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Ever since the migration of Croats from their anicent homeland "White Croatia"; Croats have served in many foreign armies. For example the Moorish, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian to name just a few. From the seventeenth century, Croats were act ive as mercenaries in many European armies. In the French army 17th century, during the reign of Louis XIII, there was a regiment composed exclusively of Croats, called Royal Cravate (French Cravate, a Croatian). These Croat soldiers wore a neck scarf, which with the simplification and standardization of men's dress in late 19th and early 20th centuries made the cravat the necktie worn by men today. Called la cravate by the French and die Krawatte by the Germans. The expression was coined from the Croatian name. The most probable reason for wearing the scarf around the neck, was to differentiate between the different armies, regiments etc.
Croatian : Kravata
English: Cravat
French: Cravate
CRAVATE n.f. (1651, "bande de linge que les cavaliers croates portaient autour du cou"; forme francisée de Croate -LE PETIT ROBERT 1 (1986.)
German: Krawatte
Hungarian: Kravat
Italian: Cravatta
Polish: Krawat
Portugese: Gravata
Spanish: Corvatta
