Why is slovenia called slovenia

Close notification Save my settings. Facts about Slovenia Meet the hospitable, sincere and working people in the heart of Europe. Open Close Close Open All offers. Dear Readers Our mission is to inspire your visit to Slovenia by sharing the excellent and unique experiences Slovenian tourism has to offer at www. Plan your trip Facts about Slovenia. In Numbers Population: 2. Take a tour through our green story. Take a tour through our green story Watch the interactive video and get to know some of the most interesting facts and green stories that reveal the sustainable path of Slovenia.

Slovenia celebrates its 30th anniversary. Explore the Beauties of Nature and Culture Travelling around Slovenia can be full of interesting experiences. Spas and health resorts Rest, relax and enjoy the soothing power of thermal waters and wellness treatments.

Spas and health resorts More. Active holidays Active adventures in nature. Active holidays More. Culture Slovenia boasts a rich cultural tradition. Culture More. Food and wine Love is experienced through the stomach.

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Cities and destinations More. Architectural sights Discover Slovenia's greatest architectural treasures. Architectural sights More. The Slovenes were a south Slavic group that settled in the region in the 6th century A.

During the 7th century, the Slavs established the state of Samu, which owed its allegiance to the Avars, who dominated the Hungarian plain until Charlemagne defeated them in the late 8th century.

When the Hungarians were defeated by the Turks in , Hungary accepted Austrian Hapsburg rule in order to escape Turkish domination; the Hapsburg monarchy was the first to include all of the Slovene regions. Thus, Slovenia and Croatia became part of the Austro-Hungarian kingdom when the dual monarchy was established in Like Croatia and unlike the other Balkan states, it is primarily Roman Catholic.

It formally joined with Montenegro, Serbia, and Croatia on Dec. The name was later changed to Yugoslavia in For the duration of the war many Slovenes fought a guerrilla war against the Nazis under the leadership of the Croatian-born Communist resistance leader, Marshal Tito. After the final defeat of the Axis powers in , Slovenia was again made into a republic of the newly established Communist nation of Yugoslavia.

In the s, Slovenia agitated for greater autonomy and occasionally threatened to secede. It introduced a multiparty system and in elected a non-Communist government. Slovenia declared its independence from Yugoslavia on June 25, The Serbian-dominated Yugoslavian army tried to keep Slovenia in line and some brief fighting took place, but the army then withdrew its forces.

Unlike Croatia and Bosnia, Slovenia was able to sever itself from Yugoslavia with relatively little violence. With recognition of its independence granted by the European Community in , the country began realigning its economy and society toward western Europe.

LDS had been in power for most of the previous 12 years. Slovenia changed its currency to the euro on Jan. In the second round of 's presidential elections in November, Danilo Trk, a leftist former diplomat who spent much of his career abroad, took Trk's breeze to victory suggested that Slovenians have grown weary of Jansa's conservative administration. From the cultural perspective, he is important because of the special attention he devoted to education, and especially because of the establishment of the St.

Hermagoras Society, which disseminated books among Slovenes and taught Slovenes to read. Precisely through his merits an exceptional reading culture developed and became a Slovene characteristic. At the end of the 19th century, political parties which were not differentiated regarding national goals also emerged among Slovenes. In any case, although it did not have any central national agency, the Slovene nation lived to see the end Austro-Hungary, as a nation with an exceptionally developed culture, especially regarding the area of language.

In the middle of the 19th century, many economic changes occurred in the ethnically Slovene territory. The old iron works fell into ruin because of a deficiency in coal mining. The construction of the Vienna — Trieste railroad suppressed the old rural transport system, while industrial development, especially competition of the more developed parts of Austria destroyed domestic industry. There was not enough of their own capital for their enterprises. The increasingly terrible crisis due to capitalism was resolved through an exceptionally heavy emigration to Western European countries and especially the USA, which took half of the growing population.

The First World War severely affected Slovenes; their western ethnic border became a battle front which drove 10, people from their homes. A disproportionate number of Slovenes also fell on other battlefields. At the end of the war, a peace movement was strengthened that demanded a reform of the monarchy.

Because there was no honest consideration of this, there came to be among Slovenes a movement toward Yugoslavia. At the end of the war this movement prevailed. A state of Slovenes, Croatians, and Serbs, as nations of the former monarchy, came into existence on October 29, and December 1 of that year it united with Serbia to form the kingdom of Serbs, Croatians and Slovenes, that is Yugoslavia.

The birth of Yugoslavia was a terrible tragedy for Slovenes —in accord with the decision of the London Pact a good third of their territory fell to Italy, the majority of Slovenian Corinthian did not want to join Yugoslavia, and some Slovenes remained in Hungary, while some Hungarians joined Yugoslavia. The expectation of an equitable social and especially international disposition of the new country's community was too high and too naive.

In the industrial sphere Slovenia profited some, but it absolutely lost in the agrarian and financial areas. The greatest achievement of Slovenes in Yugoslavia was undoubtedly the establishment of the Slovenian University in Ljubljana. The key issue is that the Slovenian national question regarding Yugoslavia was not resolved. The persecution of the Slovenian population under Italian Fascism and the rapid worsening of the situation of Carinthian Slovenes particularly affected Slovenes.

The worst was expected for the Slovenes who were under Hitler's Germany, since the Germans deported them - first the intellectuals and priests, and later also the peasants. There began a general resistance over almost the entire Slovenian territory. Because the communists, despite their modest numbers, but with outstanding organization, took the resistance movement exclusively into their own hands, seeing it as a possibility to simultaneously bring about a communist revolution, there arose a civil war on a greater part of the Slovenian territory, but not on all.

The anti-communist camp was, because of its weakness, forced to lean on the occupiers. All this developed into a horrible fratricidal battle so that Slovenes fought two wars simultaneously, internal and external. After the end of the Second World War, the communists immediately took power for which they had already been preparing during the same war.

The former political and military opposition were secretly killed because of the danger of counterrevolution, that is a potential threat to the communist regime. Their number is estimated to have been around 15,, and many thousands of Slovenes escaped to Austria and Italy.

A great many of these people, around 6,, found a new home in Argentina, where they developed an exceptionally rich cultural life. The greatest benefit of the Second World War for Slovenes was undoubtedly the union of a large part of their coastal countrymen, sadly not all - a part of them still remained in Italy. In the coastal cities there remained a relatively strong ethnic Italian minority, a big part of which authorities forcibly deported to Italy.

After about 10 years into its existence, the new Yugoslavia slowly began to relax in the internal political sphere, and after it also opened more externally. Throughout the entire time of its existence their main adversary was the Catholic Church, which undoubtedly suffered the most under communism.

But the two European nations have been plagued by confusion about their identities ever since their creation in the s. She was born in Sevnica, a Slovenian town the president's ex-wife , Ivana, was born in Czechoslovakia , but we'll get there. A curse on both nations, though, is that the wrong flag or the wrong anthem has appeared at many events. Last year, it was the Ice Hockey World Championships in Germany, where angry Slovaks were forced to drown out the Slovenian anthem with boos and whistles.

They were later told their anthem wouldn't be played due to "technical problems". And the confusion is nothing new. George W Bush famously once talked about his meeting with the Slovak foreign minister - a meeting which never happened. It was Anton Rop - from Slovenia. It's such a common occurrence that The New Yorker magazine reported on an event last year staged by the two London embassies , titled: "Distinguish Slovenia and Slovakia".

And one popular myth - perpetuated by the BBC's own QI quiz show - is that the Washington embassies meet up to swap their misaddressed mail once a month. In Washington DC, the Slovakian and Slovenian embassies meet once a month to exchange wrongly addressed mail. That is not quite true, but has its root in a comment to the New York Times from an anonymous Slovenian ambassador somewhere in Europe.