The Slovaks are a people linguistically and culturally related to but distinct from the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia. During the centuries in which the Czechs were dominated by Germans, the Slovaks were under the domination of Hungary. They were united with the Czechs in 1918 in Czechoslovakia, but it was an uneasy union. With the achievement of freedom from Soviet domination the Slovaks achieved independence in the Republic of Slovakia.

The earliest known inhabitants of the region of Slovakia were Celtic tribes, such as the Coini. The Germanic tribe of the Quadri drove out the Cotini from the region, but later the Quadri migrated west. The vacated lands were occupied by Slavic tribes including the Slovaks.

In the tenth centuries the Magyars from the steppes invaded the Middle Danuble River Basin. They also conquered the mountainous region to the north, Slovakia. In the 16th century the Ottoman Turks captured the plains of the Danube Basin. The Magyar aristocrats fled to Slovakia further strengthening the domination of the Slovaks.

(To be continued.)