Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to its west, Austria to its north, Hungary to its northeast, and Croatia to the its south and southeast; its southwestern boundary consists of a 46.6-kilometre (29.0 mi) coastline on the Adriatic Sea. The country is mostly mountainous and forested, covering 20,271 square kilometres (7,827 sq mi). Its population is approximately 2.1 million people. Slovene is the official language. Slovenia has a predominantly temperate continental climate, with the exception of the Slovene Littoral and the Julian Alps. Ljubljana, the capital and largest city, is geographically situated near the centre of the country. Other urban centers include Maribor, Ptuj, Kranj, Celje, Koper, Novo Mesto, Velenje, Nova Gorica, Sežana, Murska Sobota, and Jesenice.
The region has a long history of settlement. Proto-Illyrian tribes settled the area during the Early Bronze Age, stretching from present-day Albania to the city of Trieste, while the Slavic tribes (the ancestors of modern Slovenes) arrived in the 5th century AD. The present territory has been part of many different states, including the Roman Empire, the Western Roman Empire, the Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Republic of Venice, the Habsburg Empire, Napoleonic France, the Austrian Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was formed in December 1918; in 1929, the Kingdom became known as Yugoslavia. In 1941, during World War II, Slovenia's territory was partitioned by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Horthyist Hungary and the Independent State of Croatia. Following World War II, in 1945 Slovenia was established as one of six constituent republics that made up the Socialist Federation of Yugoslavia. Modern Slovenia emerged in June 1991, when the country declared independence from Yugoslavia. After the brief Ten-Day War it became a sovereign state.
Slovenia is a developed country, with a high-income economy characterized by a mixture of traditional industries, such as manufacturing and agriculture, and modern sectors, such as information technology and financial services. The economy is highly dependent on trade, with exports accounting for a significant portion of GDP. Slovenia is a member of the Council of Europe, the European Union, the United Nations, NATO, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and other associations in the global community.
The name Slovenia etymologically means 'land of the Slavs'. The origin of the name Slav itself remains uncertain. The suffix -en forms a demonym.
Prehistory to Slavic settlement
The area later known as Slovenia has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Evidence of human habitation dates to around 250,000 years ago. A pierced cave bear bone, dating from 43100 ± 700 BP, found in 1995 in Divje Babe cave near Cerkno, is considered to be a kind of flute, and possibly the oldest musical instrument discovered in the world. In the 1920s and 1930s, Cro-Magnon artifacts, such as pierced bones, bone points, and a needle were found by archaeologist Srečko Brodar in Potok Cave.
In 2002, remains of pile dwellings over 4,500 years old were discovered in Ljubljana Marsh, later protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Ljubljana Marshes Wooden Wheel, the world's oldest wooden wheel. It shows that wooden wheels appeared contemporaneously in Mesopotamia and Europe. In the transition period from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, the Urnfield culture flourished. Archaeological remains from the Hallstatt period, particularly in southeastern Slovenia, among them situlas in Novo Mesto, the "Town of Situlas".
During Roman times, the area of modern-day Slovenia was divided between Venetia et Histria (region X of Roman Italia in the classification of Augustus) and the imperial provinces Pannonia and Noricum. The Romans established strategic urban posts at Emona (Ljubljana), Poetovio (Ptuj), and Celeia (Celje); and constructing major trade and military roads to connect Italy with Pannonia. By the 4th and 5th centuries, the region became a geopolitical flashpoint. In 394, the historic Battle of the Frigidus took place in the Vipava Valley, where Eastern Emperor Theodosius I defeated German usurper Eugenius. As the western empire weakened in the 5th and 6th centuries, the area was subject to invasions by Huns and Germanic tribes during their incursions into Italy. To protect the Italian heartland the Romans built the Claustra Alpium Iuliarum (defensive line of towers and walls).
The Slavic tribes migrated to the Alpine area after the westward departure of the Lombards (the last Germanic tribe) in 568, and, under intense pressure from Avars, established a Slavic settlement in the Eastern Alps. From 623 to 624 or possibly 626 onwards, King Samo united the Alpine and Western Slavs against both the Avars and Germanic peoples and established what is referred to as Samo's Kingdom. After its disintegration following Samo's death around 658, the ancestors of the Slovenes formed independent geopolitical entities: duchy of Carantania, and Carniola, later duchy Carniola. While the Avars temporarily reclaimed surrounding territories, Frankish King Charlemagne decisively defeated them in 803, bringing the entire region under Western European influence.
The Carantanians, one of the ancestral groups of the modern Slovenes, particularly the Carinthian Slovenes, were the first Slavic people to accept Christianity. They were mostly Christianized by Irish missionaries, among them Modestus, known as the "Apostle of Carantanians". This process, together with the Christianization of the Bavarians, was later described in the memorandum known as the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum, which is thought to have overemphasized the role of the Church of Salzburg in the Christianization process over similar efforts of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.
In the mid-8th century, Carantania became a vassal duchy under the rule of the Bavarians, who began spreading Christianity. Three decades later, the Carantanians were incorporated, together with the Bavarians, into the Carolingian Empire. During the same period Carniola, too, came under the Franks, and was Christianized from Aquileia. Following the anti-Frankish rebellion of Liudewit at the beginning of the 9th century, the Franks removed the Carantanian princes, replacing them with their own border dukes. Consequently, the Frankish feudal system reached the Slovene territory.
After the victory of Emperor Otto I over the Magyars in 955, Slovene territory was divided into multiple border regions of the Holy Roman Empire. Carantania was elevated into the Duchy of Carinthia in 976.
By the 11th century, Germanization of the area that later became Lower Austria, effectively isolated Slovene-inhabited territory from the other western Slavs, speeding up the development of the Slavs of Carantania and of Carniola into an independent Carantanian/Carniolans/Slovene ethnic group. By the High Middle Ages, Carniola, Styria, Carinthia, Gorizia, Trieste, and Istria developed from the border regions and were incorporated into the medieval Holy Roman Empire. The consolidation and formation of these lands took place in the period between the 11th and 14th centuries, and were led by feudal families, such as the Dukes of Spanheim, the Counts of Gorizia, the Counts of Celje, and, finally, the House of Habsburg. In a parallel process, an intensive Germanization significantly diminished the extent of Slovene-speaking areas. By the 15th century, the Slovene ethnic territory was reduced.
In 1335, Henry of Gorizia, Duke of Carinthia, Landgrave of Carniola and Count of Tyrol, died without a male heir. His daughter Margaret was able to keep the County of Tyrol, while the Wittelsbach emperor Louis IV passed Carinthia and the Carniolan march to Habsburg Duke Albert II of Austria, whose mother, Elisabeth of Carinthia, was a sister of the late Duke Henry of Gorizia. Therefore, most of the territory that later became Slovenia emerged as a hereditary land of the Habsburg monarchy. As with the other component parts of the Habsburg monarchy, Carinthia and Carniola remained a semi-autonomous state with its own constitutional structure.