Croatian Nationalism in Australia

This chapter establishes the foundations of the story. It covers what violent Croatian nationalism was as a historical phenomenon, focusing on the early to mid-twentieth century. The features of the ideology are not self-evident, and the complexity must be appreciated to explain how and why Croatian nationalists in Australia acted in certain ways. For example, what Croatia was as a territorial unit and who Croatians were as a national ethnic group were both contestable and contested idea. This chapter further addresses the complex and limiting reality that many crimes blamed on Croatian Australians were never solved but Croatians were subject to a trial by ideology and public opinion.