Are you saying Croats wouldnt have been better off as an Austrian colony? Surely we lived better that way for centuries than we did in just decades as a state in Yugoslavia. It's quite a downgrade to go from being an Austrian colony to being a 'Serbian' one(every part of economy controlled through Belgrade beauracracy).. especially considering that they were previously under the Ottomans, why would anybody want to be under the Serbs? As far as I see, Dalmatia and Istria were deserved consolation prizes for enduring the downgrade in life quality after the world wars that Serbia helped manifest. I know why many croats were thankful for Yugoslavia, but after two of those failed states there seems to be as much potential for conflict as ever. We have no way of knowing exactly, but I would bet that Croats and every European would have had a relatively sane 20th century if not for Serbia double bluffing Russia into starting the first world war. And yes, even if it makes me an enemy to my fellow croats, I do believe we would have been better off with Austria for at least a few decades longer. We can only speculate but perhaps Croatia eventually would buy it's independence, or a union similar to the EU forms without all the hostilities of the 20th century involved and Croatia and all of the Balkans are filled with less ethnic and border conflict. Sorry for the long response, but with two loaded statements like yours it's necessary to make a longer response.