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The Slovakian history has be dominated
by wars for power and control of the people of this land. Slovakia has been
inhabited since the early paleolithic period with evidence of tribes as the
predominate social organization through the 5th
century. By 1200 BC
the Lusitian culture was spread through Slovakia. Some scholars think that this
culture was protoslavic and the region of northern Slovakia and southern Poland
was the ancient homeland of Slavs.
By 400 BC
the
Celtic tribes occupied the southwestern part of Slovakia and ruled the
territory more than three centuries. They brought new production techniques to
metallurgy, pottery, textiles and agriculture.
By 9 BC the Celtic dominance began to give way to Germanic
and Roman expansion, establishing the Roman provinces Panonia and Noricum and the Germanic tribes Marcomans and
Quads. Three centuries later, Roman
legions under command of the Emperor Tiberius attacked the territory of
Slovakia and began to organize all of the Slovak territory. The period between
the Roman defeat of the Germanic tribes and approximately 406 AD saw
intermittent peace and war. At the end of this period the majority of the Quad
population began to withdraw from Slovakia towards southern Germany. The
territory of Slovakia became the temporary homeland of numerous Germanic tribes
escaping the Huns who dominated the Danube Basin in the first half of 5th
century.
By 470 AD the last Quads left Slovakia, creating a vacuum
where Slavic tribes consolidated their power . Then in 568 AD the nomadic Avars
who were of Turkish origin invaded the
Danube Basin and became the dominant power in Central Europe until 795 AD when
Charlemagne's over throw of Muslim rule in the end of 8th century. Then the
local Slavic tribes began to centralize power and began the long process of
state building. By 822 AD the Moravian prince, Mojmir I, unified the
principalities of Moravia and Nitravia to one state named Greater Moravia.
By 880 AD the Pope, Johanus VIII, published
the Industriae Tuae in which he establish the independent ecclesiastical
province in Greater Moravia and recognized Slavic as the forth ecclesiastical
language beside Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Then in 907 AD in the battle
near Bratislava, Magyar armies defeated the Bavarian military and the Moravian
principality was split between Magyars, Bavarian's and Czechs. Then in 955 AD
the Magyar military forces were defeated and forced to accept Christianity and
settle down. However, these battles for control of the Slavic lands continued
through 1848 when Slovaks revolted, declaring themselves a nation and founded
the Slovak Fellowship with the aim of independence. But, by 1880 the bulk emigration
of Slovaks to the United States began. Within 30 years almost one third of
Slovaks fled national and social oppression.
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Finally, 1000 years after the
Battle of Bratislava, living under the freedom of America, this large
population of Slavs founded the Slovak League in America and started the
campaign for national freedom of Slovaks in their homeland. Then fours year,
after the Great War of 1914, the Pittsburgh Agreement created the Czech-Slovak
state which was to guarantee home rule for Slovaks after creation of a
Slovakian state. However, the Czechs
broke their word and refused to accept the new state of Slovakia as equal
partner and two years later adopted a Constitution declaring Czech-Slovakia as
a national “Czechoslovak” state. This
domination of Slavs by others continued through WWII and the following Russian
domination through Communism. Finally, on January 1, 1993 the Slovak's realized
their dream and a Slovak Republic became an independent and sovereign state.
