The land that is now Slovakia has been inhabited for 4,000 yrs – by Celts, Germanic tribes, Romans and Avars. In fact, Slovakia formed the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.

Slavic people arrived in the 5th-6th centuries. The first Slavic political entity here was the Great Moravian Empire, which also included parts of today’s Czech Republic. It flourished briefly in the 9th century. However, invading Magyars (ancestors of the Hungarians) conquered the Slavs and for the next 1,100 years, until the 20th century, Slovakia was part of the multi-national Hungarian Kingdom.

In the 13th century the Tatars invaded, decimating the population in central Slovakia. Hungarian kings provided trading privileges and other incentives to settlers from Germany, attracted by the region’s rich mines of gold, silver and other metals. This explains the very Germanic appearance of many towns, such as Levoca, Kezmarok, Bardejov and others.

The next wave of invaders came in the 16th century – the Ottoman Turks swept into Europe and occupied Buda. The Hungarians moved the seat of their government to Bratislava – known by different names throughout history – Pressburg, Pozsony and Posonium. . These were Bratislava’s golden days, and you see the evidence in such buildings as the Primate’s Palace and Palffy Palaces.

By this time, Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ruled by the Hapsburgs. That empire crumbled in World War I. In 1918, Czechoslovakia was created, with American President Woodrow Wilson as an important advocate of the new country. But soon after came the rise of the Nazis and World War II. In 1948, after the Allies defeated Germany, Czechoslovakia became part of the Soviet Bloc.

The leader of democratic, Western-style reforms, known as the Prague Spring of 1968, was 1st Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, Alexander Dubcek – a Slovak! The Soviets sent in tanks to quash the reform movement, and Czechoslovakia went back to Soviet-style government.

In 1989, the Soviet era ended with the "Velvet Revolution", and Czechoslovakia became a democratic state. The countries went their separate ways in 1993, in what is called the "Velvet Divorce", and Slovakia was finally independent. In mid-2004, Slovakia became a member of both the European Union and NATO.