Explain how Croatia gained territory when the fact of the matter is that the borders have been unchanged since 1945 (when Croatia in fact lost territory).
Croatia’s incessant endeavour to spread over the broadest possible geographic area found expression during the Independent State of Croatia. Dissatisfied with its size, too, the ustashas, through Slavko Kvaternik, attempted to enlarge it. In a telegram of May 14, 1941, the German envoy Siegfried Kasche transmitted to his Foreign Ministry Kvaternik’s wish to enlarge the “Croatian” territories up to the Albanian border, to include the towns of Priboj, Prijepolje and Pljevlja. Kasche supported this demand reasoning that “the Croatian troops are already stationed there”, However, Italy was against it. Count Ciano described this Kvaternik’s demand as “Croatian imperialism”. In his Diary he wrote on June 30, 1941: “Pavelić now wants the Sandžak of Novi Pazar. A senseless, unjustified demand. I have prepared a letter, signed by the Duce, whereby we reject such pretensions.” One of the key men in the team of Tito’s politicians from Croatia, Ivan Stevo KrajaÄić, according to the author of the book on the operations of the German Secret Service BND (Bundesnachrichtendienst), Erich Schmidt Enbohm, at the peak of Tito’s strength and unlimited power, drafted a plan on creating a “sovereign Croatia with Bosnia and Herzegovina”, within the boundaries of the former Independent State of Croatia of 1941. This is another of the undeniable proofs that there was method in greater-Croatian aspirations, particularly those regarding pretensions to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Political systems, forms of state and social set up, or men might have changed, but the Croatian policy remained consistent as regards pretensions of having Croatia’s borders along the Drina river. The shape of Croatia is compared by some to a banana or crescent. A Croatia such as this, in the conviction of many Croats, has no chance of surviving and progressing. Antun Radić explained it in the following words: “Dalmatia united with Croatia would resemble the crust of bread, and the middle part which you would cut out would be Bosnia and Herzegovina cut out from the Croatian bread. If we want to eat to satisfaction, we also need the soft middle, we need Herzeg-Bosnia.” For Antun’s brother Stjepan, Bosnia was “like the gizzard to the rest of Croatia. How can a person live if you take out his gizzard?” In the view of Frano Supilo, “Croatia without Bosnia would always be a toy in the hands of whoever ruled in today’s occupied provinces,” i.e. in Bosnia and Herzegovina. To gain a permanent economic and financial independence, Croatian politicians believe that they have to seize new territories. Hrvatski dnevnik of 1914 wrote about it as follows: “Croatia in its present size cannot survive because she needs some more provinces for its own economic build-up.” Limited to the Triune Kingdom only, the Croatian people can only have a hand-to-mouth life, but will have a full life if they have Bosnia and Herzegovina.” According to Pilar, Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia are the shell, and Bosnia and Herzegovina the core of Croatia. Taking up this idea about the shell and the core, the Lexicographic Institute of the FPRY from Zagreb, under the leadership of Miroslav Krleža, in the fourth volume of Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia, which appeared in 1960, in the chapter on Croatia, drew up a geographic map of that republic annexing to it Bosnia and Herzegovina, all the way to the Drina river, not omitting the smallest piece of land on the left bank of that river. When the same Institute, in the seventh volume of Encyclopedia of Yugoslavia, published in 1968, in the chapter on Serbia, attached the geographic map of that republic, it did not use the same method. It stopped Serbia upon the Drina river, hardly crossing to its left bank. Also, you don’t think that if Kosovo becomes a part ot Albania that it’s not a greater Albania plan? Would you have a problem with that? Some of the Bosnian Croat leaders have called in recent months for creating a “Greater Croatia” by joining Bosnian territory.... NY Times “It is the first step toward a Greater Croatia, absolutely,” Zarko Puhovski, a professor of political philosophy at the University of Zagreb..NY Times The parliamentary elections in January and the presidential elections the following month resulted in a loss of power by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), the party with strong connections to Croats outside the country. The new centre-left government indicated that it would discontinue late President Tudjman’s plans for a Greater Croatia embracing compatriots in Bosnia-Hercegovina. I can go on and on and on.............................because it’s all through history until this very day. People can find out for themselves. I’m just telling them that it’s all there.