The Adriatic coast of former Yugoslavia and its most distinctive feature is that it boasts almost 1,200 islands many of which remain uninhabited. For 400 years Croatia formed part of the Austro Hungarian Empire. After the First World War Croatia declared itself independent and became a part of the 'Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes', later to become Yugoslavia. During the Second World War Croatia was partly occupied by the Hungarians, partly by the Italians and the rest became a puppet state of Nazi Germany. Nationalist extremists called Ustashe manned the puppet state and they fought against the Communist partisans and the Serb Nationalists. Following the war Josip Tito, the partisans' leader, set up a Communist government in Yugoslavia. However, following his death in 1980 ethnic tensions began to rise once more. In Croatia the Serb minority, numbering some 12% of the population, refused to accept Croatian independence from Yugoslavia which had declared on 25 June 1991. Fighting broke out soon after between government forces and the armed Serb minority. This is a central cause of the unrest in the Balkans at the moment. Three quarters of the population is Roman Catholic and Croat is the language spoken.
