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around 450 BC, Slovakia was settled by Celts, who
built powerful oppida in Bratislava and Liptov.
Silver coins with the names of Celtic kings represent
the first known use of writing in Slovakia. From
6 AD, the expanding Roman Empire established and
maintained a chain of outposts around the Danube.
The Kingdom of Vannius, a barbarian kingdom founded
by the Germanic tribe of Quadi, existed in western
and central Slovakia from 20 to 50 AD.
The Slavic population settled
in the territory of Slovakia in the 5th century.
Western Slovakia was the centre of Samo's Empire
in the 7th century. A proto-Slovak state, known
as the Principality of Nitra, arose in the 8th
century and its ruler Pribina had the first Christian
church in Slovakia consecrated by 828. Together
with neighboring Moravia, the principality formed
the core of the Great Moravian Empire from 833.
The high point of this (Proto-)Slovak empire came
with the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius
during the reign of Prince Rastislav and the territorial
expansion under King Svatopluk.
After the disintegration
of the Great Moravian Empire in the early 10th
century, Slovakia became part of the Kingdom of
Hungary in the 11th through to the 14th centuries.
Due to its high level of economic and cultural
development, Slovakia also retained its important
position in this new state. For almost two centuries,
it was ruled autonomously as the Principality
of Nitra and the Nitrian Frontier Duchy. Slovak
settlements extended to the northern half of present-day
Hungary, while the ethnic composition of present-day
Slovakia itself became more diverse due to the
arrival of the Germans (from the 13th century),
Vlachs (from the 14th century), and Hungarians
(from the late Middle Ages).
A huge population loss resulted
from the invasion of the Mongols in 1241 and the
subsequent famine. However, medieval Slovakia
was characterized rather by burgeoning towns,
construction of numerous stone castles, and the
development of art. In 1467, Matthias Corvinus
founded the first university in Bratislava, but
the institution was short-lived.
After the Ottoman Empire
started its expansion into present-day Hungary
in the early 16th century, the center of the Kingdom
of Hungary (under the name of Royal Hungary) shifted
towards Slovakia, and Bratislava (known as Pressburg/Pressporek/Posonium/Posony
at that time) became its capital in 1536. But
the Ottoman wars and frequent insurrections against
the Habsburg Monarchy also inflicted a great deal
of destruction, especially in rural areas. As
the Turks retreated from Hungary in the 18th century,
Slovakia's influence decreased.
During a revolution in 1848-49,
the Slovaks supported the Austrian Emperor, with
the ambition to secede from the Hungarian part
of the Austrian monarchy. But they failed in the
end to achieve this aim. During the period of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from 1867 to 1918,
the Slovaks experienced severe oppression in the
form of Magyarisation promoted by the Hungarian
government. For example, all three Slovak high
schools and Matica slovenská were closed
down in 1874-1875.
In 1918, Slovakia joined
the regions of Bohemia and neighbouring Moravia
to form Czechoslovakia. During the chaos following
the breakup of Austria-Hungary, a Slovak Soviet
Republic was created for a very brief period.
During the Interwar period, democratic and prosperous
Czechoslovakia was permanently threatened by revisionist
governments of Germany and Hungary, until it was
finally broken up by the Munich Agreement of 1938,
when Slovakia became a separate state that would
be tightly controlled by Nazi Germany. However,
the anti-Nazi resistance movement launched a fierce
armed insurrection, known as the Slovak National
Uprising, in 1944. After World War II, Czechoslovakia
was reassembled and came under the influence of
the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact from 1945
onward. In 1969, the state became a federation
of the Czech Socialist Republic and Slovak Socialist
Republic.
The end of communist rule
in Czechoslovakia in 1989, during the peaceful
Velvet Revolution, was followed once again by
the country's dissolution, this time into two
successor states. Slovakia and the Czech Republic
went their separate ways after January 1, 1993,
an event sometimes called the Velvet Divorce,
but Slovakia has remained close partners with
the Czech Republic, as well as with other Central
European countries within the Visegrad Group.
Slovakia became a member of the European Union
in May 2004.
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