1st January is  the day of Independence of Slovakia who has had a very rich and diverse history. Earlier quiz on independence day of Australia which also falls on 1st January was posted. Its people arrived from the east and settled in this terrain, the peoples we now refer to as the Slavic people. They all share a common ancestor and still share many things today, not least the language and the colours of the flag. Indeed, Slovakia takes its very name from the people that settled there. This is the backdrop to Slovakia’s somewhat turbulent history.

These peoples then went on to become a part of the Holy Roman Empire – a primarily Germanic and Slavic federal system operating until the early nineteenth century. After the Holy Roman Empire’s decline, two new principal states set up power, that of Prussia and Austria-Hungary. The latter encompassed the regions of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, what would later be known Czechoslovakia.

Czechoslovakia itself was split during Nazi occupation and rejoined after the Nazi’s had been defeated. However, a new threat to its stability erupted with that of Communism and remaining under the flank of Soviet rule. A strict authoritarianism existed under this Communist state and it would only be in the late 1980’s when mass protests emerged for independence of the Czech Republic and that of Slovakia.

This was achieved on the 1^st January 1993. Since then, Slovakia has become an emergent force in European affairs with an active and growing economy. It has since joined the European Union and later adopted the Euro as its official currency. This quiz takes a look at all of these effects which caused independence as well as those which resulted from independence. This also takes into consideration the linguistic and cultural renewals which took place post-independence.