Croatia's post-communist transition cannot be discussed apart from the dramatic impact of the War of Yugoslav Succession, fought on the territory of Croatia for four-and-a-half years (1991–5). Like all the other Yugoslav successor states, the breakup of the Socialist Federated Republic of Yugoslavia (SRFJ), of which Croatia had been a constituent federal unit, disrupted established trade patterns. The war itself destroyed much of Croatia's infrastructure, and also encouraged nationalistic responses in which the rights of Serbs and other non-Croats living in Croatia were viewed, by some, as obstacles to the achievement of a Croatian national state, or even as illegitimate. Yet, in spite of the war, Croatia, in the era of Franjo Tudjman (who served as the country's president from 1990 to 1999), achieved a measure of pluralism, albeit a limited pluralism, as the regime's encroachments upon media freedom (to be detailed below) make obvious.

Croatia could look back to an earlier tradition of statehood. The site of Celtic settlements as early as the fourth century bce, the region which today comprises Croatia was incorporated into the Roman Empire around 10 bce. Slavs arrived on the territory of present-day Croatia in the early seventh century ce, and in 803 Croatian tribes accepted the rule of Charlemagne, converting soon after to Christianity. The Croatian medieval state grew during the years 840–80, and, during the reign of King Tomislav (910–28), fended off Hungarian invasions.