Editing Slovaks (section)

== Ethnogenesis ==
[[File:Jan Holly Vilimek.jpg|thumb|[[Ján Hollý]] (portrait from 1885)]]
The early Slavs came to the territory of Slovakia in several waves from the 5th and 6th centuries and were organized on a tribal level. Original tribal names are not known due to the lack of written sources before their integration into higher political units. Weakening of tribal consciousness was probably accelerated by [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]], who did not respect tribal differences in the controlled territory and motivated remaining Slavs to join together and to collaborate on their defense. In the 7th century, Slavs founded a larger tribal union: [[Samo's empire]]. Regardless of Samo's empire, the integration process continued in other territories with various intensities.{{sfn|Marsina|2013|p=65}}

The final fall of the [[Avar Khaganate]] allowed new political entities to arise. The first such political unit documented by written sources is the [[Principality of Nitra]], one of the foundations of later common ethnic consciousness.{{sfn|Marsina|2013|p=67}} At this stage in history it is not yet possible to assume a common identity of all ancestors of Slovaks in the neighboring eastern territories, even if it was inhabited by closely related Slavs. The Principality of Nitra became a part of [[Great Moravia]], a common state of Moravians (Czech ancestors were joined only for a few years). The relatively short existence of Great Moravia prevented it from suppressing differences which resulted from its creation from two separate entities, and therefore a common "Slovak-Moravian" ethnic identity failed to develop.{{sfn|Marsina|2013|p=67}} The early political integration in the territory of present-day Slovakia was, however, reflected in linguistic integration. While dialects of the early ancestors of Slovaks were divided into West Slavic (western and eastern Slovakia) and non-West Slavic (central Slovakia), between the 8th and 9th centuries both dialects merged, thus laying the foundations of a later Slovak language.

The 10th century is a milestone in the Slovak [[ethnogenesis]].{{sfn|Marsina|2009|p=16}} The fall of Great Moravia and further political changes supported their formation into a separate nation. At the same time, with the extinction of the [[Proto-Slavic]] language, between the 10th and 13th centuries Slovak evolved into an independent language (simultaneously with other Slavic languages). The early existence of the Kingdom of Hungary positively influenced the development of common consciousness and companionship among Slavs in the Northern Hungary, not only within boundaries of present-day Slovakia.{{sfn|Marsina|2013|p=67}} The clear difference between Slovaks and Hungarians made adoption of a specific name unnecessary and Slovaks preserved their original name (in Latin e.g. ''Slavus''), which was also used in communication with other Slavic peoples (Polonus, Bohemus, Ruthenus).{{sfn|Marsina|2013|p=71}} In political terms, the medieval Slovaks were a part of the multi-ethnic political nation ''[[Diet of Hungary|Natio Hungarica]]'', together with Hungarians (or, more exactly, Magyars), Slavonians, Germans, Romanians and other ethnic groups in the Kingdom of Hungary. Since a medieval political nation did not consist of ordinary people but nobility, membership of the privileged class was necessary for all these peoples (''nobiles Hungary'').{{sfn|Marek|2011|p=13}}

Like other nations, the Slovaks began to transform into a modern nation from the 18th century under the idea of [[national romanticism]]. The modern Slovak nation is the result of radical processes of modernization within the Habsburg Empire which culminated in the middle of the 19th century.<ref name="Auer">Stefan Auer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=BhNsM_ttOb4C&q=Liberal+Nationalism+in+Central+Europe Liberal Nationalism in Central Europe], Routledge, 2004, p. 135</ref> The transformation process was slowed down by conflict with Hungarian nationalism and the ethnogenesis of the Slovaks become a political question, particularly regarding their deprivation and preservation of their language and national rights. In 1722, [[Michal Bencsik]], professor of law at the [[University of Trnava]], published a theory that nobility and burghers of [[Trenčín]] should not have same privileges as Hungarians, because they are descendants of [[Svatopluk I of Moravia|Svatopluk]]'s people (inferior to Magyars). Neither Bencsik nor his Slovak opponent [[Ján Baltazár Magin]] put the continuity of settlement into serious question. Also, the first history of Slovaks written by Georgius Papanek (or Juraj Papánek), traced the roots of the Slovaks to Great Moravia<ref name=Kamusella134>{{Harvnb|Kamusella|2009|p=134}}</ref> in ''Historia gentis Slavae. De regno regibusque Slavorum...'' (1780) ("History of the Slovak nation: On the kingdom and kings of the Slovaks").<ref>{{cite web |last1=Papánek |first1=Juraj |title=Historia gentis Slavae / Dejiny slovenského národa |url=https://www.databazeknih.cz/knihy/historia-gentis-slavae-dejiny-slovenskeho-naroda-386992 |website=Databazeknih.cz |publisher=Perfekt |access-date=21 June 2022 |archive-date=21 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220621100727/https://www.databazeknih.cz/knihy/historia-gentis-slavae-dejiny-slovenskeho-naroda-386992 |url-status=live }}</ref> Papánek's work became a basis for argumentation of the Slovak national revival movement. However, the Slovak national revival not only accepted the continuity of population but also emphasized it, thus proving that Slovaks are equal citizens of the state and neither a Hungarian "unique statesmanlike gift" nor Christianization was required for the foundation of the state. 

In 1876, Hungarian linguist [[Pál Hunfalvy]] published a theory about missing continuity between Slovaks and Slavs before the arrival of the Hungarians. Hunfalvy tried to prove that ancestors of Slovaks did not live in the territory of the present-day Slovakia before arrival of the old Hungarians (Magyars), but Slovaks emerged later from other Slavs who came to the Kingdom of Hungary from neighbouring countries after the 13th century.{{sfn|Marsina|2009|p=18}} [[János Karácsonyi]] assumed that central and northern Slovakia were uninhabited (1901) and in his next work "Our historical right to the territorial integrity of our country" (1921) he claimed that the remainder of the original Slavs were assimilated by Magyars and modern Slovaks are descendants of immigrants from Upper Moravia and [[Oder]] (the population density on these territories was too low in that time and large numbers of colonists coming from these areas was not possible{{sfn|Marsina|2009|p=18}}). The theory was then misused by inter-war Hungarian revisionists, who questioned continuity to support Hungarian claims on Slovakia. In 1982, when rich archaeological evidence proving the opposite was already available,{{sfn|Marsina|2009|p=19}} a similar theory was published by Hungarian historian [[György Györffy]].{{sfn|Marsina|2009|p=19}} Györffy accepted that smaller groups of Slavs could remain in the territory of Slovakia, but stated that the Slovaks' origin was in sparse settlement of various Slavic groups strengthened by later colonization. According to Ferenc Makk, the medieval [[Moravians]] are not the ancestors of Slovaks and the majority of the Slovak people are descended from later Slavic newcomers.<ref>Ferenc, Makk, "[http://www.lib.jgytf.u-szeged.hu/folyoiratok/tiszataj/96-10/makk.pdf És erővel elfoglalta egész Pannóniát] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031030309/http://www.lib.jgytf.u-szeged.hu/folyoiratok/tiszataj/96-10/makk.pdf |date=2016-10-31 }}", In: Tiszatáj, 1996-10, p. 76</ref>

[[File:001Bratislava Kral Svatopluk1.jpg|thumb|right|200px|alt=Svatopluk I|A statue of [[Svätopluk I]]]]
The opposite theory, supporting the supposed [[Great Moravia|former common past of the Czech and Slovak nations]], thus also legitimizing the creation of the united [[Czechoslovakism|Czechoslovak nation]],<ref name=Marsina17>{{Harvnb|Marsina|1997|p=17}}</ref> gained political support in inter-war Czechoslovakia.<ref name=Marsina17/> Like Karácsonyi, Czech historian [[Václav Chaloupecký]] assumed that northern and central parts of Slovakia remained uninhabited until the 13th century and that the south-western part was inhabited by Czechs. Yet, in 1946 Chaloupecký assumed that the Slovak nation emerged from neighboring Slavs and had been formed only in the 17th century. His theory about the lack of population in the greater part of Slovakia covered by forests had already been scientifically refuted by [[Daniel Rapant]] (e.g. in ''O starý Liptov'', 1934), and was proven wrong by numerous archaeological finds<ref group="note">For example Slavic mounds in Krasňany near Žilina, cemetery in Martin, magnate mounds in Turčianska Blatnica, Malý Čepčín and Žabokreky, settlements in Liptovský Michal, Liptovská Mara (unearthed during construction of the water dam), Vlachy, Liptovská Štiavnica, Paludza, Sokolče, Lisková, Podtureň, Prosiek, Bobrovník, Likavka – all of them from 8–10th century. (Uhlár, 1992, p. 326)</ref> and rejected by Czechoslovak historiography. On the other hand, inter-war Slovak autonomists, opposing ethnic Czechoslovakism, dated the existence of the Slovak nation to the time of Pribina (trials to document existence of Slovaks in early Slavic era, i.e. in the time of Samo's empire, are marginal and exist outside of modern mainstream Slovak historiography).

After the [[dissolution of Czechoslovakia]] in 1993, the formation of independent Slovakia motivated interest in a particularly Slovak national identity.<ref name="Warhola">{{cite web|url=http://www.umaine.edu/polisci/files/2010/04/mpsa05_proceeding_84621.pdf|title=Changing Rule Between the Danube and the Tatras: A study of Political Culture in Independent Slovakia, 1993 – 2005|last=W. Warhola|first=James|year=2005|work=The [[University of Maine]]|publisher=Midwest Political Science Association 2005 Annual National Conference, April 9, 2005|location=[[Orono, Maine]], United States.|access-date=2011-06-15|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915011227/http://www.umaine.edu/polisci/files/2010/04/mpsa05_proceeding_84621.pdf|archive-date=September 15, 2012}}</ref> One reflection of this was the rejection of the common Czechoslovak national identity in favour of a purely Slovak one.<ref name="Warhola"/>