Slovakia Brief History

The territory, originally inhabited by Celts, then by Germani, Quadi and Marcomanni, was invaded (III-IV century) by Gepids, Goths, Huns and finally by the Slovak tribe. In 833, after conquering the principality of Nitra, the Moravian prince Mojmìrcreated the empire of Great Moravia which, in addition to annexing Slovakia, also included Bohemia, Silesia and the southern part of Poland. After the Christianization carried out by the Byzantine patriarchs Cyril and Methodius, the Magyars they invaded the territory of Great Moravia and subdued the population (907). Following the invasion by the Turkish armies (1526), ​​the kingdom of Hungary, whose throne was assigned to Ferdinand I of Habsburg, was almost exclusively reduced to the territories of Slovakia: Bratislava became the capital and from Buda there both the archbishopric and the Hungarian Diet were transferred. At the end of the century. XVII the Kingdom of Hungary was territorially reconstituted in which Slovakia was integrated as a secondary province. Under the reign of Francis II (1792-1835) the movement of Magyar emancipation began to manifest itself, which claimed Hungarian as the official language of the kingdom, including Slovakia; at the same time there was a Slovak nationalistic process of the Risorgimento which centered on Bratislava. Confronted with the intransigence of the government, the major exponents of the Slovak resistance organized a clandestine struggle against oppression and supported the Austrian army committed to suppressing the riots that broke out in Hungary (1848-49). In 1867, Hungary, on the strength of the new constitution, resumed the repression that forced many Slovaks to emigrate to America. The end of the First World War, from which the empire had emerged defeated and dismembered, allowed the holding of a Slovak national congress (October 1918) which led to the formation of a joint Czech and Slovak state. Since then Slovakia has followed the fate of the the major exponents of the Slovak resistance organized a clandestine struggle against oppression and supported the Austrian army committed to suppressing the riots that broke out in Hungary (1848-49). In 1867, Hungary, on the strength of the new constitution, resumed the repression that forced many Slovaks to emigrate to America.

The end of the First World War, from which the empire had emerged defeated and dismembered, allowed the holding of a Slovak national congress (October 1918) which led to the formation of a joint Czech and Slovak state. Since then Slovakia has followed the fate of the the major exponents of the Slovak resistance organized a clandestine struggle against oppression and supported the Austrian army committed to suppressing the riots that broke out in Hungary (1848-49). In 1867, Hungary, on the strength of the new constitution, resumed the repression that forced many Slovaks to emigrate to America. The end of the First World War, from which the empire had emerged defeated and dismembered, allowed the holding of a Slovak national congress (October 1918) which led to the formation of a joint Czech and Slovak state. Since then Slovakia has followed the fate of the resumed the repression that forced many Slovaks to emigrate to America. The end of the First World War, from which the empire had emerged defeated and dismembered, allowed the holding of a Slovak national congress (October 1918) which led to the formation of a joint Czech and Slovak state. Since then Slovakia has followed the fate of the resumed the repression that forced many Slovaks to emigrate to America. The end of the First World War, from which the empire had emerged defeated and dismembered, allowed the holding of a Slovak national congress (October 1918) which led to the formation of a joint Czech and Slovak state. Since then Slovakia has followed the fate of the Czechoslovak Republic. In 1939, with the German occupation of Prague, Slovakia became a pro-Nazi satellite state but in 1945, after the liberation of the country by the Soviet army, the country returned to be part of the Czechoslovakian team. The end of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia it favored the emergence of autonomist tendencies which also pervaded the new democratic parties. A clear trend in this sense was already expressed in the elections of national parliaments, when the victory of the nationalist Movement for Democratic Slovakia (June 1992) threw a serious risk on the future of the federation. Having found the impossibility of a political composition, the leader of the majority civic-democratic party in Bohemia-Moravia, V. Klaus, and the Slovak nationalist, V. Mečiar, decided to form two distinct governments and start negotiations for the consensual separation of the two entities. This process led, on January 1, 1993, to the birth of two distinct state entities: Slovakia and the Czech Republic. But, from the very first steps of its existence, the new state had to deal with the lively Hungarian minority, dissatisfied with the nationalist drift and, in turn, an expression of autonomist tendencies.

In particular, the Hungarian community was trying to oppose the election of the president M. Kovác (February 1993), while the executive remained firmly in Mečiar’s hands. But the political and social problems of a difficult transition ended up causing a progressive fraying of the Movement for Democratic Slovakia, with numerous deputies leaving the party, while a similar phenomenon hit the government ally (Slovak National Party). With no majority left, pressed by the mobilization of the Hungarian minority, Mečiar was forced to resign (March 1994) and a new government was formed governed by nationalist defectors, Christian Democrats and former communists of the democratic left. The first elections of the new Republic, however, confirmed the electoral weight of the nationalists (November 1994) and Mečiar returned to the head of the government also supported by a group that had in the meantime split from the democratic left. In this way, a new phase was opened, characterized by the bitter confrontation between the Prime Minister and President Kovác, in favor of which Bratislava was covered by great demonstrations (May 1995). The problem of relations with the internal minority, which Mečiar thought he had solved by signing a good neighborly treaty with Hungary (March 1995), was also destined to get worse. The prevalence of more radical nationalist positions, such as the promotion of Slovak as a single state language or the limitations to the good neighborly treaty made by Parliament during ratification (March 1996), it determined new waves of protest from the Hungarian minority, to which were added the criticisms of the Council of Europe and the harsh stances of the Hungarian government. All these elements contributed to the instability of the political framework and the political elections of September 1998 marked the defeat of Mečiar, attributing the victory to the main opposition party, the Slovak Democratic Coalition of M. Dzurinda, which assumed the position of first minister.

According to usprivateschoolsfinder, the constitutional reform of 1999 introduced the direct election of the President of the Republic and subsequent elections recorded the victory of the opposition candidate, R. Schuster, over Mečiar himself. At the Nice Summit in 2000, Slovakia’s presence was confirmed in the second group of states that would join the European Union. It was precisely the pro-European policy adopted by Dzurinda that guaranteed him victory even in the legislative elections of September 2002, which in any case saw Mečiar’s Movement for Democratic Slovakia establishing itself as the first party. At the Copenhagen summit in December 2002, Slovakia concluded the negotiations for EU membership, which was approved in 2003 in a popular referendum. In March 2004 the country joined NATO and on 1 May it officially joined the European Union. A few weeks earlier, in the presidential elections, in a ballot between two members of the same party, I. Gašparovic had prevailed over Mečiar. At the beginning of 2006, Dzurinda’s center-right government was in crisis due to the exit of the Christian Democratic party and the Parliament called early legislative elections in June. In these the social democratic party SD-Smer emerged as the winner and subsequently the leader, Robert Fico, was appointed premier. The latter reached a coalition agreement with the SNS, a right-wing party, and the Hzds, a nationalist party. In 2009 the outgoing president Gašparovic was re-elected in the second round of the presidential elections, while in 2010, after the political elections won by the Social Democrats, center-right leader Iveta Radicová was tasked with forming a new government. In October 2011 the government fell on the vote of confidence for the approval of the European Stability Fund (EFSF) and the early elections of March 2012 saw the clear victory of the SD-Smer and Robert Fico became premier. In 2014 Andrej Kiska was elected president.

Slovakia Brief History