MY POSTBOX: CROATIA ( Republika Hrvatska )

Friday 6 March 2015

CROATIA ( Republika Hrvatska )

Croatia Croatian: Hrvatska), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska, is a country in Southeast Europe. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro to the southeast, sharing a maritime border with Italy. Its capital, Zagreb, forms one of the country's primary subdivisions, along with twenty counties. Croatia has an area of 56,594 square kilometres.

Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, most of the Croatian territory was incorporated into a Nazi-backed client-state, the Independent State of Croatia. In response, a resistance movement developed. This led to the creation of the Federal State of Croatia, which after the war became a founding member and constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991, Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year. The Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully for four years following the declaration.

Croatia is located in Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro to the southeast, and Slovenia to the northwest. It lies mostly between latitudes 42° and 47° N and longitudes 13° and 20° E. Part of the territory in the extreme south surrounding Dubrovnik is a practical exclave connected to the rest of the mainland by territorial waters, but separated on land by a short coastline strip belonging to Bosnia and Herzegovina around Neum. Insular Croatia consists of over a thousand islands and islets varying in size, 48 of which are permanently inhabited. The largest islands are Cres and Krk each of them having an area of around 405 square kilometres.

Prior to 1918, Croatia, including Slavonia, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and beginning in 1850 with the introduction of postage stamps, the stamps of the empire were used. In 1871, after the Croatian–Hungarian Settlement, the new stamps of the Kingdom of Hungary were used, except in Dalmatia which continued to use Austrian stamps. In 1918, as part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (SHS), Croatia overprinted the existing stocks of Hungarian stamps, with "Hrvatska SHS". In 1919 they printed their own stamps with "Hrvatska" (Croatia) as the country name, some of which also included an "SHS". These were used until 1921, when the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, began issuing stamps for use throughout the kingdom.

With the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in 1941, the new government first overprinted existing stocks of Yugoslav stamps with "Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska", and then issued its own stamps that same year. With the fall of the NDH government in 1945, stamps of the Independent State of Croatia were overprinted with a star and "Jugoslavia" or a star and "Demokratska Federativna", but were soon replaced by the stamps of the federal republic of Yugoslavia, beginning with the Marshal Tito stamps of 1945. With the resumption of independence in 1991, the Republic of Croatia again reinstated the Croatian Post, with the first new postage stamp being an airmail issued 9 September 1991, and with the first new regular postage stamp being issued on 21 November 1991. However, on 1 April 1991 Croatia had issued a postal tax stamp, required on all mail during the month of April 1991, with the tax payable to the State's Worker’s Fund. The stamp was affixed alongside the regular Yugoslav postage stamps which paid the transmittal fees.

Serbian Krajina was a self-proclaimed Serb state within Croatia during the Croatian War of Independence which issued its own stamps. Serbian Krajina was disbanded in 1995 and the eastern part placed under UNTAES administration until reintegration into Croatia in 1998.