A very long time ago, in this territory lived Illyrian people and they were ruled by Rome. In the seventh century AD, Slavs had come and lived there. Eleventh century Croatia was ruled by Austria-Hungary until 1918. In 1918 it became a part of Yugoslavia which was taken over in World War II. In 1945, Croatia became a part of new, communist Yugoslavia (Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) which collapsed in 1991. Since then, Croatia is independent.