In his novel A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway chronicled world history's worst mountain fighting which took place in the Kobarid region of Slovenia between Italians and Austrians from 1915-1917 during WWI.

The survival of the Slovenian people may be traced back to their language, unique on the globe.

This small land, about the size of New Jersey or Israel, today with a population of less than 2 million has been subject to foreign rule for more than 2000 years, emerging only in our time as free country. In gaining its nationhood, Slovenia has emerged economically as one of the strongest of the former socialist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. As a crossroads between Rome and Constantinople, between northern and southern Europe—wedged in between Italy and Austria, alongside Croatia and Hungry-- the peoples here learned flexibility even as they inherited a powerful middle European rationality.

The Early Peoples, along with Caesar, Attila the Hun
The world’s oldest known musical instrument, a primitive bone flute, dating back at least 45,000 years was found during a 1995 archaeological dig in a cave in western Slovenia. (The age was verified by electron spin resonance at the City University of New York and the flute, from the bone of a cave bear, still works.) Earlier digs showed that present-day Slovenia was settled beginning in at least 100,000 BC. Other early inhabitants, from about 4000 years ago, included dwellers in what is a still a marsh just outside present day Ljubljana. They lived in round huts on stilts, but were eventually overrun by tribes from France, German and Czech lands.

In 181 BC the Romans established their first colony in what was to become Slovenia, setting up in the northern Adriatic town of Aquileia (Oglej in Slovene) and eventually building their famous roads. A very early Roman town was named Emona, on the site of today’s Ljubljana. Among the visitors included Julius Caesar, himself, for whom the Julian Alps are named. The Romans dominated the area for more than six centuries (one can see ample ruins, including very clearly marked tombstones in the Slovenian Museum of History) and then the Huns, led by Attila, invaded. This rule was soon eclipsed by Germanic tribes, who eventually moved east to Italy leaving a vacuum.

Arrival of the Slovenes
Moving into this opening were the direct ancestors of today’s Slovenes who arrived from Eastern Europe in the 6th Century, coming over the Carpathian mountains, most likely driven away by horse-mounted Tartars and Mongols. They settled in the Eastern Alps and by the time, in the early 8th Century, that they had also migrated south and east covering much of modern day Slovenia, they numbered 200,000 people, speaking their own version of a Slavic language.

It was at this point that a new class of "ennobled commoners" emerged and it was they who crowned a new Knez or Grand Duke of the first Slavic state, the Duchy of Carantania. This democratic process, providing for consent of the governed, was unique in feudal Europe during the early middle ages and it is believed to have influenced Thomas Jefferson in the formation of his theory of a contract between the people and the government and in the writing of the American Declaration of Independence, 1000 years later. U.S. President Bill Clinton referred to this process when he spoke in Ljubljana in June, 2001.

By 745, however, the Caranthanian Slovenes had to recognize the supremacy of the Bavarian nobility, the forebears of feudal lords who would rule until modern times. Most of Slovenia’s important castles were built between the 10th and 13th Centuries and many monasteries were established, as symbols of the partnership between the Roman Catholic Church and the German princes. During the early middle ages the Habsburg family was one of many German aristocratic clans struggling for power in Europe. But beginning in the early 14th century, through intermarriage and dynastic conquest, the Habsburgs consolidated their power. They came to control the Slovenian territory (along with most of central Europe) and managed to hang on until the end of World War I, dominating the local population in every sense, stifling national aspirations and closing down on political and cultural development.

More than 100 peasant uprisings and revolts occurred during this time, reaching their peak about 1500. Attacks by Ottoman Turks on southeast Europe began in 1408 and continued until 1650. This was also a period of Habsburg decline, which was halted in part by the introduction of a series of reforms by Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa (1740-80). These reforms are widely cited by Slovenian sources as a foundation for the strength of contemporary Slovenia. The changes included more power to the provincial governments, abolition of customs duties within the empire and mandatory elementary school for all citizens. Her son, Joseph II (1780-90) abolished serfdom in 1782, paving the way for a Slovenian middle-class and allowed complete religious freedom. These reforms produced a flourishing of arts and letters, with poets, playwrights and historians publishing, along with the launching, in 1797, of the first Slovenian newspaper.

Now Came Napoleon
Shortly thereafter, in 1809, following his defeat of the Austrians at the battle of Wagram, Napoleon decided to cut the Habsburg Empire off from the Adriatic. To do this he created six "Illyrian Provinces" from Slovenian and Croatia, and made Ljubljana the capital. Though this state lasted only until 1813, France instituted a number of reforms, including the use of Slovene in primary and lower secondary schools, and in public offices. The interlude also saw the beginning of the awakening of Slovenian political nationalism, probably Napoleon’s lasting legacy in the region.

Industrial Revolution, Poetry of Preseren, The Railroad
Austrian rule, when restored in 1814, came under the iron fist of Prince Clemens von Metternich. But the process of change, in the wake of the industrial revolution and rampant nationalist aspirations, could not be put back in the bottle, even of Metternich’s reinstituted Austrian feudal system. This period of Romantic Nationalism all over Europe had its particular voice in Slovenia. This was the time of the great Slovenian national poet, France Preseren. His bittersweet voice, progressive ideas, demands for political freedom and longings for the unity of all Slovenes caught hold of the nation then, and they have never let it go. Today’s most important national cultural observance, Preseren Day, is celebrated with a total holiday from work and school for all Slovenes. With dignity and pride the country comes together for the annual Preseren Awards, saluting the major figures in the arts and humanities. And the poet’s monumental "Battle at Savica" is an effort to instill national consciousness in his fellow Slovenes. In real life the poet suffered sorrow and disappointment, including a failed love affair with an heiress. In the very center of the nation, at Ljubljana’s Three Bridges, stands a mighty sculptured statue of the poet, but he looks out sadly at the balcony of his unrequited love. Preseren was the first to demonstrate the full literary potential of the Slovenian language and his work inspires Slovenians, and others in translation, to this day.

By 1850 a railroad line had been completed from Vienna to Trieste at the Adriatic, not only creating the first important world port for the Austrian Empire, but laying the base for what was to be the future industrial Slovenia. A rider today on this track, from Maribor to Ljubljana, can experience one of the finest short railroad journeys on the globe. Particularly in winter, with the hills and the magnificent Sava River rushing in a gorge below, the scenes on the two hour ride are of a terrain and a land worth making an intercontinental trip to see. Along with earlier educational reforms, this other Austrian legacy created the base for the might modern Slovenia’s industrial strength.

All this amounted to progress for the upper classes, but during the period 1850 to 1910 more than 300,000 Slovenes, 56% of the population, emigrated to other countries. This vast flow explains why the second largest Slovenian city is not Maribor, with its population of 110,000, but Cleveland, where more than 125,000 Slovenians reside, actually a much larger total when you count modern day progeny. The Slovenian government maintains full time diplomatic representation in Cleveland and at latest count the population included nearly 1,000 Ph.D. holders in its ranks.

The Kingdom, Prelude to Modern Times, Yugoslavia
With the defeat of Austria in World War I, and the dissolution of the Habsburg Dynasty, Slovenes banded together with Croatians and Serbians into a unified Kingdom. This entity, which lasted until 1940, was dominated by the notion of south Slav, or "Yugoslav" unity. Though there was much political intrigue, and substantial domination by the larger Serbian elements, the Slovenes did enjoy cultural and linguistic autonomy and economic progress was rapid.

Yugoslavia avoided World War II until the Axis powers forced a treaty. Slovenia was split up among Germany and Italy, with repression and deportations widespread. To counter this communists and other left groups formed a "partisan front," and, immediately at the end of the war, Josip Broz Tito consolidated power. Though supported by the Soviet Union, by 1948, Tito had distanced himself from Stalin. Without good access to the markets of the Soviet bloc, Yugoslavia had to look elsewhere. This was propitious for Slovenia which became a bridge to the wider world, resulting in an early baseline of flexibility in industry. This was to be another element in the success of Slovenia when the market system was introduced with the end of the Yugoslavian Republic in 1991.

Nationhood
In April 1990 Slovenia because the first Yugoslav republic to hold free elections, ending 45 years of Communist rule and placing Milan Kucan in the Presidency. In December of that year, 88% of the electorate voted for an independent republic. Slovenia declared independence on June 25, 1991, as President Kucan told a joyous crowd in the Ljubljana’s Congress Square, "This evening dreams are allowed. Tomorrow is a new day."

Within two days the Yugoslavian Army marched on Slovenia, meeting substantial resistance and though it was a fearsome time, the conflict lasted only a few days. The European Community formally recognized the new nation on January 15, 1992. There are nearly 200 countries on the planet today and over a quarter of them have populations smaller than Slovenia’s. Until ten years ago Slovenia was always part of a larger country or a great empire. None-the-less, the Slovenes have survived as a separate culture, with its own tongue, its unique history.