Party was founded by Ivo Pilar in 1910 with goal to represent interests of Croats in the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
With creation of Kingdom of Yugoslavia, HNZ become inactive and was refounded in 1992 by Milenko Brkić and in 2010 it was incorporated into the Croatian Party of Rights of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Austrian-Hungarian authorities found foundation of the Ante Starčević's Party of Rights (Stranka prava) in the Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina undesirable.
Second reason for freezing of relations was effort of HKU to unite Bosnia and Herzegovina with Croat lands, which Bosnian Muslims and Serbs didn't approve.
Since both, HNZ and HKU were part of Pan-Pravaštvo organization, both parties continued to cooperate in 1911 until the end of the World War I.