Slovenia

From Metapedia

Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovenian: Republika Slovenija), is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north. The capital of Slovenia is Ljubljana.

At various points in Slovenia's history, the country has been part of the Roman Empire, the Duchy of Carantania (only modern Slovenia's northern part), the Holy Roman Empire, Austria-Hungary, the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929) between the World Wars, and the SFR of Yugoslavia from 1945 until gaining independence in 1991. Slovenia is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe and NATO.

[edit] History

Slavic ancestors of the present-day Slovenians settled in the area in the sixth century. The Slavic Duchy of Carantania was formed in the seventh century. In 745, Carantania lost its independence, being largely subsumed into the Frankish empire. Many Slavs converted to Christianity.

The Freising manuscripts, the earliest surviving written documents in a Slovenian dialect and the first ever Slavic document in Latin script, were written around 1000. During the fourteenth century, most of Slovenia's regions passed into ownership of the Habsburgs whose lands later formed the Austrian Empire, with Slovenians inhabiting all or most of the provinces of Carniola, Gorizia and Gradisca and parts of the provinces of Istria, Carinthia, Styria, the region of Prekmurje that belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary and Venetian Slovenia which was part of the Austrian Empire between 1797-1805 and 1815-1866. Slovenians also inhabited most of the territory of the Imperial Free City of Trieste, although representing the minority of its population.

In 1848, a massive political and popular movement for a United Slovenia (Zedinjena Slovenija) emerged as part of the Spring of Nations movement within Austria.

During World War I several fronts were opened between the belligerent countries in Europe. After the Italian attack on Austro-Hungary the south-west front was opened, part of which was also The Isonzo Front. The name itself indicates that it ran along the river of Isonzo (Italian name for the Soča), with the greatest part on the present territory of Slovenia.

With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918, Slovenians initially formed part of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which shortly joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later renamed (1929) the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Following the re-establishment of Yugoslavia at the end of World War II, Slovenia became a part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, officially declared on 29 November 1945. Present-day Slovenia was formed on 25 June 1991 upon its independence from Yugoslavia, gained in the Ten-Day War. Slovenia joined NATO on 29 March 2004 and the European Union on 1 May 2004. Slovenia will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2008.