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139-528: The Slovak Atlantic Commission was founded in 1993 by Slovak diplomats to support the accession of the Slovak Republic into NATO and EU . At the same time became an observer and associate member of the multinational non-governmental organisation Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA). In 2004 the Slovak Atlantic Commission became a full-fledged member of ATA. In the early 2000s, the organization

278-564: A civilian vicus and several farms of the villa rustica type. The name of this settlement was Gerulata . The military fort had an auxiliary cavalry unit, approximately 300 horses strong, modelled after the Cananefates . The remains of Roman buildings have also survived in Stupava , Devín Castle , Bratislava Castle Hill, and the Bratislava- Dúbravka suburb. Near the northernmost line of

417-784: A hunting trip, which forced most of the Mongolian army to retreat back to Mongolia so that the princes of the blood could be present for the election of a new great khan. This is attested to by one primary source: the chronicle of Giovanni da Pian del Carpine , who after visiting the Mongol court , stated that the Mongols withdrew for this reason; he further stated that God had caused the Great Khan's death to protect Latin Christendom. As Stephen Pow pointed out in his analysis of this issue, by Carpini's account,

556-571: A lasting legacy in Central and Eastern Europe. The Glagolitic script and its successor Cyrillic were disseminated to other Slavic countries, charting a new path in their sociocultural development . Following the disintegration of the Great Moravian Empire at the turn of the tenth century, the Hungarians annexed the territory comprising modern Slovakia. After their defeat on the river Lech ,

695-471: A messenger would have to be able to make the journey from Mongolia to Central Europe in a little over three months at a minimum; the messenger would have to arrive in March, meaning he took about three months in the middle of winter from the time of the khan's death. Carpini himself accompanied a Mongol party in a much shorter journey (from Kiev to Mongolia) in 1246, where the party "made great speed" in order to reach

834-516: A period of relative prosperity. There was progress in not only the development of the country's economy but also culture and educational opportunities. Yet the Great Depression caused a sharp economic downturn, followed by political disruption and insecurity in Europe. In the 1930s, Czechoslovakia came under continuous pressure from the revanchist governments of Germany, Hungary and Poland who used

973-464: A permanent hold and driving them off. Several sources mention the Mongols deploying firearms and gunpowder weapons against European forces at the Battle of Mohi in various forms, including bombs hurled via catapult. Professor Kenneth Warren Chase credits the Mongols for introducing gunpowder and its associated weaponry into Europe. A later legend arose in Europe about a mysterious Berthold Schwarz who

1112-578: A result of the Yalta Conference , Czechoslovakia came under the influence and later under direct occupation of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact , after a coup in 1948 . 8,240 people went to forced labour camps in 1948–1953. Mongol invasion of Europe [REDACTED] Margravate of Meissen [REDACTED] Kingdom of Serbia [REDACTED] Cumania Supported by: 2nd invasion (1259–60) 3rd invasion (1287–88) From

1251-473: A rival continuation of the Magyar state that practised religious tolerance and normally had Ottoman backing. Upper Hungary, modern Slovakia, became the site of frequent wars between Catholics in the west territory and Protestants in the east, as well as against Turks; the frontier was on a constant state of military alert and heavily fortified by castles and citadels often manned by Catholic German and Slovak troops on

1390-508: A series of outposts around and just south of the Danube , the largest of which were known as Carnuntum (whose remains are on the main road halfway between Vienna and Bratislava ) and Brigetio (present-day Szőny at the Slovak-Hungarian border). Such Roman border settlements were built on the present area of Rusovce , currently a suburb of Bratislava . The military fort was surrounded by

1529-530: A significant role in Hungary. King Béla IV rebuilt the country and invested in fortifications. Facing a shortage of money, he welcomed the settlement of Jewish families, investors, and tradesmen, granting them citizenship rights. The King also welcomed tens of thousands of Kun (Cumans) who had fled the country before the invasion. Chinese fire arrows were deployed by Mongols against the city of Buda on December 25, 1241, which they overran. The Mongolian invasion taught

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1668-816: A small Crusade against the Mongols in mid-1241, but it was diverted when he died in August 1241. Instead of fighting the Mongols, the resources gathered by the Crusade was used to fight a crusade against the Hohenstaufen after the German barons revolted against the Holy Roman Emperor's son Conrad in September 1241. The Golden Horde raids in the 1280s (those in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland), were much greater in scale than anything since

1807-598: A small detachment to probe the Poles before passing on to Central Europe . One column was routed by the Poles while the other defeated the Polish army and returned. The attack on Europe was planned and executed by Subutai, who achieved perhaps his most lasting fame with his victories there. Having devastated the various Rus' principalities, he sent spies into Poland and Hungary, and as far as eastern Austria, in preparation for an attack into

1946-785: A time. The territory of Slovakia was liberated by Soviet and Romanian forces by the end of April 1945. After World War II, Czechoslovakia was reconstituted and Jozef Tiso was executed in 1947 for collaboration with the Nazis. More than 80,000 Hungarians and 32,000 Germans were forced to leave Slovakia, in a series of population transfers initiated by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference . Out of about 130,000 Carpathian Germans in Slovakia in 1938, by 1947 only some 20,000 remained. The NKVD arrested and deported over 20,000 people to Siberia As

2085-625: Is an accepted version of this page – in Europe  (green & dark grey) – in the European Union  (green)  –  [ Legend ] Slovakia , officially the Slovak Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Europe . It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to

2224-637: Is believed by some that the descendants of this group are the modern-day Bashkirs , although this people now speaks a Turkic language, not Magyar). In 1237 a Dominican friar , Julianus , set off on an expedition to lead them back, and was sent back to King Béla with a letter from Batu Khan. In this letter, Batu called upon the Hungarian king to surrender his kingdom unconditionally to the Tatar forces or face complete destruction. Béla did not reply, and two more messages were later delivered to Hungary. The first, in 1239,

2363-459: Is credited with the invention of gunpowder by 15th- through 19th-century European literature. During 1241, most of the Mongol forces were resting on the Hungarian Plain. In late March 1242, they began to withdraw. The most common reason given for this withdrawal is the Great Khan Ögedei 's death on December 11, 1241. Ögedei Khan died at the age of fifty-six after a binge of drinking during

2502-571: Is not known what happened with both Mojmír II and Svatopluk II because they are not mentioned in written sources after 906. In three battles (4–5 July and 9 August 907) near Bratislava , the Magyars routed Bavarian armies. Some historians put this year as the date of the break-up of the Great Moravian Empire, due to the Hungarian conquest; other historians take the date a little bit earlier (to 902). Great Moravia left behind

2641-708: Is primarily known for its collaboration with Nazi Germany, which included sending troops to the invasion of Poland in September 1939 and the Soviet Union in 1941. On 24 November 1940, Slovakia joined the Axis when its leaders signed the Tripartite Pact . The country was strongly influenced by Germany and gradually became a puppet regime in many respects. Meanwhile, the Czechoslovak government-in-exile sought to reverse

2780-500: Is the GLOBSEC Bratislava Global Security Forum, which was founded in 2005 by a group of students around Róbert Vass. The conference grew from humble beginnings to become one of the top conferences of its kind in the world. SAC has built three distinct pillars representing its core activities: Strategic Forums – its flagship project is the world-class GLOBSEC Bratislava Global Security Forum, complemented by

2919-574: The Antichrist . In the 1240s the efforts of Christendom were already divided between five Crusades, only one of which was aimed against the Mongols. Initially, when Bela sent messengers to the Pope to request a Crusade against the Mongols, the Pope tried to convince them to instead join his crusade against the Holy Roman Emperor. Eventually Pope Gregory IX did promise a Crusade and the Church finally helped sanction

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3058-617: The Avar Khaghanate . In the 7th century, the Slavs played a significant role in the creation of Samo's Empire . In the 9th century, the Avar Khaghanate dissolved, and the Slavs established the Principality of Nitra , which was later conquered by the Principality of Moravia , leading to the formation of Great Moravia . In the 10th century, after the dissolution of Great Moravia, the territory

3197-683: The Battle of Legnica and Güyük's army triumphed in Transylvania , Subutai was waiting for them on the Hungarian plain. The newly reunited army then withdrew to the Sajó river where they inflicted a decisive defeat on King Béla IV of Hungary at the Battle of Mohi . Again, Subutai masterminded the operation, and it would prove one of his greatest victories. The Mongols invaded Central Europe with three armies. One army defeated an alliance which included forces from fragmented Poland and their allies, led by Henry II

3336-655: The Battle of Legnica , the Knights Templar that numbered between 65 and 88 during the battle lost only three knights and 2 sergeants . Austrian knights under Duke Frederick also fared better in fighting the Mongol invasion in Vienna. King Béla IV of Hungary hired the help of the Knights Hospitaller , as well as training his own better-armed local knights, in preparation for the Second Mongol invasion of Hungary . In

3475-875: The Battle of Mohi (11 April 1241). Invasions were also launched into the Caucasus against the Kingdom of Georgia , the Chechens , the Ingush , and Circassia though they failed to fully subjugate the latter . More invasions were launched in Southeast Europe against Bulgaria , Croatia , and the Latin Empire . The operations were planned by General Subutai (1175–1248) and commanded by Batu Khan ( c. 1207–1255) and Kadan (d. c. 1261), two grandsons of Genghis Khan . Their conquests integrated much of Eastern European territory into

3614-593: The Carpathians ). Tens of thousands of Wallachians and Moldavians lost their lives defending their territories from the Golden Horde . Crops and goods plundered from Wallachian settlements seem to have been a primary supply source for the Golden Horde. The invaders killed up to half of the population and burned down most of their settlements, thus destroying much of the cultural and economic records from that period. Neither

3753-530: The Cumans (Batu returned to put it down, and spent roughly a year doing so). Others argue Europe's bad weather had an effect: Hungary has a high water table so it floods easily. An analysis of tree rings there found that Hungary had cold wet weather in early 1242, which likely turned Hungary's central plain into a huge swamp; so, lacking pastures for their horses, the Mongols would have had to fall back to Rus' in search of better grasslands. Regardless of their reasons,

3892-531: The Czarna Hańcza , where they set up camp. There, the Voivode attacked them with the remaining Cracovian knights, which were few in number, but determined to vanquish the invader or die. Surprise gave the Poles an initial advantage and they managed to kill many Mongol soldiers. When the invaders realized the actual numerical weakness of the Poles, they regrouped, broke through the Polish ranks and defeated them. During

4031-656: The Egri , Budin and Uyvar eyalets . Thököly 's kuruc rebels from the Principality of Upper Hungary fought alongside the Turks against the Austrians and Poles at the Battle of Vienna of 1683 led by John III Sobieski . As the Turks withdrew from Hungary in the late 17th century, the importance of the territory composing modern Slovakia decreased, although Pressburg retained its status as

4170-728: The Gravettian culture, principally in the river valleys of Nitra , Hron , Ipeľ , Váh and as far as the city of Žilina , and near the foot of the Vihorlat , Inovec, and Tribeč mountains, as well as in the Myjava Mountains. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth bone (22,800 BCE), the famous Venus of Moravany . The statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany . Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of

4309-553: The Hallstatt period disappeared in Slovakia during the century before the middle of first millennium BCE, after strife between the Scytho -Thracian people and locals, resulting in abandonment of the old hill-forts. Relatively depopulated areas soon caught the interest of emerging Celtic tribes, who advanced from the south towards the north, following the Slovak rivers, peacefully integrating into

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4448-731: The Hunnic empire . In 568, a Turko-Mongol tribal confederacy, the Avars , conducted its invasion into the Middle Danube region. The Avars occupied the lowlands of the Pannonian Plain and established an empire dominating the Carpathian Basin . In 623 , the Slavic population living in the western parts of Pannonia seceded from their empire after a revolution led by Samo , a Frankish merchant. After 626,

4587-765: The Kipchak Khanate . Berke was not interested in invading Europe as much as stopping his cousin Hulagu Khan from ravaging the Holy Land . Berke had converted to Islam and watched with horror as his cousin destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate , the spiritual head of Islam as far as Berke was concerned. The Mamluks of Egypt, learning through spies that Berke was both a Muslim and not fond of his cousin, appealed to him for help and were careful to nourish their ties to him and his Khanate. Both entities were Turkic in origin. Many of

4726-410: The Little Carpathians . During Hallstatt times, monumental burial mounds were erected in western Slovakia, with princely equipment consisting of richly decorated vessels, ornaments and decorations. The burial rites consisted entirely of cremation. Common people were buried in flat urnfield cemeteries. A special role was given to weaving and the production of textiles. The local power of the "Princes" of

4865-400: The Middle Paleolithic era (200,000–80,000 BCE) come from the Prévôt (Prepoštská) cave in Bojnice and from other nearby sites. The most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium (c. 200,000 BCE), discovered near Gánovce , a village in northern Slovakia. Archaeologists have found prehistoric human skeletons in the region, as well as numerous objects and vestiges of

5004-668: The Munich Agreement and the subsequent German occupation of Czechoslovakia and to return the Republic to its 1937 boundaries. The government operated from London and it was ultimately considered, by those countries that recognised it, the legitimate government for Czechoslovakia throughout the Second World War. As part of the Holocaust in Slovakia , 75,000 Jews out of 80,000 who remained on Slovak territory after Hungary had seized southern regions were deported and taken to German death camps . Thousands of Jews, Gypsies and other politically undesirable people remained in Slovak forced labour camps in Sereď , Vyhne, and Nováky. Tiso, through

5143-545: The Principality of Nitra was given to his nephew Svätopluk as an appanage . The rebellious prince allied himself with the Franks and overthrew his uncle in 870. Similarly to his predecessor, Svätopluk I (871–894) assumed the title of the king ( rex ). During his reign, the Great Moravian Empire reached its greatest territorial extent, when not only present-day Moravia and Slovakia but also present-day northern and central Hungary , Lower Austria , Bohemia , Silesia , Lusatia , southern Poland and northern Serbia belonged to

5282-458: The Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina, and Radošina. These findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe . During the Bronze Age , the geographical territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BCE. Major cultural, economic, and political development can be attributed to

5421-488: The Treaty of Saint Germain in 1919 and Treaty of Trianon in 1920. In the peace following the World War, Czechoslovakia emerged as a sovereign European state. It provided what were at the time rather extensive rights to its minorities. During the Interwar period , democratic Czechoslovakia was allied with France, and also with Romania and Yugoslavia ( Little Entente ); however, the Locarno Treaties of 1925 left East European security open. Both Czechs and Slovaks enjoyed

5560-407: The Tripartite Pact . The local Jewish population was heavily persecuted, with almost 70,000 Jews being murdered or deported . Internal opposition to the fascist government's policies culminated in the Slovak National Uprising , itself triggered by the Nazi German occupation of the country. Although the uprising was eventually suppressed, partisan resistance continued, and Czechoslovak independence

5699-490: The Velvet Revolution peacefully ended Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia, sometimes referred to as the Velvet Divorce . Slovakia is a developed country with an advanced high-income economy . The country maintains a combination of a market economy with a comprehensive social security system, providing citizens with universal health care , free education , and one of

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5838-418: The independence for the territories of Bohemia , Moravia , Silesia , Upper Hungary and Carpathian Ruthenia from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and proclaimed a common state, Czechoslovakia . In 1919, during the chaos following the break-up of Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia was formed with numerous Germans , Slovaks , Hungarians and Ruthenians within the newly set borders. The borders were set by

5977-411: The "Land of the Slavs " ( Slovensko in Slovak stemming from the older form Sloven/Slovienin ). As such, it is a cognate of the words Slovenia and Slavonia . In medieval Latin, German, and even some Slavic sources, the same name has often been used for Slovaks, Slovenes, Slavonians, and Slavs in general. According to one of the theories, a new form of national name formed for the ancestors of

6116-410: The 1220s into the 1240s, the Mongols conquered the Turkic states of Volga Bulgaria , Cumania and Iranian state of Alania , and various principalities in Eastern Europe . Following this, they began their invasion into Central Europe by launching a two-pronged invasion of then-fragmented Poland , culminating in the Battle of Legnica (9 April 1241), and the Kingdom of Hungary , culminating in

6255-415: The 9th and 10th centuries, though many states conquered by the Mongols have also faced steppe tactics successfully before. A significant number of important castles and towns in Hungary had also resisted the formidable and infamous Mongol siege tactics. John Keegan thought that Europeans had an advantage due to more food surpluses enabling better campaigns, and larger horses. Some historians believe that

6394-402: The Austrian borders and the Adriatic shores in Dalmatia . The Mongols appointed a darughachi in Hungary and minted coins in the name of the Khagan. According to Michael Prawdin , the country of Béla was assigned to Orda by Batu as an appanage . At least 20–40% of the population died, by slaughter or epidemic. Rogerius of Apulia , an Italian monk and chronicler who witnessed and survived

6533-478: The Avar power started a gradual decline but its reign lasted to 804. The Slavic tribes settled in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the fifth century. Western Slovakia was the centre of Samo 's empire in the seventh century. A Slavic state known as the Principality of Nitra arose in the eighth century and its ruler Pribina had the first known Christian church of the territory of present-day Slovakia consecrated by 828. Together with neighbouring Moravia ,

6672-450: The Caucasus in 1263, after Berke Khan had lured him north and away from the Holy Land. Thus, the Kipchak Khanate never invaded Europe, keeping watch to the south and east instead. Berke sent troops into Europe only twice, in two relatively light raids in 1259 and 1265, simply to collect booty he needed to pay for his wars against Hulagu from 1262 to 1265. The Papacy had rejected the pleas of Georgia in favor of launching crusades in Iberia and

6811-452: The Château Béla Central European Strategic Forum. Transfer of Know How focuses on handing over Central Europe’s recent experience with Euro-Atlantic integration to countries in the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and Northern Africa. Youth Leadership Programme - underlines SAC’s long-term commitment to supporting young professionals. Its key project is the annually held GLOBSEC Young Leaders’ Forum (GYLF). Slovak Republic This

6950-443: The Croatian soldiers, the Mongols retreated and Béla IV was awarded Croatian towns and nobility. Only the city of Split did not aid Béla IV in his escape from the Mongols. Some historians claim that the mountainous terrain of Croatian Dalmatia was fatal for the Mongols because of the great losses they suffered from Croat ambushes in mountain passes. In any case, though much of Croatia was plundered and destroyed, long-term occupation

7089-402: The Cuman camp and killed Kotony. This led the enraged Cumans to ride south, ravaging the countryside, and slaughtering the unsuspecting Magyar population. The Austrian troops retreated to Austria shortly thereafter to gain more western aid. The Hungarians now stood alone in the defense of their country. The 1241 Mongol invasion first affected Moldavia and Wallachia (situated east and south of

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7228-458: The German cleric Wiching the Bishop of Nitra . After the death of Prince Svatopluk in 894, his sons Mojmír II (894–906?) and Svatopluk II succeeded him as the Prince of Great Moravia and the Prince of Nitra respectively. However, they started to quarrel for domination of the whole empire. Weakened by an internal conflict as well as by constant warfare with Eastern Francia , Great Moravia lost most of its peripheral territories. In

7367-399: The Habsburg side. By 1648, Slovakia was not spared the Counter-Reformation , which brought the majority of its population from Lutheranism back to Roman Catholicism . In 1655, the printing press at the Trnava university produced the Jesuit Benedikt Szöllősi's Cantus Catholici, a Catholic hymnal in Slovak that reaffirmed links to the earlier works of Cyril and Methodius. The Ottoman wars ,

7506-464: The Hungarian state. The ethnic composition of Slovakia became more diverse with the arrival of the Carpathian Germans in the 13th century and the Jews in the 14th century. A significant decline in the population resulted from the invasion of the Mongols in 1241 and the subsequent famine. However, in medieval times the area of Slovakia was characterised by German and Jewish immigration, burgeoning towns, construction of numerous stone castles, and

7645-423: The Hungarians abandoned their nomadic ways and settled in the centre of the Carpathian valley, slowly adopting Christianity and began to build a new state—the Hungarian kingdom . In the years 1001–1002 and 1018–1029, Slovakia was part of the Kingdom of Poland , having been conquered by Boleslaus I the Brave . After the territory of Slovakia was returned to Hungary, a semi-autonomous polity continued to exist (or

7784-453: The Magyars a simple lesson: although the Mongols had destroyed the countryside, the forts and fortified cities had survived. To improve their defense capabilities for the future, they had to build forts, not only on the borders but also inside the country. In the siege of Esztergom , the defenses managed to hold off the Mongolians despite the latter having overwhelming numerical superiority and 30 siege machines which they had just used to reduce

7923-405: The Mamluks were of Turkic descent and Berke's Khanate was almost totally Turkic also. Jochi, Genghis Khan's oldest son, was of disputed parentage and only received 4,000 Mongol warriors to start his Khanate. His warriors were virtually all Turkic people who had submitted to the Mongols. Thus, the Khanate was Turkic in culture and had more in common with their Muslim Turkic Mamluks brothers than with

8062-437: The Middle East, as well as preaching a Crusade against Kievan Rus in 1238 for refusing to join his earlier Balkan Crusade. Meanwhile, Emperor Frederick II , a well-educated ruler, wanted to annex Italy to unite his separated kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire and Sicily. In addition to calling a council to depose the Holy Roman Emperor, Pope Gregory IX and his successor Innocent IV excommunicated Frederick four times and labeled him

8201-446: The Mongol shamanist Hulagu and his horde. Thus, when Hulagu Khan began to mass his army for war against the Mamluk-controlled Holy Land, they swiftly appealed to Berke Khan who sent armies against his cousin and forced him to defend his domains in the north. Hulagu returned to his lands by 1262, but instead of being able to avenge his defeats, had to turn north to face Berke Khan, suffering severe defeat in an attempted invasion north of

8340-423: The Mongol invaders of Europe, knightly warfare failed even more disastrously for the Poles at the Battle of Legnica and the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohi in 1241. Feudal Europe was saved from sharing the fate of China and the Grand Duchy of Moscow not by its tactical prowess but by the unexpected death of the Mongols' supreme ruler, Ögedei, and the subsequent eastward retreat of his armies." However, during

8479-406: The Mongol invasion, Bohemia remained one of a few central European kingdoms that was never pillaged by the Mongols even though most countries around it such as Poland and Hungary were ravaged. Such was his success that chroniclers sent messages to Emperor Frederick II of his victorious defense. After these failed attempts, Baidar and Kadan continued raiding Moravia (via the Moravian Gate route into

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8618-399: The Mongol withdrawal are not fully known, but numerous plausible explanations exist. The Mongol invasion had bogged down into a series of costly and frustrating sieges, where they gained little loot and ran into stiff resistance. They had lost a large number of men despite their victories (see above). Finally, they were stretched thin in the European theater, and were experiencing a rebellion by

8757-447: The Mongols as they picked off the retreating Hungarian remnants. While the king escaped with the help of his bodyguard, the remaining Hungarian army was killed by the Mongols or drowned in the river as they attempted escape. Following their decisive victory, the Mongols now systematically occupied the Great Hungarian Plains , the slopes of the northern Carpathian Mountains , and Transylvania . Where they found local resistance, they killed

8896-576: The Mongols dismounted and climbed over the walls using nearby cliffs. The defenders were able to inflict a number of casualties on the Mongols, which enraged the latter and caused them to fight hand to hand in the streets and gather a sizable amount of loot from houses. As soon as they learned that King Bela was elsewhere, they abandoned the attack and split off to attack Split and Trogir. The Mongols pursued Béla IV from town to town in Dalmatia, while Croatian nobility and Dalmatian towns such as Trogir and Rab helped Béla IV to escape. After being defeated by

9035-463: The Mongols first launched small squadrons to attack isolated settlements in the outskirts of Vienna in an attempt to instill fear and panic among the populace. In 1241 the Mongols raided Wiener Neustadt and its neighboring districts, located south of Vienna. Wiener Neustadt took the brunt of the attack and, like previous invasions, the Mongols committed horrible atrocities on the relatively unarmed populace. The city of Korneuburg , just north of Vienna,

9174-419: The Mongols had completely withdrawn from Central Europe by mid-1242, though they still launched military operations in the west at this time, most notably the 1241–1243 Mongol invasion of Anatolia . Batu specifically decided against attending the kurultai in favor of staying in Europe, which delayed the ceremony for several years. The historian Jack Weatherford claims that the Mongol invasion concluded when

9313-450: The Mongols lost 300 to upwards of 700 men, while the defending Europeans lost 100. Austrian knights also subsequently defeated the Mongols at the borders of the River March in the district of Dévény (Devín). After the failed initial raids, the rest of the Mongols retreated after learning of the Great Khan Ögedei's death. During his withdrawal from Hungary back into Ruthenia, part of Batu Khan's army invaded Bulgaria. A Mongolian force

9452-560: The Mongols sacked it and then stormed Suzdalia . Many Rus' armies were defeated; Grand Prince Yuri was killed on the Sit River (March 4, 1238). Major cities such as Vladimir , Torzhok , and Kozelsk were captured. Afterward, the Mongols turned their attention to the steppe, crushing the Kipchaks and the Alans , and sacking Crimea . Batu appeared in Kievan Rus' in 1239, sacking Pereyaslavl and Chernigov . The Mongols sacked Kiev on December 6, 1240, destroyed Sutiejsk , and conquered Galicia along with Vladimir-Volynsky . Batu sent

9591-457: The Mongols were able to conquer Southern China which is located in a tropical climate zone and would have received far more rainfall and humidity than anywhere in Europe. The territory of Western Europe had more forests and castles than the Mongols were accustomed to, and there were opportunities for the European heavy cavalry to counter-attack. Also, despite the steppe tactics of the Avars and early Hungarians, both were defeated by Western states in

9730-465: The Mongols. The Mongols, having largely concealed their positions, began their attack the next night; after heavier-than-expected losses inflicted by Hungarian crossbowmen, the Mongols adjusted their strategy and routed the Hungarian forces rapidly. A major Hungarian loss was imminent, and the Mongols intentionally left a gap in their formation to permit the wavering Hungarian forces to flee and spread out in doing so, leaving them unable to effectively resist

9869-419: The Osi and Cotini , existed in western and central Slovakia from 8–6 BCE to 179 CE. In the second and third centuries CE, the Huns began to leave the Central Asian steppes . They crossed the Danube in 377 CE and occupied Pannonia , which they used for 75 years as their base for launching looting-raids into Western Europe. However, Attila's death in 453 brought about the disappearance of

10008-701: The Pious , Duke of Silesia in the Battle of Legnica . A second army crossed the Carpathian mountains and a third followed the Danube . The armies re-grouped and crushed Hungary in 1241, defeating the Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohi on April 11, 1241. The devastating Mongol invasion killed half of Hungary's population. The armies swept the plains of Hungary over the summer, and in early 1242 regained impetus and extended their control into Dalmatia and Moravia . The Great Khan had, however, died in December 1241, and on hearing

10147-767: The Roman hinterlands, the Limes Romanus , there existed the winter camp of Laugaricio (modern-day Trenčín ) where the Auxiliary of Legion II fought and prevailed in a decisive battle over the Germanic Quadi tribe in 179 CE during the Marcomannic Wars . The Kingdom of Vannius , a kingdom founded by the Germanic Suebi tribes of Quadi and Marcomanni , as well as several small Germanic and Celtic tribes , including

10286-757: The Slavic vernacular. On Rastislav's request, two brothers, Byzantine officials and missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius came in 863. Cyril developed the first Slavic alphabet and translated the Gospel into the Old Church Slavonic language. Rastislav was also preoccupied with the security and administration of his state. Numerous fortified castles built throughout the country are dated to his reign and some of them (e.g.,  Dowina , sometimes identified with Devín Castle ) are also mentioned in connection with Rastislav by Frankish chronicles. During Rastislav's reign,

10425-498: The Slovaks between the 13th and 14th century, possibly due to foreign influence; the Czech word Slovák (in medieval sources from 1291 onward). This form slowly replaced the name for the male members of the community, but the female name ( Slovenka ), reference to the lands inhabited ( Slovensko ) and the name of the language ( slovenčina ) all remained the same, with their base in

10564-624: The State became federalised, with Diets in Slovakia and Ruthenia. The remainder of Czechoslovakia was renamed Czecho-Slovakia and promised a greater degree of Slovak political autonomy. This, however, failed to materialise. Parts of southern and eastern Slovakia were also reclaimed by Hungary at the First Vienna Award of November 1938. After the Munich Agreement and its Vienna Award , Nazi Germany threatened to annex part of Slovakia and allow

10703-645: The Wallachians nor the army of Hungary offered much resistance against the Mongols. The swiftness of the invasion took many by surprise and forced them to retreat and hide in forests and the enclosed valleys of the Carpathians. In the end, however, the main target of the invasion was the Kingdom of Hungary. The Hungarian army arrived and encamped at the Sajó River on April 10, 1241, without having been directly challenged by

10842-464: The aggrieved minorities in the country as a useful vehicle. Revision of the borders was called for, as Czechs constituted only 43% of the population. Eventually, this pressure led to the Munich Agreement of September 1938, which allowed the majority ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland , borderlands of Czechoslovakia, to join with Germany. The remaining minorities stepped up their pressures for autonomy and

10981-521: The banks of the Sajó river in 1241 by the Mongols, Béla IV fled to today's Zagreb in Croatia . Batu sent a few tumens (roughly 20,000 men at arms) under Khadan in pursuit of Bela. The major objective was not the conquest but the capture of the Arpad king. The poorly fortified Zagreb was unable to resist the invasion and was destroyed, its cathedral burned by Mongols. In preparation for a second invasion, Gradec

11120-713: The capital of Hungary until 1848 when it was transferred back to Buda. During the revolution of 1848–49 , the Slovaks supported the Austrian Emperor , hoping for independence from the Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy , but they failed to achieve their aim. Thereafter, relations between the nationalities deteriorated (see Magyarisation ), culminating in the secession of Slovakia from Hungary after World War I. On 18 October 1918, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , Milan Rastislav Štefánik and Edvard Beneš declared in Washington, D.C.

11259-554: The city of Meissen to the ground. The Chronica sancti Pantaleonis records these attacks. After the defeat of the European forces at Legnica, the Mongols then continued pillaging throughout Poland's neighboring states, particularly Moravia . King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia returned to protect his kingdom after arriving in Legnica a day late. He gathered reinforcements from Thuringia and Saxony on his way back. He stationed his troops in

11398-461: The cultivation of the arts. The arrival of German element sometimes proved a problem for the autochthonous Slovaks (and even Hungarians in the broader Hungary), since they often quickly gained most power in medieval towns, only to later refuse to share it. Breaking of old customs by Germans often resulted in national quarrels. One of which had to be sorted out by the king Louis I. with the proclamation Privilegium pro Slavis (Privilege for Slovaks) in

11537-527: The decades following the Mongolian raids on European settlements, Western armies (particularly Hungary) started to adapt to the Mongol tactics by building better fortifications against siege weapons and improving their heavy cavalry. After the division of the Mongol Empire into four fragments, when the Golden Horde attempted the next invasion of Hungary, Hungary had increased their proportion of knights (led by Ladislaus IV of Hungary ) and they quickly defeated

11676-473: The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire , the state of Czechoslovakia was established, incorporating Slovakia. In the lead up to World War II , local fascist parties gradually came to power in the Slovak lands, and the first Slovak Republic was established as a clerical fascist client state under the control of Nazi Germany . In 1940, the country joined the Axis when its leaders signed

11815-519: The election ceremony in time, and made use of several horses per person while riding nearly all day and night. It took five months. Rashid Al-Din , a historian of the Mongol Ilkhanate , explicitly states in the Ilkhanate's official histories that the Mongols were not even aware of Ogedei's death when they began their withdrawal. Al-Din, writing under the auspices of the Mongol Empire, had access to

11954-433: The empire of the Golden Horde . Warring European princes realized they had to cooperate in the face of a Mongol invasion, so local wars and conflicts were suspended in parts of central Europe, only to be resumed after the Mongols had withdrawn. After the initial invasions, subsequent raids and punitive expeditions continued into the late 13th century. Melik , one of the princes from the Ögedei family who participated in

12093-529: The empire, but the exact borders of his domains are still disputed by modern authors. Svatopluk also withstood attacks of the Magyar tribes and the Bulgarian Empire , although sometimes it was he who hired the Magyars when waging war against East Francia . In 880, Pope John VIII set up an independent ecclesiastical province in Great Moravia with Archbishop Methodius as its head. He also named

12232-602: The expedition, invaded the Transylvania region of the Hungarian kingdom , called Sasutsi in sources. In 1223, Mongols routed a near 50,000 army of Kievan Rus' at the Battle of the Kalka River , near modern-day Mariupol , before turning back for nearly a decade. Ögedei Khan ordered Batu Khan to conquer Rus' in 1235. The main force, headed by Jochi 's sons, and their cousins, Möngke Khan and Güyük Khan , arrived at Ryazan in December 1237. Ryazan refused to surrender, and

12371-640: The fighting, many Polish prisoners of war found ways to escape and hide in the nearby woods. The Polish defeat was partly influenced by the initially successful Polish knights having been distracted by looting. On 9 April 1241, Mongol detachments entered the Margravate of Meissen and the March of Lusatia following a decisive Mongol victory at the Battle of Legnica in Poland. The Mongol light reconnaissance units, led by Orda Khan , pillaged through Meissen and burned most of

12510-563: The forms Slovakia and Schlowakei starting to appear in the 16th century. The present Slovak form Slovensko is first attested in the year 1675. The oldest surviving human artefacts from Slovakia are found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom and are dated at 270,000 BCE, in the Early Paleolithic era. These ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from

12649-463: The geography was no longer in their favor. To venture farther would have put their army at a disadvantage. This was because there was no more pastureland, which their methods of warfare relied upon, and the more humid coastal climate would weaken the Mongol bows . However, a counter to this assertion is that the Mongols were willing to fight in the densely populated areas of Song China and India. Furthermore,

12788-490: The granting of presidential exceptions, allowed between 1,000 and 4,000 people crucial to the war economy to avoid deportations. Under Tiso's government and Hungarian occupation, the vast majority of Slovakia's pre-war Jewish population (between 75,000 and 105,000 individuals including those who perished from the occupied territory) were murdered. The Slovak state paid Germany 500 RM per every deported Jew for "retraining and accommodation" (a similar but smaller payment of 30 RM

12927-478: The heartland of Europe. Having a clear picture of the European kingdoms, he prepared an attack nominally commanded by Batu Khan and two other familial-related princes. Batu Khan, son of Jochi , was the overall leader, but Subutai was the strategist and commander in the field, and as such, was present in both the northern and southern campaigns against Rus' principalities. He also commanded the central column that moved against Hungary. While Kadan 's northern force won

13066-475: The initial Mongol invasion and the subsequent raids afterwards, heavily armored knights and cavalry proved more effective at fighting the Mongols than their light-armored counterparts. During the Battle of Mohi, for example, while the Hungarian light cavalry and infantry were decimated by Mongol forces, the heavily armored knights in their employ, such as the Knights Templar , fought significantly better. During

13205-472: The invasion, pointed out not only the genocidal element of the occupation, but also that the Mongols especially "found pleasure" in humiliating local women. But while the Mongols claimed control of Hungary, they could not occupy fortified cities such as Fehérvár , Veszprém , Tihany , Győr , Pannonhalma , Moson , Sopron , Vasvár , Újhely , Zala, Léka , Pozsony , Nyitra , Komárom , Fülek and Abaújvár . Learning from this lesson, fortresses came to play

13344-509: The last few hundred years, an invasion seemed impossible, and Hungary was no longer a predominantly soldier population. Only rich nobles were trained as heavy-armored cavalry. The Hungarians had long since forgotten the light-cavalry strategy and tactics of their ancestors, which were similar to those now used by the Mongols. The Hungarian army (some 60,000 on the eve of the Battle of Mohi ) was made up of individual knights with tactical knowledge, discipline, and talented commanders. Because his army

13483-417: The local climate shifted to a wetter and colder environment. That, in turn, caused flooding of the formerly dry grasslands and created a marshy terrain. Those conditions would have been less than ideal for the nomadic Mongol cavalry and their encampments, reducing their mobility and pastureland, curtailing their invasion into Europe west of the Hungarian plain, and hastening their retreat. The true reasons for

13622-947: The longest paid parental leaves in the OECD . Slovakia is a member of the European Union , the Eurozone , the Schengen Area , the United Nations , NATO , CERN , the OECD, the WTO , the Council of Europe , the Visegrád Group , and the OSCE . Slovakia is also home to eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The world's largest per-capita car producer, Slovakia manufactured a total of 1.1 million cars in 2019, representing 43% of its total industrial output. Slovakia's name means

13761-464: The main Golden Horde Army in the hills of western Transylvania. By this time as well, many Eastern and Central European countries had ended their hostilities with one another and united to finally drive out the remnants of the Golden Horde. Guerrilla warfare and stiff resistance also helped many Europeans, particularly those in Croatia and Durdzuketia , in preventing the Mongols from setting

13900-509: The meantime, the semi-nomadic Magyar tribes, possibly having suffered defeat from the similarly nomadic Pechenegs , left their territories east of the Carpathian Mountains , invaded the Carpathian Basin and started to occupy the territory gradually around 896. Their armies' advance may have been promoted by continuous wars among the countries of the region whose rulers still hired them occasionally to intervene in their struggles. It

14039-448: The mountainous border regions of Bohemia where the Mongols would not be able to utilize their cavalry effectively. By that time, Mongolian forces had divided into two, one led by Batu and Subutai who were planning to invade Hungary , and another led by Baidar and Kadan who were ravaging their way through Silesia and Moravia . When they arrived to attack Bohemia , the kingdom's defenses discouraged them from attacking and they withdrew to

14178-509: The news, all the "Princes of the Blood," against Subutai's recommendation, went back to Mongolia to elect the new Khan . After sacking Kiev , Batu Khan sent a smaller group of troops to Poland, destroying Lublin and defeating an inferior Polish army. Other elements—not part of the main Mongol force—saw difficulty near the Polish-Halych border. The Mongols then reached Polaniec on

14317-420: The northwest. Slovakia's mostly mountainous territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi), hosting a population exceeding 5.4 million. The capital and largest city is Bratislava , while the second largest city is Košice . The Slavs arrived in the territory of the present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries. From the late 6th century, parts of modern Slovakia were incorporated in

14456-429: The occupied territories. On Christmas 1241, the costly siege of Esztergom destroyed the capital and economic center of the Kingdom of Hungary , forcing the capital to be moved to Buda . During the winter, contrary to the traditional strategy of nomadic armies which started campaigns only in spring-time, they crossed the Danube and continued their systematic occupation, including Pannonia . They eventually reached

14595-469: The official Mongol chronicle when compiling his history, the Altan Debter . John Andrew Boyle asserts, based on the orthography, that Al-Din's account of the withdrawal from central Europe was taken verbatim from Mongolian records. Another theory is that weather data preserved in tree rings points to a series of warm, dry summers in the region until 1242. When temperatures dropped and rainfall increased,

14734-552: The older form (compare to Slovenian counterparts). Most foreign translations tend to stem from this newer form ( Slovakia in English, Slowakei in German, Slovaquie in French, etc.). In medieval Latin sources, terms: Slavus , Slavonia , or Slavorum (and more variants, from as early as 1029) have been used. In German sources, names for the Slovak lands were Windenland or Windische Lande (early 15th century), with

14873-639: The place of settlement for nearly two-thirds of the Magyar nobility fleeing the Turks and became far more linguistically and culturally Hungarian than it was before. Partly thanks to old Hussite families and Slovaks studying under Martin Luther , the region then experienced a growth in Protestantism . For a short period in the 17th century, most Slovaks were Lutherans . They defied the Catholic Habsburgs and sought protection from neighbouring Transylvania ,

15012-461: The population. Where the locale offered no resistance, they forced the men into servitude in the Mongol army. Still, tens of thousands avoided Mongol domination by taking refuge behind the walls of the few existing fortresses or by hiding in the forests or large marshes along the rivers. The Mongols, instead of leaving the defenseless and helpless people and continuing their campaign through Pannonia to Western Europe, spent time securing and pacifying

15151-582: The principality formed the core of the Great Moravian Empire from 833. The high point of this Slavonic empire came with the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863, during the reign of Duke Rastislav , and the territorial expansion under King Svätopluk I . Great Moravia arose around 830 when Mojmír I unified the Slavic tribes settled north of the Danube and extended the Moravian supremacy over them. When Mojmír I endeavoured to secede from

15290-460: The reason for Batu's stopping at the Mohi River was that he never intended to advance further. He had made the new Rus' conquests secure for the years to come, and when the Great Khan died and Batu rushed back to Mongolia to put in his claim for power, it ended his westward expansion. Subutai's recall at the same time left the Mongol armies without their spiritual head and primary strategist. Batu Khan

15429-573: The region after the Hussite Wars . Owing to the Ottoman Empire 's expansion into Hungarian territory, Bratislava was designated the new capital of Hungary in 1536, ahead of the fall of the old Hungarian capital of Buda in 1541. It became part of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, marking the beginning of a new era. The territory comprising modern Slovakia, then known as Upper Hungary , became

15568-493: The remaining regions to be partitioned by Hungary or Poland unless independence was declared. Thus, Slovakia seceded from Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939 and allied itself, as demanded by Germany, with Hitler's coalition. Secession had created the first Slovak state in history. A one-party clerical fascist Slovak Republic governed by the far-right Hlinka's Slovak People's Party was led by President Jozef Tiso and Prime Minister Vojtech Tuka . The (First) Slovak Republic

15707-518: The remnants of the local population. From around 500 BCE, the territory of modern-day Slovakia was settled by Celts , who built powerful oppida on the sites of modern-day Bratislava and Devín . Biatecs , silver coins with inscriptions in the Latin alphabet, represent the first known use of writing in Slovakia. At the northern regions, remnants of the local population of Lusatian origin, together with Celtic and later Dacian influence, gave rise to

15846-653: The rivalry between Austria and Transylvania , and the frequent insurrections against the Habsburg monarchy inflicted a great deal of devastation, especially in the rural areas. In the Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664) a Turkish army led by the Grand Vizier decimated Slovakia. In 1682, the Principality of Upper Hungary , a short-lived Ottoman vassal state, was established in the territory of modern Slovakia. Prior to this, regions on its southern rim were already encompassed in

15985-511: The significant growth in production of copper, especially in central Slovakia (for example in Špania Dolina ) and northwest Slovakia. Copper became a stable source of prosperity for the local population. After the disappearance of the Čakany and Velatice cultures, the Lusatian people expanded building of strong and complex fortifications, with the large permanent buildings and administrative centres. Excavations of Lusatian hill forts document

16124-471: The substantial development of trade and agriculture at that period. The richness and diversity of tombs increased considerably. The inhabitants of the area manufactured arms, shields, jewellery, dishes, and statues. The arrival of tribes from Thrace disrupted the people of the Kalenderberg culture, who lived in the hamlets located on the plain ( Sereď ) and in the hill forts like Molpír, near Smolenice , in

16263-520: The supremacy of the king of East Francia in 846, King Louis the German deposed him and assisted Mojmír's nephew Rastislav (846–870) in acquiring the throne. The new monarch pursued an independent policy: after stopping a Frankish attack in 855, he also sought to weaken the influence of Frankish priests preaching in his realm. Duke Rastislav asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to send teachers who would interpret Christianity in

16402-447: The town of Otmuchów in Poland. A small force of Mongolians did attack the strategically located (on the way to the mountain passes) Bohemian town of Kladsko (Kłodzko) but Wenceslaus' cavalry managed to fend them off. The Mongols then tried to take the town of Olomouc , but Wenceslaus with the aid of Austrian Babenbergs repulsed the raid. A Mongol commander was captured in a sortie near Olomouc. Under Wenceslaus' leadership during

16541-460: The unique Púchov culture , with advanced crafts and iron-working, many hill-forts and fortified settlements of central type with the coinage of the "Velkobysterecky" type (no inscriptions, with a horse on one side and a head on the other). This culture is often connected with the Celtic tribe mentioned in Roman sources as Cotini . From 2  CE , the expanding Roman Empire established and maintained

16680-514: The valley of the river Morava towards the Danube ) before finally going southward to reunite with Batu and Subutai in Hungary . The Hungarians had first learned about the Mongol threat in 1229, when King Andrew II granted asylum to some fleeing Ruthenian boyars . Some Magyars (Hungarians), left behind during the main migration to the Pannonian basin , still lived on the banks of the upper Volga (it

16819-454: The wooden towers of the city. During the remaining decades of the 13th century and throughout the 14th century, the kings donated more and more royal land to the magnates with the condition that they build forts and ensure their defenses. During the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Croatia was in a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary, with Béla IV as a king. After being routed on

16958-556: The year 1381. According to this privilege, Slovaks and Germans were to occupy each half of the seats in the city council of Žilina and the mayor should be elected each year, alternating between those nationalities. This would not be the last such case. In 1465, King Matthias Corvinus founded the Hungarian Kingdom's third university, in Pressburg ( Bratislava ), but it was closed in 1490 after his death. Hussites also settled in

17097-420: Was a tribute-paying vassal of the Mongols, a status he had probably been forced to accept during the invasion of 1242. The traditional European method of warfare of melee combat between knights ended in catastrophe when it was deployed against the Mongol forces as the Mongols were able to keep a distance and advance with superior numbers. The New Encyclopædia Britannica , Volume 29 says that "Employed against

17236-502: Was also pillaged and destroyed. The Duke of Austria, Frederick II , had previously engaged the Mongols in Olomouc and in the initial stages of the Battle of Mohi. Unlike in Hungary however, Vienna under the leadership of Duke Frederick and his knights, together with their foreign allies, managed to rally quicker and annihilate the small Mongolian squadron. After the battle, the Duke estimated that

17375-411: Was created in 1048 by king Andrew I ) called Duchy of Nitra . Comprising roughly the territory of Principality of Nitra and Bihar principality , they formed what was called a tercia pars regni , third of a kingdom. This polity existed up until 1108/1110, after which it was not restored. After this, up until the collapse of Austria-Hungary in 1918, the territory of Slovakia was an integral part of

17514-771: Was defeated by the Bulgarian army under Tsar Ivan Asen II . A larger force returned to raid Bulgaria again the same year, though little is known of what happened. According to the Persian historian Rashid-al-Din Hamadani , the Bulgarian capital of Tarnovo was sacked. This is unlikely, but rumor of it spread widely, being repeated in Palestine by Bar Hebraeus. The invasion of Bulgaria is mentioned in other contemporary sources, such as Philippe Mouskès, Thomas of Cantimpré and Ricoldo of Montecroce. Contemporary documents indicate that by 1253, Kaliman I

17653-547: Was finally defeated in 1259, when Berke ruled the Horde. Batu Khan was unable to turn his army west until 1255, after Möngke had become Great Khan in 1251, and he had repaired his relations with the Great Khanate. However, as he prepared to finish the invasion of Europe, he died. His son did not live long enough to implement his father and Subutai's plan to invade Europe, and with his death, Batu's younger brother Berke became Khan of

17792-476: Was granted a royal charter or Golden Bull of 1242 by King Béla IV, after which citizens of Zagreb engaged in building defensive walls and towers around their settlement. The Mongols' pursuit of Béla IV continued from Zagreb through Pannonia to Dalmatia . While in pursuit, the Mongols under the leadership of Kadan (Qadan) attacked Klis Fortress in Croatia in March 1242. Due to the strong fortifications of Klis,

17931-812: Was inactive and without budget. It was revived in the early 2000s by Róbert Vass [1] , who later founded the GLOBSEC conference and acted as Secretary General of SAC. Currently, Róbert Vass is the CEO and Executive Vice-President of the Central European Strategy Council , the umbrella organisation for SAC and its partner organisations – the Centre for European Affairs (CEA) and the Central European Policy Institute (CEPI). An important role in SAC´s history

18070-408: Was integrated into the Principality of Hungary , which then became the Kingdom of Hungary in 1000. In 1241 and 1242, after the Mongol invasion of Europe , much of the territory was destroyed, but was recovered largely thanks to Béla IV . During the 16th and 17th centuries, southern portions of present-day Slovakia were incorporated into provinces of the Ottoman Empire . After World War I and

18209-477: Was not able to resume his plans for conquest to the "Great Sea" (the Atlantic Ocean) until 1255, after the turmoil after Ögedei's death had finally subsided with the election of Möngke Khan as Great Khan. From 1241 to 1248, a state of almost open warfare existed between Batu, son of Jochi, and Güyük , son of Ögedei. The Mongol Empire was ruled by a regency under Ögedei's widow Töregene Khatun , whose only goal

18348-647: Was not experienced in nomadic warfare, King Béla welcomed the Cuman King Kuthen (also known as Kotony ) and his fighters. However, the Cuman invitation proved detrimental to the Hungarians because Batu Khan considered this acceptance of a group he considered rebels as justifications for his invasion of Hungary. After rumors began to circulate in Hungary that the Cumans were agents of the Mongols, some hot-headed Hungarians attacked

18487-466: Was paid by Croatia ). After it became clear that the Soviet Red Army was going to push the Nazis out of eastern and central Europe, an anti-Nazi resistance movement launched a fierce armed insurrection, known as the Slovak National Uprising , near the end of summer 1944. A bloody German occupation and a guerilla war followed. Germans and their local collaborators completely destroyed 93 villages and massacred thousands of civilians, often hundreds at

18626-449: Was played by one of its founders, Rastislav Káčer , an experienced Slovak diplomat who has served as Slovakia's ambassador to United States , Hungary and Czech Republic as well as the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs. In 2008, he became the Chairman of the Slovak Atlantic Commission. The Managing Director of SAC is Milan Solár who is also the Programme Director of GLOBSEC. The Slovak Atlantic Commission’s most important activity

18765-454: Was re-established after the country's liberation at the end of the war. Following the Soviet-backed coup of 1948 , Czechoslovakia became a communist state within the Eastern Bloc , a satellite state of the Soviet Union behind the Iron Curtain and member of the Warsaw Pact . Attempts to liberalise communism culminated in the Prague Spring , which was suppressed by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. In 1989,

18904-438: Was sent by the defeated Cuman tribes, who asked for and received asylum in Hungary. The second was sent in February 1241 by the defeated Polish princes. Only then did King Béla call upon his magnates to join his army in defense of the country. He also asked the papacy and the Western European rulers for help. Foreign help came in the form of a small knight-detachment under the leadership of Frederick II, Duke of Austria , but it

19043-433: Was to secure the Great Khanate for her son, Güyük. There was so much bitterness between the two branches of the family that when Güyük died in 1248, he was on his way to confront Batu to force him to accept his authority. Batu also had problems in his last years with the Principality of Halych-Volhynia, whose ruler, Danylo of Halych , adopted a policy of confronting the Golden Horde and defeated some Mongol assaults in 1254. He

19182-452: Was too small to change the outcome of the campaign. The majority of the Hungarian magnates also did not realize the urgency of the matter. Some may have hoped that a defeat of the royal army would force Béla to discontinue his centralization efforts and thus strengthen their own power. Although the Mongol danger was real and imminent, Hungary was not prepared to deal with it; in the minds of a people who had lived free from nomadic invasions for

19321-521: Was unsuccessful. Saint Margaret (January 27, 1242 – January 18, 1271), a daughter of Béla IV and Maria Laskarina , was born in Klis Fortress during the Mongol invasion of Hungary-Croatia in 1242. Historians estimate that up to half of Hungary's two million population at that time were victims of the Mongol invasion of Europe. The subjugation of Hungary opened a pathway for the Mongol Horde to invade Vienna . Using similar tactics during their campaigns in previous Eastern and Central European countries,

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