This graduate thesis provides an overview of the discovery and development of the periodic table and its influence on Croatian chemistry. In 1869, D. I. Mendeleev published his periodic system of elements in which the elements were ordered by increasing atomic weight and their chemical properties. Mendeleev left empty spaces for eka-elements that were later discovered as a gallium (1875), scandium (1879), and germanium (1886). Numerous Mendeleev's predecessors, Döbereiner, Newland, Odling and Meyer, have contributed to this significant discovery in chemistry. With the discovery of noble gases and new knowledge of the structure of the atoms, the periodic system of elements has developed and supplemented, and today it contains one hundred eighteen elements divided into seven periods and eighteen groups. The founding of the University of Zagreb (1874) and its scientific departments (1876) began the development of chemical science in Croatia, at the same time as the discovery of the periodic table of the elements, and its application in the teaching of chemistry was delayed. The Yugoslavian Academy of Sciences and Arts (today the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts) is the first academy of science in Europe that proclaimed D. I. Mendeleev for his honorary member (1882). G. Janeček, a university professor of chemistry, introduced a periodic system of elements in his lectures (1888). The first textbook for chemistry with the periodic system of elements is Anorganska kemija (Zagreb, 1901) by Julije Domac. Fran Bubanović publishes the first modern university textbook for chemistry (1930) that was written in accordance with the periodic system of elements. Apart from Croatian scientific and professional literature, the discovery and development of the periodic system of elements has been followed in many professional journals and popularization articles.