The oldest archeological artefacts found in the area of current Slovak Republic are dated back to the early paleolithic era. These artefacts, along with some others (e.g. the famous Cranium Mold of a neanderthal man found in Gánovce, or the oldest statue of a female body found in Moravany nad Váhom) confirm that this territory was inhabited by prehistoric people. The history in this territory begins with the arrival of Celtic and German tribes (500BC-400AD). They were skilled metallurgists, they were manufacturing edged weapons and building towns-oppida. The area was occupied by the great Roman empire around 0-150AD. The German tribes were later driven out by Huns led by Atila.

The first Slavonic tribes arrived in the sixth century. Some archeologists are not sure about the time and expanse of this colonisation (there are some finds that suggest that Slavs were here much earlier), but this is the most common and widely appreciated version. The Slavs elected a frankish merchant Samo as their King. The Samo’s empire was formed, considered to be the first state in this area.

Samo allied with the frankish emperor Charlemagne in the war against the Asian tribes, which were making raids in the Slavian territory. Avars were beaten and assimilated in the Slavian population, but with the death of Samo, the empire disappeared. With the frankish influence prince Pribina formed a Nitra principality, but he was then driven out by prince Mojmír. With help of Franks Pribina deposed Mojmír and appointed his nephew Rastislav the Prince of Moravia. Rastislav asked Franks for priests, but he didn’t recieve any answer. So he appealed to Constantinopolis.They sent two missionaires, brothers Constantin and Methodius. They knew the language of southern Slaves and invented a new alphabet for it. They translated the most important liturgical texts.

The brothers arrived in 863 and they founded a school for priests. They, along with Svätopluk, the next Great Moravian king, widely spreaded the christian religion. But the Great Moravian empire fell in 906 after raids of Magyar tribes.

The Slovak territory then belonged to the empires ruled by Premyslid dynasty, which later ruled only Czech empire. The Slovakia became a part of Kingdom of Hungary, a multinational political unit ruled by the Arpad dynasty. The first king, proclaimed by both German (the „Holy Roman“) empire and the pope, was Saint-Protector Stephen I.

The Hungarian Empire, inhabited in large part by former Magyars, adopted the whole culture and principles of the former Slavonic empires in this region. Since that time, Slovakia was for over one thousand years integrated in the Hungarian Empire, later Austro-Hungarian Empire, until the end of World War I.

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The oldest history of Slovakia