Slovenia - General introduction

A brief History

Most of the Slovenes (close to 2.000.000) live within the borders of the independent country of Slovenia, and there are substantial Slovene minorities in the border regions of Italy (100,000), Austria (50,000), Croatia (25,000), and Hungary (6,000). A considerable number of Slovene emigrants are also scattered across Europe and overseas (300,000).

The Slovene language belongs to the Southern Slavic language group; its formation began in the period when the Slavs settled in the Eastern Alps, the western Pannonian Plain, and the karst region above the Bay of Trieste in the 6th century. Around the year 1.000, the earliest manuscripts in Slovene was created, the Catholic liturgical texts known as the Freising Monuments, but the written language only began to develop with Protestant literature. In 1550, the Protestant reformer Primoz Trubar published the first Slovene book, a Catechism, and Jurij Dalmatin translated the Bible into Slovene in 1584. As the 16th century drew to a close, the Slovene language took its place among European languages with the multilingual dictionary compiled by Hieronymus Megusar.

In the beginning, Slovene ethnic territory was called “Sclavinia” and its inhabitants “Sclavi,” while after the Slovene population in Karantanija (present-days Carinthia) reached its greatest density they were also called “Karantanci.” Since the Slovene language was established by Slovene Protestant writers largely from the province of Carniola, from the 16th century on the Slovenes became increasingly identified with the Carniolans and Carniola. Slovene territory settled from the 6th century on reached its greatest extent in the 9th century, covering an area from the Bay of Trieste to the Danube River in the north and Lake Balaton in the east. Slovene ethnic territory subsequently shrank due to Germanization in the west and north and the arrival of the Hungarians on the Pannonian Plain. Slovene ethnic borders had stabilized by the 15th century and remained unchanged until the middle of the 19th century.

After the Lombards pushed into Italy in 568, Slavic tribes and the Avars began to colonize the western Pannonian Plain and the Eastern Alps. Their advance was checked at the eastern edge of the Friulian lowland by the “Lombard Limes,” and along the upper course of the Drava (Drau) River they fought for land against the Bavarians. Until the end of the 7th century, the Slavs in this region lived under Avar authority. From 623 to 658, the Slavic tribes between the upper Elbe River and the Karavanke mountains range were united in their first state under the leadership of King Samo. This state collapsed after his death, but Karantanija remained in the area of present-day Carinthia. In the middle of the 7th century, it developed into the first Slovene state under the rule of Prince Valuk with its centre at Krn Castle (and a famous "Knežji kamen") near Maria Saal. After becoming allied with the Bavarians to fight the Avars in the middle of the 8th century, the Slovenes had to recognize Frankish rule and adopt Christianity. In 803, Church territory was divided along the Drava (Drau) River between the Salzburg archdiocese and the Patriarchate of Aquileia, a division that remained until the 18th century. The Avar kingdom collapsed at the beginning of the 9th century, and the Slovenes from the Alps settled the lower Pannonian Plain as well as Istria. After the division of the Frankish state by the Treaty of Verdun in 843, all the Karantanija Slovenes were united under the Franks. Around 840, Prince Pribina acquired the territory as a feud from the Franks and established its center at Balaton Castle at the mouth of the Zala River on Lake Balaton.

Influenced by the Byzantine missionaries Cyril and Methodius, his successor Prince Kocelj (861-874) distanced himself from the Frankish bishops and established an independent principality. Following the peace between the Moravians and the Germans in 874, the last Slovene state formation lost its independence, and the worship of God in Latin and a foreign culture prevailed for the next millennium.

Toward the end of the 9th century, the so-called Kingdom of Karantanija arose as a special form of dukedom encompassing the territory from the source of the Drava River to the Danube and Kolpa rivers. During this period, the Hungarians began to advance into the Pannonian Plain, settling permanently in the region in 896 and severing contact between the western and southern Slavs. Following the defeat of the Hungarians at Lechfeld in 955, the Bavarians and Karantanija Slovenes settled eastwards to the central Raba, Sotla, Krka, and Kolpa rivers and permanently established the ethnic border between the Slovenes and the Croats and Hungarians.

At the end of the 10th century, Karantanija separated from Bavaria, but Greater Karantanija soon collapsed along with the imposition of an overall feudal framework on Slovene territory. From the 12th century on, the Slovenes developed within the historical provinces of Carinthia, Styria, Carniola, and later Gorizia. Slovene settlement in Austria waned as early as the 13th century: German colonization reached the Villach Basin in Carinthia, the Graz Basin in Styria, and the Sora River flood plain in Carniola, and Italian colonization dominated the Friulian lowlands.

With a new wave of German colonization from the north, the ethnic border was entrenched running across Hermagor in the Gail Valley, Mount Dobratsch, Villach, Maria Saal, the Saualpe mountain range, Mount Kozjak, Radgona/Bad Radkersburg, and the Kucnica River by the 15th century and remained until the middle of the 19th century.

From around 1500, the Hapsburgs prevailed on Slovene ethnic territory and ruled almost the entire territory until 1918. The provinces of Styria, Carniola, Carinthia, Istria, and later Gorizia were recognized together as “Inner Austria.” In the first half of the 15th century, the princes of Celje were greater than the Hapsburgs, but the Hapsburgs inherited their territory when the last of the Celje dynasty died. During the period of the ten-year war (1479-1489) between the Hapsburg Frederick I and Matthias Corvinus, the king of Hungary and Croatia, the larger part of the Slovene territory was in the hands of the Hungarians. Because of his successful defence against the Turks and for his support of the subject Slovene peasants, Matthias Corvinus became a Slovene national hero. After the fall of Bosnia in 1463, there had been numerous invasions by the Turks into Slovene territory during which they killed or abducted about one third of the Slovene population. Relations between the feudal lords and the peasants worsened during the great peasant uprisings against the feudal system (1478, 1515, 1573).

In the second half of the 16th century, the Reformation gave birth to the first Slovene book, public library, printing house, and boarding school. The Counter-Reformation began at end of the century, and Protestant preachers and scholars had to return to the Catholic faith or leave the country. All Protestant institutions were destroyed, in Ljubljana alone eleven wagonloads of Protestant books were burned, and more than 750 of the most affluent bourgeois and aristocrat families had to leave Slovene territory. The only remaining Protestants lived in the region between the Mura and Raba rivers. Following the success of the Counter-Reformation, the influence of the German countries waned, and Italian influences and Baroque art gained strength. Hapsburg territory flourished following the retreat of the Turks from the central Danube area at the end of the 17th century. Roads for commerce were built across Slovene territory from Vienna to Rijeka and Trieste, free navigation across the Adriatic was allowed in 1717, and Trieste was proclaimed a free port in 1769. After the reforms instituted by Maria Theresa, a Slovene national renaissance began. With a unified market and transport system, the Slovene regions became more closely linked. The Slovene language was used in schools, and Joseph II, who succeeded Maria Theresa, introduced compulsory education. Anton Tomaz Linhart, who scientifically established through his study of history that the peoples between the Drava River and the Adriatic comprised the Slovene nation, strove to establish schools and public libraries in Slovene territory as well as a University in Ljubljana. Finding grounds in the language of Dalmatin’s translation of the Bible, Jansenist scholars once again drew attention to the unity of the Slovene language.