Slovakia

Abstract

The first half of 2009 was marked in Slovakia by three important political events: the adoption of the euro on January 1, the presidential elections of March and April and the European elections in June. The beginning of the year was also connected to the sixteenth anniversary of the formation of an independent Slovak state. The history of the Slovaks, according to the official web page of the Slovak President, began in the 5th and 6th centuries when Slavic tribes settled in Central Europe. The first state formations reported on the territory of Slovakia were the kingdom of Samo and the Great Moravian Empire in the 8th and 9th centuries. After that, the Slovaks became part of the Hungarian kingdom and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy till 1918. The creation of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 helped Slovakia to develop economically and culturally. The attempt to form a first independent Slovakia in 1939 under the auspices of Nazi Germany was unfortunate and short-lived. After the end of World War II, Slovakia became a part of Czechoslovakia again, but the democratisation process was interrupted by the communist coup of 1948. The Prague Spring and the 1968 thaw of the Czechoslovak communist regime made Slovakia a republic within a federal Czechoslovak state. The fall of communism in 1989 gave Slovakia the chance of full national emancipation and eventually the formation of an independent state. In January 1993 after the velvet divorce from the Czechs, Slovakia was established as an independent state.