History of Slovakia
Obchodná akadémia, Veľká okružná 32, 011 57 Žilina Prehistory
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.
2 History of Slovakia Prehistory
Bronze Age was marked by the Čakany andVelatice 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.
3 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.
4 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. Monarch Rastislav I. (846 – 870)
5 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.
Saints Cyril and Methodius
6 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.
7 History of Slovakia The era of Great Moravia
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
8 History of Slovakia Mongol invasion (1241)
In 1241, the Mongols invaded and devastated the north- western 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 StephenV 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.
9 History of Slovakia The period of the oligarchs
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.
10 History of Slovakia The period of the oligarchs 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.
11 History of Slovakia The Late Midlle Age
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. King Matthias Corvinus (1443 – 1490)
12 History of Slovakia Habsburg and Ottoman administration
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.
13 History of Slovakia Habsburg and Ottoman administration
14 History of Slovakia Habsburg and Ottoman administration
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). Queen MariaTerézia (1740 – 1780)
15 History of Slovakia Habsburg and Ottoman administration 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.
16 History of Slovakia Slovak National Movement
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.
17 History of Slovakia Slovak National Movement 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
18 History of Slovakia Hungarian Revolution of 1848
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 theVienna 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).
19 History of Slovakia Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867
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.
20 History of Slovakia Czechoslovakia
At the beginning of the 20th century, growing democratization of political and social life threatened to overwhelm the monarchy. 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 The first president of Czechoslovakia – strongly supported this move. Tomáš Garrique Masaryk
21 History of Slovakia Czechoslovakia
22 History of Slovakia Czechoslovakia
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 Czecho- Slovak 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. General Milan Rastislav Štefánik
23 History of Slovakia Czechoslovakia 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 self- government than the Czechs. These disparities, compounded by centralized governmental control from Prague, produced discontent among Slovaks with the structure of the new state.
24 History of Slovakia Czechoslovakia 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.
25 History of Slovakia Towards autonomy of Slovakia 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 FirstVienna Award, Italy and Germany compelled Czechoslovakia (later Slovakia) to cede primarily Hungarian- inhabited 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.
26 History of Slovakia World War II
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.
27 History of Slovakia World War II 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.
28 History of Slovakia Czechoslovakia after World War II 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.
29 History of Slovakia Czechoslovakia after World War II
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.
30 History of Slovakia Velvet Revolution (1989)
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 Václav Havel at a peaceful protest during theVelvet Revolution Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic each peacefully proclaimed their existence.
31 History of Slovakia Independent Slovakia
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).
32 History of Slovakia Thank you...
Obchodná akadémia, Veľká okružná 32, 011 57 Žilina