Slovene Lands

TheSlovene landsorSlovenian lands(Slovene:Slovenske deželeor in shortSlovensko) is the historicaldenomination for the territories inCentralandSouthern Europewhere people primarily spokeSlovene.The Slovene lands were part of theIllyrian provinces,theAustrian EmpireandAustria-Hungary(inCisleithania). They encompassedCarniola,southern part ofCarinthia,southern part ofStyria,Istria,Gorizia and Gradisca,Trieste,andPrekmurje.Their territory more or less corresponds to modernSloveniaand the adjacent territories inItaly,Austria,Hungary,andCroatia,whereautochthonousSloveneminoritieslive.The areas surrounding present-daySloveniawere never homogeneously ethnicallySlovene.

Terminology

Like theSlovaks,theSlovenespreserve the self-designation of theearly Slavsas their ethnonym. The termSlovenia( "Slovenija" ) was not in use prior to the early 19th century, when it was coined for political purposes by the Sloveneromantic nationalists,most probably by some pupils of the linguistJernej Kopitar.It started to be used only from the 1840s on, when the quest for a politically autonomousUnited Sloveniawithin theAustrian Empirewas first advanced during theSpring of Nations."Slovenia" became ade factodistinctive administrative and political entity for the first time in 1918, with the unilateral declaration of theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.

Although Slovenia did not exist as an autonomous administrative unit between 1921 and 1941, theDrava Banovinaof theKingdom of Yugoslaviawas frequently called simply "Slovenia", even in some official documents.

Consequently, most Slovene scholars prefer to refer to the "Slovene lands" in English rather than "Slovenia" to describe the territory of modern Slovenia and neighbouring areas in earlier times. The use of the English term "Slovenia" is generally considered by Slovene scholars to be anachronistic due to its modern origin.

Geographical extension

Peter Kosler's "Map of Slovene Land and Provinces",drawn during theSpring of Nationsin 1848 and published only in 1861, was the first map of the Slovene lands as a territorial unit.

In the 19th century, theterritoriesregarded as part of the Slovene lands were:

• Carniola
• southernCarinthia
• Lower Styria
• Slovene Marchin theVas countyof theKingdom of Hungary,and the adjacent zones of theZalacounty (Beltinci,Turnišče,Velika Polana,Kobilje)
• Jennersdorfin the Kingdom of Hungary (now inBurgenland,Austria);
• most of theCounty of Gorizia and Gradisca,except for the lowlands south-west ofGradiscaandCormons,which were already part of historicalFriuli
• theImperial Free City of Trieste,a city in modernItaly
• northernIstria,in the modern municipalities ofKoper,Izola,Piran,Hrpelje-Kozina,MuggiaandDolina
• Venetian Slovenia(Italian:Slavia Vèneta), until 1797 part of theRepublic of Venice,laterKingdom of Lombardy–Venetia
• Croatia–Slovenia border disputes

TheŽumberakand the area aroundČabar,which today belong toCroatia,were long part of theDuchy of Carniola,and thus generally regarded as part of the Slovene lands,especially prior to the emergence ofRomantic nationalismin the 19th century, when the exact ethnic border betweenSlovenesandCroatshad not yet been specified.

Not all of the territories referred to as the "Slovene lands" have always had a Slovene-speaking majority. Several towns, especially in Lower Styria, maintained aGerman-speakingmajority until the late 1910s, most notablyMaribor,CeljeandPtuj.The area aroundKočevjeinLower Carniola,known as theGottschee County,had a predominantlyGerman-speaking populationbetween the 14th century and 1941 when they were resettled in an agreement betweenNazi GermanandFascist Italianoccupation forces.A similar German "linguistic island" within an ethnically Slovene territory existed in what is now the ItaliancomuneofTarvisio,but used to belong to the Duchy of Carinthia until 1919.The city ofTrieste,whose municipal territory has been regarded by Slovenes to be an integral part of the Slovene lands, has always had aRomance-speaking majority (firstFriulian,thenVenetianandItalian).A similar case is that of the town ofGorizia,which served as a major religious center of the Slovene lands for centuries, but was inhabited by a mixed Italian-Slovene-Friulian-German population.The towns ofKoper,IzolaandPiran,surrounded by an ethnically Slovene population, were inhabited almost exclusively by Venetian-speakingItaliansuntil theIstrian–Dalmatian exodusin the late 1940s and 1950s, as were large areas of thecomuneofMuggia.In southern Carinthia, a process ofGermanizationstarted by the end of the 1840s, creating several German-speaking areas within what had previously been a compact Slovene territory. Since the late 1950s, most of southern Carinthia has had a German-speaking majority, with the localSlovene minorityliving in a scattered pattern throughout the area.

On the other hand, other areas with historically important Slovene communities, such as theCroatiancities ofRijekaandZagreb,as well as the Slovene villages in theSomogycounty ofHungary(theSomogy Slovenes), were never regarded to be part of the Slovene lands.The same goes for the Slovene communities in south-westFriuli(in the villages of Gradisca, Gradiscutta, Gorizzo, Goricizza,Lestizza,and Belgrado in the lowerTagliamentoarea) which extinguished themselves by the end of the 16th century.

See also

• History of Slovenia
• Carinthian Slovenes
• Hungarian Slovenes
• Slavia Friulana(Beneška Slovenija)
• Slovene minority in Italy (1920–1947)

Further reading

• Bogo Grafenauer,Slovensko narodno vprašanje in slovenski zgodovinski položaj(Ljubljana:Slovenska matica,1987)
• Josip Gruden&Josip Mal,Zgodovina slovenskega naroda I.-II.(Celje: Mohorjeva družba, 1992-1993)
• Janko Prunk,A brief history of Slovenia: Historical background of the Republic of Slovenia(Ljubljana: Mihelač, 1994)

External links

• Peter Kozler's 1853 map of the Slovene lands on Geopedia