Slovenia/Slovenes: Development of a Nation
How Slovenia became Slovenia, and how the Slovenes became Slovene.

How Slovenes as a people, and the country of Slovenia as a nation-state, evolved and materialized into current form, in terms of ancestral bloodlines, the Slovene language, borders, culture, and even how they received their name.

Ancestral Background
Development of Language
Formation of Borders
Etymology (How Name Received)
Culture
Slovenia in 2008

Slovene Ancestral Background:

1. 3000 BC – People along the Baltic coast centered around modern Lithuania begin speaking the Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a branch off from Proto-Indo-European. This serves as the genesis of the Slavic and Baltic languages/peoples.
2. 1000 BC – A group splinters from the Proto-Balto-Slavic people, migrating southeast into modern Ukraine. This branch off group were the predecessors to Slavs, who would ultimately extend outward in all directions.
3. In the 6^th century, as Germanics migrated westward, a group of Slavs expanded southward to fill the void, inhabiting the northern border of the Byzantine Empire (continuation of the Roman Empire in the Greek world).
4. 558 – Avars, a central Asian Turkic people, driven west into Europe (through modern Ukraine) by Persians and more powerful Turkic empires, came into contact with the Byzantines. They were paid off by the Byzantines to settle the area north of the Danube River, and to subdue barbarian Germanics remaining in the territory. The Avars succeeded in driving the Germans out of area, including the Lombards, who were driven into Italy, where they become the ruling class. At this time, large groups of Slavic peoples were settled north of the Danube as well. The Avar raids forced them south into the Balkan peninsula, where they settled lands abandoned by Germanic peoples, including modern Romania and Hungary. Slavic peoples would inhabit the entire Balkan region north of the Greek-inhabited lands at the very southern portion of the peninsula by 700. The Illyrians would be driven into a remote mountainous region in modern Albania, becoming forefathers to modern Albanians, which would also include a Slavic component from intermixing.
5. In the 7^th century, Slavs in the eastern Alps (modern southern Austria/northern Slovenia) formed Principality of Carantania. They were absorbed into the Frankish Empire by 745. Frankish rule ended at the approximate modern southern Slovenian border, creating first division of those who became the ancestors of modern Slovenians and Croats.
6. 976 – Territories approximating modern Slovenia were conquered by the Holy Roman Empire (a decentralized German political entity consisting of a collection of loosely affiliated duchies and principalities), separating Slavs in modern Slovenia from those in modern Croatia. This served as the original basis for the Slovenian nation.
7. The Austrian Habsburg Dynasty absorbed modern Slovenia in the 14^th century, maintaining rule of this Slavic region through the end of WWI in 1918. The ruling class of this area was Germanized, becoming German speakers, in order to gain and maintain favor with their Austrian overlords. The peasants retained Slavic culture and the Slovenian language (a sub-branch of Slavic), while "Germanized" Slovenians would be phased out after the end of Austrian rule of the region.
8. Slovenia, a small Slavic territory, was added to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia after WWI, as part of the terms of defeat of the Austrians in this war. Slovenians within Yugoslavia maintained their distinct nationalistic identity until the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, when Slovenia fought and won its independence, becoming a sovereign nation-state.

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Development of Slovene Language:

1. 3000 BC – People along the Baltic coast centered around modern Lithuania begin speaking the Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a branch off from Proto-Indo-European. This serves as the genesis of the Slavic and Baltic languages/peoples.
2. 1000 BC – A group splinters from the Proto-Balto-Slavic people, migrating southeast into modern Ukraine. This branch off group were the predecessors to Slavs, who would ultimately extend outward in all directions. Their language evolves into the original Slav language, a sub-branch of Proto-Balto-Slavic, and the ancestral language to all Slav sub-branches, including Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian and others.
3. South Slav Language begins to separate from Western Slav Language in the 9^th to 10^th century, after Magyars settled into modern Hungary, separating the West Slavs (in modern Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia) from the South Slavs (territory roughly approximating the former Yugoslavia).
4. By the 10^th or 11^th century, Slovene branches off from South Slav, as Slavs in modern Slovenia were separated from Slavs to the south (Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia), as territories approximating modern Slovenia were absorbed into the German "Holy Roman Empire".
5. 1867 – When Slovenia became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, German was the language of the elite, influencing the Slovenian language, giving it a German augmentation.

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Formation of Slovenian Borders:

1. In the 6^th century, as Germanics migrated westward, a group of Slavs expanded southward to fill the void, inhabiting the northern border of the Byzantine Empire (continuation of the Roman Empire in the Greek world).
2. 558 – Avars, a central Asian Turkic people, driven west into Europe (through modern Ukraine) by Persians and more powerful Turkic empires, came into contact with the Byzantines. They were paid off by the Byzantines to settle the area north of the Danube River, and to subdue barbarian Germanics remaining in the territory. The Avars succeeded in driving the Germans out of area, including the Lombards, who were driven into Italy, where they become the ruling class. At this time, large groups of Slavic peoples were settled north of the Danube as well. The Avar raids forced them south into the Balkan peninsula, where they settled lands abandoned by Germanic peoples, including modern Romania and Hungary. Slavic peoples would inhabit the entire Balkan region north of the Greek-inhabited lands at the very southern portion of the peninsula by 700.
3. In the 7^th century, Slavs in the eastern Alps (modern southern Austria/northern Slovenia) formed Principality of Carantania. They were absorbed into the Frankish Empire by 745. Frankish rule ended at the approximate modern southern Slovenian border.
4. 976 – Territories approximating modern Slovenia were conquered by the Holy Roman Empire (a decentralized German political entity consisting of a collection of loosely affiliated duchies and principalities), separating Slavs in modern Slovenia from those in modern Croatia. This served as the original basis for the Slovenian nation.
5. The Austrian Habsburg Dynasty absorbed modern Slovenia in the 14^th century, maintaining rule of this Slavic region through the end of WWI in 1918.
6. Slovenia, a small Slavic territory, was added to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes after WWI, as part of the terms of defeat of the Austrians in this war. Slovenians within Yugoslavia maintained their distinct nationalistic identity until the break-up of Yugoslavia in 1991, when Slovenia fought and won its independence, becoming a sovereign nation-state.
7. In 1929, the name was changed to Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
8. Gains independence in Yugoslavia Wars as its own nation in 1991, following the "10-Day War in Slovenia" against Serbia (Serbia being the preeminent sectarian group in Yugoslavia). Minor border (non-violent) disputes with Croatia continue to this day.

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Etymology (How Name Received):

Slovenian Culture:

As part of the somewhat progressive Austrian Empire from the 14th century until the end of WWI in 1918, Slovenia was plugged into important cultural movements of Europe, to a much greater extent that many of its fellow South Slav relatives, many of whom were under Muslim Ottoman rule for centuries. The Ottoman Empire was generally as progressive and sophisticated as its European counterparts, but scholarship in its Christian territories suffered, as a somewhat neglected portion of the empire. Consequently, Slovenes contributed significantly to cultural advancements during the Renaissance and Enlightenment. The after effects are still evident, as Slovenia is generally more educated and advanced economically than most central and eastern European nations (fellow Balkan nations in particular).

Slovenia in 2008:

Economy: Advanced economy. Highest GDP per capita of Central Europe (comprised of new EU economies since Soviet collapse). Still a high degree of state control for a European country, as privatization process has slowed. Taxes are high, certain industries/companies protected from competitive market forces, and foreign investment is low.
Government: Democratic Republic
Religion: Roman Catholic 58%, Muslim 2.4%, None 37%. Survey: 37% believe in God, 46% in some other form of intelligent design, 16% atheist/agnostic.
Demographics: Slovene 83%.
Foreign Policy: NATO. Supportive of stabilizing Bosnia in Post-Yugo War era, normalizing relations with Serbia after end of Yugo Wars, where Slovenia gained independence. Currently engaged in minor border disputes with Croatia, and disputes over territorial waters in Bay of Piran (Adriatic Sea).
Population: 2,007,711 (2008)

 

Formation of Nations (All European Nations)

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