Slovenia methods eight,896 square kilometers (20,256 square kilometers), which is quite lower than Massachusetts otherwise half of the dimensions of Switzerland

Assessment

Regarding the two-thirds out-of Slovenia is situated in this new Alps, the remainder 3rd gradually melts away on Pannonian Plains. Correspondingly, the latest environment regarding small Slovenia was Mediterranean across the Adriatic Water, alpine from the mountains, and you may continental (Main Eu) in the plains. Bordering into the Italy into western, Austria toward northern, Hungary for the eastern, and you may Croatia to the south, Slovenia features an inhabitants regarding a little over a few mil. Within the 1999, about ninety-five % of populace is Slovenians. The most significant minority groups is actually Serbo-Croatians (dos per cent), Hungarians, Italians, and you may Gypsies. Roman Catholicism is the prevalent faith. This new banner consists of three equivalent horizontal stripes-throughout-regarding white, blue, and you will red which have a bluish and light (heavens and you may hill) coating out of possession regarding the upper leftover front side place. The main city was Ljubljana. The official words are Slovenian. Milan Kucan could have been the fresh new president given that 1990.

Slovenians, the new westernmost Slavic anyone, are geographically and you may culturally a part of Central Europe in lieu of of the Balkans. Beyond Slovenia, extreme Slovenian teams inhabit Italy and you will Austria, and you can a small community is obtainable for the Hungary. Slovenia is sometimes confused with Slavonia (a city inside Croatia) otherwise Slovakia. Because its versatility when you look at the 1991, intense travelers and other monetary relations that have West countries, and you will entryway given that a person in europe, the world has received far more interest.

History

Some historians believe that Slovenia is settled between 568 and you will 650 An effective.D. , this has been challenged because of the a team of writers whom dispute you to Slovenians is descendants out-of a historical West Slavic some body titled Veneti, Vendi or Wends-an individuals that precede the fresh new Romans. Most of the students concur that Slovenians settled during the introduce-day Slovenia by 650 A great.D. They enjoyed a quick versatility in the beginning of its identified background after they create a variety of member democracy, that has been well known to numerous leading data, including Thomas Jefferson; that it old Slovenian democracy is actually, centered on Harvard historian Crane Brinton in the Catholic Historical Review, a varying you to “ran on the making of contemporary Western institutions.”

Immediately after allying on their own to your Bavarians against the warlike Avars and you may as one conquering datingmentor.org/tr/talkwithstranger-inceleme/ her or him in 743, this new north Karantanian Slovenians missing their freedom to their Bavarian allies which would not hop out, and you may annually or one or two afterwards towards Franks just who slight brand new Bavarians. Pursuing the mysterious disappearance out of Prince Kocelj, this new Slovenians from Pannonia arrived beneath the laws away from good Frankish overlord from inside the 874. For more than a millennium the fresh Slovenian individuals were under the governmental government of its more powerful natives: brand new Bavarians, the latest Franks, the latest Holy Roman Kingdom, and also the Austrian Empire.

Brand new Christianization of your Slovenians was actually presented because of the missionaries from Aquileia (today when you look at the north Italy) and you may Salzburg (after that a keen ethnically blended region). Widely known missionaries was basically brand new Irish bishop St. Modestus on middle-8th 100 years which labored in Karantania, in addition to brothers St. Cyril and you may St. Methodius away from Salonica who spread this new Religious faith during the Slovenian Pannonia on the late 860s and you will 870s and situated a good seminary in order to teach Slovenian guys to your priesthood.

And ongoing Germanization challenges, and this began on Christianization procedure, the fresh Slovenians suffered almost a few ages off sporadic Turkish raids, specifically of 1408 so you’re able to 1578. An estimated a hundred,one hundred thousand Slovenians perished and you can an equal quantity of younger males and you will women were brought to Chicken in which men were trained as Turkish troops ( janizaries ) as well as the women had been set in harems. Inside 1593, although not, the fresh joined Slovenian and you may Croatian pushes decisively defeated new Turks inside the the fight out-of Sisak, Croatia. Because of the management away from Number Andrej Turja ski (Andreas from Turjak, Slovenia), the newest threat of subsequent Turkish raids towards Slovenian places is actually a lot more diminished. Slovenians was in fact and doing work in multiple uprisings contrary to the exploitative foreign nobility, the preferred from which is new mutual Slovenian-Croatian revolt out-of 1573 in which more than a third of one’s revolutionaries perished inside the battle, although of your survivors was basically tortured and carried out. Though Italian language-speaking Austrians and you may Germans wished to Germanize the newest Slovenians manageable to establish a secure belongings-link on Adriatic while the Mediterranean Oceans, the majority of Slovenians resisted bribes and you can threats, sometimes gaining genuine relatives and you can supporters, for this reason sustaining the ethnic and social term.