Imperial Croatian Home Guard
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The Imperial Croatian Home Guard (Croatian: Carsko Hrvatsko domobranstvo, often simply Domobranstvo or Domobran in singular) was the Croatian army section of the Honvéd which existed from 1868 to 1918. The force was created by decree of the Croatian Parliament on December 5, 1868 as a result of the Croatian-Hungarian Agreement.
The agreement specified four conditions:
- Croats would serve their military service within Croatia
- Military training would be conducted in Croatian
- Cadet and Domobran academies would be formed
- Croatian military units could take on Croatian names
The Home Guard saw action in the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as in World War I. Its most well known member was probably Svetozar Boroević: he later became a field-marshal in the Austro-Hungarian army.
After the collapse of Austria-Hungary after the First World War, Croatian lands became a part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The kingdom's armed force, the Yugoslav Royal Army, became the only legal one in the nation and the Domobranstvo was disbanded. Several incidents occurred across Croatia after the Domobranstvo was disbanded, the most famous of which was a demonstration by former Domobranstvo members on December 5, 1918 in Zagreb. Serb officers killed 20 unarmed Domobrans.
During World War II, the Independent State of Croatia was formed and restored the Croatian Home Guard as its regular army.
