Most historians believe that the Croats are…

Most historians believe that the Croats are a purely Slavic people who probably migrated to the Balkans from present-day Ukraine.

A newer theory, however, holds that the original Croats were nomadic Sarmatians who roamed Central Asia, migrated onto the steppes around 200 BCE, and rode into Europe near the end of the fourth century CE, possibly together with the Huns.

The Sarmatian Croats, the theory holds, conquered the Slavs of northern Bohemia and southern Poland and formed a small state called White Croatia near present-day Kraków.

The Croats then supposedly mingled with their more numerous Slavic subjects and adopted the Slavic language, while the subjects assumed the tribal name "Croat."

A tenth-century Byzantine source reports that in the seventh century Emperor Heraclius enlisted the Croats to expel the Avars from Byzantine lands.

The Croats had overrun the Avars and Slavs in Dalmatia around 630, then drove the Avars from today's Slovenia and other areas.

In the eighth century, the Croats lived under loose imperial rule, and Christianity and Latin culture recovered in the coastal cities.

The Franks subjugated most of the Croats in the eighth century and sent missionaries to baptize them in the Latin rite, but the Byzantine Empire continued to rule Dalmatia.

Croatia emerges as an independent nation in 924.

Tomislav (910-ca. 928), a tribal leader, establishes himself as the first king of Croatia, ruling a domain that stretches eastward to the Danube.