History of Slovakia

The history of Slovakia spans from prehistoric settlements to the modern Slovak Republic. Situated in Central Europe, the region’s earliest evidence of human habitation dates to the Palaeolithic era, with significant Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures. By the Iron Age, Celtic tribes like the Boii established settlements, later displaced by Germanic and Slavic migrations. The Slavs arrived in the 5th–6th centuries, forming the basis of Slavic states like Great Moravia (9th century), which adopted Christianity through Cyrillo-Methodian missionary activity.

Following Great Moravia’s collapse, the territory became part of the Kingdom of Hungary, enduring Mongol invasions and later Ottoman Wars that split Hungary into three parts. Much of present-day territory of Slovakia resisted Ottoman conquest and became a province of the Habsburg monarchy. The 19th century saw the rise of Slovak nationalism, fueled by figures like Ľudovít Štúr, who codified modern Slovak, and movements advocating autonomy within Austria-Hungary.

Slovakia joined the Czechs to form Czechoslovakia after World War I, though tensions between Czechs and Slovaks persisted. During World War II, Slovakia became a Nazi-aligned puppet state under Jozef Tiso. Post-war, it was reintegrated into Czechoslovakia, which fell under Communist rule in 1948. The Prague Spring of 1968 briefly liberalized politics until the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, Slovakia peacefully transitioned to democracy, culminating in its independence on 1 January 1993. Since then, it has developed a modern market economy and joined NATO and the European Union in 2004.