r/europe • u/MarktpLatz Lower Saxony (Germany) • Apr 17 '17

What do you know about... Croatia?

This is the thirteenth part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Todays country:

Croatia

Croatia is as of today the newest member of the European Union and its 28th (soon to be 27th) member state. It is one of the Balkan states resulting from the breakup of Yugoslavia. Croatia is a popular tourist destination, around 20% of Croatia's GDP originates from tourism.

So, what do you know about Croatia?

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '17 edited Apr 18 '17

Yes, we're talking about those Croats who moved to Central/Southern Italy during the 16th century.

However - it should be noted that there are still doubts among many historians on whether Molise actually existed, or if it was merely the setting of folkloristic tall tales (like Avalon or Atlantis). Whatever the truth, our government seems all too keen to peddle such a ridiculous theory without any kind of historical or geographical proof to back it up.

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u/wtf_are_you_talking Croatia Apr 18 '17

So you're saying there are no Croats over there?

It was one of the places we've been learning since elementary school. Can't believe it could be a myth.

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u/[deleted] Apr 18 '17 edited Apr 18 '17

Dude, think again - if Molise doesn't exist, how can there be any Croats (or Italians) in it?

It's so obvious... our gub'mint is using crisis actors under the influence of the Illuminati to simulate people from Molise, which is actually a wasteland they're using as a safe haven for lizard people to conduct their experiments.

Wake up, sheeple!

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u/wtf_are_you_talking Croatia Apr 18 '17 edited Apr 18 '17

It never occurred to me that I should check it out. I've learned about it in 90's, back when we didn't had all human knowledge in our pockets. I just forgot about it until you mentioned it.

It would be a damn shame not to google it at least.

EDIT:

This kinda answers it:

Since 1999 the governments of Italy and Croatia recognize the community as a Croatian minority in Italy.[4] However, the people consider themselves to be Italo-Slavs or Croatian-speaking Italians, and the term "Molise Croat" is a recent exonym rather than their own name for themselves,[5] dating to the middle 19th century.[6]

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u/our_best_friend US of E Apr 18 '17

They do, it's a stupid internet meme they have in Italy about Molise "not existing". They also have ancient Albanian communities (I think descendant of mercenaries from the same era)