 Events of 1848 in Europe and the Austrian Empire brought dramatic changes to Croatian society and politics , provoking the Croatian national revival that strongly influenced and significantly shaped political and social events in Croatia . At the time , the Sabor and Ban Josip <unk> advocated the <unk> of ties with the Kingdom of Hungary , emphasising links to other South Slavic lands within the empire . Several prominent Croatian political figures emerged , such as Ante <unk> , <unk> Kvaternik , Franjo <unk> and Josip <unk> <unk> . A period of neo @-@ absolutism was followed by the Austro @-@ Hungarian <unk> of 1867 and the Croatian – Hungarian Settlement , which granted limited independence to Croatia . This was compounded by Croatian claims of uninterrupted statehood since the early Middle Ages as a basis for a modern state . Two political parties that evolved in the 1860s and contributed significantly to the sentiment were the Party of Rights , led by <unk> and Kvaternik , and the People 's Party , led by <unk> <unk> , Ivan <unk> <unk> , Josip <unk> <unk> and Ivan <unk> . They were opposed by the National Constitutional Party , which was in power for most of the period between the 1860s and the 1918 , and advocated closer ties between Croatia and Hungary . 
