history of Slovakia
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Where is Slovakia located?
Slovakia is a landlocked country in central Europe, roughly coextensive with the historic region of Slovakia, the easternmost of the two territories that from 1918 to 1992 constituted Czechoslovakia. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the southwest, and the Czech Republic to the west. From the 11th century, Hungary ruled what is now Slovakia, and the ancestors of Slovaks were identified as inhabitants of Upper Hungary.
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Who were some of the earliest people to live in Slovakia?
The area that makes up the modern state of Slovakia was first inhabited by Celtic, Illyrian, and Germanic tribes. Slavic tribes, closely related to the Czechs, likely entered the region from Silesia during the 6th and 7th centuries CE. For a time, these tribes were under the control of the Avars. However, in the 9th century, the area between the Morava River and the central highlands became part of Great Moravia, and the Slovak population accepted Christianity from Cyril and Methodius.
In the 890s, the German king Arnulf enlisted the help of the Magyars against Moravia, leading to the Magyar invasion of Slovakia. The Moravian state was destroyed in the 10th century, and by the 11th century, Slovakia was incorporated into the Hungarian crown lands.
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What was Great Moravia and why was it important for Slovakia?
Great Moravia was a West Slavic state in Central Europe, existing from the 830s to the early 10th century, with territory primarily in modern-day Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
Great Moravia is important to Slovakia because of its cultural significance and historical legacy. In the 9th century, Prince Rostislav invited Cyril and Methodius to spread Christianity, and they translated Christian texts into Old Church Slavonic, devising the Glagolitic alphabet for this purpose. The Constitution of the Slovak Republic acknowledges the "spiritual bequest of Cyril and Methodius, and the historical legacy of Great Moravia".
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How did Slovakia become part of the Kingdom of Hungary?
Slovakia's history is intertwined with the Kingdom of Hungary due to its geographic location. In the 9th century, the Slovak population accepted Christianity from Cyril and Methodius as part of Great Moravia. However, the German king Arnulf called in the Magyars in the 890s, who overran Slovakia, destroying the Moravian state in the 10th century.
After disorder in the 11th century, Slovakia was incorporated into the Hungarian crown, known as Upper Hungary. The Magyar landlord class and German urban population influenced the culture, while Slovak peasants moved to the plains and were Magyarized. Despite Hungarian hegemony, Slovak culture and language survived until Czechoslovakia's founding in 1918.
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What happened to Slovakia after World War I?
After World War I, Slovakia joined Bohemia and Moravia to form Czechoslovakia on October 28, 1918, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The leaders of the new country were in exile at the time of the proclamation.
However, there were challenges in establishing the borders of the new state because there was no recognized linguistic frontier between the Hungarian and Slovak populations. The Czech military, with Allied help, asserted itself in Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, both ex-Hungarian provinces, and attached them to Czechoslovakia.
The second task was to secure the loyalty of its approximately 15 million citizens, including Slovaks, Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Ruthenians, and Poles. Despite these challenges, a new, democratic constitution, modeled largely on that of the French Third Republic, was adopted in February 1920.
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How did Slovakia become an independent country?
Slovakia became an independent country on January 1, 1993, following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, an event known as the Velvet Divorce. This split echoed the Velvet Revolution of 1989, which ended communism in Czechoslovakia.
Prime Ministers Vladimír Mečiar of Slovakia and Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic were key proponents of the separation, though the general population didn't overwhelmingly support it. While a sense of national pride emerged in Slovakia, there was also apprehension about the country's future, with many Slovaks applying for Czech citizenship post-partition. Economic differences and a desire for sovereignty ultimately led to the peaceful split, distinguishing it from other separations.
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history of Slovakia, a survey of important events and people in the history of Slovakia from 1993 to the present. For earlier history of the area, including Czechoslovakia, see Czechoslovak history.
The Velvet Divorce and the creation of the Slovak state
The Slovak Republic came into being on January 1, 1993, following the dissolution of the Czechoslovak federation. That event was dubbed the “Velvet Divorce,” echoing the 1989 Velvet Revolution that brought an end to communism in Czechoslovakia. The new prime minister, Vladimír Mečiar, and his Czech counterpart, Václav Klaus, had been among the strongest proponents of separation, but their enthusiasm did not extend to the general populace. Although a renewed sense of national pride welled up in Slovakia, so too did a feeling of apprehension about the republic’s future. This sense of uneasiness was manifested in the large numbers of Slovaks who began applying for Czech citizenship immediately after partition.
Slovakia had generally been perceived as the junior partner in the federation, but that arrangement had provided the republic with a degree of political security and economic stability that became less certain with independence. Long-standing political differences and tensions with neighbouring countries that had been suppressed during the period of Soviet hegemony reemerged. Notable among these were Hungary’s concerns about the future of the large Hungarian minority in southern Slovakia. In addition, economic forecasts for Slovakia were generally less optimistic than those for the Czech Republic. Slovakia inherited an economy dependent on large-scale but obsolete heavy industry, and the country faced rising unemployment and poor prospects for foreign investment. Furthermore, since Czechs had long dominated the federal leadership of Czechoslovakia, Slovak regional leaders lacked experience at the national level.
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In February 1993 Michal Kováč, the deputy chairman of the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (Hnutie Za Democratické Slovensko; HZDS), became president of the republic. Difficulties immediately arose in maintaining a coalition government, with the result that the HZDS and the rather autocratic figure of Mečiar tended to dominate. Mečiar favoured a brand of populist nationalism that left Slovakia’s minorities at a disadvantage. He was not overly interested either in forging alliances with western Europe or in tolerating dissenting voices from the opposition parties. In March 1994 Mečiar lost a vote of confidence and was forced to resign. A new five-party interim coalition headed by a new prime minister, Jozef Moravčík, adopted a policy of closer alignment with western Europe.
In the September 1994 elections, however, the HZDS regained power, and Mečiar was reinstalled as prime minister. In mid-December he formed a coalition composed of the HZDS, the right-wing Slovak National Party, and the leftist Association of Workers of Slovakia. Once back in office, Mečiar attempted to recentralize state authority by blocking further privatization of state-owned companies. In addition, the rivalry between Mečiar and Kováč, who had never seen eye to eye, deepened. The Mečiar government’s stance toward Slovakia’s minorities and its tenuous commitment to democratic principles did not go unnoticed by the international community, and in March 1995, under pressure from Western powers, Slovakia and Hungary signed the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, in which the Slovak government pledged to protect minority rights. The commitment was called into question, however, when in November the government made Slovak the republic’s official language, a move that caused great consternation among the nation’s Hungarian minority. The Hungarian government declared the policy to be in violation of the treaty. Throughout 1996 there was increasing concern over the Mečiar government’s antidemocratic direction, which included a so-called antisubversion law that would curb freedom of expression, which Kováč refused to sign. The law later passed in an amended form.
The path to the European Union and Slovakia in the 21st century
In June 1997 a European Union–Slovakia parliamentary committee made it clear that, in order for Slovakia to qualify for EU membership, the government would have to make adjustments in its policy toward the opposition and its treatment of minorities. Kováč and Mečiar agreed to the stipulations in October. However, at an EU summit held in December, it became evident that Slovakia would not be among the first wave of former Soviet-bloc countries admitted to the union.
During the early part of 1998 several attempts to elect a new president failed, and on March 2, when Kováč’s term expired, a number of presidential duties devolved to Mečiar, in accordance with the Slovak constitution. Mečiar immediately made several unilateral decisions that clearly benefited his own interests. His actions, condemned by the EU and the United States, spawned a series of protests in Slovakia. The country remained without a president for much of the year. Parliamentary elections held in September resulted in the removal of the HZDS from power. A four-party coalition composed of the centre-right Slovak Democratic Coalition, the Party of the Democratic Left, the centre-left Party of Civic Understanding, and the Party of the Hungarian Coalition took over the reins of government, with Mikuláš Dzurinda, the chairman of the Slovak Democratic Coalition, as prime minister.
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Mečiar offered his name as a presidential candidate in the election held on May 29, 1999, but he was defeated decisively by Rudolf Schuster, a member of the Carpathian-German minority and the chairman of the Party for Civic Understanding. The new ruling coalition declared its intention to ready the country for membership in the EU and NATO, to take measures to halt environmental degradation, and to crack down on organized crime, which had become an increasingly worrisome problem in the latter part of the 1990s. The coalition also introduced a wide-ranging austerity program intended to arrest Slovakia’s economic decline. The program met with a wave of protests and strikes but was favourably received by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which Slovakia joined in 2000.
Political difficulties continued into the 21st century, but the economy began to turn around, and the government continued the privatization of state-owned industries. After parliamentary elections in 2002, Dzurinda retained his post as prime minister. The new centre-right ruling coalition approved additional economic and social reforms but lost its parliamentary majority in 2003. The year 2004 was a momentous one, as the country joined both NATO and the EU. Ivan Gašparovič of the Movement for Democracy party defeated Mečiar in the presidential election that year, and the economy continued to grow. Parliamentary elections in 2006 resulted in yet another coalition of ruling parties, with the leader of the populist party Smer, Robert Fico, becoming prime minister.
Slovakia did not escape the global economic downturn that began in 2008, but public support for Prime Minister Fico remained high, thanks partly to Slovakia’s adoption of the euro at the beginning of 2009. It was the second country in the former communist bloc (after Slovenia) to do so. That April Gašparovič defeated Iveta Radičová, of the Slovak Democratic and Christian Union (SDKU), to be reelected president. A significant issue leading up to the June 2010 parliamentary elections was the question of Slovakia’s role in the bailout of debt-laden euro zone countries. The four-party centre-right coalition government that emerged from those elections was headed by Radičová, who became the first woman to serve as Slovakia’s prime minister. In August 2010 the Slovak parliament refused to pay the €816 million ($1.1 billion) that constituted the country’s share of the bailout fund for Greece organized by the EU and the International Monetary Fund. Slovak politicians argued that their country was one of the poorest in the euro zone and should not be expected to finance the mismanagement of its richer neighbours. This sentiment came to the fore in October 2011, when a no-confidence vote over the expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), the euro zone’s primary bailout mechanism, toppled the Radičová government. After the government’s collapse, Radičová opened talks with Smer, and Fico pledged his support for the EFSF in exchange for early elections.
When Slovaks headed to the polls in March 2012, they resoundingly rejected the Radičová coalition. Smer, with Fico at its head, collected 83 of 150 seats, becoming the first single party to win a clear majority in the Slovak parliament since the fall of communism. Allegations of corruption against centre-right politicians, as well as frustration with austerity measures, had soured voters on the SDKU, and the party barely obtained the number of votes necessary for representation in the parliament. Fico pledged that his government would adhere to the deficit-control regulations of the EU’s new fiscal compact by raising the tax rates of wealthy individuals and corporations. Although Fico was forced to shelve a plan that would have nationalized two private insurance companies to create a single government-run health care provider, he remained a broadly popular, if polarizing, figure. Political and economic stability buoyed Fico’s approval ratings, but voters resoundingly rejected his bid to become president in March 2014. A win would have given Smer control of the parliament, the judiciary, and the presidency. Instead, voters chose entrepreneur and first-time politician Andrej Kiska to fill the largely ceremonial role.