1.
Glossary of vexillology
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Flag terminology is the nomenclature, or system of terms, used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display. Badge A coat of arms or simple heraldic symbol, canton Any quarter of a flag, but commonly means the upper hoist quarter, such as the field of stars in the flag of the United States or the Union Jack in the Australian Flag. Charge A figure or symbol appearing in the field of a flag, emblem A device often used as a charge on a flag. It may be heraldic in origin or modern, for example the maple leaf on the Canadian Flag, field The background of a flag, the color behind the charges. Fimbriation A narrow edging or border, often in white or gold, for example the white and gold lines of the South African Flag. Fly The half or edge of a flag farthest away from the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the horizontal length of a flag. Hoist The half or edge of a flag nearest to the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the vertical width of a flag. Length The span of a flag along the side at right angles to the flagpole, width The span of a flag down the side parallel to the flagpole. Flags often inherit traits seen in traditional European heraldry designs and as a result patterns often share names, banderole or bannerol A small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight, or a long narrow flag flying from the mast-head of a ship. Banner Generically, a synonym for a flag of any kind, in heraldry, a flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms, but usually in a square or rectangular shape, also known as a banner of arms. Burgee A distinguishing flag of a recreational boating organisation, Civil ensign, merchant flag or merchant ensign A version of the national flag flown by civil ships to denote nationality. Civil flag A version of the flag flown by civilians on non-government installations or craft. Colour or color The flag of a military unit, courtesy flag or courtesy ensign A flag flown by a visiting ship in foreign waters as a token of respect. Ensign The flag of a ship or military unit, may also be used generically as a synonym for a flag of any kind. Fanion A small flag used by the French military, gonfalon, gonfanon or gonfalone A type of heraldic flag suspended from a crossbar. Guidon A small flag borne by a military unit, in Scots heraldry, a smaller version of the Standard. Pennon or pennant A flag larger at the hoist than at the fly, pipe banner A decorative flag for the Scottish Highland bagpipes. Prayer flag A type of flag found strung along mountain ridges and peaks in the Himalayas, rank flag or distinguishing flag The flag flown by a superior naval officer on his flagship or headquarters
2.
National flag
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A national flag is a flag that symbolizes a country. The flag is flown by the government, but usually can also be flown by citizens of the country, historically, flags originate as military standards, used as field signs. The practice of flying flags indicating the country of origin outside of the context of warfare became common with the flag, introduced during the age of sail. Most countries of Europe adopted a flag in the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The specifications of the flag of Denmark were codified in 1748, the flag of Switzerland was introduced in 1889, also based on medieval war flags. The Netherlands introduced two national flags in 1813, the Ottoman flag was adopted in 1844. Other non-European powers followed the trend in the late 19th century, the flag of Japan being introduced in 1870, the Flag of the United States is not defined in the constitution but rather in a separate Flag Resolution passed in 1777. Minor design changes of national flags are passed on a legislative or executive level. A change in national flag is due to a change of regime. In such cases, the origins of the national flag. In such cases national flags acquire the status of a political symbol, the flag of Germany, for instance, was a tricolour of black-white-red under the German Empire, inherited from the North German Confederation. The Weimar Republic that followed adopted a black-red-gold tricolour, nazi Germany went back to black-white-red in 1933, and black-red-gold was reinstituted by the two successor states, West Germany and East Germany following World War II. Similarly the flag of Libya introduced with the creation of the Kingdom of Libya in 1951 was abandoned in 1969 with the coup led by Muammar Gaddafi. It was used again by National Transitional Council and by anti-Gaddafi forces during the Libyan Civil War in 2011 and officially adopted by the Libyan interim Constitutional Declaration. There are three types of national flag for use on land, and three for use at sea, though many countries use identical designs for several of these types of flag. On land, there is a distinction between civil flags, state flags, and war or military flags, state flags are those used officially by government agencies, whereas civil flags may be flown by anyone regardless of whether they are linked to government. War flags are used by organisations such as Armies, Marine Corps. In practice, many countries have identical flags for these three purposes, national flag is used as a vexillological term to refer to such a three-purpose flag
3.
Tricolour (flag)
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A tricolour or tricolor is a type of flag or banner design with a triband design which originated in the 16th century as a symbol of republicanism, liberty or indeed revolution. One of the most famous tricolour, known as Le Tricolore, is the flag of France adopted in the French Revolution. The green-white-red tricolour remained a symbol of republicanism throughout the 19th century and was adopted as national flag by a number of following the Revolutions of 1848. It was also adopted by the Kingdom of Sardinia and this flag was a symbol of opposition against the German Kleinstaaterei and the desire for German Unification. It was at first illegal in the German Confederation, but was adopted as the flag at the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848/9. The flag of Belgium was introduced in a context, in 1831. The first national flag of the New World inspired by this symbolism was the flag of Mexico, the Pan-Arab colors adopted in Arab nationalism 1916 are a comparable concept, even though they combine four, not three, colours. The Indian independence movement in 1931 also adopted a tricolour in the symbolism of national unification and republican self-rule. In 1999, a red, green, and blue tricolour was proposed as the Flag of Mars, the design symbolizes liberty, and also the terraforming of Mars by humanity from a red planet to a green one, and eventually an Earth-like blue one. List of countries by style of national flags Fin flash on military aircraft, sometimes in a tricolor form Triband
4.
Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
5.
Pan-Slavic colors
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The Pan-Slavic colors, red, blue and white, were defined by the Prague Slavic Congress,1848, based on the flag of Russia, which was introduced in the late 17th century. The tricolor flag of Russia was, itself, inspired by the flag of the Netherlands, historically, many Slavic nations and states have used the flags and other national symbols with those three colors. Beside Russia, countries that use or have used flags with Pan-Slavic colors include Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia. Yugoslavia, both the Kingdom and the Republic was a union of several Slavic nations, and therefore not only sported the pan-Slavic colors, Serbia continue to use the flag with Pan-Slavic colors. The flag of Slovenia was introduced in 1848, when group of Slovenian intellectuals in Vienna, Slovakia also has the same tricolor flag design as Slovenia and Russia. The first Slovak flag was introduced in 1848. Nordic Cross flag Pan-Arab colors Pan-African colours Pan-Slavism
6.
Slavs
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Slavs are the largest Indo-European ethno-linguistic group in Europe. They are native to Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, Northeastern Europe, North Asia, Slavs speak Slavic languages of the Balto-Slavic language group. From the early 6th century they spread to inhabit most of Central, states with Slavic languages comprise over 50% of the territory of Europe, therefore it is the largest ethno-linguistic group in Europe by land area. Present-day Slavic people are classified into West Slavs, East Slavs, there are an estimated 360 million Slavs worldwide. The Slavic autonym is reconstructed in Proto-Slavic as *Slověninъ, plural *Slověne, the oldest documents written in Old Church Slavonic and dating from the 9th century attest the autonym as Slověne. The word slovo and the related slava and slukh originate from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱlew-, cognate with Ancient Greek κλῆς, whence comes the name Pericles, Latin clueo, some other theories have limited support. The English term slave eventually derives from the ethnonym Slav, Slavs were captured and enslaved by the Muslims of Spain during the ninth century AD. The Slavs under name of the Antes and the Sclaveni make their first appearance in Byzantine records in the early 6th century. Procopius wrote in 545 that the Sclaveni and the Antae actually had a name in the remote past. He described them as barbarians, who lived under democracy, and that believe in one god. They lived in scattered housing, and constantly changed settlement, regarding warfare, they were mainly foot soldiers with small shields and battleaxes, lightly clothed, some entering battle naked with only their genitals covered. And they live a life, giving no heed to bodily comforts. Jordanes described the Sclaveni having swamps and forests for their cities, another 6th-century source refers to them living among nearly impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes. Menander Protector mentions a Daurentius that slew an Avar envoy of Khagan Bayan I. The Avars asked the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars, he declined and is reported as saying, Others do not conquer our land. The relationship between the Slavs and a called the Veneti east of the River Vistula in the Roman period is uncertain. The name may refer both to Balts and Slavs, perhaps some Slavs migrated with the movement of the Vandals to Iberia and north Africa. Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in great numbers, the Byzantine records note that grass would not regrow in places where the Slavs had marched through, so great were their numbers
7.
Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire
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A set of revolutions took place in the Austrian Empire from March 1848 to November 1849. The nationalist picture was complicated by the simultaneous events in the German states. Besides these nationalists, liberal and even socialist currents resisted the Empires longstanding conservatism, the events of 1848 were the product of mounting social and political tensions after the Congress of Vienna of 1815. Conflicts between debtors and creditors in agricultural production as well as land use rights in parts of Hungary led to conflicts that occasionally erupted into violence. Conflict over organized religion was pervasive in pre-1848 Europe, tension came both from within Catholicism and between members of different confessions. These conflicts were often mixed with conflict with the state, important for the revolutionaries were state conflicts including the armed forces and collection of taxes. Draft commissions led to brawls between soldiers and civilians, all of this further agitated the peasantry, who resented their remaining feudal obligations. Despite lack of freedom of the press and association, there was a flourishing liberal German culture among students and they published pamphlets and newspapers discussing education and language, a need for basic liberal reforms was assumed. These middle class liberals largely understood and accepted that labor is not efficient. The question was of how to institute such reforms, notable liberal clubs of the time in Vienna included the Legal-Political Reading Club and Concordia Society. They had merely advocated relaxed censorship, freedom of religion, economic freedoms, and, above all and they were outright opposed to popular sovereignty and the universal franchise. To their left was a radicalized, impoverished intelligentsia, educational opportunities in 1840s Austria had far outstripped employment opportunities for the educated. In 1846 there had been an uprising of Polish nobility in Austrian Galicia, the economic crisis of 1845-47 was marked by recession and food shortages throughout the continent. At the end of February 1848, demonstrations broke out in Paris, louis-Philippe of France abdicated the throne, prompting similar revolts throughout the continent. With no forces rallying to Metternichs defense, nor word from Ferdinand I of Austria to the contrary, metternich fled to London, and Ferdinand appointed new, nominally liberal, ministers. The established order collapsed rapidly because of the weakness of the Austrian armies, Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky was unable to keep his soldiers fighting Venetian and Milanese insurgents in Lombardy-Venetia, and had to, instead, order the remaining troops to evacuate. Social and political conflict as well as inter and intra confessional hostility momentarily subsided as much of the continent rejoiced in the liberal victories, mass political organizations and public participation in government became widespread. However, liberal ministers were unable to establish central authority, the victory of the party of movement was looked at as an opportunity for lower classes to renew old conflicts with greater anger and energy
8.
Czechoslovakia
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From 1939 to 1945, following its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, the state did not de facto exist but its government-in-exile continued to operate. From 1948 to 1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet bloc with a command economy and its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949, and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was forcibly ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by several other Warsaw Pact countries. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Form of state 1918–1938, A democratic republic, 1938–1939, After annexation of Sudetenland by Nazi Germany in 1938, the region gradually turned into a state with loosened connections among the Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian parts. A large strip of southern Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine was annexed by Hungary, 1939–1945, The region was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic. A government-in-exile continued to exist in London, supported by the United Kingdom, United States and its Allies, after the German invasion of Russia, Czechoslovakia adhered to the Declaration by United Nations and was a founding member of the United Nations. 1946–1948, The country was governed by a government with communist ministers, including the prime minister. Carpathian Ruthenia was ceded to the Soviet Union, 1948–1989, The country became a socialist state under Soviet domination with a centrally planned economy. In 1960, the country became a socialist republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It was a state of the Soviet Union. 1989–1990, The federal republic consisted of the Czech Socialist Republic, 1990–1992, Following the Velvet Revolution, the state was renamed the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, consisting of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Neighbours Austria 1918–1938, 1945–1992 Germany Hungary Poland Romania 1918–1938 Soviet Union 1945–1991 Ukraine 1991–1992 Topography The country was of irregular terrain. The western area was part of the north-central European uplands, the eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the Carpathian Mountains and lands of the Danube River basin. Climate The weather is mild winters and mild summers, influenced by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, Baltic Sea from the north, and Mediterranean Sea from the south. The area was long a part of the Austro Hungarian Empire until the Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, the new state was founded by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as its first president from 14 November 1918 to 14 December 1935. He was succeeded by his ally, Edvard Beneš. The roots of Czech nationalism go back to the 19th century, nationalism became a mass movement in the last half of the 19th century
9.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
10.
Flag of Russia
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The flag of Russia is a tricolor flag consisting of three equal horizontal fields, white on the top, blue in the middle and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant ships and it remained in use until the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic in 1917. During the Soviet Unions existence, it used the flag with the red field with the hammer and sickle. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the tricolor was re-introduced as the flag of the Russian Federation in 1991 in the 1,2 ratio. The Tsarist tricolor was fully restored in 1993 after the crisis as the current flag. Two accounts of the flags origin connect it to the used by the Dutch Republic. The earliest mention of the flag occurs during the reign of Alexis I, in 1668, and is related to the construction of the first Russian naval ship, the frigate Oryol. A different account traces the origins of the Russian flag to tsar Peter the Greats visits to Arkhangelsk in 1693 and 1694, Peter was keenly interested in shipbuilding in the European style, different from the barges ordinarily used in Russia at the time. In 1693, Peter had ordered a Dutch-built frigate from Amsterdam, in 1694 when it arrived, the Dutch red-white-and-blue banner flew from its stern. Peter decided to model Russias naval flag after this banner by changing the sequence of colors, the Russian tricolour flag was adopted as a merchant flag at rivers in 1705. Two other Slavic countries, Slovakia and Slovenia, have similar to the Russian one. On 7 May 1883, the Russian flag was authorized to be used on land, and it became an official National flag before the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896. From that time period, a 1,2 red flag featuring the abbreviated name RSFSR was used, during the Second World War the white-blue-red tricolor has been used by the collaborationist troops of Andrey Vlasov, who was allied with Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union. It was not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the tricolor was brought back as the flag of the new Russian Federation. The modern era flag underwent a change in 1993 and has been official since 2000. A variant of the flag was authorized for use by Tsar Nicholas II before World War I. Or was never made the state flag. All of the Soviet Republics flags were created by introducing a small, for Russia, the change was an introduction of the left-hand blue band
11.
Flag of Slovenia
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The civil and state ensign for ships has the same design as the national flag, but a different shape. The naval jack uses colours of the coat of arms, a white, blue, despite opposition from the local Ethnic Germans it was subsequently recognized by the Austrian Government as the official flag of Carniola. In addition, Austrian authorities saw all tricolours as basically nationalist and potentially revolutionary symbols, in the interwar period, it was also used by the Slovenes of the Julian March that were annexed to Italy, where it was prohibited and persecuted by the fascist regime. In 1945 a red star was placed on the flag of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Following Slovenian independence from Yugoslavia, the red star was removed, the flag was officially adopted on June 27,1991, following a long and controversial dispute about the coat of arms of the new Republic. In 2003, a campaign started to partially or completely alter the flag in order to enhance Slovenias international recognition, an eleven-striped design won the official contest. Public opinion seems to be strongly against changing the flag at the moment, Slovenia at Flags of the World Slovenian flag proposals Britannica. com
12.
Constitution of Slovakia
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The Constitution of Slovakia, officially the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, is the current constitution of Slovakia. It was passed by the Slovak National Council on 1 September 1992 and it went to effect on 1 October 1992. The passing of constitution is now remembered as Constitution Day on 1 September, the Slovak Constitution was prepared hastily in 1992, with many formulations taken directly from the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920 and being marked by a compromise with socialism. According to Slovak lawyer Ján Drgonec many parts of the constitution are hard if not impossible to execute. The text of the Constitution is divided into the preamble and 9 parts and it has been amended several times. Amendment from 14 January 1999, President was no longer voted by the Parliament and it also changes Presidents powers and his relations between him and other institutions. Amendment from 23 February 2001, It is the greatest amendment so far, Amendment from 4 March 2004, Minor change to the constitution, from article 78, paragraph 2, where the last sentence was omitted. Amendment from 14 May 2004, Amendment was in relation to the preparation to the European Parliament election and it added sentence about inconsistency of being an MP in the Parliament and in the European Parliament. It also extended rights of the Constitutional Court of Slovakia for ruling whether the election to the EP is constitutional, Amendment from 27 September 2005, Expanded the authority of the Supreme Audit Office to include oversight of the finances of regional and local governments. In disputed cases, it granted the Constitutional Court the authority to decide whether the Supreme Audit Office has the right of oversight in that case. Amendment from 21 October 2014, Banned the export of drinking and mineral waters in pipelines, the ban excludes bottled water and water for personal use
13.
Coat of arms of Slovakia
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The coat of arms of Slovakia consists of a red shield, in early Gothic style, charged with a silver double cross standing on the middle peak of a dark blue mountain consisting of three peaks. Extremities of the cross are amplified, and its ends are concaved, the double cross is a symbol of its Christian faith and the hills represent three symbolic mountain ranges, Tatra, Fatra, and Mátra. The two-barred cross in the Slovak coat of arms originated in the Byzantine Empire in the 9th century, unlike the Christian cross, the symbolism and meaning of the double cross is not well understood. One interpretation is that the first horizontal line symbolized the secular power, another that the first cross represents the death and the second cross the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Byzantine Empire of the 9th century, the cross was a political symbol used by Byzantine clerks. The double cross arrived in the territory of current-day Slovakia probably no later than during the 9th century mission of Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia. Though used frequently in Great Moravia, it was not a symbol at that time. By means of Zwentibold, this symbol got to Lorraine and is called the cross of Lorraine there, the double cross symbol appeared again in rudimentary features on the first coins that Stephen I, the first king of the Kingdom of Hungary, had minted at an unknown place. Before he became king in 1000, he was the Grand Prince of the Principality of Hungary and was living there with his Bavarian wife Gisella, the frequent opinion that the double cross was a cross that the Pope granted to Stephen I. around 1000 is still disputed. The opinion arose only in the 15th century based on a legend from the 12th century, which in addition only says that Stephen received an apostolic cross. The direct predecessor of the current coat of arms of Slovakia can be found in the coat of arms used by Béla, the prince of the Nitrian frontier principality and later King of Hungary. Béla was a member of the house of Árpáds and was named after the Prague bishop Adalbert, who had baptized King Stephen, Béla conducted his own internal and international policy in his Nitrian frontier principality. The Byzantine emperor, involved in a quarrel with the Hungarian king, furthermore, Béla had own coins minted in 1050 in Nitra, the capital of his principality – coins which deliberately differed from those of the Hungarian king and which bore the double cross symbol. The appearance of the cross in coins before Béla III is highly disputed. According to recent view It is a simple misinterpretation of two normal crosses. It was only 100 years later, around 1189, that the cross is known to have been used again – it was used during a crusade of the Hungarian king Béla III as his royal symbol. The three hills seen in the modern Slovak and Hungarian coats of arms were not present in the standard. This time, the symbol was used as a coat of arms
14.
Slovak Soviet Republic
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The Slovak Soviet Republic comprised a very short-lived Communist state in southeast Slovakia from 16 June to 7 July 1919 with its capital city in Prešov. It was headed by the Czech journalist Antonín Janoušek, in 1918, Czechoslovak troops began occupying northern Hungary in accordance with the territorial promises that the Triple Entente made to Czechoslovak politicians during World War I. However, Slovakia was occupied by Hungarian troops from the Hungarian Soviet Republic, historian Peter A. Toma argues that Slovakia lacked the prerequisites for a serious revolutionary movement. What did happen was orchestrated by Hungarians living there, most Hungarians soon turned against the radicalism of the movement. A Slovakian Social Democrats led the opposition to the Bolsheviks, the puppet state that briefly existed closely imitated the parent Hungarian Soviet Republic and made little provision for distinctly Slovakian needs and characteristics. Following a brief war between Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Romania, Slovakia was incorporated into Czechoslovakia, Hungarian Soviet Republic Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic German Revolution of 1918–1919 Spartacist uprising Toma, Peter A. The Slovak Soviet Republic of 1919 American Slavic & East European Review 17#2 pp 203-215
15.
Second Czechoslovak Republic
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The Second Czechoslovak Republic, sometimes also called the Czech-Slovak Republic, existed for 169 days, between 30 September 1938 and 15 March 1939. It was composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and the regions of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. In addition, the government allowed the banks to effectively come under German-Czechoslovak control. The Czechoslovak Republic was dissolved when Germany invaded it on 15 March 1939, the Czechoslovak Republic had become a shell of its former self and was now a greatly weakened state. The Munich Agreement had resulted in Bohemia and Moravia losing about 38% of their area to Germany. Lacking its natural frontier and having lost its costly system of border fortification, hungary received 11,882 square kilometres in southern Slovakia and southern Ruthenia, according to a 1941 census, about 86. 5% of the population in this territory was Hungarian. Poland acquired the town of Těšín with the area and two minor border areas in northern Slovakia, more precisely in the regions Spiš and Orava. Moreover, the Czechoslovak government had problems in taking care of the 115,000 Czech and 30,000 German refugees, the political system of the country was also in chaos. Following the resignation of Edvard Beneš on October 5, General Jan Syrový had acted as President until Emil Hácha was chosen as President on November 30,1938. Hácha was chosen because of his Catholicism and conservatism and because of not being involved in any government that led to the partition of the country and he appointed Rudolf Beran, the leader of the Agrarian Party since 1933, as prime minister on December 1,1938. He was, unlike most Agrarians, rather rightist, and sceptical of liberalism, the Communist Party was dissolved, although its members were allowed to remain in Parliament. Tough censorship was introduced, and an Enabling Act was also introduced, the greatly weakened Czechoslovak Republic was forced to grant major concessions to the non-Czechs. The Czechoslovak government accepted the Žilina Agreement stipulating the formation of an autonomous Slovak government with all Slovak parties except the Social Democrat on 6 October 1938, Jozef Tiso was nominated as its head. The only common ministries that remained were those of National Defence, Foreign Affairs, as part of the deal, the country officially adopted the short-form name of Czecho-Slovakia. Similarly, the two factions in Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the Russophiles and Ukrainophiles, agreed on the establishment of an autonomous government. On 17 October, Ferdinand Ďurčanský, Franz Karmasin and Alexander Mach were received by Adolf Hitler, on 1 January 1939 the Slovak State Assembly was opened. On 18 January the first elections of the Slovak Assembly took place, disputes continued and, on 1 March 1939, the Ministerial Committee of the Czecho-Slovak government met, where the question of Slovak departure from the state was in focus. There were some disagreement between Tiso and other Slovak politicians, and Karol Sidor returned to Bratislava to discuss the matter with Tiso, on March 6 the Slovak government proclaimed its loyalty to the Czecho-Slovak Republic and its wish to remain a part of the state
16.
Slovak Socialist Republic
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From 1969 to 1990, the Slovak Socialist Republic was the official name of that part of Czechoslovakia that is Slovakia today. The name was used from 1 January 1969 until March 1990, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968 liberalisation reforms were halted and then reversed. The only exception was the federalization of the country, new national parliaments were created and the old parliament of Czechoslovakia was renamed the Federal Assembly and was divided in two chambers, the House of the People and the House of Nations. Very complicated rules of voting were put in effect, federalization was notional – all the real power was kept by the Communist Party. The increased number of parliaments conveniently provided more positions for party members though their role was just symbolic. After the fall of socialism in Czechoslovakia, the word socialist was dropped in the names of the two republics, i. e. the Slovak Socialist Republic was renamed Slovak Republic. The complicated system of voting was kept after the fall of socialism. Later, in 1993, the Slovak Republic became an independent state, slovaks in Czechoslovakia Constitutional Law of Federation History of Czechoslovakia Czech Socialist Republic Czech and Slovak Federative Republic Slovak Republic Constitutional Law of Federation
17.
Flag of Czechoslovakia
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The national flag of the Czech Republic is the same as the flag of the former Czechoslovakia. Upon the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the Czech Republic kept the Czechoslovak flag while Slovakia adopted its own flag, the first flag of Czechoslovakia was based on the flag of Bohemia, and was white over red. This was almost identical to the flag of Poland, so a blue triangle was added at the hoist in 1920, the flag was banned by the Nazis in 1939, and a horizontal tricolor of white, red, and blue was enforced. The 1920 flag was restored in 1945, after the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia in 1918, the country had been using the red and white flag of Bohemia, identical to the Polish flag. Following calls for a new flag to be adopted by the state, a committee picked a design by Jaroslav Kursa. His design included the red and white horizontal stripes derived from the coat of arms of Bohemia, the Czech Republic violated this clause, passing legislation overruling the previous agreement and keeping the use of the flag. The blazon of this flag is per pall fesswise Argent, Azure, the flag is formed from an isosceles triangle that extends halfway along the rectangle and two bands, one white and one red. The most similar foreign flag is the flag of the Philippines but the latter has dimensions 1,2, another Czech official symbol is the Standard of the President of the Czech Republic. It was first introduced in 1918 for the President of Czechoslovakia, the current version, which was designed by heraldist Jiří Louda, was adopted upon the creation of an independent Czech Republic in 1993. Zbyšek Svoboda, Pavel Fojtík, brochure Naše vlajka, vznik a vývoj české vlajky, Libea,2005, ISBN 80-239-5862-3. Petr Exner, Pavel Fojtík, Zbyšek Svoboda, brochure Vlajky, prapory a jejich používání, Libea,2004, history of the Czech and Czechoslovak flag Czech Republic at Flags of the World Czech flag - facts, history, colors
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The Slovak Spectator
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The Slovak Spectator is Slovakias English-language newspaper. The debut issue of The Slovak Spectator hit newsstands across Slovakia on 1 March 1995, the newspaper was founded by four Americans, Rick Zednik, Richard Lewis, Eric Koomen and Daniel J. Stoll. Currently, only Koomen and Stoll are owners along with the largest media company in Slovakia Petit Press which also owns SME, Új Szó, Korzár and various regional My noviny newspapers. The Slovak Spectator is published bi-weekly by The Rock, s. r. o. publishing house and covers news, culture. Official site of The Slovak Spectator
19.
Wikimedia Commons
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Wikimedia Commons is an online repository of free-use images, sound, and other media files. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation, the repository contains over 38 million media files. In July 2013, the number of edits on Commons reached 100,000,000, the project was proposed by Erik Möller in March 2004 and launched on September 7,2004. The expression educational is to be according to its broad meaning of providing knowledge. Wikimedia Commons itself does not allow fair use or uploads under non-free licenses, for this reason, Wikimedia Commons always hosts freely licensed media and deletes copyright violations. The default language for Commons is English, but registered users can customize their interface to use any other user interface translations. Many content pages, in particular policy pages and portals, have also translated into various languages. Files on Wikimedia Commons are categorized using MediaWikis category system, in addition, they are often collected on individual topical gallery pages. While the project was proposed to also contain free text files. In 2012, BuzzFeed described Wikimedia Commons as littered with dicks, in 2010, Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger reported Wikimedia Commons to the FBI for hosting sexualized images of children known as lolicon. Wales responded to the backlash from the Commons community by voluntarily relinquishing some site privileges, over time, additional functionality has been developed to interface Wikimedia Commons with the other Wikimedia projects. Specialized uploading tools and scripts such as Commonist have been created to simplify the process of uploading large numbers of files. In order to free content photos uploaded to Flickr, users can participate in a defunct collaborative external review process. The site has three mechanisms for recognizing quality works, one is known as Featured pictures, where works are nominated and other community members vote to accept or reject the nomination. This process began in November 2004, another process known as Quality images began in June 2006, and has a simpler nomination process comparable to Featured pictures. Quality images only accepts works created by Wikimedia users, whereas Featured pictures additionally accepts nominations of works by third parties such as NASA, the three mentioned processes select a slight part from the total number of files. However, Commons collects files of all quality levels, from the most professional level across simple documental, files with specific defects can be tagged for improvement and warning or even proposed for deletion but there exists no process of systematic rating of all files. The site held its inaugural Picture of the Year competition, for 2006, all images that were made a Featured picture during 2006 were eligible, and voted on by eligible Wikimedia users during two rounds of voting
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History of Slovakia
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This article discusses the history of the territory of Slovakia. Discovery of ancient tools made by the Clactonian technique near Nové Mesto nad Váhom attests that Slovakias territory was inhabited in the Palaeolithic, other prehistoric discoveries include the Middle Palaeolithic stone tools found near Bojnice, and a Neanderthal discovery at a site near Gánovce. The best known artifact is the Venus of Moravany from Moravany nad Váhom, neolithic habitation was found in Želiezovce, Gemer, and the Bukové hory massif, the Domica cave, and at Nitriansky Hrádok. Bronze Age was marked by the Čakany and Velatice cultures, and then the Lusatian culture, followed by the Calenderberg culture, the Celts were the first population in the territory of present-day Slovakia who can be identified on the basis of written sources. The first Celtic groups came from the West around 400 BC, settlements of the La Tène culture indicate that the Celts colonized the lowlands along the river Danube and its tributaries. The local population was subjected by the Celts or withdrew to the mountainous northern territory. New Celtic groups arrived from Northern Italy during the 2nd century BC, the Celts initially lived in tiny huts –4 by 3 metres in size – which either formed small villages or were scattered across the countryside. Some of the hill forts which were built in the 1st century BC developed into important local economic. For example, the fort at Zemplín was a center of iron-working, glass works were unearthed at Liptovská Mara. Coins from Bratislava bore inscriptions like Biatec and Nonnos, the fort at Liptovská Mara was also an important center of the cult of the bearers of the Púchov culture of the Northern Carpathians. Burebista, King of the Dacians, invaded the Middle Danube region, burebistas empire collapsed after he died about 16 years later. Archaeological sites yielding painted ceramics and other artefacts of Dacian provenance suggest that Dacian groups settled among the local Celts in the region of the rivers Bodrog, Hron and Nitra. The spread of the Púchov culture, associated with the Celtic Cotini, taking advantage of internal strifes, the Romans settled a group of Quadi in the lowlands along the Danube between the rivers Morava and Váh in 21, making Vannius their king. The Germans lived in houses, rather than square ones. Although the Danube formed the frontier between the Roman Empire and the Barbaricum, the Romans built small outposts along the bank of the Danube, for instance, at Iža. Emperor Marcus Aurelius accomplished the first chapter of his Meditations during a campaign against the Quadi in the region of the Hron River in 172. The Miracle of the Rain – a storm which saved an exhausted Roman army – occurred in the north of the Danube in 173. Roman troops crossed the Danube for the last time in 374, during Emperor Valentinian Is campaign against the Quadi who had allied with the Sarmatians, in the 4th century AD, the Roman Empire could no longer resist the attacks by the neighboring peoples
21.
Pannonia
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Pannonia was an ancient province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Julius Pokorny believes the name Pannonia is derived from Illyrian, from the Proto-Indo-European root *pen-, swamp, water, the Ionian Danube fleet reached as far as Boio-Aria, populated until the late 8th century CE by Celts and Slavs under Aryan rulers. Pliny the Elder, in Natural History, places the eastern regions of the Hercynium jugum and he also gives us some dramaticised description of its composition, in which the close proximity of the forest trees causes competitive struggle among them. But even he—if the passage in question is not an interpolated marginal gloss—is subject to the legends of the gloomy forest and he mentions unusual birds, which have feathers that shine like fires at night. Medieval bestiaries named these birds the Ercinee, the first inhabitants of this area known to history were the Pannonii, a group of Indo-European tribes akin to Illyrians. From the 4th century BC, it was invaded by various Celtic tribes, little is heard of Pannonia until 35 BC, when its inhabitants, allies of the Dalmatians, were attacked by Augustus, who conquered and occupied Siscia. The country was not, however, definitively subdued by the Romans until 9 BC, when it was incorporated into Illyricum, the frontier of which was thus extended as far as the Danube. After the rebellion was crushed in AD9, the province of Illyricum was dissolved, the date of the division is unknown, most certainly after AD20 but before AD50. The proximity of dangerous barbarian tribes necessitated the presence of a number of troops. Some time between the years 102 and 107, between the first and second Dacian wars, Trajan divided the province into Pannonia Superior, and Pannonia Inferior. According to Ptolemy, these divisions were separated by a line drawn from Arrabona in the north to Servitium in the south, later, the whole country was sometimes called the Pannonias. Pannonia Superior was under the legate, who had formerly administered the single province. Pannonia Inferior was at first under a praetorian legate with a single legion as the garrison, after Marcus Aurelius, it was under a consular legate, the frontier on the Danube was protected by the establishment of the two colonies Aelia Mursia and Aelia Aquincum by Hadrian. In the 4th-5th century, one of the dioceses of the Roman Empire was known as the Diocese of Pannonia. It had its capital in Sirmium and included all four provinces that were formed from historical Pannonia, as well as the provinces of Dalmatia, following the Migrations Period in the middle of the 5th century, Pannonia was ceded to the Huns by Theodosius II. After the collapse of the Hunnic empire in 454, large numbers of Ostrogoths were settled by Emperor Marcian in the province as foederati, afterwards, it was again invaded by the Avars in the 560s, the Slavs, who first settled c. This language and the culture became extinct with the arrival of the Magyars. The native settlements consisted of pagi containing a number of vici, the cities and towns in Pannonia were, The country was fairly productive, especially after the great forests had been cleared by Probus and Galerius
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Romans in Slovakia
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Romans in Slovakia is related to the short-term occupation by Roman legions of western areas of what is today Slovakia. Marcomannia was a province of the Roman Empire that Marcus Aurelius planned to establish in this territory. It was inhabited by the Germanic tribes of Marcomanni and Quadi, part of the area was occupied by the Romans under Marcus Aurelius between 174 AD and 180 AD. His successors abandoned the project, but the people of the area became steadily Romanized during the two centuries. The Roman influence was disrupted with the invasions of Attila starting around 434 AD, after the creation of the fortified limes on the Danube river, the Roman Empire tried to expand in central Europe, mainly during the emperor Marcus Aureliuss rule in the second century. It was an initiative that resulted in an ephemeral conquest of the Germanic tribes living in present-day western Slovakia, the Quadi and the Marcomanni, during the so-called Marcomannic Wars. Under Augustus, the Romans and their armies occupied only a thin strip of the right bank of the Danube. Only in 174 AD did the emperor Marcus Aurelius penetrate deeper into the valleys of the Váh, Nitra and Hron. Marcus Aurelius wanted to create a new Roman province called Marcomannia in those conquered territories and his successors abandoned these territories, but – with the exception of Valentinian I – maintained a relatively friendly relationship with the barbarians living there. Indeed, the Romanization of the population continued into the late Roman period. Many Roman buildings appeared on the territory of south-western Slovakia in the relatively peaceful period of the 3rd and these were probably residences of the pro-Roman Quadian aristocracy. He talked to her of Ambrose, the bishop of Milan. Impressed by what she heard, the converted to Christianity. In the Roman ruins of Devín Castle, the first Christian church located north of the Danube has been identified, a few years later Attila devastated the area and started the mass migrations that destroyed the Western Roman Empire. Meanwhile, the area was beginning to be occupied by Slavic tribes, in that year, according to Procopius, they first passed through the land of the Slavs, most probably along the river Morava. A cluster of sites in the valleys of the rivers Morava, Váh. They are characterized by similar to those of the Mogiła group of southern Poland. In those same years the Roman presence disappeared from the area of Danubian limes, but there is a possibility that Romans
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Samo
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Samo founded the first recorded political union of Slavic tribes, known as Samos Empire, stretching from Silesia to present-day Slovenia, ruling from 623 until his death in 658. In 631, Samo successfully defended his realm against the Frankish Kingdom in the three-day Battle of Wogastisburg, the dates for Samos rule are based on Fredegar, who says that he went to the Slavs in the fortieth year of Chlothar II and reigned for thirty five years. The Avars first arrived in the Pannonian Basin and subdued the local Slavs in the 560s, Samo may have been one of the merchants who supplied arms to the Slavs for their regular revolts. Whether he became king during a revolt of 623–24 or during one that followed the Avar defeat in 626. A string of victories over the Avars proved his utilitas to his subjects, Samo went on to secure his throne by marriage into the major Wendish families, wedding at least twelve women and fathering twenty-two sons and fifteen daughters. The most well-documented event of Samos career was his victory over the Frankish royal army under Dagobert I in 631 or 632. Provoked to action by a violent quarrel in the Pannonian kingdom of the Avars or Huns during his ninth year, the Franks were routed near Wogastisburg, an unidentified location meaning fortress/castle of Vogast. The majority of the armies were slaughtered, while the rest of the troops fled, leaving weapons. In the aftermath of the Wendish victory, Samo invaded Frankish Thuringia several times, the Sorbian prince Dervan abandoned the Franks and placed himself and his people under Samos realm. In 641 the rebellious duke of Thuringia, Radulf, sought an alliance with Samo against his sovereign, Samo also maintained long-distance trade relationships. On his death, however, his title was not inherited by his sons, ultimately, Samo can be credited with forging a Wendish identity by speaking on behalf of the community that recognised his authority. The main source of information on Samo and his empire is the Fredegarii Chronicon. Though theories of multiple authorship once abounded, the notion of a single Fredegar is now common scholarly fare, the last or only Fredegar was the author of a brief account of the Wends including the best, and only contemporary, information on Samo. According to Fredegar, Samo a Frank by birth from the Senonian province, although he was of Frankish origin, Samo demanded that an ambassador of Dagobert I put on Slavic clothes before entering his castle. All other sources for Samo are derived from Fredegar and are more recent. The Gesta Dagoberti I regis Francorum was written in the first third of the 9th century, the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum from Salzburg, written in 871–72, is a very tendentious source, as its name suggests. According mainly to the Conversio, Samo was a Karantanian merchant, the sources Fredegar used to compile his Wendish account are unknown. A few scholars have attacked the entire account as fictitious, but Fredegar displays a critical attitude and it is possible that he had an eyewitness in the person of Sicharius, the ambassador of Dagobert I to the Slavs
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Great Moravia
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Great Moravia, the Great Moravian Empire, or simply Moravia, was the first major state that was predominantly Slavonic to emerge in the area of Central Europe. Its core territories were located on the Morava river which gave its name to the kingdom, Morava in both Czech and Slovak refers to both the river and the land of Moravia - the medieval Margraviate of Moravia, which is now the eastern part of the Czech Republic. The kingdom saw the rise of the first ever Slavic literary culture in the Old Church Slavonic language, after the fall of Great Moravia, its core territory was gradually divided between the newly ascending Czech Kingdom and Hungarian Kingdom, the frontier was originally settled on the Morava river. After this, the Czech-Hungarian border shifted east to the White Carpathians, záhorie also boasts the only surviving building from Great Moravian times - the chapel at Kopčany just across the Morava from the archaeological site of Mikulčice. The core of Great Moravia was established, according to legend, in the early 830s, when Prince Mojmír I crossed the Morava and conquered the principality of Nitra. The former principality of Nitra was used as the údelné kniežatsvo, or the given to, and ruled by. The extent and location of Great Moravia are a subject of debate, rival theories place the heart of it either south of the river Danube or on the Great Hungarian Plain. The exact date when the Moravian state was founded is also disputed, but it occurred in the early 830s under Prince Mojmír I. Moravia reached its largest territorial extent under Svätopluk I, who ruled from 870 to 894, separatism and internal conflicts emerging after Svätopluks death contributed to the fall of Great Moravia, which was overrun by the Hungarians. The exact date of Moravias collapse is unknown, but it occurred between 902 and 907, Moravia experienced significant cultural development under Prince Rastislav, with the arrival in 863 of the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Rastislav had asked the Byzantine emperor to send a teacher to introduce literacy, the brothers Cyril and Methodius introduced a system of writing and Slavonic liturgy, the latter eventually formally approved by Pope Adrian II. The language, termed Old Church Slavonic, was the ancestral language for Bulgarian. Old Church Slavonic, therefore, differed somewhat from the local Slavic dialect of Great Moravia which was the idiom to the later dialects spoken in Moravia. Later, the disciples of Cyril and Methodius were expelled from Great Moravia by King Svätopluk I, arriving in the First Bulgarian Empire, the disciples continued the Cyrilo-Methodian mission and the Glagolitic script was superseded by Cyrillic. The meaning of the name has been subject to debate, the designation Great Moravia – megale Moravia in Greek – stems from the work De Administrando Imperio written by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos around 950. The emperor only used the adjective megale in connection with the polity when referring to events that occurred after its fall, according to a third theory, the megale adjective refers to a territory located beyond the borders of the Byzantine Empire. Finally, the historian Lubomír E. Havlík writes that Byzantine scholars used this adjective when referring to homelands of nomadic peoples, Morava is the Czech and Slovak name for both the river and the country. In modern German, the land of the medieval Margraviate of Moravia is called Mähren, as the territory was inhabited by Germanic tribes before the Slavs settled there, the name is possibly of Germanic origin, with the ending -ava usually explained as coming from the Germanic -ahwa
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Principality of Nitra
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The Principality of Nitra also known as the Duchy of Nitra, was a Slavic polity encompassing a group of settlements that developed in the 9th century around Nitra in present-day Slovakia. Its history remains uncertain because of a lack of contemporary sources, modern-day Slovakia was dominated for centuries by Germanic peoples, including the Quadi and the Longobards or Lombards, who were there until the middle of the 6th century. The new culture, with its spartan and egalitarian nature, sharply differed from the archaeological cultures of Central Europe. According to Barford, a report by the Byzantine historian Procopius is the first certain reference to Early Slav groups inhabiting parts of present-day Slovakia. Procopius wrote that an exiled Lombard prince named Hildigis mustered an army, taking with him not only those of the Lombards who had followed him, but also many of the Sclaveni in the 540s. The nomadic Avars, who arrived from the Eurasian steppes, invaded the Carpathian Basin, thereafter, Slavic groups inhabiting areas around the core regions of the Avar Khaganate paid tribute to the Avars. The khaganate experienced a series of conflicts in the 630s. According to the Chronicle of Fredegar, the Slavs who are known as Wends rebelled against the Avars, samos realm, which emerged in the northern or northwestern regions of the Carpathian Basin, existed for more than three decades. It disintegrated soon after its founders death and Avar control of the region was restored, the Avar Khaganate collapsed around 803 as a result of several successful military campaigns launched by the Franks against it. The fall of the Khaganate contributed to the rise of new polities among the Slavs in the region, the shift in political control was accompanied by changes in military strategy and equipment. The remains of a 9th-century fortress covering 12 hectares, the age of which has not been determined, were unearthed in the centre of Nitra, beeby writes that the fortress belongs to the Great Moravian period. According to Steinhübel, the fortress may have named after the river Nitra. Archaeological research shows that a settlement inhabited by blacksmiths, goldsmiths, an extensive network of settlements emerged around it in the 9th century. The manuscripts state that one Pribina, who had driven across the Danube by Mojmir, duke of the Moravians, fled to Radbod. Radbod introduced him to King Louis the German, who ordered that Pribina should be instructed in the faith, modern historians debate whether this sentence was part of the original text or was only a marginal note which was interpolated into the main text in the 12th century. According to a widely accepted interpretation of the Conversion, Pribina was initially the ruler of an independent polity which was centered on Nitra, for instance, Barford writes that Pribina was apparently prince of Nitra. Pribinas assumed realm is described as the first demonstrable Slavic state north of the middle Danube by Lukačka, richard Marsina says that it can hardly be unambiguously decided whether Pribina was prince of a greater tribe or of two or three smaller joined tribes. He adds that Pribina may have belonged to the second or third generation of the heads of this polity, which emerged in the valleys of the rivers Hron, Nitra, and Váh
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Principality of Lower Pannonia
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It was one of the early Slavic polities and was situated mostly in Transdanubia region of modern Hungary, but also included parts of modern Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Austria. Carantanians/Alpine Slavs were the ancestors of present-day Slovenians, the name Carantanians was in use until the 13th century. The Slavic settlement of Pannonia started in the late 5th century after the fall of the Hunnic tribal union, in the late 6th century the Slavs in the territory became subjects of the Avar tribal union. Trouble by internal conflicts as well as attacks by the Frankish Empire and the Bulgarian Khanate. Initially, Lower Pannonia lay between the Drava, Danube and Sava rivers, whilst Upper Pannonia lay north of the Drava river, collectively, the southeastern Slavic marches of the Carolongian empire were called the Eastland. During the first two decades of the century, Lower Pannonia was ruled by Slavic Prince Ljudevit Posavski. The turmoils did not end, as in 827, the Bulgarians invaded much of Lower Pannonia, but were then pushed back by Louis the German the following year. In the course of the creation of Great Moravia in 833 to the north of the Danube, Pribina, after several adventures, he was eventually given the Frankish lands in Lower Pannonia in 846, where he founded a principality. This was a move on the part of Louis the German. Pribinas capital was Blatnograd, a city built at the Zala river near Keszthely and he greatly fortified this city, and surrounded by swamps and dense forests, it lay in a strategically powerful position. Pribina was Louis the Germans dux and his state grew powerful and Pribina ruled for two decades. His state contained a retinue of followers, including Carantanians, Franks, Pribina allowed the Archbishop of Salzburg to consecrate churches in the area. After an attack by Carloman during his rebellion against Louis the German, Pribinas son, Kocel and he was soon re-instated in his fathers lands. Although a Frankish vassal, it later started resisting the influence of German feudal lords and clergy, eventually, after Kocels death in 876, Lower Pannonia was again made a direct part of the East Francia, ruled by Arnulf of Carinthia. During the succession strife in East Francia, in 884, the area was conquered by Great Moravia in ca, after a few years of peace, Arnulf renewed his wars with Moravia, and recaptured Lower Pannonia. After he claimed the Imperial crown in 896, Arnulf gave Lower Pannonia to another Slavic duke, Braslav, soon afterwards, in 901 it was conquered by the Magyars, who became the new ruling core, but retained many elements of Slavic political organization. The territory became part of the arising Hungarian state, Pribinas authority stretched from the Rába river to the north, to Pécs to the southeast, and to Ptuj to the West. Temporary, it included territory in the east of the Danube and in the south of the Drava, i. e. parts of present-day central Hungary, northern Serbia
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Amadeus Aba
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Amadeus Aba or Amade Aba was a Hungarian oligarch in the Kingdom of Hungary who ruled de facto independently the northern and north-eastern counties of the kingdom. He held the office of Palatine several times, and he was also judge royal twice and he was assassinated at the south gate in the city of Kassa by Saxon burghers. He was born as the son of David I, a member of the genus Aba, who was mentioned as ispán in contemporary sources and ancestor of the Berthóty family. Amadeus had three siblings, Palatine Finta, who had rebelled against the King in 1281, Judge royal Peter, who was an ally of Amadeus. Amadeus had at least six sons and a daughter from his unidentified wife, the eldest son was John, who served as Master of the horse according to his own charter. His other two sons, Nicholas III and David II were killed in the Battle of Rozgony, Amadeus only daughter Catherine married Blessed Maurice Csák in 1301, who later became a Dominican friar. Catherine also joined to nuns at Margaret Island and this act angered Amadeus, who imprisoned Maurice in Buda for a short time, but later released him. Amadeus fought in the Battle of Marchfeld in the troops King Ladislaus IV of Hungary sent to King Rudolph I of Germany against King Ottokar II of Bohemia. In 1280, Aba became the head of Hermannstadt, i. e. the royal officer appointed to administer the Transylvanian Saxons, following the dismissal of Finta as Palatine, he rebelled against Ladislaus in 1281. As Peter Aba was appointed Master of the treasury and there is no mention of Amadeus Aba, it is likely to be declared that only Finta rebelled against the king, King Ladislaus IV appointed Amadeus to the office of judge royal in 1283. In February 1285, he fought successfully against the Mongols who were pillaging the north-eastern parts of the kingdom and he received land and special privileges in Poland from Wladyslaw Lokietek King of Poland, and was referred to as Amadej in Polish. After 9 August 1288, Amadeus Aba became Palatine and he held the office for the first time until 1289 when he received the office of judge royal again, later, he rebelled against the king whose troops occupied one of his castles, Tokaj. Following the kings death, Aba became the supporter of King Andrew III of Hungary who appointed him Palatine. Although the king appointed a new Palatine already in 1291, he continued to use the title until his death. After 1297, Aba was among the most powerful supporters of King Andrew III and he made a formal alliance with the king. Charles laid siege to Buda, the capital of the kingdom, in September 1302, charless charters show that he primarily stayed in the southern parts of the kingdom during the next years, although he also visited Amadeus Aba in the fortress of Gönc. In 1304, Scepusian Saxons and the citizens of Kassa supported by Wenceslaus unsuccessfully besieged Amadeus centre, later, Wenceslaus left the kingdom, and shortly afterwards, Aba concluded an agreement with Charles and Duke Rudolph III of Austria against Wenceslaus father, King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia. In 1304 and 1305, he gave assistance to Duke Władysław of Cuiavia against King Wenceslaus II who had occupied Lesser Poland
28.
Budin Eyalet
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Budin Eyalet was an administrative unit of the Ottoman Empire in Central Europe and the Balkans. It was formed on the territories that Ottoman Empire conquered from the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, the capital of the Budin Province was Budin. Population of the province was ethnically and religiously diverse and included Hungarians, Croats, Serbs, Slovaks, Muslims of various ethnic origins, the city of Buda itself became majority Muslim during the seventeenth century, largely through the immigration of Balkan Muslims. In the 16th century the Ottoman Empire had conquered the line of fortresses of the Kingdom of Hungary. After the Battle of Mohács where the Kingdom of Hungary was heavily defeated, and the turmoil caused by the defeat, the influence was spread on the middle part of the Kingdom of Hungary. While Ottoman troops invaded Buda in 1526 and 1529, Suleyman I used the Buda area as a territory of the allied kingdom, in 1541, Suleyman decided to consolidate the conquered Buda area and to set it up as an organic part of the Empire. He drove away the Austrian commander Roggendorf, besieging the city and he immediately organised the first Central European vilajet with capital in Buda. The same year, several other cities fell under Ottoman rule, Szeged, Kalocsa, in the years 1543-44, the Ottomans conquered the fortresses of Nógrád, Vác, Fehérvár, Pécs and Siklós which were embedded into the new vilajet. In 1552 the vilajet was expanded with new territories in the North, military control of the surrounding areas was driven from Budin. However Eğri and Kanije were captured during wars and were shortly managed as sanjaks in this province. The territory of the eyalet was reduced in size with the establishment of the eyalets of Eğri. Nevertheless, it remained the foremost Ottoman province in Central Europe, in the 17th century Kara Mustafa conquered more vast areas from the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary and its vassal Principality of Transylvania, but did not succeed in conquering Vienna in 1683. This failed attempt heralded the decline of Ottoman power in Europe. On 2 September 1686 Budin was captured by the troops of the Holy League, military conflicts were a regular occurrence on the Ottoman-Habsburg border, so there was a constant need of a significant military presence. If the sultan or the commander was not present, then the post of general commander was taken by the pashas of Budin. His power was enlarged to the vilajet of Temeşvar, Eğri, Kanije, the title of the Budin pasha was enhanced to be the great commander from 1623. The number of the troops in the province at this time is difficult to estimate, there are documents to show 10,200 soldiers in the fortresses in 1546, and 12,451 soldiers in 1568. Auxiliary troops called spahis were also present, but no figures are available
29.
Upper Hungary
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Upper Hungary is the usual English translation of Felvidék, the Hungarian term for the area that was historically the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary, now mostly present-day Slovakia. The region has also been called Felső-Magyarország, during the Ottoman wars, Upper Hungary meant only the northeastern parts of the Hungarian Kingdom. The northwestern regions belonged to Lower Hungary, sometime during the 18th or 19th centuries, Upper Hungary began to imply the whole northern regions of the kingdom. The population of Upper Hungary was mixed and mainly consisted of Slovaks, the first complex demographic data are from the 18th century, in which Slovaks constituted the majority population in Upper Hungary. Historically there are different meanings,1, at the same time, the word felvidék remains a common Hungarian noun applied to areas at higher elevations, e. g. Balaton-felvidék, a hilly region and national park adjacent to Lake Balaton. After World War I, the meaning of Felvidék in the Hungarian language was restricted to Slovakia, the three counties of the region that remained in Hungary after World War I, however, are never called Upper Hungary today, only Northern Hungary. Some of them call themselves felvidéki magyarok, i. e. the Upland Hungarians, the word felvidék is also used as a component of the toponym Balaton-felvidék, describing the hilly area north of Lake Balaton, with no connection to the historical Upper Hungary. The term Upper Hungary often occurs in publications on history as a somewhat anachronistic translation of other, earlier designations denoting approximately the same territory and these other terms were, for example, Partes Danubii septentrionales or Partes regni superiores. The actual name Upper Hungary arose later from the latter phrase. In the 15th century, the Šamorín, Trnava, Hlohovec, Nitra, Levice, Lučenec, Rimavská Sobota, Rožňava, Jasov, Košice, Sečovce, Michalovce line was the northern boundary of the Hungarian ethnic area. The Principality of Nitra emerged in the 8th century and developed into an independent Slavic state, in the early 9th century, the polity was situated on the north-western territories of present-day Slovakia. That territory formed a military district within Royal Hungary. At that time, present-day western Slovakia, and sometimes also the territories of Royal Hungary to the south of it, were called Lower Hungary. It was briefly a separate state of the Ottoman Empire under Imre Thököly in the 1680s. Although not strictly defined, the name Felvidék became commonplace to the point that at least one publication concerning the area used it as its title, other nations used the terms Upper Hungary, Slovakia, and Ruthenia in parallel. The Slovaks themselves called the territories of the Kingdom of Hungary to the south of Slovakia Dolná zem, in the course of the creation of Czechoslovakia at the end of World War I, Czechoslovakia originally demanded that all of the so-called Upper Hungary be added to Czechoslovak territory. The claim for its acquisition, however, was not based on the area having a single common name, Upper Hungary. In 1720 of the 63 largest towns on the territory of present-day Slovakia with at least 100 taxpaying households 40 had Slovak majority,14 German and 9 Hungarian majority, the first ethnic data of whole Hungarian Kingdom by county was published in 1842
30.
History of Czechoslovakia
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However, the gap between cultures was never fully bridged, and this discrepancy played a disruptive role throughout the seventy-five years of the union. The Czechs had lived primarily in Bohemia since the 6th century, after 1526, Bohemia came under the control of the House of Habsburg as their scions first became the elected rulers of Bohemia, then the hereditary rulers of the country. Subject peoples all over the Austro-Hungarian empire wanted to be free from the rule of the old aristocracy and the imperial family. Although the Czechs and Slovaks speak languages that are very similar, the reason was the differing attitude and position of their overlords – the Austrians in Bohemia and Moravia, and the Hungarians in Slovakia – within Austria-Hungary. Bohemia was the most industrialized part of Austria and Slovakia was the most industrialized part of Hungary – however at different levels of development. Furthermore, the Hungarians were far more determined to assimilate the Slovaks than the Austrians were to assimilate the Czechs, despite cultural differences, the Slovaks shared similar aspirations with the Czechs for independence from the Habsburg state. In 1916, during World War I, Tomáš Masaryk created the Czechoslovak National Council together with Edvard Beneš, Masaryk in the United States, Štefánik in France, and Beneš in France and Britain worked tirelessly to secure Allied recognition. About 1.4 million Czech soldiers fought in World War I,150,000 of which died, at times they controlled much of the Trans-Siberian railway, and they were indirectly involved in the shooting of the Russian tsar and his family in 1918. Their goal was to win the support of the Allies for the independence of Czechoslovakia, the independence of Czechoslovakia was officially proclaimed in Prague on 28 October 1918 in Smetana Hall of the Municipal House, a physical setting strongly associated with nationalist feeling. The Slovaks officially joined the two days later in the town of Martin. A temporary constitution was adopted, and Tomáš Masaryk was declared president on 14 November, the Treaty of St. Germain, signed in September 1919, formally recognized the new republic. Ruthenia was later added to the Czech lands and Slovakia by the Treaty of Trianon in June 1920, there were also various border conflicts between Poland and Czechoslovakia due to the anexion of Zaolzie region. The new state was characterized by problems with its diversity, the separate histories of the Czech and Slovak peoples and their greatly differing religious, cultural. The Germans and Magyars of Czechoslovakia openly agitated against the territorial settlements, nevertheless, the new republic saw the passage of a number of progressive reforms in areas such as housing, social security, and workers’ rights. Still, the Czech lands were far more industrialized than Slovakia, most light and heavy industry was located in the German-dominated Sudetenland and most industrial concerns there were controlled by Germans and German-owned banks. Subcarpathian Ruthenia was essentially without industry, in 1929, the gross domestic product increased by 52% and industrial production by 41% as compared to 1913. In 1938, Czechoslovakia held 10th place in the world for industrial production, the Czechoslovak state was conceived as a parliamentary democracy. The constitution identified the Czechoslovak nation as the creator and principal constituent of the Czechoslovak state and established Czech, the operation of the new Czechoslovak government was distinguished by its political stability
31.
Slovak People's Party
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The party arose at a time when Slovakia was still part of Austria-Hungary and fought both for democratic freedoms and Slovak national rights, and against liberalism. After the formation of Czechoslovakia, the party preserved its character, opposing ethnic Czechoslovakism. After a merger with other parties in November 1938 to form the Hlinka Slovak Peoples Party – Party of Slovak National Unity, in addition to adoption of a totalitarian vision of the state, it included an openly pro-Nazi wing, which dominated Slovak policy between 1940 and 1942. The party chairmen were the Slovak priests Andrej Hlinka and later Jozef Tiso, the creation process of the party took several years. The Slovak Peoples movement was established within the Hungarian Peoples Party which opposed liberalism and was popular amongst the religious Slovak population, the partys program addressed several other problems of Slovak society including emigration, usury, corruption and forced magyarization. Due to the shift away from these values, Slovak politicians began to form a separate group within the party. The party hierarchy reacted in November 1905 by asking its only MP František Skyčák to sign a testimony against the Slovak program, Skyčák refused and on 5 December 1905, he published a declaration of a new political party. However, following a decision in April 1906, the party contested elections as part of the Slovak National Party until 1913 in order to prevent splitting the Slovak vote. However, their programmes were identical, the SĽS called for strong democratization and included liberal reforms such as freedom of speech. Despite the frequent election manipulations in Hungary at that time, the SĽS won six out of the 415 deputies of the Hungarian Diet in the 1906 elections. The Hungarian government immediately reacted by increasing oppression to suppress the national and political conscious of Slovaks, in 1912 the SĽS refused to support the strong Czecho-Slovak orientation of the SNS prevailing at that time, and made a similar declaration as in 1905, again without formal effects. On 19 July 1913 the SĽS became a political party with Hlinka as chairman and Ferdiš Juriga. During World War I the SĽS went into abeyance in order to prevent any possible pretext for accusations of activities against the Austrian-Hungarian state, in 1918 Hlinka and Juriga solidly supported idea of common Czechoslovak state and signed the Martin Declaration which rejected Hungarian jurisdiction over Slovakia. After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the SĽS renewed its activities on 19 December 1918 in Žilina, on 17 October 1925 it was renamed the Hlinka Slovak Peoples Party to distinguish it from the Czechoslovak Peoples Party. During the majority of the whole period, the HSĽS was the most popular party in Slovakia. The party operated mostly in opposition but not as a destructive power, the party rejected economic liberalism and class-struggle theory popular among socialists and communists, who were considered to be the partys main enemies. The constitutional part of its program was derived from the Pittsburg Agreement which promised an autonomous status of Slovakia within Czechoslovakia, the HSĽS opposed centralism and ethnic Czechoslovakism. In addition to its program, popularity of the party was maintained by Hlinkas charisma, in the 1920 elections the party participated together with the Czech Peoples Party under the name Czechoslovak Peoples Party
32.
Slovak National Uprising
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The Slovak National Uprising or 1944 Uprising was an armed insurrection organized by the Slovak resistance movement during World War II. It was launched on 29 August 1944 from Banská Bystrica in an attempt to resist German troops that had occupied Slovak territory, although the resistance was largely defeated by German forces, guerrilla operations continued until the Soviet Army, Czechoslovak Army and Romanian Army liberated Slovakia in 1945. In the post-war period, many entities, mainly the Communists. The Stalinist regime in Czechoslovakia presented the Uprising as an event initiated and governed by Communist forces, in fact, many factions fought in the uprising, the largest of which were units of the Slovak Army, Democratic resistance and Communist partisans, and international forces. Given this factionalization, the Uprising did not have popular support. Yet the participants and supporters of the Uprising represented every religion, class, age, edvard Beneš, leader of the Czechoslovak government in exile in London, initiated preparations for a possible revolt in 1943 when he contacted dissident elements of the Slovak Army. The council was responsible for creating the preparatory phase of the uprising, in March 1944, Slovak army Lieutenant Colonel Ján Golian took charge of the preparations. Conspirators stockpiled money, ammunition and other supplies in military bases in central, the rebelling forces called themselves Czechoslovak Forces of the Interior and the First Czechoslovak Army. Approximately 3,200 Slovak soldiers deserted and joined partisan groups or the Soviet Army, in April 1944, Slovak Jews Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escaped from Auschwitz and eventually spoke about the horrors of German death camps. In summer 1944, the partisans intensified their war against German occupation forces, in July, Soviet troops in Poland began to advance towards Slovakia. By August 1944, Soviet troops were at Krosno, Poland, the two options were, Capture Dukla Pass when the Soviet arrived. As ordered by Golian, capture Dukla pass immediately and hold the pass against any German forces until the Soviet Army could arrive, Colonel Viliam Talský was the chief of staff of the two divisions. On 23 August 1944, neighboring Romania changed sides in favor of the Allies, on 27 August 1944 in Martin, a group of Communist partisans under Soviet direction killed 30 members of a German military mission leaving Romania. The next day, German troops began to occupy Slovakia to put down the rebellion, German arrangements for the occupation were completed a few weeks earlier. At 19,00 hours on 29 August 1944, Slovak Defence Minister General Ferdinand Čatloš announced on radio that Germany had occupied Slovakia. At 20,00, Golian sent the message to all units to begin the uprising. The two divisions, left in chaos and without leadership, were disarmed on the afternoon of 30 August without a single shot. Consequently, the uprising commenced prematurely and lost a crucial component of their plan, accounts of the exact numbers of combatants vary
33.
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
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Czechoslovakia was created with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I. Soon after, the philosophy of Edvard Beneš pushed for greater unity, some Slovaks were not in favour of this change, and in March 1939, with pressure from Adolf Hitler, the First Slovak Republic was created. Occupation by the Soviet Union after World War II oversaw their reunification into the third Czechoslovak republic, in 1968, the Constitutional Law of Federation reinstated an official federal structure, but during the Normalization period in the 1970s, Gustáv Husák returned most of the control to Prague. This approach encouraged a regrowth of separatism after the fall of communism, by 1991, the Czech Republics GDP per capita was some 20% higher than Slovakias, but its long-run GDP growth was lower. Transfer payments from the Czech budget to Slovakia, which had been the rule in the past, were stopped in January 1991, many Czechs and Slovaks desired the continued existence of a federal Czechoslovakia. Some major Slovak parties, however, advocated a form of co-existence. In the next years, political parties re-emerged, but Czech parties had little or no presence in Slovakia, in order to have a functional state, the government demanded continued control from Prague, while Slovaks continued to ask for decentralization. In 1992, the Czech Republic elected Václav Klaus and others who demanded either an even tighter federation or two independent states, Vladimír Mečiar and other leading Slovak politicians of the day wanted a kind of confederation. The two sides opened frequent and intense negotiations in June, on 17 July, the Slovak parliament adopted the Declaration of independence of the Slovak nation. Six days later, Klaus and Mečiar agreed to dissolve Czechoslovakia at a meeting in Bratislava, Czechoslovak president Václav Havel resigned rather than oversee the dissolution which he had opposed, in a September 1992 poll, only 37% of Slovaks and 36% of Czechs favoured dissolution. The goal of negotiations switched to achieving a peaceful division, on 13 November, the Federal Assembly passed Constitution Act 541 which settled the division of property between the Czech lands and Slovakia. With Constitution Act 542, passed on 25 November, they agreed to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia as of 31 December 1992, in contrast, other post-communist break-ups involved violent conflict. That is why, Czechoslovakia is known as the only former socialist state to have a peaceful breakup. Those who argue from the inevitability stance tend to point to the stereotypes between the two nations, which date back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and other issues, disputes occurred only with respect to the Czechoslovak national flag. From 1990 to 1992, the red and white Flag of Bohemia officially served as the flag of the Czech Republic, the national territory was divided along the existing internal borders. Nevertheless, the border was not clearly defined at points and, in some areas. Most federal assets were divided in a ratio of 2 to 1, including equipment, rail. Some minor disputes lasted for a few years after dissolution, initially the old Czechoslovak currency, the Czechoslovak koruna, was still used in both countries. Fears of economic loss on the Czech side caused the two states to two national currencies as early as 8 February 1993
34.
Slovak referendum, 1997
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A referendum in Slovakia was held on 23 May and 24 May 1997. The government left the last question off the paper, leading to both referendums failing to meet the legally required turnout threshold. The first question, on joining NATO, was government-sponsored and it was hypothetical as, under Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar, Slovakia had progressively become a pariah state, and NATO were unlikely to issue an invitation. The second and third questions were related to the first, with the questions deliberately expressed in a manner that deterred yes voters, are you in favour of Slovakias entry into NATO. Are you for placing nuclear weapons on the territory of Slovakia, are you for locating foreign military bases on the territory of Slovakia. The fourth referendum was pushed by the opposition, originally, the president was elected by a three-fifths majority in the National Council, but the polarisation of Slovak politics under Mečiar meant that no candidate could muster 60% support. With Michal Kováčs term running out in June 1998, Mečiars opponents sought to avoid a vacant presidency, which would allow Mečiar to consolidate his power. By adopting a run-off presidential election, with the two best-placed candidates progressing to the round, they could unite those opposed to Mečiar in the second round. Do you agree that the president of the Slovak Republic should be elected by the citizens of the Slovak Republic according to the enclosed proposal for a constitutional law. By holding the referendums on the day, President Kováč sought to increase the chance of overcoming the 50% quorum for the vote to be legally binding. The government distributed ballot papers without the question, but some district electoral commissioners refused to accept ballot papers that didnt include it. As a result, the opposition urged its supporters to boycott the referendum, the turnout fell far short of the 50% required, and the referendum was declared invalid. On 26 May, in protest at the handling of the referendum. In July 1997, NATO confirmed that they were inviting the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to become members, but not Slovakia
35.
Language law of Slovakia
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The state language law of Slovakia fixes the status and regulates the use of the Slovak language. It took force in 1995 and underwent a major amendment in 2009, the controversy about the law is one of the key points in Hungary–Slovakia relations, brought to their lowest point for many years. The law declares priority for the Slovak language over any other language spoken in Slovakia, in the mixed territories, bilingualism is preserved. In towns with a minority of at least 10%, it is possible to use the minority language in official situations. The law names several circumstances of public and official situations, – e. g. doctors – in which the use of the Slovak language should take precedence both in written and spoken form. Despite this, the law does not apply to the Czech language, the 2009 modifications include issuing penalties of 100 to 5000 euros for not using Slovak when prescribed by the law despite repeated written notice. The first law about language use was made in 1990, when Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia, in communities having at least a 20% minority population, the minority language could be used in all official communications. In 1993, Czechoslovakia dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the Slovak National Party and its cultural organization Matica Slovenska urged the creation of laws to protect the state language. The modifications of 1995 contained punishments for not using Slovak in official communication and this was later shown to violate the constitution of Slovakia and was abolished by the Constitutional Court. The new 1995 law vacates the earlier, for the accession of Slovakia to the European Union, Slovakia had to accept a law on minority language use. This was created in 1999, and allowed use of minority languages in public situations in areas with at least 20% minority, in 2009 the Slovak parliament passed a language law, mandating preferential use of the state language – Slovak. Use of a language when conducting business could carry a financial penalty. Opponents have described the law as one that criminalises the use of Hungarian, however, according to the Slovak government, Gordon Bajnai, the Hungarian Prime Minister, has charged Slovakia of scapegoating Hungarian speakers. Hungarian foreign minister Péter Balázs compared the creation of the law to the politics of the Nicolae Ceauşescu regime on the use of language. Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said the law violates the words and he said Slovak politicians do nationalism for a living and he suspects the minority issues are getting into the foreground in Slovakia to cover real problems. Péter Balázs, Foreign Minister of Hungary, told Die Presse that Robert Fico and he also stated that regarding the bilateral relations, he doesnt expect much from Robert Fico any more. Hungarian foreign minister Péter Balázs compared the creation of the law to the politics of the Ceauşescu regime on the use of language. All four parties of the Parliament of Hungary issued a joint declaration asking Slovakia to repel the legislation, orbán added that not only democracies but also mentally sound regimes would not have tried creating such regulations, or at least not without the risk of being ridiculed
36.
Geography of Slovakia
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Slovakia is a landlocked Central European country with mountainous regions in the north and flat terrain in the south. Slovakia lies between 49°3648 and 47°4421 northern latitude and 16°5056 and 22°3353 eastern longitude, the northernmost point is near Beskydok, a mountain on the border with Poland near the village of Oravská Polhora in the Beskides. The southernmost point is near the village of Patince on the Danube on the border with Hungary, the westernmost point is on the Morava River near Záhorská Ves on the Austrian border. The easternmost point is close to the summit of Kremenec, a mountain near the village of Nová Sedlica at the point of Slovak, Polish. The highest point is at the summit of Gerlachovský štít in the High Tatras,2,655 m, the countrys area is 48,845 km2. 31% is arable land, 17% pastures, 41% forests, 3% cultivated land, the remaining 8% is mostly covered with human structures and infrastructure, and partly with rocky mountain ridges and other unimproved land. The gross domestic product was 1.66 trillion Slovak korunas in 2006, equal to around 50 billion euros or 71 billion USD, GDP per sector, Agriculture 3. 6% Industry 31. 6% Services 64. 8% The western regions are more developed than the eastern ones. As of 2004, the highest GDP per capita was 573,976 SK in the Bratislava Region and that statistical area comprises only the city of Bratislava, which distorts Slovak regional and regional-international comparisons. The GDP per capita was 152,786 SK in the Prešov Region in the north-east, cultivated fields occupy around 29% of Slovakia. Principal crops are wheat, barley, maize, sugar beets, viticulture is widespread in the southern areas, mainly around the Little Carpathians, Danubian Lowland and Tokaj area. The breeding of livestock, including pigs, cattle, sheep is also practiced, Slovakia was partly industrialized in the 19th century, but became an industrialized country in the second half of the 20th century. The Communist government emphasized heavy and arms industry, in recent years the car-making industry is on the rise, with car plants built in Bratislava, Trnava and Žilina. Other important industrial towns are Trenčín, Prešov and Košice, fossil fuels, particularly oil and gas, are imported. In 2004, the most important source of energy was from nuclear power plants, in 2005 Slovakia consumed 24.93 billion kWh of electricity. As of September 2012, there were 415 km of highways and 258 km of expressways, there are significant links from Bratislava to the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary and the most important line in the country is from Bratislava to Košice via Žilina. Water transport The main Slovak waterway is the Danube, with 172 km, other navigable rivers are lower parts of Váh, and few kilometres of Bodrog. Main ports are located in Bratislava and Komárno, around 5,391,000 people lived in Slovakia at the end of 2006. According to the 2001 census,85. 8% of the people were of Slovaks,9. 7% Hungarians,1. 7% Roma,0. 8% Czechs,0. 4% Rusyns,0. 2% Ukrainians and others
37.
Carpathian Mountains
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The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a mountain range system forming an arc roughly 1,500 km long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe. The Carpathians and their foothills also have many thermal and mineral waters, the Carpathians consist of a chain of mountain ranges that stretch in an arc from the Czech Republic in the northwest through Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine to Romania and Serbia. The highest range within the Carpathians is the Tatras, on the border of Slovakia and Poland, the second-highest range is the Southern Carpathians in Romania, where the highest peaks exceed 2,500 m. The divisions of the Carpathians are usually in three sections, Western Carpathians — Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. Eastern Carpathians — southeastern Poland, eastern Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, the term Outer Carpathians is frequently used to describe the northern rim of the Western and Eastern Carpathians. The most important cities in or near the Carpathians are, Bratislava and Košice in Slovakia, Kraków in Poland, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu and Braşov in Romania, and Uzhhorod in Ukraine. In modern times, the range is called Karpaty in Czech, Polish, Slovak and Карпати in Ukrainian, Carpați in Romanian, Karpaten in German, Kárpátok in Hungarian and Karpati or Карпати in Serbian. Although the toponym was recorded already by Ptolemy in the 2nd century CE, for instance, Havasok was its medieval Hungarian name, Rus and Romanian chronicles referred to it as Hungarian Mountains. The archaic Polish word karpa meant rugged irregularities, underwater obstacles/rocks, the more common word skarpa means a sharp cliff or other vertical terrain. In late Roman documents, the Eastern Carpathian Mountains were referred to as Montes Sarmatici, the Western Carpathians were called Carpates, a name that is first recorded in Ptolemys Geographia. In the Scandinavian Hervarar saga, which relates ancient Germanic legends about battles between Goths and Huns, the name Karpates appears in the predictable Germanic form as Harvaða fjöllum, inter Alpes Huniae et Oceanum est Polonia by Gervase of Tilbury, has described in his Otia Imperialia in 1211. Thirteenth- to fifteenth-century Hungarian documents named the mountains Thorchal, Tarczal or less frequently Montes Nivium, the northwestern Carpathians begin in Slovakia and southern Poland. They surround Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a semicircle, sweeping towards the southeast. The total length of the Carpathians is over 1,500 km, the highest altitudes of the Carpathians occur where they are widest. The Carpathians cover an area of 190,000 km2 and, after the Alps, although commonly referred to as a mountain chain, the Carpathians do not actually form an uninterrupted chain of mountains. Rather, they consist of several orographically and geologically distinctive groups, the Carpathians at their highest altitude are only as high as the middle region of the Alps, with which they share a common appearance, climate, and flora. The Carpathians are separated from the Alps by the Danube, the two ranges meet at only one point, the Leitha Mountains at Bratislava. The river also separates them from the Balkan Mountains at Orşova in Romania, the valley of the March and Oder separates the Carpathians from the Silesian and Moravian chains, which belong to the middle wing of the great Central Mountain System of Europe
38.
Districts of Slovakia
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An okres is an administrative unit in Slovakia. It is inferior to a Region and superior to a municipality, one district, on the other hand, consists of several municipalities, which in turn consist of cadastral areas. Districts have been units of administration in Slovakia since the time of the Habsburg monarchy. Today, each district is administered by a district office, in the period from 2004 to late 2013, the district offices were abolished and replaced by circuit offices, which were usually responsible for several districts. Slovakia has currently 79 districts, the capital of Bratislava being divided into 5 districts, the districts are named after the biggest town in the district. For history see, Okres The following table gives an overview of the districts, along with the population, area, boroughs and localities of Bratislava Urban and municipal statistics
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Flag of the Slovak Soviet Republic
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