text: Croatia: Following the settlement of Slavs in the Roman provinces of Dalmatia and Pannonia, Croat tribes established two duchies. They were surrounded by the Franks (and later Venetians) and Avars (and later Magyars), while Byzantines tried to maintain control of the Dalmatian coast. The Kingdom of Croatia was founded in 925. It covered parts of Dalmatia, Bosnia and Pannonia. The state came under Papal (Catholic) influence. In 1102, Croatia entered a union with Hungary. Croatia was still considered a separate, albeit a vassal, kingdom. With the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans, Croatia fell after successive battles, finalized in 1526. The remaining part then received Austrian rule and protection. Much of its border areas became part of the Military Frontier, inhabited and protected by Serbs, Vlachs, Croats and Germans since the area had previously become deserted. Croatia joined Yugoslavia in 1918–20. Independence was retained following the Croatian War.
  Greece: The oldest civilization of Europe - the non-Greek and non-Indo-European Minoan civilization. Greeks, an ancient ethnic and/or linguistic group (Athenians, Spartans, Peloponnesians, Thessalians, etc.) created the Mycenaean greek civilisation on the mainland (1600–1100 BC). The scope of Greek habitation and rule has varied throughout the ages and as a result the history of Greece is similarly elastic in what it includes.