History of Slovenia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents 1 Ancient times 2 Karantania 3 German domination 4 Yugoslavia 5 The Independence of Slovenia 6 Modern Slovenia 7 See also 8 References

[edit] Ancient times

In ancient times Celts and Illyrians inhabited the territory of present-day Slovenia. The Roman Empire established its rule in the region in the 1st century, after 200 years of fighting with the local tribes. The most important ancient Roman cities in this area included: Celeia (now Celje), Emona (Ljubljana), Nauportus (Vrhnika), Poetovio (Ptuj). The modern country's territory was split among the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Italia, Noricum, and Pannonia.

[edit] Karantania

The Slavic Duchy of Karantania mainly occupied the territory of today's Austrian Carinthia and Slovenian Carinthia. It emerged from the ashes of the first Slavic union: Samo's Tribal Union.

Samo connected the Western and the Southern Slavic tribes. The union spanned from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea. Its purpose was to defend the Slavs from the Bavarians, the Langobards and the Avars. It collapsed due to the death of Samo (658) and the disconnected link between the Western and the Southern Slavs.

After the demise of Samo's Tribal Union, Karantanians established their duchy under the guidance of knez (lord) Valuk. In 745 Karantania joined the Frankish kingdom as an independent country with its own law (consuetudo Sclavorum) and perserved the inauguration of its knez (lord) in Slovenian language until the year 1414 on the stone of the knez (knežji kamen). To the year 1651 the oath ceremony of the lord took place at the Duke's Chair (Vojvodski stol) and then until the year 1728 in the county house in Klagenfurt (Celovec). The inauguration ritual is described in Jean Bodin's book Six livres de la République and it is known that Thomas Jefferson learnt about it from that book.

[edit] German domination

From as early as the 9th century, the lands inhabited by Karantanians, later Slovenes, fell under non-Karantanian ruler, including partial but co-operative control by Bavarian dukes and by the Republic of Venice.

The Slovenes living in the provinces of Carinthia, Carniola and Styria, lived under the rule of the Habsburg dynasty from the 14th century until 1918, with the exception of Napoleon's 4-year tutelage of parts of modern-day Slovenia and Croatia — the "Illyrian provinces".

While the elites of these regions mostly became Germanized, the peasants strongly resisted Germanizing influences and retained their unique Slavic language and culture. A major step towards the social and cultural emancipation of the Slovenians happened during the Reformation, when Primož Trubar published the first printed books in the Slovenian language (Catechismus and Abecedarium, 1550 in Tübingen, Germany). Protestant publishing in Slovene culminated by a full translation of the Bible (Jurij Dalmatin, Wittenberg 1584). Even though the majority of the population assumed Protestant teaching, the region became re-Catholicized under the rule of Archduke Ferdinand of Inner Austria (ruled 1590 - 1637), who later became Emperor and pursued similar policies in the other Habsburg territories. See also: Croatian and Slovenian peasant revolt of 1573.

In the 19th century intellectuals codified Slovene into a literary language, and Slovene nationalist movements began to take hold, initially demanding Slovene autonomy within the framework of the Habsburg Monarchy (see United Slovenia).

[edit] Yugoslavia

In 1918, after World War I, the Slovenes joined with other southern Slav peoples in forming the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (October 29, 1918) and then the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (December 1, 1918) under King Peter I of Serbia. Renamed in 1929, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia fell to the Axis powers during World War II, when Germany, Italy and Hungary each annexed parts of Slovenia, the largest part being Lower Styria, annexed to the "Ostmark" (Nazi German Austria).

Following Yugoslav partisan resistance to German, Hungarian, and Italian occupation and elimination of rival resistance groups that were forced into open collaboration with Italian and/or German forces while fighting communism, Josip Broz Tito established the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945, of which Slovenia formed a constituent republic.

Slovenia continued to form Yugoslavia's most prosperous and advanced republic throughout the communist era, at the forefront of Yugoslavia's unique version of communism.

[edit] The Independence of Slovenia

The independence of Slovenia came about as a result of the dissolution of Yugoslavia, and the rise of nationalisms. Crisis emerged in Yugoslavia with the weakening of the Communism in Eastern Europe towards the end of the Cold War, as symbolised by the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In Yugoslavia, the national Communist party, officially called Alliance or League of Communists, was losing its ideological potency.

At the same time, nationalist and separatist ideologies were on the rise in the late 1980s throughout Yugoslavia and indeed beyond. This was particularly noticeable in Serbia and Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to a lesser extent in Slovenia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Slobodan Milošević's rise to power in Serbia, and his rhetoric in favour of the unity of all Serbs, was met therefore with nationalist movements in other republics. This was especially seen at first in Croatia and Slovenia. These Republics began to seek greater autonomy within the Federation, including confederative status and even full independence. Nationalism also even grew within the still ruling League of Communists. So the weakening of the communist regime allowed nationalism to spread its political presence, even within the LCY. In January 1990, the League of Communists broke up on the lines of the individual Republics.

In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after adoption of amendments to the Serbian constitution. This allowed the Serbian republic's government to re-assert effective power over the autonomous provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina. The Serb government claimed that the previous situation was unjust in allowing these provinces to be involved in the rule of Serbia Central whilst Serbia Central had not control over what happened in these two provinces. Serbia, under president Slobodan Milošević, thus gained control over three out of eight votes in the Yugoslav presidency. With additional votes from Montenegro and, occasionally, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia was thus able to heavily influence decisions of the federal government. This situation led to objections in other republics and calls for reform of the Yugoslav Federation.

At the 14th Extraordinary Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, on 20 January 1990, the delegations of the republics could not agree on the main issues in the Yugoslav federation. As a result, the Slovenian and Croatian delegates left the Congress. The Slovenian delegation, headed by Milan Kučan demanded democratic changes and a looser federation, while the Serbian delegation, headed by Milošević, blanketly opposed this. This is considered the beginning of the end of Yugoslavia.

Slovenia and Croatia shortly after began the process towards independence. The first free elections were scheduled in Croatia and Slovenia. Defying the politicians in Belgrade, Slovenia embraced democracy and opened its society in the cultural, civic, and economic spheres to a degree almost unprecedented in the communist world.

On December 23, 1990, 88% of Slovenia's population voted for independence in a plebiscite, and on June 25, 1991, the Republic of Slovenia declared its independence.

A 10-day war with Yugoslavia followed (June 27, 1991 - July 6, 1991). The Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) forces withdrew after Slovenia demonstrated stiff resistance to Belgrade. The conflict resulted in relatively few casualties: 67 people were killed according to statistics compiled by the International Red Cross, of which most (39) were JNA soldiers.

[edit] Modern Slovenia

Slovenia joined the United Nations on May 22, 1992.

Historical ties to Western Europe made Slovenia a strong candidate for accession to the European Union. This occurred on May 1, 2004. The other Yugoslav Republics all had to remain outside the European Union. Just a few weeks earlier - in March 2004 - Slovenia had become a member of NATO.

The boundaries of Slovenia today are as they were as a Socialist Republic prior to independence, but a series of border disputes arose between Slovenia and its neighbour Croatia.

The Slovenian tolar became part of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 2004. Slovenia joins the European Monetary Union on the 1 January 2007. The head of the Slovenian Central Bank thus sits on the Council of the European Central Bank. Slovenia thus has a say in the setting of European monetary policy, while trade between Slovenia and the Eurozone benefits from currency stability.

[edit] See also

• Timeline of Slovenian history.
• Habsburg Monarchy
• History of the Balkans
• History of Austria, History of Italy, History of Hungary, History of Croatia, History of Yugoslavia
• Divje Babe
• Ten-Day War

[edit] References

• Janko Prunk, A Brief History of Slovenia, Založba Grad, Ljubljana 1996