On the way from Hvar to Korcula we got a lecture on Croatia from WW II to the present. Croats and Muslims sided with Germany during the war while the Serbs did not. Even though Tito was Croatian he led the resistance movement against the Nazis. After WW II, countries in the area were so weak, they were willing to give up their sovereignty to reform the country of Yugoslavia with Tito as head. Tito is an interesting figure. He became a communist, visited Russia and admired Stalin but he remained fiercely independent of Russia unlike other Eastern European countries. He therefore was supported by the US. Tito was well liked in Croatia and people were very optimistic at first. In late 70s, Croatia and Slovenia were upset with union because they were financially better of than the other republics in the union. In 1974, Tito had changed constitution so that no republic could leave the union. He also made so that after he died, the presidency had to rotate through the different republics basically disenfranchising citizens of the republics from whom the president was not coming. With the breakup of the Soviet Union, there was increasing strife within Yugoslavia. Serbs were trying to create a greater Serbia including Croatian territory which had ethnic Serbs as residents. Anyhow a brutal war followed ending in the division of nations we have today. This is a very short simplistic summary of what happened. Bosnia today which is mostly Muslim has a 50% unemployment rate. Catholics and orthodox still live there. There is also a mujahideen training camp in Bosnia.
In Korcula we visited a number of small museums, had some gelato and bought a small wooden model sailboat Korcula has a history of shipbuilding. The boat I am on, the Casanova, was built on Korcula.


























Loving your pictures, Robbie. We might just have to add that trip to our travel list. We saw only a very little bit of Croatia on our cruise from Venice last year, but your pictures make me hungry for more!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I would highly recommend this Roadscholar trip
LikeLike
Very interesting. Are you going to Bled, Slovenia? Tito had a large villa there. They also have gondolas like Venice which is just across the Adriatic. Amazing countries.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We are going to Montenegro not Slovenia.
LikeLike