Croatian nationalism

[8] A violent sectarian Croatian nationalism also developed prior to World War II within Ante Pavelić's Ustaše movement (founded in 1929), which collaborated with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in its government of the "Independent State of Croatia" (1941-1945) during World War II.

[9] In the 19th century, opposition by Croats to Magyarization and desire for independence from Austria-Hungary led to the rise of Croatian nationalism.

[5] During the 19th to mid-20th century Croatian nationalists competed with the increasingly Pan-Slavic Illyrian movement and Yugoslavists over the identity of Croats.

[5] Radić opposed Yugoslav unification, as he feared the loss of Croats' national rights in a highly centralized stated dominated by the numerically larger Serbs.

[5] Croatian nationalism reached a critical point in its development during World War II, when the Croatian extreme nationalist and fascist Ustaše movement took to governing the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis Powers and the creation of the NDH at the behest of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany as an Italo-German client state.

[5] The Ustaše committed mass genocide against Serbs, Jews and Roma, and persecuted political opponents, including the communist Yugoslav Partisans and Chetniks who fought against them.

He also argued against unfair exchange rates imposed on Croatia after 1945 and condemning show trials against people labeled as collaborationists.

Hebrang wasn't a serious threat to Serbian interests, since he was demoted several times and in 1948 he was put under house arrest,[11] and later killed.

[12] However, main subject was the perceived subordinate status of standard Croatian, at that time regarded as a Western variety of Serbo-Croatian.

[12] Croatian nationalism revived in both radical, independentist, and extremist forms in the late 1980s in response to the perceived threat of the Serbian nationalist agenda of Slobodan Milošević who sought a strongly centralized Yugoslavia.

[14] He soon earned the favour of the Croat diaspora, helping him to raise millions of dollars toward the goal of establishing an independent Croatia.

[14] Tuđman gathered MASPOK intellectuals and sympathisers from among diaspora Croats and founded the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) in 1989.