Andrej Plenkovic wins second term as prime minister.
Ethnic-Serb former paramilitary commander Dragan Vasiljkovic is convicted of war crimes and jailed for torturing and killing prisoners during the conflict in the early 1990s.
Centre-right coalition government headed by HDZ leader Andrej Plenkovic, takes office.
Elections are held, centre-right nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party wins the largest number of seats.
Parliament is dissolved and fresh elections are called for September.
The government falls when Mr Oreskovic and his cabinet fail to win a confidence vote, following a quarrel between the main coalition partners.
General election fails to produce outright winner. Following protracted talks, the non-partisan technocrat Tihomir Oreskovic becomes prime minister in January 2016.
Parliament passes a law to compensate victims of sexual violence during the war of independence in the 1990s.
Moderate conservative Kolinda Grabar-Kiratovic is elected Croatia's first female president.
Croatia extradites former Yugoslav spy chief Zdravko Mustac to Germany, where he faces charge for the 1983 killing of a dissident.
A Croatian court sentences Ivo Sanader to nine years in jail for siphoning millions in state money, in his second corruption conviction. His former governing and current opposition Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party is also found guilty in the case.
EU finance ministers launch proceedings to force Croatia to halve its budget deficit and bring it under the bloc's permitted limit.
Croatia takes its place as the 28th member of the EU.
Croatia elects its first members of the European Parliament in ahead of joining the EU on 1 July.
The European Commission gives Croatia the green light to join the EU, but says it still needs to tackle corruption and organised crime.
Convictions of Generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac for war crimes are overturned by an appeals court in the Hague.
A court in Croatia sentences former prime minister Ivo Sanader to 10 years in prison for taking bribes.
Serbian court imprisons 14 former soldiers and paramilitaries over the killing of 70 Croat civilians in the eastern village of Lovas in 1991.
Croatian voters back joining the European Union in a referendum by a margin of two to one, albeit on a low turnout of about 44%.
Parliamentary elections. Centre-left opposition bloc led by Social Democrats ousts the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which has been in power since 2003.
Croatia signs EU accession treaty paving the way for it to achieve full membership in July 2013.
Trial of former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader on charges of corruption begins in Zagreb. Mr Sanader denies the charges against him.
Goran Hadzic, commander of Serb rebel forces during Croatia's 1991-1995 civil war, goes on trial on war crimes charges at The Hague.
Croatia successfully completes EU accession negotiations, putting it on track to become the 28th member state in mid-2013.
Croatia and Slovenia officially submit their Piran Bay border dispute to UN arbitration.
Two senior Croatian generals - Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac - are convicted for war crimes against Serbs in 1995 by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.
Zagreb court convicts six men for mafia-style murder of investigative journalist Ivo Pukanic in October 2010.
In what is seen as significant act of reconciliation between Croatia and Serbia, Serbian President Boris Tadic visits Vukovar, where he apologises for 1991 massacre of 260 Croat civilians by Serb forces.
Visit of President Josipovic to Belgrade signals thawing of relations with Serbia.
Slovenia votes in a referendum to back international arbitration on the border dispute.
Ivo Josipovic of the opposition Social Democrats wins presidential election.
Slovenia lifts block on Croatia's EU membership talks after the two countries sign deal allowing international mediators to resolve their border dispute. Croatian EU membership talks resume.
In a surprise move, Prime Minister Ivo Sanader announces that he will resign and withdraw from active politics. Parliament approves Mr Sanader's deputy, Jadranka Kosor, as prime minister.
Croatia joins Nato.
Slovenia threatens to block neighbouring Croatia from joining the EU in a continuing dispute over borders.
Government announces major drive against organised crime following a series of killings linked to the mafia.
Nato summit in Bucharest invites Croatia to join alliance.
Croatian ex-generals Ante Gotovina, Ivan Cermak and Mladen Markac go on trial at Hague war crimes tribunal on charges of killing Croatian Serbs in 1990s. They deny the charges.
Parliament approves Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's new HDZ-led coalition government. Includes first Serb in key position: deputy PM Slobodan Uzelac.
Parliamentary elections. Ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) wins the most seats but needs coalition partners to secure a majority.
Work begins on coastal Peljesac bridge which will allow motorists to skirt Bosnian territory, drawing criticism from Bosnia.
European Commission publishes report critical of Croatia's progress towards EU membership. It says more needs to be done to tackle corruption and intolerance of non-Croats.
Fugitive Croatian General Ante Gotovina, sought by the Hague tribunal on war crimes charges, is arrested in Spain.
Green light given for EU accession talks to go ahead again even though Gen Gotovina remains at large.
Croatia calls for international mediation after Slovene parliament declares ecological zone in the Adriatic with rights to protect and use sea bed.
EU delays talks on Croatia's membership because of failure to arrest Gen Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the Hague tribunal on war crimes charges.
Incumbent President Stjepan Mesic wins second term.
EU agrees to start accession talks with Croatia in March 2005.
Wartime Croatian Serb leader Milan Babic jailed for 13 years by Hague tribunal for his part in war crimes against non-Serbs in self-proclaimed Krajina Serb republic where he was leader in the early 1990s.
Ivo Sanader of the right-wing Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) becomes prime minister in a minority government following his party's success in elections the previous month.
Croatian parliament votes to create ecological zone in Adriatic prompting objections from Slovenia.
Death of Gen Bobetko ends controversy surrounding his extradition to The Hague.
Gen Mirko Norac, seen by many Croats as a war hero, sentenced to 12 years for killing of several dozen Serb civilians in 1991.
Croatia submits formal application for EU membership.
Under pressure from nationalists, government declines to hand over retired Gen Janko Bobetko, indicted for war crimes by The Hague tribunal. Health grounds are cited.
PM Racan resigns as infighting within the coalition paralyses economic reform. President Mesic asks him to form a new government.
Foreign Minister Tonino Picula visits Belgrade for talks with his Yugoslav counterpart, the first such visit since independence.
Yugoslavia returns art works, including Orthodox icons, looted after the fall of the city of Vukovar 10 years earlier.
The Hague tribunal indicts former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the war in Croatia in the early 1990s.
Prime Minister Racan survives confidence vote in parliament brought by nationalists opposed to his decision to comply with a request from The Hague tribunal for the extradition of generals Arijan Ademi and Ante Gotovina. Gen Ademi voluntarily appears before the tribunal. Gen Gotovina goes into hiding.
After two weeks on the run during which nationalists organise demonstrations in his support, General Mirko Norac - charged with killing Serb civilians in 1991 - gives himself up to a Croatian court on the condition that he will not be extradited to the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Stjepan Mesic of the liberal Croatian People's Party is elected president.
Parliamentary elections see Franjo Tudjman's HDZ party defeated by a coalition of social democrats and social liberals and Ivica Racan becomes the new prime minister.
Franjo Tudjman dies.
Croatia resumes control over the fourth UN area, Eastern Slavonia.
Tudjman re-elected as president. The EU decides not to invite Croatia to start membership talks, criticising the Tudjman regime's authoritarian tendencies.
Croatia restores diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia. Croatia joins Council of Europe.
Croat forces retake three of the four areas created by the UN. Croatian Serbs flee to Bosnia and Serbia. Tudjman is one of the signatories of the Dayton peace accords ending the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The UN sets up four protected areas in Croatia, with 14,000 UN troops keeping Croats and Serbs apart. Croatia also becomes involved in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-5) supporting the Bosnian Croats against the Bosnian Serbs, then against the Bosniaks (Muslims). Franjo Tudjman is elected president of Croatia.
First free elections in Croatia for more than 50 years. The communists lose to the conservative, nationalist HDZ led by Franjo Tudjman.
Collapse of communism in eastern Europe leads to rise in support for parties with a nationalist programme.
Tito dies. The slow disintegration of Yugoslavia begins as individual republics assert their desire for independence.
A new Yugoslav federal constitution meets some of the demands for Croatian autonomy.
Protestors demand greater autonomy in a movement known as the "Croatian Spring". The Yugoslav authorities denounce it as nationalism, arrest students and activists and purge the Croatian Communist Party.
Croatian writers demand greater linguistic autonomy, prompting a movement for political, economic and cultural liberalisation.
After a bitter resistance campaign by Communist partisans under Tito, Croatia becomes one of the six constituent republics of the Yugoslav socialist federation.
Nazi Germany invades. A "Greater Croatia" is formed, also comprising most of Bosnia and western Serbia. A fascist puppet government is installed under Ante Pavelic.
The regime acts brutally against Serbs and Jews as it seeks to create a Catholic, all-Croat republic. Hundreds of thousands lose their lives.
The Croatian Peasant Party negotiates a partial restoration of Croatian autonomy.
The Kingdom is renamed Yugoslavia, and the system of government is further centralised under a royal dictatorship.
A unitary consitution abolishes Croatian automony. The main Croatian Peasant Party campaigns for its restoration.
Croatian national assembly votes to join the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.