The
history of Slovenia chronicles the period of the
Slovene territory from the 5th century BC to the present times. In the
Early Bronze Age, Proto-
Illyrian tribes settled an area stretching from present-day
Albania to the city of
Trieste. Slovenian territory was part of the
Roman Empire, and it was devastated by Barbarian incursions in
late Antiquity and
Early Middle Ages, since the main route from the
Pannonian plain to
Italy ran through present-day Slovenia.
Alpine Slavs, ancestors of modern-day
Slovenes settled the area in the late 6th Century A.D. The
Holy Roman Empire controlled the land for nearly 1,000 years, and between the mid 14th century and 1918 most of Slovenia was under
Habsburg rule. In 1918, Slovenes joined
Yugoslavia, while the west of the country was annexed to
Italy. Between 1945 and 1990,
Slovenia was under Yugoslav Communist regime. The country gained its independence from
Yugoslavia in June 1991, and is today a modern state and a member of the
European Union and
NATO.