This paper traces the ethnic Serb population of Croatia in three stages: first, with the earliest migrations to the Croatian territories in the 17th and 18th centuries; during the Second World War and the killing of tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs by the fascistic Independent State of Croatia (NDH); and, during the events of the Yugoslav wars of succession in the 1990s, by which time the Croatian-Serbs were empowered by a unique brand of Serbian nationalism. Each of these vignettes represent the threat of destruction of a vulnerable population and the ensuing migration. Memories of the earliest migrations persisted into the 20th century and were further galvanised during the onset of the Second World War when ethnic-Serbs faced existential destruction at the hands of the NDH. Taken together, both events helped create a specific type of Serbian nationalism. Many scholars have pointed out the influence of the NDH's genocidal campaign against the Serbs on the wars of the 1990s but tend to overlook the persistent stories and myths surrounding the initial migrations. This paper, then, seeks to connect these two otherwise disparate threads of scholarship to show how memories of displacement and violence can impact much later generations of survivors, and even mobilise them during times of war and conflict.
