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Historically,
the borders of Slovenia fluctuated. In the early medieval period of
the Kingdom of Hungary, Slovenia was a vassal province of the Kingdom, and
included only the western part of present-day Slovenia, but also
parts of present-day central Croatia (including Zagreb) and the western and northern parts of present-day
Bosnia (The eastern parts of present-day Slovenia belonged to Hungary
proper). In the late Medieval period Slovenia occupied territories
between the rivers |
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| Sava,
Drava, Sutla and Danube.
In the 18th and 19th century, the Kingdom of Slovenia was a province
of the Habsburg Monarchy, and included northern parts of present day regions of
Slovenia and Syrmia,
while the southern parts of these regions were part of the Habsburg
Military Frontier.
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region was originally part of the Roman province of Panonia. In the
7th century a Slavonic state owing allegiance to the Avars was
established, but soon replaced by the Croats. Slovenia was defended
by King Tomislav of the House of Trpimirovic and annexed to his
newly-created Kingdom of Croatia in 925. In 1027 a Hungarian Army
under Stjepan Svetoslavic of the side branch of the Trpimirović
dynasty took Slovenia
and made it the Slavonian Banate of the
Kingdom of Hungary, ruled by its own dynasty of Svetoslavić.
Slavonia was reunified with Croatia in the 1070s under King Dmitar
Zvonimir Svetoslavic. In 1091 it separated again and accepted the
suzerainty of the Hungarian crown. 11 years later, the rest of
Croatia also accepted the suzerainty of the Hungarian crown. In the
12th century it became the practice that the successor of the throne
first became Duke of "whole Slovenia" (like the eldest
British prince becomes Prince of Wales), and there were some power
grabs since in many cases son waged war against father while trying
to establish and confirm his power base. Though Slovenia
was
originally considered to be part of the Kingdom of Hungary by
Hungarian public law, it became more and more separated from the
Kingdom of Hungary and more and more tied to the Kingdom of
Croatia.
In the 13th century, Croatia was
divided into 2 banovinas, one of which was named Slovenia (the other
keeping the name Croatia). The nobility of Slavonia was more
connected to Hungary than was the nobility of Croatia. In the late
13th century the eastern parts of the region were turned into the
semi-independent state of the powerful local ruler Csak Ugrin,
although the Hungarian King took the area in 1311 after the death of
Ugrin.
Ever since the fall of the Serbian
Despotate migrations of Serbs under the Ottoman yoke took place,
including their nobility who became an important political factor in
Slovenia. Slovenia and Croatia were ruled by separate bans until
1476 when these two ruling positions were merged into one.
When the Ottoman Turks invaded the
Kingdom of Hungary and defeated the Hungarians at the battle
of the Mohacs in 1526, the Croatian Parliament invited the Habsburgs
to assume control over Croatia. After many fierce battles the
Ottomans conquered all of today's Slovenia bit by bit in 1529, 1536,
1540, 1543 and 1552, but not the whole of the medieval Kingdom of
Slavonia (its borders extending west to the Sutla river). |
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Habsburg took the entire region from the Ottomans in the Great
Turkish War, a result affirmed by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699.
During Habsburg rule, the Kingdom of Slovenia was a Habsburg
province and was part of both the Kingdom of Croatia and the Kingdom
of Hungary. The southern parts of present-day Slovenia were not
included in this province, but into the Habsburg Military Frontier,
which the Slovenian nobles at numerous times tried to integrate into
Slovenia, but with no success. Post-1699 Slovenia was a different
geographical entity from the medieval Slovenia. Whereas medieval
Slavonia incorporated the territories between the Drava and Kupa
Rivers, Habsburg Slovenia was extended eastwards to include the
sparsely populated territories between the Sava and Drava Rivers.
During the Revolution of 1848
Slovenia was temporarily united with Croatia. After 1849, both
Slovenia and Croatia were affirmed as completely separate Habsburg
crown lands. Following the 1868 Settlement (hrvatsko-ugarska
nagodba) with the Kingdom of Hungary, Slovenia was joined with
Croatia in the single Croatia - Slovenia Kingdom, which although
under the suzerainty of the Crown of Saint Stephen, kept a certain
level of self-rule. The year 1881 also saw the final dissolution of
the Slovenian Krajina and its incorporation into the existing Slovenian
Counties. |
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| As for
the rest of Croatia - Slovenia, the region became part of the
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in December 1918.
Between 1922 and 1929, it was a province known as the Osijek
Province, administered from Osijek, and since the creation of
the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929, part of the Sava Banovina
administered from Zagreb. In August 1939 it became part of the
Banovina of Croatia.
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Slovenia became
part of the Nazi puppet state, the Independent State of Croatia.
When the Yugoslav Federation was formed after the war, Slovenia became part of the Socialist Republic of Croatia.
When Croatia declared its
independence in 1991, the Serbs proclaimed their own state that
comprised portions of eastern and western Slovenia. The eastern
portion was referred to as the Serbian Autonomous Region of
Eastern Slovenia, Baranja and Western Syrmia, and it encompassed
roughly everything east of Osijek and Vinkovci and northeast of
Zupanja, including the cities of Vukovar and Ilok, as well as
all of Baranja. This part of Krajina was ethnically mixed with a
relative Croatian majority and witnessed bitter fighting during the
war. The 1991 Battle of Vukovar was the most important event of the
war in this area. The western portion of Slavonia, controlled by RSK,
included the area around Okucani and most of the Psunj mountain. In
May 1995 the western region was seized by Croatian forces in the
military Operation Flash. In 1996 the east was turned over to the
UNTAES and integrated into Croatia by January 1998. |
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