Croatia is a country located in the northeast of the Balkan Peninsula, across the Adriatic Sea and Italy, bordering Hungary, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro on land, with a total area of 56,594 square kilometers and a population of about 4.174 million.
From a worldwide perspective, Croatia can only be regarded as a small country, but in south-eastern Europe, it is not small, and the economic development is very good.
Croatia's economy is dominated by the tertiary industry, supplemented by the secondary industry, tourism occupies an important position in the Croatian national economy, and the development level of Croatia's shipbuilding industry is also relatively high.
Croatia has a well-developed tourism industry and a good level of shipbuilding, mainly thanks to the long coastline. According to the data, Croatia's coastline is 1778 km long, extending from the Istrian Peninsula on the northern border with Slovenia to the south to the border area of Montenegro.
Due to the ridges of limestone in the coastal areas of Croatia, under the impact of the sea, many peninsulas, straits, bays, the entire coastline is very tortuous, with many excellent ports, and the coastal scenery is also very charming. This unique natural environment has contributed to the development of Croatia's shipbuilding industry and tourism industry.
However, Croatia's long coastline is not a section, but is divided into two sections, and in the south-central part of the coastline, a small part of the coastline belongs to Croatia's neighbor Bosnia and Herzegovina. This stretch of coastline in Bosnia and Herzegovina is only 24.5 kilometres long, and although it is very short, it divides Croatia's long coastline into two sections and two parts of Croatian territory. This restricts the development of Croatia to a certain extent, and also causes great inconvenience to the local residents of Croatia, as well as foreign tourists.
On Croatian soil south of the Bosnian coastline, there is a famous coastal city called Dubrovnik. The city is the largest tourist center and health resort in Croatia. It has beautiful scenery, pleasant climate, mountains and sea, lush forests, many beautiful bathing beaches, and the city has a long history, as well as many ancient buildings from the medieval period and the Renaissance. Therefore, it not only attracts many Croats, but also attracts many foreign tourists to visit here.
However, due to the coastline of Bosnia and Herzegovina, this land does not have a land border with the rest of Croatia, and to reach here, it is necessary to transit through neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to the data, due to the cumbersome transit procedures, it takes about three hours to travel between two parts of Croatia. This invisibly increases the travel costs of locals and tourists, and also restricts the development of the southern territory of Croatia to a certain extent. So why did Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina form such a special territorial distribution?
This is mainly due to historical reasons. Historically, Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed by the Ottoman Empire and had no coastal territory, but was a purely inland region. The Adriatic coastal region belongs to the Republic of Venice in the north and dubrovnik in the south to the Republic of Ragusa.
The two commercial republics were fiercely competitive and enemies of each other. After the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century, the Republic of Ragusa gradually fell to the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire had suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Vienna, and the Power of the Republic of Venice had soared, and the Republic of Ragusa, in order to relieve pressure from Venice, ceded the 24.5 kilometers of coast to the Ottoman Empire, forming a buffer zone.
Since then, this small stretch of coastline has been owned by Bosnia and Herzegovina. Later, Venice and Ragusa were destroyed by Napoleon first, and then belonged to austria-Hungary, Yugoslavia. By the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1939, because it belonged to the Croat majority area, it eventually formed a large Croatia along the Slavoni hills and the Sava River plain in the north.
In the 1990s, after the collapse of Yugoslavia, the border between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina continued to follow its original division. This distribution has long plagued Croats. However, this small stretch of coastline of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also limited to the land and sea, and the outer peninsulas, islands and territorial waters belong to Croatia. If you stand on the coastal area of Bosnia and Herzegovina and look out, the peninsula and islands that the eye can see belong to Croatia. It is completely confined to the bay by the Croatian Pelješac Peninsula, and if you want to go to sea, you must pass through a series of fjords between the Croatian peninsula and the islands.
The Pelješac Peninsula is the second largest peninsula in Croatia, with a total length of 66 kilometers, which is part of the southern part of Croatia, but extends northward, holding the Bosnian coastline in the bay, very close to the northern part of Croatia, and has the conditions for the construction of a cross-sea bridge. Therefore, Croatia is convenient for the construction of the cross-sea bridge here in 2018. The total length of the bridge is 2440 meters, through the cross-sea bridge, Croatia will connect the two pieces of land, not only to solve the travel problems of locals, but also to promote the development of the Croatian economy.