According to estatelearning, Slovenia is located in Central Europe, just east of Italy and north of Croatia. It is a small nation with a total area of 20,273 square kilometers and an estimated population of 2 million people. The capital city is Ljubljana which lies in the center of the country. The terrain consists mostly of low-lying mountains with some rolling hills and plains in the northern region. The climate here is continental with temperatures ranging from -2 to 28 degrees Celsius throughout most of the year.
Prehistory
Both cave dwellings and open settlements from the older Stone Age (Middle and Late Paleolithic) have been investigated, but as for much of Central Europe, Mesolithic is almost unknown. The older part of Neolithic (4000 BC) can only be found in western Slovenia, where pottery and bones of domesticated animals were found in a number of caves.
Only during the copper age (2000s BC) did Slovenia become part of the cultural development of Central Europe; from this time several pile buildings have been found. The Bronze Age is poorly known in Slovenia, the early Iron Age (600s BC) on the other hand, well, among other things. through surveys of large burial mounds, often with hundreds of graves.
- Countryaah: Check to see the location of Slovenia on the world map. Also covers major mountains, rivers and lakes in Slovenia.
History
Antiquity
When the Romans came into contact with the area during the last two centuries BC it was inhabited by Celtic and Illyrian tribes. From the reign of Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD), its western part belonged to the tenth region of Italy, its northern province of Noricum, its central and eastern parts of the province of Pannonia. The most important city was 15 AD built Emona, on the site of the present Ljubljana. From the second half of the 20th century AD attracted various Germanic people through Slovenia.
THE MIDDLE AGES
Even during the migration period, Slovenia was crossed by several armies and tribes, none of whom permanently occupied the country. After the Langobards broke up on their way to Italy 568, Slovenia was ruled by the Avars, and slaves settled in the country. In the 600s, these developed their own principality, the Quarantine, which joined Samo’s short-lived kingdom. To see more information other than history, please visit Abbreviationfinder to learn more about climate, population, government, and economy for the country of Slovenia.
From the 740s Slovenia was increasingly linked to Bavaria, where Christian mission was based. Slovenia therefore became part of the Carolingian Empire and was divided into various land counties in the 9th century. As a result, medieval Slovenia underwent several German-Roman divisions, mainly Krain, Carinthia and Styria. The northern Slovenes became German-speaking, and German nobility also dominated in the south.
In the middle of the 13th century, Slovenia was temporarily incorporated into the Bohemian realm, but then the region was dominated by the Habsburg house and the tombs of Celje, whose empire was taken over by Habsburg after 1456. The noble empire led to peasant uprisings during the 1400s and 1500s.
From the 16th century to the present
With the support of the local nobility, the Reformation was carried out in the 16th century, and the Bible was published in Slovene in 1584. The harsh reformation of the 17th century was also used by the Slovenian language, which is why its position was strengthened. However, the power of the nobility was undermined when the leaders of the Reformation left the country.
During the 18th century, reforms for the peasantry were implemented through restrictions on feudal rights. Emerging Slovenian nationalism was marked by Marko Pohlin’s Slovenian grammar (1768) and Anton Linhart’s Slovenian history (1789–91). During the Napoleonic Wars, when the territories came to belong to the so-called Illyrian provinces with Ljubljana (Laibach) as the capital, the feudal empire was abolished and Slovenian introduced as administrative language. In 1797 the priest Valentin Vodnik (1758-1819) in Ljubljana published the first newspaper in Slovenian.
During the 19th century, among other things in the Illyrian movement, the demands for autonomy and joint rule of the Slovenian territories increased. The Slovenian population was majority in Krain (93 percent) and Görz (Gorica, Gorizia) (62 percent), but in minority in Trieste (30 percent), Styria (29 percent), Carinthia (21 percent) and Istria (14 percent)). From the 1890s, a modern party system developed with a conservative Catholic party, a liberal party and a social democratic one. General voting rights for men were introduced in 1907. During the First World War, some Slovenians pleaded for autonomy within Austria-Hungary. However, in the fall of the double monarchy and in the face of a threatening Italian occupation, Slovenia joined the newly formed Yugoslav (South Slavic) state of Serbers in 1918, Croatian and Slovenian kingdom (from 1929 Kingdom of Yugoslavia) under the Serbian monarch. By the 1919 peace, Italy gained Istria and most of the Gorizia area. The disputed parts of Carinthia were brought to Austria after a referendum in 1920. See alsoYugoslavia.
Independent Slovenia
The collapse of the Soviet system in 1989-90 led to a wave of democratization in all areas of Slovenia, and as the first of the six sub-republics, Slovenia took the initiative to break out of Yugoslavia. An important reason for this was Serbia’s attempt, under its new President Slobodan Milošević, to further centralize the political power in Yugoslavia to Belgrade. Compared to other sub-republics, Slovenia had an advantage through its relatively high ethnic homogeneity and industrial development. A referendum was held in December 1990, and in June 1991, the country, together with Croatia, declared independence. The Yugoslav central government’s attempt to halt the development by force failed in Slovenia, and already after about ten days of fighting, the troops withdrew (see furtherthe Yugoslav war). Only in early 1992, however, Slovenia’s independence was recognized by the outside world.
Following the elections held the same year, a coalition government was formed under the leadership of Liberal Democrats Janez Drnovšek (1950–2008) and at the same time the former Communist leader Milan Kučan, now a party-independent candidate, was elected president. Slovenia’s domestic political development has subsequently been comparatively calm with different coalitions in government. Following the parliamentary elections in September 2008, a left-center government took office under the Social Democrats (SD) leader Borut Pahor. The government of Pahor had to deal with an increasingly critical situation for the Slovenian economy. The country was relatively hard hit by the international financial crisis; In 2008, Slovenia’s GDP fell by 8 percent and in 2008–10 government debt increased by 10 percent. The Government’s measures to prevent a continued negative economic spiral included proposals for raising retirement age. However, the savings measures were not supported by the National Assembly, which caused a government crisis and forced an early parliamentary election in December 2011, in which the SD declined sharply. The party lost almost 2/3 of its seats in the National Assembly.
Largest party in the 2011 election was the newly formed Positive Slovenia, LZJ-PS, led by Zoran Janković (born 1953). Janković, however, failed to gather support in the National Assembly for a government, instead the mission of forming government went to Janez Janša (born 1958) of the Liberal Conservative Slovenian Democratic Party, SDS. In February 2012, Janša became prime minister and head of a center-right government consisting of all parties in the National Assembly except LZJ-PS and SD. Since Janša and Janković were both accused of corruption in February 2013, Parliament gave Alenka Bratušek (born 1970), temporary party leader for Positive Slovenia, commissioned to form government. After losing a vote on Janković’s party leadership role in April 2014, new elections were held in July of that year. The largest party was the newly formed Miro Cerars party, SMC, by the law professor Miro Cerar (born 1963).
One problem that remains to be solved is that of the several thousand people, mainly from other parts of the former Yugoslavia, who resided in Slovenia at independence but never applied for Slovenian citizenship and were thus deleted from all registers; they lack all civil rights today.
Slovenia was the richest sub-republic in former Yugoslavia but, after a decline in the 1990s in connection with the transition to market economy and export losses during the Yugoslav wars, belonged to the countries of eastern and central Europe with the highest standard of living.
Foreign policy oriented the country towards independence from the West and became a member of both the EU and NATO in the spring of 2004. Slovenia has since participated in NATO-led operations, including in the Balkans and Afghanistan. During the first half of 2008, Slovenia was the country of the EU Presidency and a year earlier, the currency had been switched to the euro. Slovenia has also acted as a bridge builder between the EU and the Balkan Peninsula countries, but at the same time could, for a year, stop neighboring Croatia’s negotiations for EU membership because of an inflamed border conflict between the countries.
Political turbulence
Parliament passed a law on same-sex marriage in 2015, but it sparked strong protests among conservative politicians who, with the support of the Catholic Church, collected signatures demanding a referendum. The Constitutional Court gave the go-ahead to allow voters to decide on the issue and in December the proposal was voted down.
In the context of the so-called refugee crisis, people on their way to Northern Europe began arriving in Slovenia after Hungary closed its borders. Slovenia introduced border controls but made it increasingly difficult to manage the influx. In October, a special law was passed that gave the military the right to help at the borders. Some days, more than 10,000 people came across the border. Slovenia called for help from the rest of the EU and received EUR 10 million in support in November. In 2017, the Slovenian Parliament approved a law that allows it to close the border with Croatia, in order to stop migrants from entering the country. Neighboring countries Hungary and Austria also have similar laws.
Parliament voted in 2016 to dismiss Defense Minister Janko Veber (born 1960) since he ordered the Army Security Service to analyze the consequences of the planned sale of the state telecommunications operator.
In January 2016, London-based magazine The Banker Dušan Mramor was named Europe’s best finance minister for his way of successfully stabilizing the economy and leading Slovenia from a deep weakness. However, Mramor’s strict fiscal policy created contradictions within the government coalition. In July he resigned, citing personal reasons. The news of Mramor’s departure came the days after a police raid against the central bank, which he strongly condemned. According to the police, the raid was carried out for investigative purposes, as individual employees of the bank were suspected of irregularities in connection with measures to save the banking sector in 2013. The European Central Bank (ECB) objected to the raid and said that secretly stamped ECB material had been seized. In September, Parliament approved Mateja Vraničar Erman as Mramor’s replacement.
An amendment to the Constitution established that serviceable drinking water is a fundamental right for all citizens and not something that can be commercialized. Slovenia became the first country in the EU to include the right to water in its constitution.
In 2017, Slovenian incumbent Borut Pahor won the second round of the presidential election. 54-year-old Pahor won with 53 percent of the vote against challenger Marjan Šarec, who got 47 percent. Pahor has become known as the “king of Instagram” because of his frequent use of social media on the internet.
Extravasation for the country’s National Assembly was held in early June after Prime Minister Miro Cerar chose in March to resign. This resigned because the country’s highest court annulled a referendum that had approved a rail project worth around EUR 1 billion.
In the election, xenophobic Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) won, which got about 25 percent of the vote. The turnout was just over 51 percent. After the election, President Borut Pahor asked the leader of the Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS), Janez Jansa, to form government. When this failed, Marjan Šarec from LMS was appointed prime minister instead. Šarec, which has excluded cooperation with xenophobic SDS, took office in September with a government consisting of five left and center parties, including LMS, SD and SMC.