History of Slovenia

In the 5th century only Styria, Carniola, Carinthia and Gorizia regions of Slovenia were inhabited. At first the country was influenced greatly by the Bavarians and the Frankish Empire of the Carolingians. From the 9th till the 19th centuries Slovenia was under the rule of Germanic Holy Roman Empire. At the end of the 19th century the Slovenes fell under the control of the Austrian Crown. During the World War I after the total destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Slovenia became the part of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In 1929 it was renamed as Yugoslavia.

From time to time in the country appeared the movements of resistance, generally initiated by non-communist nationalists. In 1945, after victory of the communists in the World War II Slovenia became a constituent republic of the new Yugoslav federation. In 1991 Slovenia declared its independence. Two years later the country joined the United Nations. The negotiations with European Union were held since 1992, but the main obstacles were the disputes with Italy over territory. The country managed to enter EU only in 2004. It began circulating Euro in 2007. It is interesting that nowadays Slovenia is the only one of the ex-Yugoslav republics to have a multi-party democracy. After the separation from Yugoslavia, Slovenia’s tourism industry was really damaged, since that time it has being constantly recovering.