The basis of this thesis and the main subject of research are history textbooks. The research is oriented to the analysis of the content of high school history textbooks created in two different socio-political systems in which the territory of the Croatian state was included during the period from the 1980s to the 2000s. These two periods are characterized by socialism and Croatian independence, which brought about a democratic system. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to the explanation and presentation of social and educational systems, including school system and curricula in order to highlight the link between history teaching (textbooks), i.e. the educational domain and social and political circumstances. The central part of the thesis, which includes the analysis of the contents of the textbooks through the descriptive-narrative method, is crucial for understanding how topics from Byzantine history were presented and represented in the textbooks. The aim of this thesis is to highlight, through the analysis of textbooks, which topics of Byzantine history are covered, how they are approached and interpreted, to what extent they are presented in relation to other contents, and which areas of Byzantine history are most emphasized. The central focus is on whether there are differences between the period of socialism and the period of Croatian statehood in addressing the aforementioned questions. The final part of the thesis concentrates on the comparative analysis of the textbooks, specifically their contents and the way certain topics from Byzantine history were represented in the history textbooks during the considered period. The final part presents the research results.