Croatia's National Identity

 Nathan Yu 

22WQ UCOR 1400 Eurovision 

Jan 27, 2022 

 

Identity is something every person, thing, and place seeks. Since people could begin to write, philosophers, scholars, and even just everyday people would write about their journey to “discover oneself.” Nowadays, any institution you can think of has some sort of way of telling you that one of the goals everyone should have been to “know thyself,” or some variation of that. Everyone has defining features of themselves that makes that person them. That could be the way you dress, an accent you have, a sports team you really like, or a signature laugh that anyone could recognize. This idea can also be applied to a place. Places, whether that be a friend’s house that has a distinctive red door that you can always recognize, a restaurant having a unique slogan such as “I’m lovin’ it,” or a country being represented by a rectangular flag of red and white stripes or an idea of a freedom that defines the whole foundation of that country. According to Public Affairs Quarterly, the abstract defines national identity two ways: “a strict one that regards national identity as based on a belief in common ancestry or ethnicity and a loose one that views nationality as a malleable term without fixed properties” (Dabhour, 2002). From this definition, I will be focusing the country of Croatia and the history, ideas, and significant others that further shape its identity and how Croatia’s national self can be seen in Croatia’s Eurovision performances. 

 

The Other and how it shapes Croatia 

A lens that is vital to exploring the national identity of Croatia is through the concept of “Othering” as discussed in Triandafyllidou’s article, “National identity and the ‘Other’.” A significant other can either be a subgroup within a state or an external political unit that has direct influence over a state. Some internal others within a state could be immigrant communities within a state or an ethnic minority that threatens the cultural or ethnic purity of the state. An external Other could be a rivaling nation that could rival a state’s territory or a dominant nation or ethnic group of a multinational state (Triandafyllidou, 1998). For most of Croatia’s history, Croatia has been primarily shaped by external Others, and has made the people of Croatia cling to their national identity even more so than without the external Others present.  

 

Croatian Catholicism and its Significant Others 

 

A central aspect of Croatia is the Roman Catholic Church. From the early 7th to 9th century, the Croats settled in what is present day Croatia, but belonged to the Roman Empire at the time. In the following years, “Pope John IV sent legates,” also known as clergy members, “to Croatia to ransom Christian captives held by the Croats and to obtain for Rome relics of the Christian martyrs” (Shelton, 2022). Shelton argues this event to be a key event in allowing Roman Catholicism to protrude into Croatian culture. From Triandafyllidou’s article, Rome would be a nation territorially close to the in-group which is Croatia for us. While Croatia never had any significant struggles against Rome that would classify Rome as a “dominant nation or ethnic group of a multinational state” that required Croatia to feel the need to break away from Rome. Instead, Croatia embraced this form of Christianity on top on their own faith “which had long been Christian” (Shelton, 2022). Since the first inundation of Roman Catholicism, Croatians have always held their identity with their faith as especially important. The church’s right would be something in recent years, the majority of Croatia identifies with the Roman Catholic faith with about 86.3% of the population identifying with the denomination (CIA, 2022). 

 

Croatia was part of former Yugoslavia during the 1900s alongside its now neighboring countries such as Serbia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro and it continues to influence Croatia’s interactions with other countries today. To begin, former Yugoslavia in the 1940s is an external Other to Croatia, acting as a dominant nation of a multinational state. While Croatia forms Yugoslavia with Serbia and Slovenia in 1918, there would soon be a clear conflict between Croatia’s Roman Catholic background and Yugoslavia’s favoritism to Serbian Orthodoxy (Shelton, 2022). When Yugoslavia was taken over by communist leaders in 1945, suddenly Croatia faced greater religious oppression. The church’s power was being depleted as “Catholic schools closed, their buildings confiscated, while all religious instruction in state schools ceased,” under communist Josip Broz Tito who attempted to break the Church’s power in Croatia. Against an aggressive external Other, Croatia persisted and clung to their Roman Catholic identity. Croatia would achieve its independence in 1991 on June 25 and in 1996 were reinstated the Croatian Church’s right to teach by the Vatican. Still today, Croatia struggles with external Others in the form of neighboring countries. It has several border disputes with Serbia and Montenegro which is only logical as all these countries are ex-Yugoslavia and were once united. For example, Montenegro and Croatia still have disputes over the Prevlaka peninsula, near Dubrovnik. These interactions with Croatia’s external Others are a big part of their national identity. 

 

Though 86.3% of Croatia’s population identifies as Roman Catholic, do 100% of the 86% all avidly practice the faith? According to Dan Ebener, who taught in Croatia for 6 years, describes Catholicism as “more of a ‘nationality’ than a religion” (Ebener, 2014). It was less about the practice of faith and more about the identification associated with the particular faith. Croatia is still considered a secular state although a large majority of the population is “Roman Catholic.” However, this does not mean Croatians are against Catholicism as “many Croatians accept the authority of the priesthood and the Roman Catholic Church, which is led by the pope,” but aren’t as “strict in practicing their faith through regular church attendance” (Cultural Atlas, 2022). This is helpful in explaining life in Croatia, as Roman Catholicism is a defining part of their identity rather than something that is practiced. Values from Roman Catholicism bleeds into the values of individuals of Croatia such as peace and love. An idea of belonging is one worth mentioning as belonging is not only every human desire as some level, but it drives national identity, however over recent years, “attitudes about belonging have evolved” and become increasingly less important for many countries (Silver, 2021). This could be applied to Croatia’s religiousness as it has become such an integral part of their society and become less important to the individuals as the country has progressed.  

 

3 Minute Croatia 

 

In Eurovision, Croatia displays a keen sense of national identity through their recent performances. In the past two years, an overarching theme of love can be seen in both performances, and while I have not investigated many of their other performances, I can assume that love is a prevalent theme in many of them. In “Tick-Tock” by Albina, Croatia’s 2021 Eurovision entry, discusses breaking free from a toxic relationship saying, “I’m breaking free from your bad loving and restraint” (Percy 2021), and in Damir Kedzo’s 2020 performance for Croatia, “Divlji Vjetre,” talks about loving someone even when things do not go well. In Eurovision, it is important that songs are representative of the country performing it and, in both songs, they have a chorus, or in Kedzo’s case the entire song, sung in Croatian and highlights themes that are central to Croatian national identity that holds ideals such as love as important to what it means to be Croatian.  

 

From Croatia’s early roots in Roman Catholicism to its history as part of former Yugoslavia all are defining factors that contribute to what makes Croatian national identity and can be seen in displays of national identity such as Eurovision. It is evident through the many characteristics of Croatia’s national identity that the history of a country is often what defines a country later into their history into the present day. 

 

References 

CIA. (n.d.). Croatia. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/croatia/ 

 

Dahbour, O. (2002). National Identity: An Argument for the Strict Definition. Public Affairs Quarterly, 16(1), 17–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40441311 

 

Encyclopedia.com. (2022, January 27). ." new catholic encyclopedia. . encyclopedia.com. 24 Jan. 2022 . Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/croatia-catholic-church 

 

Percy, L., Percy, L., Muldoon, P., Vautrey, J., Fuster, L., Adams, W. L., Feliks, N., Team, W., Amr, Romanov, Banana, A., Marina, GrantK, … Gallagher, R. (2021, March 8). Albina's "Tick-tock" lyrics speak of Breaking Free and moving on from toxic relationships. wiwibloggs. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://wiwibloggs.com/2021/02/21/lyrics-tick-tock-albina-croatia-eurovision-2021/261912/ 

 

Pier. (n.d.). Croatian culture. Cultural Atlas. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://culturalatlas.sbs.com.au/croatian-culture/croatian-culture-religion 

 

says, K. M., (2014, August 16). Being Catholic in Croatia is more nationality than religion. The Catholic Messenger. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from http://www.catholicmessenger.net/2014/07/being-catholic-in-croatia-is-more-nationality-than-religion/ 

 

Silver, L., Fagan, M., Connaughton, A., & Mordecai, M. (2021, May 5). Views of national identity in U.S., UK, France and Germany. Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project. Retrieved January 27, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2021/05/05/1-national-identity/ 

 

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