Naslov
From Checkerboard to Tricolor: Development and Use of the Croatian Coat of Arms and Flag Throughout the Centuries

Autori
Jareb, Mario

Prevoditelji
Beljo, Adrian

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija knjige
Autorske knjige, monografija, znanstvena

Izdavač
Hrvatski svjetski kongres i Hrvatski institut za povijest

Grad
Zagreb

Godina
2022

Stranica
159

ISBN
978-953-8454-00-4

Ključne riječi
Croatian coat of arms, Croatian flag, checkerboard, tricolor

Sažetak
Although their use as national symbols of a nation can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century, the modern Croatian coat of arms and flag are based on the old Croatian national coat of arms and the modern national tricolor. Thereby, the colors of the flag are based on the colors represented in the three Croatian land coats of arms. This coat of arms consisted of three traditional Croatian land coats of arms (the Croatian checkered, Dalmatian and Slavonian coats of arms). Of these, the coat of arms with three lions (later leopards) was first recorded at the end of the 14th century, and by the second half of the 15th century, the appearance of the Croatian checkered coat of arms and the Slavonian coat of arms was recorded. Since then, the coat of arms with leopard heads has been commonly considered the coat of arms of Dalmatia, and the checkered coat of arms, the Croatian coat of arms. From the beginning of the 17th century at the latest, these three coats of arms together formed the coat of arms of the Croatian state at the time, which is known by its unified name in the 19th century, the Triune Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia. Considering that today's Croatian national symbols are based on the Croatian checkered coat of arms and on the red, white and blue tricolor that was created in the middle of the 19th century, attention should be paid to the historical use and development of this coat of arms. Today, although it is possible that it was used several decades earlier, the oldest known example dates from the period between 1490 and 1494, and it is accompanied by a number of examples created at the turn of the 15th to the 16th century. Even then, its depiction varied in terms of number of squares and the color of the first square, which remained characteristic of its depiction in the following decades and even centuries, up until recently. In the last hundred years, the use of the coat of arms consisting of 25 fields has become commonplace, however, modern discussions about the color of the first square show that, even today, there is diversity in unofficial use regarding this characteristic. The processes of Croatian national integration influenced the fact that, by the end of the 19th century, the checkered coat of arms had changed from one of the Croatian national coats of arms into a generally recognized Croatian national symbol. At that time, the foundation was also laid for the perception of what the Croatian national flag should resemble. The red, white and blue tricolor has been in wide use since 1848, and the installation flag of Ban Josip Jelačić also contained the coat of arms of the Triune Kingdom on the tricolor flag. In terms of its meaning, this flag, as the ban's flag, was in fact the forerunner of the modern national and state flag, and its content – a tricolor with an applied coat of arms – is a model on which the current appearance of the Croatian national flag is founded. There are a number of depictions from the end of the 19th century that indicate the widespread perception of the Croatian national flag as a tricolor with the applied Croatian checkered coat of arms. At that time, the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, the use of the Croatian checkered coat of arms with an initial white square prevailed, and the use of the coat of arms of 25 squares became more and more prevalent. Such a coat of arms received a kind of recognition as the generally recognized Croatian coat of arms with the adoption of the small coat of arms of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in 1916, when it represented all the Croatian lands as part of the coat of arms of the eastern part of the Monarchy (Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen). The collapse of the Monarchy in 1918 sent this coat of arms into the throes of history, however, the newly created state in which the Croatian lands entered at the time accepted it as a generally recognized Croatian symbol. In the coat of arms of the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, it was precisely this coat of arms that represented the Croats, although the new state creation was largely a denial of Croatian rights and interests. In the first version of this coat of arms, the Croatian checkered coat of arms began with a white square, and consisted of 20 fields ; in February 1919, a version consisting of 25 fields with an initial red field was adopted. Representatives of Croatian society and politics did not pay any attention to the problems of the color of an initial field of the Croatian checkered coat of arms then, or even afterwards. It can be said that the coat of arms with an initial red square was widely accepted, so for example it was widely used on the flags and symbols by the leading Croatian party at the time, which, since 1925, appeared under the name of the Croatian Peasant Party. During the first decade of the existence of the first Yugoslav state, the independent use of Croatian national symbols was relatively free and not brought under question. The introduction of King Alexander's dictatorship, which, among other things, by creating a unified Yugoslav people, had the objective of erasing "tribal" differences as the main culprit for the instability of the Yugoslav state, resulting in a de facto ban on the independent use of Croatian symbols. The fact that, at the same time, Serbian national symbols, under the guise of symbols of the Serbian Orthodox Church, were freely used, only strengthened the belief of many Croats about the dictatorship and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia as Greater Serbian creations. After the death of King Alexander, it was again possible to use Croatian national symbols relatively freely in the homeland, however, even then no attention was paid to the color of the initial square of the Croatian checkered coat of arms. Coats of arms (even those applied to flags) were used en masse by members and supporters of the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS) and organizations under the auspices of the leading Croatian political party. In addition to the predominant use of coats of arms with an initial red square, coats of arms with an initial white square were also used on occasion. Abroad, among the political emigration, since the early 1930s, operating under the leadership of Ante Pavelić is the Ustasha Organization, which mainly used the checkered coat of arms with the first white square as part of the organization's symbol. The same can be said about the Croatian checkered coat of arms as part of the emblem of the Croatian Home Defense, an organization that, under the formal leadership of Pavelić, publicly gathered numerous Croatian emigrants and which, together with the Ustasha Organization, formed part of the Ustasha-Home Defense Movement. At the same time, in the second half of the 1930s, Croatian nationalists at home, among them Pavelić's followers, predominantly used a checkered coat of arms with an initial red square. The establishment of the Banate of Croatia as an autonomous, almost federal, unit within the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the summer of 1939 meant further affirmation of Croatian national symbols. The Croatian tricolor became the flag of the Banate, and in the spring of 1940, the Croatian checkered coat of arms with an initial red square surmounted with the Yugoslav crown became its coat of arms. The establishment of the Independent State of Croatia in April 1941 confirmed that the tricolor and the Croatian checkered coat of arms were the foundation on which the symbols of the new state were based. In addition to the fact that a shield containing 25 fields with an initial white square was accepted, there is also the fact that an integral part of the state coat of arms of the NDH was a triple interlaced shape containing a blue letter "U" as a schematic symbol of the ruling Ustasha movement. The same is true of the NDH flag, which also contained the same shape as on the state coat of arms. Coats of arms and flags without this shape are not coats of arms and flags of the NDH. In addition, for the first time in Croatian history, the state symbols of the NDH were prescribed and they were given the correct appearance by a single legal act – the Act of 30 April 1941. Similarly to the NDH authorities, who, by inserting a schematic Ustasha symbol onto state symbols, clearly stated that the Ustasha Movement had a monopoly of power in the state, Yugoslav and Croatian communists, the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the Communist Party of Croatia as part of it, as the leadership of the Partisan movement, inserted a symbol of their ideology onto national symbols – a five-pointed red star. As part of the Partisan movement, there was no official use of national coats of arms, however, flags were almost exclusively used. Thus, already in October 1941, the Croatian tricolor had a five- pointed red star applied to it, which was also worn by Partisan fighters as a symbol on their caps. Furthermore, the use of a red party flag with a sickle and a hammer was widespread. Occasionally, in the last war years, flags with a Croatian checkered coat of arms were used, to which the five-pointed red star was often applied, the use of which is mainly related to members and supporters of the Croatian Peasant Party who joined the Partisan movement. The victory of the Partisan movement in the war, the reconstruction of the Yugoslav state under the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the establishment within it of a Federal Croatia (as of the summer of 1945, the People's Republic of Croatia (NRH)) have brought nothing new in the use of flags and symbols in general. The flag of the NRH was a Croatian tricolor with an applied five-pointed red star in the center of the flag, and initially an emblem was used instead of the coat of arms, the basis of which was again a five-pointed red star. The adoption of the Constitution of the NRH in January 1947 also stipulated the appearance of its coat of arms, the basis of which, regardless of the fact that it was modelled on Soviet heraldic designs, was the Croatian checkered coat of arms consisting of 25 squares. Although this was not clearly prescribed, in use within the coat of arms of the NRH was the common coat of arms with an initial red field. And yet, albeit very rarely, versions with an initial white square were also used. The coat of arms and flag of the Republic of Croatia survived in unchanged form as the coat of arms and flag of the Socialist Republic of Croatia until the democratic changes and the emergence of the modern Republic of Croatia in 1990. From 1945 to 1990, the independent display of Croatian national symbols without communist or, as they were called at that time, socialist symbols, was very perilous and most often led to repression by the authorities at the time. Deviating from this is the period of liberalization in the second half of the 1960s and the Period of the Croatian Spring at the very beginning of the 1970s, when it was possible to express national feelings more freely and highlight national symbols, including those without communist features. From that time, numerous examples of such symbols were preserved, including relatively numerous Croatian coats of arms with an initial white square. Neither then, nor earlier or later, did the authorities of the time and the system of repression pay attention to the color of the initial square, but rather whether they contained communist symbols. It should be said that, during the 1980s, partly due to the rise of Serbian nationalism led by Slobodan Milosešević, there was a tendency to equate everything Croatian, including symbols, with the Ustasha. In 1990, the democratization and collapse of the communist system in Croatia steered Croatia's new political leadership towards transforming the former Socialist Republic of Croatia (SRH) into a sovereign Republic of Croatia. It was clear that the symbols of the Croatian state could not remain the former symbols of the SRH, but symbols that would be based on popular Croatian national symbols – the Croatian tricolor and the 25-field checkered coat of arms. In doing so, the question of the color of the initial square was raised, especially since it seemed that, due to the public and mass use of coats of arms with an initial white square in the first half of 1990, it was destined to be white. Developments, nevertheless, led to the conclusion that it was more appropriate to adopt a coat of arms with an initial red square, which was already highlighted by the adoption of amendments to the Croatian constitution in July 1990. This was finally confirmed by the adoption of state symbols of the Republic of Croatia in December of the same year, which are still national symbols of the Croatian state. Somewhat later, special symbols of Croats appeared in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are still in use today, both officially and unofficially. And they are, of course, based on popular Croatian national symbols – the Croatian tricolor and the checkered coat of arms, which, as in the case of the coat of arms of the Republic of Croatia, begins with a red square. However, even after the appearance of these symbols, there were individuals, as there are still today, who unofficially use different versions of Croatian national symbols. Among them is the coat of arms with an initial white square, that is, a flag with such a coat of arms. The answer to the question why individuals and groups, despite the existence of state symbols of the Republic of Croatia and the symbols of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, still occasionally use other versions of Croatian national symbols, would require completely new research, which should undoubtedly take into consideration numerous social and political trends and problems burdening Croatian society. I contend that, in a democratic society, their use for whatever reason should not be questioned. They are undoubtedly part of the Croatian heraldic (and vexillological) tradition, and in some historical periods were a means of strong Croatian national identification. It should be reiterated that suspicions that the Croatian checkered coat of arms with an initial white square and the Croatian flag containing the same coat of arms applied as alleged Ustasha symbols (i.e. symbols of the Independent State of Croatia) are not based on facts. Namely, the Ustasha sign and the state symbols of the Independent State of Croatia were clearly defined and of a very specific form, which included the letter "U" as a symbol of Ustashism and an integral part of them.

Izvorni jezik
Hrvatski

Znanstvena područja
Povijest

POVEZANOST RADA