Quote Originally Posted by derfinsterling
Croatia recognised the Hungarian king as King of Croatia in 1102 and stayed in that personalunion until th 16th century. Serbia, on the other hand, gave rise to four independent kingdoms till the 14th century that would eventually become the Serbian Empire in 1346.
That, of course lead in turn to the downfall of the Serbian people when they were conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1371. But in the time scale of M2TW, Serbia's much more a mover and shaker than Croatia.
Cities in western balkans like zara,ragusa etc where under a semi indipantante state under the banner of the Roman(Byzantine)Emperor since the last balkan wars of Basileios II Bulgaroctonus.Their local rulers had the title of Dux(dux of serbia,dux of croatia etc).In 1071 Serbian reagions revolted but croatia still had the same goverment status for atleast 50 years.Croatia was under the protection of the Hungarian rulers even the time of the Crusade attack against Zarra in 1202.