Lika
Lika is a mountainous region in central Croatia, roughly bound by the Velebit mountain from the southwest and the Plješevica mountain from the northeast. Today most of the territory of Lika is part of Lika-Senj county and some parts part of Karlovac county and Zadar county.
Major towns include Gospić, Otočac, Gračac, Korenica, most of which are located in the karst fields of rivers Ličina, Gacka and others.
The Plitvice Lakes National Park is also in Lika.
Famous people born in Lika include the world-renowned Serbian physicist Nikola Tesla, Croatian politician Ante Starčević and the painter Miroslav Kraljević.
History
Medieval
White Croats have migrated from White Croatia to Lika in the first half of the 7th century. Lika lay in the Principality of Dalmatia. Lika was inhabited by a people known as Guduscans ruled by such Princes of Dalmatia as Borna. The Guduscans abandoned Borna at the Battle of Kupa in 819, and crossed to the side of Prince Ljudevit Posavski of Pannonia. Lika had special status in early Croatian state and was ruled by a Ban.
Lika became a part of the Duchy of Croats in 852, when Prince Trpimir, founder of the Trpimirović dynasty proclaimed himself as Duke of Croats.
Lika then became a part of the Kingdom of Croatia in 925, when Duke Tomislav of the Croats received the crown and became King of Croatia.
In 1102, after numerous intrusions of Hungarians into Croatia, the Croatian nobility recognized King Coloman of Hungary as their King.
From the 15th century
The end of the 15th century brought some migrations of Serbs, particularly from Dalmatia and Bosnia which fell to the Ottomans. First Serbs came to Ogulin between 1493-1500. Lika, together with whole of Croatia became a part of the Habsburg Monarchy when the Croatian Parliament recognized Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg as their King in 1527. The Ottomans conquered the region in 1528 and it became Sandžak Lika, a part of Viyalet Bosnia; causing migrations of the region's Serbs and Croats into the Croatian Frontier, Carinthia and Styria; the Serbs from there inhabited Žumberak in the 1630s. After the Second Great Migration of Serbs in 1690, the migrations of Serbs to Lika were increased. After the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 which ended the War of the Holy League (1683-1699) the region was incorporated into the Karlovac generalat of the Austrian Military Frontier.
The Serbian Orthodox episcopal centre at Medak was re-established after 1557, prior to the re-establishment of the Peć Patriarchate.
Lika housed many uskoks, who would invade the Ottoman border territories and then return to Austria. They were citizens who wanted to help liberate their fellow men from Ottoman domination. Some of the more important were in Ravni Kotari; and the most famous were from Senj (most popular being Stojan Janković and Ilija Smiljanić). The uskoks had an important role in the War of the Holy League in which most of the Ottoman-held Habsburg lands were re-conquered.
The Croatian Bans and nobility wanted that the control over the regions of the Military Frontier be restored to the Croatian Parliament and the Catholic Church worked hard to turn the local Orthodox populace into Uniates. The conversions were not very successful in Lika. The region went through a process of de-militarization from 1869 after numerous pleas by the Croatian Parliament, and it was officially demilitarized on August 8, 1873. On July 15, 1881 the Military Frontier was abolished, and Lika incorporated into civil Croatia and Slavonia, a part of Transleithania (the Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy of Austro-Hungary).
The Eparchy in Plaški (from the 19th century known as the Eparchy of Upper Karlovac) was the ecclesiastical centre of the Serb Orthodox Church grasping Lika, Banija and Kordun. The important Serbian Orthodox Christian monasteries in the region were Gomirje near Ogulin and Komogovina between Glina and Kostajnica.
In the middle of the 19th century the Serbs comprised the majority in Lika; up to 70% of the Lika Regimental Area of the Military Frontier to which parts of Lika along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina belonged. According to the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, the Lika-Krbava county had some 204,710 inhabitants, of those, 104,041 Orthodox (51%), 100,620 Roman Catholics, 14 Greek Catholics, 12 Jews, 6 Lutherans and 2 Calvinists. The Serbian population lived predominantly in the eastern and central parts of the region.
Modern
 | The neutrality of this section is disputed. |
After the collapse of Austria-Hungary Croatia and Slavonia of which Lika was part became part of the so-called State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs on October 29, 1918. The newly-created state then joined the Kingdom of Serbia on December 1, 1918 to form the so-called Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes which was later re-named into Yugoslavia. Lika remained inside Croatia and Slavonia, which became one of the constituent provinces of the Kingdom. The majority of Lika belonged to the Županija Lika-Krbava with the capital in Senj (instead of in Gospić previously). The new constitution abolished the lesser states (like Croatia and Slavonia) and Lika became a part of the Primorsko-krajiška Oblast with the capital in Karlovac. In 1929, the region became a part of the Sava Banate (Savska banovina) of the newly formed Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and the in 1939 of the Croatian Banate (Hrvatska banovina).
Yugoslavia was invaded and split by the Axis forces in 1941 and Lika became a part of the fascist German-Italian controlled puppet state Independent State of Croatia. During World War II the region's Serbs, Croatian communists and others were decimated by the Ustasha regime.
In 1991, what is today the Lika-Senj county had a population of 85,135. As part of the plan to establish Greater Serbia and after the Croatian declaration of independence, the Serb majority settlements of eastern Lika joined other Krajina Serbs in the so-called Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK). Most of the Croatian inhabitants of the region were expelled as a result of ethnic cleansing and a severe damage was inflicted on the neighbouring areas by the joint forces of the Yugoslav National Army (JNA) and the Serbian paramilitary forces from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Lika itself was left almost entirely populated by Serbs.
Unrest in the region had started two years earlier, in 1989, and continued in 1990 and 1991. Between 6 June and 27 June 1990, the SO Knin founded the Community of North Dalmatia and Lika. On 25 July 1990 a Council was headed in Srb, to which 200,000 Serbs travelled from all over Croatia. It was organised by the President of the Serbian Democratic Party, Jovan Rašković. The subject was the future of Croatian Serbs. The Council proclaimed the Declaration of Independence and Autonomy of the Serbian people, calling for the right of self-determination and Serbian autonomous region within Croatia should Croatia remain within the socialist Yugoslavia. In the event of Croatia's independence the Serbs threatened to secede the Croatian territories they viewed as belonging to them from Croatia. Also, the members of the so-called Serbian National Assembly were elected. After the unconstitutional referendum about the Serbian autonomy within Croatia (19 august - 2 September 1990), which was declared illegal by Croatian authorities, Lika became a part of the self-proclaimed Serbian Autonomous Area of Frontier together with parts of Northern Dalmatia on 21 December 1990 when the Serbian National Assembly and the Transitional Presidency of the Community of North Dalmatia and Lika proclaimed the Constitution of SAO Krajina in Knin. The new Constitution of Croatia proclaimed on 22 december 1990 included an ambiguous statement on the status of Serbs who had previously been a constitutional nation in Croatia. Serbs interpreted this as making them an ethnic minority. The self-proclaimed representatives of the Serbs passed the so-called Resolution about distancing SAO Krajina from Croatia, adopted on 28 February 1991 which declared the Croatian laws and customs as illegal on the soil of SAO Krajina and stating that only Federal and SAO Krajina laws will be accepted. Another unconstitutional referendum was held in the Assemblies of the municipalities of Lika which accepted this Resolution. The Executive Council of SAA Frontier declared a union with the Socialist Republic of Serbia on 2 April 1991. And called for a referendum on 12 may 1991 to ratify that decision.
Subsequently, the Serbian paramilitary units were created with the backing of the Yugoslav National Army and Serbian paramilitary forces from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Clashes with the Croatian police that followed later in 1991 quickly erupted in a full-scale war which resulted in the capital of the province Gospic being heavily damaged by the Serbian forces. By the end of 1991 the eastern parts of Lika were under Serbian control.
Later Lika came again to international prominence in 1993, after a September 9 offensive by the Croatian Army on a Serb-held "Medak pocket" in the south of the region. Canadian United Nations forces were caught up in the fighting, which lasted - on and off - for about a week. The ICTY raised war crime indictments against several Croatian officers afterwards.
In 1995, the Croatian Army liberated the region in Operation Storm, ending the existence of the internationally unrecognized Republic of Serbian Krajina. Some 30,000 Serbs fled Lika, although some have since returned. Most of the Croats previously expelled have now returned. A large number of Croats moved in to lands previously occupied by Serbs. A great deal of damage was done during the fighting, prompting a major post-war reconstruction programme in the region.
Population
The 2001 census data for the Lika-Senj county shows 53,677 inhabitants (almost 37% less than ten years before), which are 86.15% Croat and 11.54% Serb.
The historical population of Lika was a mix of Croats and Serbs (see History above). Currently, most Serbs from Lika live in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Australia and Canada.
