The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

Unfortunately their fight against intruders was not always a successful one. Thus the most exposed north-western tribes inhabiting the valley of the Isonzo (Sota) and the upper reaches of the Save and the Drave very soon lost their independence and remained until now incorporated in Austria. The more central tribes, under the name of Croats, had from the ninth century a national State whose frontiers were formed by the Drave in the north, the coast of the Adriatic in the south-west and the rivers Narenta and Bosnia in the east. But this Croatian State under King Zvonimir (10761089) became involved in the great European wars of the Normans against Byzantium and Venice and also in the struggle of Pope Gregory VII against the German Emperor Henry IV, out of which it came weakened and impoverished. After the death of Zvonimir the feudal knights were in open revolt against his heir and national dynasty; this state of things afforded an opportunity to the Magyar King Vladislav to proclaim his right to the Croatian throne and by intrigue and force to occupy Slavonia (1091); his successor Koloman, in 1102, exploiting internal strife, occupied also the south-western parts of Croatia and incorporated the whole kingdom with Hungary.

Though Serbia and Croatia did not always co-operate, they nevertheless never fought against each other, therefore the incorporation of Croatia

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