ONE LAND · 15 ATLASES
History of Slovakia in maps
Slovakia as it appears in 15 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Quadi lands, Upper Hungary, Slovakia, Czechoslovakia, Austria-Hungary. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was Slovakia before it was Slovakia? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History atlases — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.
Quadi lands (mod. Slovakia) · Ancient Rome
| 264 BC | Tribal peoples & confederations — the opening position |
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Slovakia · Norse and Aztecs
| Other peoples and states — the opening position |
NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Upper Hungary (mod. Slovakia) · Crusades
| Latin Christendom — the opening position |
CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Upper Hungary (mod. Slovakia) · Mongol Empire
| Other settled powers (Jin China, Christendom, Delhi) — the opening position |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Upper Hungary (mod. Slovakia) · Industrial Revolution
| Industrialising — the opening position | |
| Industrialising | |
| Industrialising |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Slovakia · Age of Revolutions
| The conservative monarchies — the opening position |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Czechoslovakia (Slovakia; independent from 1993) · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
Slovakia shared the history of Czechoslovakia through 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989, then chose separation, and the two halves of the federation parted peacefully on 1 January 1993. The “velvet divorce” is a rare case of a multinational state dissolving without violence, a contrast with Yugoslavia and with parts of the former Soviet Union.
| Soviet-bloc states — the opening position | |
| Independent neighbours |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Austria-Hungary (mod. Slovakia) · Russian Revolution
| Foreign powers & intervention — the opening position |
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Slovakia (Hungary) · WWI
Czechoslovakia (Slovakia) · Stalin’s Soviet Union
Czechoslovakia was the only democracy in central Europe to survive the 1930s, until Britain and France let Hitler take the Sudetenland in 1938 and the rest in 1939. Liberated largely by the Red Army, it restored a multi-party system in 1945 in which the communists were the largest party. In February 1948 they seized full power, and the trial of the party leader Rudolf Slánský in 1952 showed that loyalty to Moscow protected no one.
| Nazi Germany & its allies — the opening position | |
| Nazi Germany & its allies | |
| Other states | |
| Satellites & communist allies |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Czechoslovakia (Slovakia) · Road to WW2
| Democracies & powers fighting them — the opening position | |
| Aggressor clients & partners |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Slovakia · WW2
| Axis allies & puppets — the opening position | |
| Axis allies & puppets | |
| Soviet Union |
Slovakia · Cold War
| Soviet-aligned states — the opening position | |
| Soviet-aligned states | |
| In upheaval / changing sides | |
| Non-aligned & neutral | |
| Soviet-aligned states | |
| In upheaval / changing sides | |
| Non-aligned & neutral |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Czechoslovakia (Slovakia) · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Right won in law — the opening position | |
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Czechoslovakia (Slovakia) · Refugee crises
Slovakia’s German minority, the Carpathian Germans, was largely evacuated or expelled in 1944–46, and its large Hungarian minority faced deprivation of citizenship and a population exchange with Hungary in 1946–48. Within the restored Czechoslovak state Slovakia shared the fate of communist rule from 1948, and like the Czech lands it turns red on this map that February.
| Neutral or between the blocs — the opening position | |
| Soviet-occupied or communist | |
| Western bloc or democracy |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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