Slovakia

In the early ninth century the Slavs of the middle Danube formed two neighbouring polities: the Principality of Nitra, in what is now western Slovakia, and the Principality of Moravia to the west. Around 833 the Moravian prince Mojmír I drove out Pribina, the ruler of Nitra, and joined the two into a single realm that historians call Great Moravia, the first powerful Slavic state of central Europe. Under Mojmír and his successors the new principality grew strong enough to resist the pressure of the East Frankish empire on its western frontier.

Seeking to free his church from Frankish and Latin tutelage, Prince Rostislav appealed to Constantinople, and in 863 the Byzantine emperor sent the brothers Constantine, later known as Cyril, and Methodius. The two missionaries devised the Glagolitic alphabet, the first script tailored to a Slavic tongue, and translated the scriptures and liturgy into what became Old Church Slavonic, the language of a Slavic Christianity. Their work, conducted partly from Nitra and the Moravian heartland, gave the Slavs a written culture of their own and is celebrated as a founding act of Slovak and wider Slavic civilisation.

Great Moravia reached its height under Svatopluk I, who reigned from about 870 to 894 and won recognition of his standing from the papacy, extending his power across much of central Europe. After his death the realm fractured among his sons and was worn down by warfare with the Franks. As the semi-nomadic Magyars pushed into the Carpathian Basin, Great Moravia disintegrated, and a Magyar victory in 906–907 is conventionally taken as the end of the state, opening the way for the Slovak lands to be drawn into a new Hungarian kingdom.

Turning points

1. c. 833Formation

   Founding of Great Moravia

   Prince Mojmír I expelled Pribina of Nitra and united the principalities of Moravia and Nitra into Great Moravia, the first powerful Slavic state of central Europe, with the Slovak lands at its core.

   [9] [2]

2. 863Religion

   Mission of Cyril and Methodius

   At Prince Rostislav's request the Byzantine brothers Cyril and Methodius arrived in Great Moravia, devised the Glagolitic script and translated the liturgy into Old Church Slavonic, founding a written Slavic culture.

   [4] [9]

3. c. 870–894Politics & Power

   Reign of Svatopluk I

   Under Svatopluk I Great Moravia reached its greatest extent and won recognition from the papacy, becoming the dominant power of the middle Danube before the state fragmented after his death.

   [3] [2]

4. 906–907War & Rupture

   Fall of Great Moravia to the Magyars

   Weakened by internal strife and Frankish wars, Great Moravia collapsed as the Magyars occupied the Carpathian Basin; a Magyar victory in 906–907 is taken to mark the end of the state.

   ↗See the data

   [2] [9]

Figures of the era

After the fall of Great Moravia the Slovak lands were drawn around the year 1000 into the new Kingdom of Hungary, founded by King Stephen I. For roughly the next thousand years the Slovaks lived under the Hungarian crown, their territory known as 'Upper Hungary' or simply 'the Highlands'. The Hungarian state ruled the multi-ethnic region without recognising the Slovaks as a separate nation, identifying them less by their Slavic speech than by the lands they inhabited.

The lands of Upper Hungary were not a backwater. German settlers and royal charters fostered prosperous mining and trading towns, and in 1467 the country's first university, the Universitas Istropolitana, was founded at Pressburg. The Ottoman advance transformed the region's standing: after the Turkish conquest of central Hungary the parliament in 1536 raised Pressburg, today's Bratislava, to capital of the truncated kingdom, near the imperial residence of Vienna and protected by its fortifications.

For nearly three centuries Pressburg was the political and ceremonial heart of Habsburg Hungary. Its St Martin's Cathedral became the coronation church of the kingdom: between 1563 and 1830 a succession of Hungarian kings and royal consorts were crowned there, among them Maria Theresa in 1741, who made the city a centre of her eastern realm. Only after the reconquest of Buda and the eighteenth-century recovery did the capital's functions begin to drift back toward the Hungarian heartland.

Turning points

1. c. 1000Politics & Power

   Incorporation into the Kingdom of Hungary

   The Slovak lands were absorbed into the Kingdom of Hungary founded by Stephen I, beginning roughly a thousand years under the Hungarian crown as the region known as 'Upper Hungary'.

   [9] [1]

2. 1467Culture & Ideas

   Universitas Istropolitana at Pressburg

   Slovakia's first university, the Universitas Istropolitana, was founded at Pressburg, an early sign of the towns' wealth and learning within the Hungarian kingdom.

   [9]

3. 1536Politics & Power

   Pressburg made capital of Hungary

   As the Ottomans overran central Hungary, the parliament promoted Pressburg (now Bratislava) to capital of the Kingdom of Hungary, a secure stronghold close to Habsburg Vienna.

   [9] [10]

4. 1563–1830Politics & Power

   Pressburg the coronation city

   Between 1563 and 1830, eleven Hungarian kings and eight royal consorts were crowned at St Martin's Cathedral in Pressburg, including Maria Theresa in 1741, making the city the ceremonial heart of the kingdom.

   [10]

Figures of the era

By the late eighteenth century the Slovaks, long defined only as inhabitants of Upper Hungary, began to reach for a distinct identity. The first stirrings were religious and linguistic: the Catholic priest Anton Bernolák attempted in the 1780s to fashion a written Slovak from western dialects, while Protestant patriots looked to Czech and to the memory of Great Moravia, around which a heavily mythologised national story would later be built.

The decisive step came in the 1840s. A Lutheran scholar and poet, Ľudovít Štúr, and his circle resolved in 1843 to base a single Slovak literary standard on the central Slovak dialects, a language that could unite speakers of many regional tongues. Štúr set out its grammar and argued its case in print, and his standard, refined by later grammarians, was accepted as the modern Slovak literary language. The codification gave the awakening a tool that no government could easily suppress, anchoring a sense of nationhood in a shared tongue.

Yet political room was narrowing. After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 the Hungarian half of the monarchy pursued increasingly aggressive policies of Magyarization, pressing the Magyar language on schools and public life and refusing the Slovaks recognition as a nation. Slovak cultural institutions were curtailed, and many emigrated, especially to the United States, where expatriate communities would later play a part in the creation of a Czechoslovak state.

Turning points

1. 1780sCulture & Ideas

   Bernolák's first written Slovak

   The Catholic priest Anton Bernolák codified an early written Slovak based on western dialects, an opening move in the national awakening that the next generation would supersede.

   [6] [9]

2. 1843Culture & Ideas

   Štúr codifies literary Slovak

   Ľudovít Štúr and his associates resolved to base a unified Slovak literary language on the central Slovak dialects; his standard, refined by later grammarians, became modern literary Slovak.

   [5] [6] [9]

3. 1848–1849Politics & Power

   Slovaks in the revolutions of 1848

   During the revolutions of 1848 Slovak leaders, Štúr among them, set out national demands and raised volunteers, asserting the Slovaks as a distinct people within the Hungarian kingdom.

   [5] [9]

4. 1867Politics & Power

   Magyarization under the Compromise

   After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise the Hungarian government intensified Magyarization, pressing the Magyar language on Slovak schools and public life and denying the Slovaks recognition as a nation.

   [1] [6]

Figures of the era

When Austria-Hungary collapsed at the end of the First World War, the Slovaks found their first state by joining the Czechs. The Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918, signed by Czech and Slovak émigrés in the United States, envisaged a common republic with Slovak autonomy; Czechoslovakia was declared in Prague on 28 October 1918, and two days later the Slovak National Council endorsed the union in the Martin Declaration of 30 October 1918. The interwar republic was the most democratic and prosperous state in the region, yet many Slovaks chafed at centralisation from Prague and the promised autonomy never fully materialised.

The dismemberment of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany opened a darker chapter. On 14 March 1939 a separate Slovak State was proclaimed under the Catholic priest Jozef Tiso, a clerical-authoritarian regime that became a client and ally of Hitler's Germany. Its government enacted harsh anti-Jewish laws and, beginning in March 1942, made Slovakia the first of Germany's allies to consent to the deportation of its Jews: between March and October 1942 some 57,000 Slovak Jews were deported to German-occupied Poland, the great majority of whom were murdered, and further deportations followed in 1944–45. In all more than 70,000 Jews from Slovakia were deported and more than 60,000 killed.

Resistance gathered against the regime and its German patrons. On 29 August 1944 the Slovak National Uprising broke out, centred on Banská Bystrica, where the Slovak National Council and a Free Slovak Radio took control of much of the country and tens of thousands of soldiers and partisans took up arms. German forces poured in to crush the rising; Banská Bystrica fell on 27 October 1944, and savage reprisals followed, with thousands killed and villages destroyed. Though defeated militarily, the uprising became a defining act of Slovak resistance and a foundation of the post-war state's legitimacy.

Turning points

1. 28–30 Oct 1918Formation

   Czechoslovakia and the Martin Declaration

   Czechoslovakia was declared in Prague on 28 October 1918; on 30 October the Slovak National Council endorsed the union in the Martin Declaration, giving the Slovaks their first modern statehood alongside the Czechs.

   [7] [9]

2. 14 Mar 1939Politics & Power

   Proclamation of the Slovak State

   As Germany dismembered Czechoslovakia, a separate Slovak State was proclaimed under the priest Jozef Tiso, a clerical-authoritarian regime that became a client and ally of Nazi Germany.

   [11] [12]

3. 1942War & Rupture

   Deportation of Slovak Jews

   Slovakia became the first Axis partner to consent to the deportation of its Jews; between March and October 1942 some 57,000 Slovak Jews were deported to German-occupied Poland, with more than 60,000 of Slovakia's Jews murdered overall.

   ↗See the data

   [12] [11]

4. 29 Aug 1944War & Rupture

   Slovak National Uprising

   The Slovak National Uprising broke out at Banská Bystrica against the Tiso regime and German occupation; after two months of fighting the rising was crushed on 27 October 1944 amid brutal reprisals.

   ↗See the data

   [13] [9]

Figures of the era

Liberated from German occupation, Czechoslovakia was restored but soon drawn into the Soviet sphere; from 1948 the Communist Party ruled a one-party state under Moscow's domination. For Slovaks the most lasting structural change came with the reforms of 1968. The Prague Spring's liberalisation was crushed by the Warsaw Pact invasion of August 1968, but its one surviving measure was the Constitutional Law of Federation of 28 October 1968, which from 1 January 1969 turned the centralised state into a federation of a Czech and a Slovak Socialist Republic, finally giving the Slovaks a republic of their own name, even if the subsequent 'normalisation' under Gustáv Husák kept real power centralised in the party.

Communist rule ended with the Velvet Revolution. It began with a student demonstration in Bratislava on 16 November 1989 and the larger march in Prague the following day, and over six weeks of mass protests, with Public Against Violence mobilising Slovaks and Civic Forum the Czechs, the Communist Party surrendered its monopoly. The transition was almost entirely peaceful, and by the end of 1989 a democratic Czechoslovakia was taking shape.

Democracy quickly exposed the strains between the two nations. The June 1992 elections returned leaders with sharply different visions, the Czech side favouring rapid market reform and a strong central state, the Slovak side, under Vladimír Mečiar, seeking a slower transition and greater sovereignty. Rather than fight, the two governments negotiated a separation. On 1 January 1993 Czechoslovakia dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the 'Velvet Divorce', a peaceful split that gave the Slovaks, after more than a thousand years, a fully independent state of their own.

Turning points

1. 1948Politics & Power

   Communist takeover

   The Communist Party seized full power in Czechoslovakia, establishing a one-party state under Soviet domination that would last for four decades.

   [7] [8]

2. 1968–1969Politics & Power

   Federalization of Czechoslovakia

   After the Prague Spring was crushed, the Constitutional Law of Federation of 28 October 1968 created, from 1 January 1969, a Slovak Socialist Republic within a federal Czechoslovakia, the Slovaks' first republic in name.

   [7]

3. Nov 1989Independence

   The Velvet Revolution

   Beginning with a student march in Bratislava on 16 November and protests in Prague the next day, six weeks of demonstrations led the Communist Party to give up its monopoly, ending one-party rule peacefully.

   ↗See the data

   [8] [9]

4. 1 Jan 1993Independence

   The Velvet Divorce

   Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993, creating, after more than a thousand years, the first fully independent Slovak state.

   ↗See the data

   [7] [18]

Figures of the era

The Slovak Republic that emerged in 1993 set about building democratic institutions and a market economy, and after a turbulent first decade it secured its place in the Western community of states. It joined NATO on 29 March 2004 and the European Union on 1 May 2004, and on 1 January 2009 it adopted the euro, becoming the sixteenth member of the euro area, a notably swift integration for a state barely sixteen years old.

Independence did not erase older quarrels. A long dispute with Hungary over a vast Danube barrage system, agreed in a 1977 treaty between Hungary and Czechoslovakia but suspended by Hungary in 1989, was carried to the International Court of Justice. In its judgment of 25 September 1997 in the Gabčíkovo–Nagymaros Project case the Court found both states in breach of their obligations: Hungary had not been entitled to abandon the works, while Czechoslovakia, succeeded by Slovakia, had not been entitled to put its unilateral 'provisional solution' diversion of the Danube into operation in 1992. The Court ordered the two neighbours to negotiate in good faith, and the case became a landmark in international environmental law.

Internally, the largest unresolved question of identity is the status of the Hungarian minority concentrated in southern Slovakia, a legacy of the thousand years within Hungary and of the borders drawn after 1918. Ethnic Hungarians form the country's largest national minority, and questions of language, schooling and the post-war Beneš decrees have repeatedly strained relations both within Slovakia and with neighbouring Hungary, even as both states share membership of the European Union.

Turning points

1. 25 Sep 1997Politics & Power

   ICJ judgment on Gabčíkovo–Nagymaros

   The International Court of Justice ruled in the Gabčíkovo–Nagymaros Project case (Hungary/Slovakia) that both states had breached their obligations over the Danube dam treaty of 1977, ordering them to negotiate in good faith.

   [14] [15]

2. 29 Mar 2004Politics & Power

   Slovakia joins NATO

   Slovakia officially became a member of NATO on 29 March 2004, part of the largest single enlargement in the Alliance's history, anchoring the young republic in the Western security community.

   [16]

3. 1 May 2004Politics & Power

   Accession to the European Union

   Slovakia joined the European Union on 1 May 2004, completing its integration into Western Europe little more than a decade after independence.

   [18] [17]

4. 1 Jan 2009Economy & Trade

   Slovakia adopts the euro

   Slovakia adopted the euro on 1 January 2009, becoming the sixteenth member of the euro area and the first of the Visegrád states to do so.

   ↗See the data

   [17]

Figures of the era