Slovakia - Country history and economic development

500 A.D. First Slavonic tribes appear in region.

830-900. Period of the Great Moravian Empire.

863. Christianity enters the region, brought by the monks Cyril and Methodius.

907. The Moravian Empire is overthrown by the Hungarians (Magyars), leading to rule by various Hungarian kings.

1526. The defeat of Hungarians by the Turks in a battle moves the administrative seat of Hungary northward, to what is now Slovakia. This situation lasts until the late 1600s.

MID-1800s. Increasing Slovak national identity is particularly centered around language.

1867. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is divided into 2 parts. The Slovaks remain under the rule of the Hungarians, based in Budapest, while the Czechs are under Hapsburg rule.

1918. The Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrates at the end of World War I and Czechoslovakia becomes an independent nation.

1938. Adolf Hitler's Germany is given a piece of Czechoslovakia by the Munich Agreement.

1939. Germany attacks Czechoslovakia at the start of World War II. Czechoslovakia is dissolved and Slovakia becomes a puppet state allied with Hitler's Germany. Many Jews perish in camps during the war.

1944. Approximately 60,000 Slovak troops engage in the Slovak National Uprising against German rule, a resistance that is put down by the Nazis.

1948. The Communist Party takes over Czechoslovakia's parliament. A communist political and economic system dominates for the next 4 decades.

1968. The Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations invade Czechoslovakia to counter reform attempts during the "Prague Spring" of Premier Alexander Dub ek.

1970s. Strict repression and control of the population by the Communist Party.

1977. Some political dissidents, emboldened by principles of human rights, begin to visibly resist the communist leadership.

1980s. Worsening economic conditions lead to increasing numbers of protests against communism.

1990. The first post-communist parliamentary elections are held in Czechoslovakia, and the new government embarks on a series of reforms to replace the communist economic system with a capitalist system.

1992. The second post-communist elections result in a leadership stalemate between the Czech and Slovak republics under the federal Czechoslovak state.

1993. The Republic of Slovakia is constituted on January 1. In February, it establishes a separate Slovakian currency.

2000. Slovakia is invited to begin accession talks with the European Union, of which it is already an associate member.