Slovenia

Slovenia is a small Central European country where the Alps meet the Adriatic, between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia. Ljubljana, near the center, is the capital and largest city. Slovene is the official language, and Hungarian and Italian share that status in the mixed areas along those borders.

People lived here some 250,000 years ago, and a pierced cave bear bone found at Divje Babe in 1995 may be among the earliest flutes. Pile dwellings more than 4,500 years old in the Ljubljana Marsh yielded a wooden wheel of the same age. Slavs settled the eastern Alps from the 6th century, and their duchy of Carantania was among the first Slavic states to accept Christianity. In 1335 Carinthia and Carniola passed to the Habsburgs, who held most Slovene lands until 1918, apart from Napoleon's Illyrian Provinces. In the 19th century the Romantic poet France Prešeren brought poetry in Slovene to its peak.

In December 1918 the region joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia, and in 1941 Germany, Italy, Hungary and Croatia divided it among themselves. After 1945 it became one of the six Yugoslav republics and industrialized rapidly in the 1950s. In December 1990 more than 88% of voters backed independence, declared on 25 June 1991 and secured after the Ten-Day War. A parliamentary republic, its National Assembly holds most legislative power, with seats reserved for the Hungarian and Italian minorities.

Forests cover about 60% of its 20,271 km² (7,827 sq mi), and Triglav, at 2,864 m (9,396 ft), appears on the coat of arms. Slovenia joined the European Union and NATO in 2004 and adopted the euro on 1 January 2007. Gorenje home appliances and the drug makers Krka and Lek are among its companies, and Koper is its seaport. The Karst gave its name to limestone landscapes, with Postojna Cave and the UNESCO-listed Škocjan Caves, and the country is home to the Lipizzan horse and the Carniolan honey bee.