under Tito was a founder and used it to gain international influence.

The prolonged global rivalry between the United States and its allies and the Soviet bloc after 1945, waged through ideology, arms races, alliances, and proxy conflicts rather than direct superpower war. Yugoslavia sat outside both blocs.

The war in Croatia from 1991 to 1995 following the republic's declaration of independence. It involved fighting against the Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces and ended with operations Flash and Storm and peaceful reintegration.

The Croatian military offensive of August 1995 that retook the Serb-held Krajina areas and effectively ended large-scale fighting in the Homeland War. It caused a mass exodus of Serb civilians, a subject of lasting controversy.

The 1995 agreement providing for the peaceful reintegration of eastern Slavonia, Baranja, and western Syrmia into Croatia under UN administration. It completed Croatia's territorial restoration in 1998.

The method of dating archaeological layers by their position: in undisturbed deposits, lower layers are older than upper ones. It underpins relative chronology and the interpretation of excavation finds.

Evidence produced at or near the time of the events studied, such as charters, letters, photographs, or artefacts. Historians test its authorship, purpose, and bias before using it as evidence.

An account written later that interprets and synthesizes primary evidence, such as a textbook or scholarly article. Its reliability depends on the author's use of sources and argument.

The systematic evaluation of a source's origin, date, author, audience, and purpose in order to judge its reliability and usefulness. It distinguishes external criticism of authenticity from internal criticism of content.

The error of placing an idea, object, or practice in a period where it did not belong, such as calling medieval rulers 'presidents'. Spotting anachronisms is a standard check on a source or interpretation.

The arrangement of events in the order they occurred, and the dating systems used to place them. Correct sequencing is essential for showing cause and consequence in historical explanation.