Slovakia history · History of Slovakia
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History of Slovakia
History of Slovakia
The area that is present-day Slovakia has been settled since early Paleolithic era. Before the inward migration of Slavs and Huns, the most important cultures were the Celts and Romans, with Slovakia forming the northermost point of the Roman Empire. To this day, artefacts and evidence of the presence of these cultures can be found.
The Slavic tribes, that invaded the area in the 5th century created a succession of influential kingdoms here. During this era, lasting until the 10th century when the Great Moravian Empire disintegrated, Slavs adopted Christianity and many medieval fort castles have been built, ruins of some of which remain to this day.
Since 10th century, Slovakia became a part of the Kingdom of Hungary, which, after 1867, formed an unio with the Austrian Empire and became the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. This Union, lasting until 1918 was a great influence on the shaping of the entire region and was a multinational state with many cultures living together, and forms a common cultural history shared by many Central European nations.
In 1918 the Slovaks joined the closely related Czechs to form Czechoslovakia. During WWII, Czechoslovakia briefly split, with the Czech Republic being Occupied by the Nazis and Slovaks forming their own war state. Following the chaos of World War II, Czechoslovakia became a communist country within Soviet-ruled Eastern Block. Soviet influence collapsed in 1989 and Czechoslovakia once again became free.
For many years overshadowed by their north-western Czech neighbors, political representatives of Czechs and Slovaks decided to strike out on their own. The Slovaks and the Czechs agreed to separate peacefully on 1 January 1993 and Slovakia became a country in its own right. This is known as Velvet Divorce. Both countries remain close culturally and there is a high level of political and economical cooperation.
Historic, political, and geographic factors have caused Slovakia to experience more difficulty in developing a modern market economy than some of its Central European neighbors, but now it boasts one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and has been a member of the European Union and the NATO since 2004. Slovakia is now a member of the Schengen agreement, and the country has adopted the EURO on January 1st 2009.
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Slovakia Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
