The Croatian Spring is a reform period in Croatian history that begins at the end of the 1960s and ends at the beginning of the 1970s. The causes of that period were three factors: the economic issue, the national issue and equality, and the language issue. In the 1960s the economy of Yugoslavia was affected by an economic crisis, and Serbs predominated in companies in Croatia, as well as in municipalities and in the party leadership. The issue of the Croatian language was brought into question by the Novi Sad Agreement and the creation of a common Serbo-Croatian orthography that did not contain Croatian terminology. All these factors together influenced the creation of the Croatian national movement. The Croatian Spring had three centers: reformists within the Central Committee of the SKH, intellectuals and scientists gathered around Matica Hrvatska in Zagreb, and students from Zagreb and their movement. They worked together with the goal of reforming the Federation, to ensure that it would become democratized and that self-governance would be introduced. However, the emergence of political opposition, and at the same time the appearance of national sentiment among the people, did not meet with the approval of the communist regime. Soon the Croatian Spring was suppressed by the cutting down of the Croatian political leadership in Karađorđevo, which was followed by dismissals, persecutions, arrests and trials of the reformists. The same was happening in Dalmatia. Those who were part of the Croatian Spring in Dalmatia were SKH members, members of Matica hrvatska and students. Through Zadar, Split, Sinj and Dubrovnik to smaller Dalmatian cities and towns, the Croatian national movement raged until December 1971. Then the same fate followed the reformists and their supporters as the ones in Zagreb.