from Modern Latin Croatia, from Croatian Hrvatska, probably related to Russian khrebet "mountain chain" (see Croat).
Republic in southeastern Europe in the upper western corner of the Balkan Peninsula, bordered to the northwest by Slovenia, to the north by Hungary, to the east by Yugoslavia, to the south and southeast by Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to the west by the Adriatic Sea. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb.
Note: When Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, fighting broke out between Croats and Croatia's large Serbian minority, who were aided by the Serb-dominated Yugoslavian government. In 1995, Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian leaders met in the United States and settled on a peace accord. Hostility between Croats and Serbs has a long history; during World War II they fought on opposite sides of a civil war in Yugoslavia.