Slovak Republic - History
The name Slovakia only came up in the 19th century, with the emergence of Slovak national identity. Before, the region was called Upper Hungary. During much of the 20th Century the Slovaks, who are one of the most gifted peoples in all Europe, were politically united with the Czechs. The Czechs, or Bohemians, have a distinct history of their own. The chief reason why the Czechs are known and why the Slovaks have remained largely unknown is found in the fact that the oppressors of the Czechs were the more easy-going Austrians, while the Slovaks were subject to the tyranny of the Magyars [Hungarians], who for generations denied the Slovaks even the shadowy privileges which the Vienna Austrians accorded their subject nationalities.
Historians usually trace Slovakia's roots to the Great Moravian Empire, founded in the early ninth century. The territory of Great Moravia included all of present western and central Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and parts of neighboring Poland, Hungary, and Germany. Saints Cyril and Methodius, known for the creation of a Cyrillic alphabet, came to Great Moravia as missionaries upon the invitation of the king in the early 10th century to spread Christianity. The empire collapsed after only 80 years as a result of the political intrigues and external pressures from invading forces. Slovaks then became part of the Hungarian Kingdom, where they remained for the next 1,000 years. Bratislava was the Hungarian capital for nearly two and a half centuries after the Turks occupied the territory of present-day Hungary in the early 16th century.
Revolutions inspired by nationalism swept through Central Europe in 1848, which led to the codification of the Slovak language by Ludovit Stur in 1846 and later the formation of the dual Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1867. As language and education policies favoring the use of Hungarian, which came to be known as Magyarization, grew stricter, Slovak nationalism grew stronger. Slovak intellectuals cultivated cultural ties with the Czechs, who were themselves ruled by the Austrians. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian State following World War I, the concept of a single Czecho-Slovakian unified state came to fruition. Tomas Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Agreement, declaring the intent of the Czechs and Slovaks to found a new state in May 1918, and a year later became Czechoslovakia's first president.
After the 1938 Munich agreement forced Czechoslovakia to cede territory to Germany, Slovakia declared its autonomy. Slovakia became a Nazi puppet state led by the Catholic priest Jozef Tiso. During this period, approximately 70,000 Slovak Jews were sent to concentration camps to perish in the Holocaust. Roma, while persecuted under the Tiso regime, were not deported by the Slovak Hlinka guards. An undetermined number of Roma were deported from the southern part of Slovakia when it was occupied by Hungary in 1944. The Slovak National Uprising, a brief insurrection against the fascist powers in August-September 1944, was put down by Nazi forces.
At the conclusion of World War II, the reunified Czechoslovakia was considered within the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union. The communist party, supported by the U.S.S.R., took over political power in February 1948 and began to centralize power. The next four decades were characterized by strict communist rule, interrupted only briefly during the Prague Spring of 1968. The Slovak-born Communist leader Alexander Dubcek presided over a thawing of communist power and 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 Dubcek had gone too far prompted an invasion and Dubcek's removal from his position.
The 1970s were characterized by the development of a dissident movement. On January 1, 1977 more than 250 human rights activists signed a manifesto called Charter 77, which criticized the government for failing to meet its human rights obligation. The so-called "Candle Demonstration," which took place in Bratislava in March 1988, was the first mass demonstration of the 1980s against the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. The demonstration, organized by Roman Catholic groups asking for religious freedom in Czechoslovakia, was brutally suppressed by the police.
On November 17, 1989, a series of public protests, known as the "Velvet Revolution," began and led to the downfall of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Dissident groups, such as Charter 77 in the Czech Republic and Public Against Violence in Slovakia, united to form a transitional government and assist with the first democratic elections since 1948. Several new parties emerged to fill the political spectrum.
Elections in 1992 indirectly decided about the separation of the Czechoslovak Federation. In July 1992 Slovak National Council adopted a declaration on the sovereignty of the Slovak Republic and in September they approved the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. On 1st of January 1993 the Slovak Republic came into the world family of independent states.
In contrast to the Czech Republic, which kept the most institutions of the former federation, Slovakia had to build most of the institutions from the beginning. The government and the entire country had indeed very serious economic problems. Gradually, however, they managed to stop the uneven development. On 29th of March 2004 Slovakia become a member of the North Atlantic Pact and on 1st of May 2004 a member of the European Union. At present time, the Slovak Republic started the path of economic reforms and progressive changes, which resulted in improving the growth of living standards.
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