The history of Slovenia chronicles the period of the Slovene
territory from the 5th century BC to the present. 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 1000 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 the SFRY. The
country gained its independence from Yugoslavia in June 1991 and is
today a member of the European Union and NATO.
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