History of Slovakia
Obchodná akadémia, Veľká okružná 32, 011 57 Žilina
Prehistory
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Slovakia's territory had been
inhabited in the
Palaeolithic - Nové Mesto
nad Váhom, Bojnice and
Gánovce. The best known
artifact is the Venus of
Moravany from Moravany
nad Váhom.
Neolithic habitation was
found in Želiezovce, Gemer,
the Domica cave and
at Nitriansky Hrádok.
History of Slovakia
Prehistory
Bronze Age was marked by the Čakany and Velatice cultures,
followed by the Calenderberg culture and the Hallstatt
culture.The major Celtic tribes living in Slovakia
were Cotini and Boii.
The great invasions of the 4–8th centuries saw the
emergence of the Huns, followed by the expansion of the
Ostrogoths, Lombards, Gepids, Heruli. Eurasian Avars followed,
battling the Byzantine Empire, to be replaced by the Slavs.
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History of Slovakia
The Slavs
Parts of the Slavic population that settled in the Middle
Danube area were unified by King Samo,after a successful
Slavic insurrection against the Avar Khaganate in 623. In 631,
Samo defeated the Frankish army of King Dagobert at
the Battle of Wogastisburg. Samo's Empire, the first known
political formation of Slavs, disappeared after the death of its
founder in 665 and its territory was again included into Avar
Khaganate.
Around 828, Archbishop Adalram of Salzburg consecrated a
church for Prince Pribina in Nitrava. In 833, Mojmír I, Duke of
the Moravians, expelled Pribina.
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History of Slovakia
The era of Great Moravia
Great Moravia arose around 830
when Mojmír I unified the Slavic
tribes settled north of the Danube
and extended the Moravian
supremacy over them.
The new monarch Rastislav
pursued an independent policy:
after stopping a Frankish attack in
855, he also sought to weaken
influence of Frankish priests
preaching in his realm. Rastislav
asked the Byzantine
Emperor Michael III to send
teachers who would interpret
Christianity in the Slavic vernacular
– missionaries Saints Cyril and
Methodius.
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Monarch Rastislav I. (846 – 870)
History of Slovakia
The era of Great Moravia
Svatopluk I (871– 894) assumed
the title of the king (rex). During
his reign, the Great Moravian
Empire reached its greatest
territorial extent, when not only
present-day Moravia and Slovakia
but also present-day central
Hungary, Lower Austria, Bohemia,
Silesia, southern Poland and
northern Serbia belonged to the
empire.
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Saints Cyril and Methodius
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History of Slovakia
The era of Great Moravia
After the death of King Svatopluk in 894, his sons Mojmír II
and Svatopluk II succeeded him as the King of Great
Moravia and the Prince of Nitra respectively. However, they
started to quarrel for domination of the whole empire.
Weakened by an internal conflict as well as by constant
warfare with Eastern Francia, Great Moravia lost most of its
peripheral territories.
Great Moravia left behind a lasting legacy in Central and
Eastern Europe (906 or 907). The Glagolitic script and its
successor Cyrillic were disseminated to other Slavic countries,
charting a new path in their cultural development. The
administrative system of Great Moravia may have influenced
the development of the administration of the Kingdom of
Hungary.
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History of Slovakia
The era of Great Moravia
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From 895 to 902,
the Hungarians (Magyars),
progressively imposed their
authority on the Pannonian
Basin.The territory of the
present-day Slovakia became
progressively integrated into
the developing state in the
early 10th century (the
future Kingdom of Hungary
with Arpád dynasty).
Ruins of a Great Moravian castle in Ducové
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History of Slovakia
Mongol invasion (1241)
In 1241, the Mongols invaded and devastated the northwestern parts of the kingdom. Following the withdrawal of the
Mongol troops (1242), several castles were built or
enstrengthened (e.g. Komárno, Beckov and Zvolen) on the
order of King Béla IV. He also continued his policy of
granting town privileges to several settlements, e.g.
to Krupina, Nitra, Banská Bystrica and Gelnica.
During his reign, new German immigrants settled down in
Spiš whose privileges were granted in 1271 by King Stephen V
of Hungary. The last decades of the 13th century were
characterized by discords within the royal family and among
the several groups of the aristocracy.
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History of Slovakia
The period of the oligarchs
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Following the Mongol invasion of the kingdom, a competition
started among the landowners: each of them endeavored to
build a castle with or without the permission of the king.
Matthew III Csák was the de facto ruler of the western
territories of present-day Slovakia, from his seat at Trenčín. He
allied himself with the murdered Amade Aba's sons against
Košice, but King Charles I of Hungary, who had managed to
acquire the throne against his opponents, gave military
assistance to the town and the royal armies defeated him at
the Battle of Rozhanovce in 1312.
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History of Slovakia
The period of the oligarchs
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King Charles I strengthened the central power in the
kingdom following a 20-year long period of struggles against
his opponents and the oligarchs. He concluded
commercial agreements with Kings John of
Bohemia and Casimir III of Poland in 1335 which increased the
trade on the commercial routes leading from Košice
to Kraków and from Žilina to Brno.
In the first half of the 14th century, the population of the
regions of the former "forest counties" increased and their
territories formed new counties such as Orava, Liptov
and Turiec in the northern parts of present-day Slovakia. From
the 1320s, most of the lands of present-day Slovakia were
owned by the kings, but prelates and aristocratic families also
hold properties on the territory.
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History of Slovakia
The Late Midlle Age
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King Sigismund (1387–1437)
granted vast territories to his
followers during his reign.
Following the death of
King Albert (1439), civil war
broke out among the followers
of the claimants for the throne.
The Dowager
Queen Elisabeth hired Czech
mercenaries led by Jan
Jiskra who captured several
towns on the territory of
present-day Slovakia and
maintained most of them until
1462 when he surrendered to
King Matthias Corvinus.
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King Matthias Corvinus (1443 – 1490)
History of Slovakia
Habsburg and Ottoman administration
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The Ottoman Empire conquered the central part of the
former Kingdom of Hungary, and set up several Ottoman
provinces there (Budin Eyalet, Eğri Eyalet, Uyvar Eyalet).
Transylvania became an Ottoman protectorate vassal and a
base which gave birth to all the anti-Habsburg revolts led by
the nobility of the Kingdom of Hungary during the period
1604 to 1711.
The remaining part of the former Kingdom of Hungary, which
included much of present-day territory of Slovakia (except for
the southern central regions), northwestern present-day
Hungary, northern Croatia and present-day Burgenland,
resisted Ottoman conquest and subsequently became a
province of the Habsburg Monarchy.
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History of Slovakia
Habsburg and Ottoman administration
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History of Slovakia
Habsburg and Ottoman administration
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It remained to be known as
the Kingdom of Hungary, but
it is referred to by some
modern historians as the
"Royal Hungary". From
1526 to 1830, nineteen
Habsburg sovereigns went
through coronation
ceremonies as Kings and
Queens of the Kingdom of
Hungary in St. Martin's
Cathedral, especially Maria
Terézia (1740 – 1780).
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Queen Maria Terézia (1740 – 1780)
History of Slovakia
Habsburg and Ottoman administration
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Due to the Ottoman invasion, the territories that formerly
were administered by the Kingdom of Hungary became, for
almost two centuries, the principal battleground of
the Turkish wars, and the region paid dearly for the defense
of the Habsburg Monarchy (and, moreover, of the rest of
Europe) against Ottoman expansion.
The territory paid not only with the blood and the goods of
its population, but also by losing practically all of its natural
riches, especially gold and silver, which went to pay for the
costly and difficult combats of an endemic war. In the second
half of the 17th century, Ottoman authority was expanded to
eastern part of the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, where
a vassal Ottoman principality led by prince Imre Thököly was
established.
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History of Slovakia
Slovak National Movement
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Despite living under Hungarian, Habsburg and Ottoman
administration for several centuries, the Slovak people
succeeded in keeping their language and their
culture. Moreover, the Hungarian control remained strict after
1867 and the movement was constrained by the official policy
of magyarization.
The first codification of a Slovak literary language by Anton
Bernolák in the 1780s was based on the dialect from western
Slovakia. It was supported by mainly Roman
Catholic intellectuals, with the center in Trnava.The Lutheran
intellectuals continued to use a Slovakized form of the Czech
language, especially Ján Kollár and Pavel Jozef Šafárik.
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History of Slovakia
Slovak National Movement
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In the 1840s, the Protestants
split as Ľudovít
Štúr developed a literal
language based on the
dialect from central Slovakia.
His followers stressed the
separate identity of the
Slovak nation and
uniqueness of its language.
Štúr's version was finally
approved by both the
Catholics and the Lutherans
in 1847 and, after several
reforms, it remains the
official Slovak language.
Ľudovít Štúr
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History of Slovakia
Hungarian Revolution of 1848
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In the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, Slovak nationalist
leaders took the side of the Austrians in order to promote
their separation from the Kingdom of Hungary within the
Austrian monarchy.After the defeat of the Hungarian
Revolution, the Hungarian political elite was oppressed by the
Austrian authorities.
The Slovak political elite made use of the period of
neoabsolutism of the Vienna court and the weakness of the
traditional Hungarian elite to promote their national goals.
Sankt Martin became the foremost center of the Slovak
National Movement with foundation of the nationwide cultural
association Matica slovenská (1863), the Slovak National
Museum, and the Slovak National Party (1871).
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History of Slovakia
Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867
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The heyday of the movement came to the sudden end after 1867,
when the Habsburg domains in central Europe underwent
a constitutional transformation into the dual monarchy of Austria
Hungary as a result of the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of
1867.
The territory of present-day Slovakia was included into the
Hungarian part of dual Monarchy dominated by the Hungarian
political elite which distrusted the Slovak elite due to its Pan-Slavism,
separatism and its recent stand against theHungarian Revolution of
1848. Matica was accused of Pan-Slavic separatism and was dissolved
by the authorities in 1875 and other Slovak institutions (including
schools) shared the same fate. New signs of national and political life
appeared only at the very end of the 19th century.
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History of Slovakia
Czechoslovakia
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At the beginning of the 20th century,
growing democratization of political
and social life threatened to
overwhelm the monarchy.
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After the outbreak of World War
I the Slovak cause took firmer shape in
resistance and in determination to
leave the Dual Monarchy and to form
an independent republic with the
Czechs. Slovaks in the United States of
America, an especially numerous group,
formed a sizable organization. These,
and other organizations in Russia and
in neutral countries, backed the idea of
a Czecho-Slovak republic. Slovaks
strongly supported this move.
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The first president of Czechoslovakia –
Tomáš Garrique Masaryk
History of Slovakia
Czechoslovakia
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History of Slovakia
Czechoslovakia
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The most important Slovak
representative at this time, Milan
Rastislav Štefánik, a French
citizen of Slovak origin, served as a
French general and as leading
representative of the CzechoSlovak National Council based in
Paris. He made a decisive
contribution to the success of the
Czecho-Slovak cause. Political
representatives at home, including
representatives of all political
persuasions, after some hesitation,
gave their support to the activities
of Tomáš Garrique Masaryk,
Edvard Beneš and Štefánik.
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General Milan Rastislav Štefánik
History of Slovakia
Czechoslovakia
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During World War I (1914–1918) Czechs, Slovaks, and other
national groups of Austria-Hungary gained much support from
Czechs and Slovaks living abroad in campaigning for an
independent state.
Slovaks, whom the Czechs outnumbered in Czechoslovak
state, differed in many important ways from their Czech
neighbors. Slovakia had a more agrarian and less developed
economy than the Czech lands, and the majority of Slovaks
practised Catholicism while the Czechs had less likelihood of
adhering to established religions. The Slovak people had
generally less education and less experience with selfgovernment than the Czechs. These disparities, compounded
by centralized governmental control from Prague, produced
discontent among Slovaks with the structure of the new state.
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History of Slovakia
Czechoslovakia
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Although Czechoslovakia, alone among the only east-central
European countries, remained aparliamentary democracy from
1918 to 1938, it continued to face minority problems, the most
important of which concerned the country's large German
population. A significant part of the new Slovak political
establishment sought autonomy for Slovakia. The
movement toward autonomy built up gradually from the 1920s
until it culminated in independence in 1939.
In the period between the two world wars, the Czechoslovak
government attempted to industrialize Slovakia. These efforts
did not meet with success, partially due to the Great
Depression, the worldwide economic slump of the 1930s.
Slovak resentment over perceived economic and political
domination by the Czechs led to increasing dissatisfaction with
the republic and growing support for ideas of independence.
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History of Slovakia
Towards autonomy of Slovakia
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Many Slovaks joined with Father Andrej Hlinka and Jozef
Tiso in calls for equality between Czechs and Slovaks and for
greater autonomy for Slovakia.
In September 1938, France, Italy, United Kingdom and Nazi
Germany concluded the Munich Agreement, which forced
Czechoslovakia to cede the predominantly German region
known as theSudetenland to Germany. In November, by
the First Vienna Award, Italy and Germany compelled
Czechoslovakia (later Slovakia) to cede primarily Hungarianinhabited Southern Slovakia to Hungary.
On 14 March 1939, the Slovak Republic declared its
independence and became a nominally independent state in
Central Europe under Nazi German control of foreign policy
and, increasingly, also some aspects of domestic policy. Jozef
Tiso became Prime Minister and later President of the new
state.
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History of Slovakia
World War II
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Soon after independence, under
the authoritarian government of
Jozef Tiso, a series of measures
aimed against the 90,000 Jews in
the country were initiated.
The Hlinka Guard began to attack
Jews, and the "Jewish Code" was
passed in September 1941.
Resembling the Nuremberg Laws,
the Code required that Jews wear
a yellow armband, and were
banned from intermarriage and
many jobs. The Slovak Parliament
accepted a bill (May 1942)
unanimously deciding the
deportation of the Jews.
History of Slovakia
World War II
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Between March and October 1942, the state deported
approximately 57,000 Jews to the German occupied part of Poland,
where almost all of them were killed. On 29 August 1944, 60,000
Slovak troops and 18,000 partisans, organized by various
underground groups and the Czechoslovak government-in-exile,
rose up against the Nazis. The insurrection later became known as
the Slovak National Uprising.
Slovakia was devastated by the fierce German counter-offensive and
occupation, but the guerrilla warfare continued even after the end of
organized resistance. Although ultimately quelled by the German
forces, the uprising was an important historical reference point for
the Slovak people. It allowed them to end the war as a nation which
had contributed to the Allied victory. Later in 1944 the Soviet
attacks intensified. Hence the Red Army, helped by Romanian troops,
gradually routed out the German army from Slovak territory. On 4
April 1945, Soviet troops marched into the capital city of the Slovak
Republic, Bratislava.
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History of Slovakia
Czechoslovakia after World War II
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The Czechs and Slovaks held elections in 1946. In Slovakia, the
Democratic Party won the elections (62%), but the Czechoslovak
Communist Party won in the Czech part of the republic, thus
winning 38% of the total vote in Czechoslovakia, and eventually
seized power in February 1948, making the country effectively
a satellite state of the Soviet Union.
Strict Communist control characterized the next four decades,
interrupted only briefly in the so-called Prague Spring of 1968
after Alexander Dubček (a Slovak) became First Secretary of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
Dubček proposed political, social, and economic reforms in his effort
to make "socialism with a human face" a reality.
Concern among other Warsaw Pact governments that Dubček had
gone too far led to the invasion and occupation of Czechoslovakia
on 21 August 1968, by Soviet, Hungarian, Bulgarian, East German, and
Polish troops. Another Slovak, Gustáv Husák, replaced Dubček as
Communist Party leader in April 1969.
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History of Slovakia
Czechoslovakia after World War II
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The 1970s and 1980s became known as the period of
"normalization", in which the apologists for the 1968 Soviet
invasion prevented as best they could any opposition to their
conservative régime. Political, social, and economic life stagnated.
Because the reform movement had had its center in Prague, Slovakia
experienced "normalization" less harshly than the Czech lands. In
fact, the Slovak Republic saw comparatively high economic growth in
the 1970s and 1980s relative to the Czech Republic.
On 17 November 1989, a series of public protests known as the
"Velvet Revolution" began and led to the downfall of Communist
Party rule in Czechoslovakia. A transition government formed in
December 1989, and the first free elections in Czechoslovakia since
1948 took place in June 1990.
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History of Slovakia
Velvet Revolution (1989)
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Václav Havel at a peaceful protest during
the Velvet Revolution
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In 1992, negotiations on the
new federal constitution
deadlocked over the issue of
Slovak autonomy. In the
latter half of 1992,
agreement emerged to
dissolve Czechoslovakia
peacefully.
On 1 January 1993, the
Czech Republic and the
Slovak Republic each
peacefully proclaimed their
existence.
History of Slovakia
Independent Slovakia
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The first president of newly independent Slovakia was Michal
Kováč. The first prime minister, Vladimír Mečiar, had served as
the prime minister of the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia since
1992. Rudolf Schuster won election as president in 1999.
Vladimír Mečiar's semi-authoritarian government allegedly
breached democratic norms and the rule of law before its
replacement after the parliamentary elections of 1998 by a
coalition led by Mikuláš Dzurinda, followed by Róbert Fico in
2010. The third president and the fourth president are Ivan
Gašparovič (2004) and Andrej Kiska (2014).
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History of Slovakia
Thank you...
Obchodná akadémia, Veľká okružná 32, 011 57 Žilina