Sloveniaofficially Republic of Slovenia, Slovene Republika Slovenijacountry in southern Europe. It central Europe that was part of Yugoslavia for most of the 20th century. Slovenia is a small , but topographically diverse country that abuts the northwestern Balkan Peninsula. Slovenia is bordered on the west by Italy’s Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. On the southwest it is adjacent to the Italian port city of Trieste and occupies a portion of the Istrian Peninsula, where it has a short but important coastline along the Gulf of Venice. On the south, southeast, and east, Slovenia shares a long border with Croatia, and on the far northeast it touches on Hungary. The northern boundary separates it from the Austrian states of Burgenland, Styria (Steiermark), and Carinthia (Kärnten). Its capital city is Ljubljana.The Slovenes are a Slavic people related linguistically to peoples to the south, but the real matrix of Slovenia’s culture is its Eastern Alpine locationmade up of portions of four major European geographic landscapes—the European Alps, the karstic Dinaric Alps, the Pannonian and Danubian lowlands and hills, and the Mediterranean coast. Easily accessible mountain passes (now superseded by tunnels) have long shaped its character by channeling demographic, economic, social, political, and intellectual currents from both through Slovenia’s present-day territory have long served as routes for those crossing the Mediterranean and Transalpine transalpine regions of Europe.

The Slovenes are a western Slavic people with a unique dialect and grammar. For most of its history, Slovenia was split among between the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, Austria, and Hungary. During most of the 20th century it was As part of Yugoslavia , but, with the dissolution of that federation, a sovereign, internationally recognized republican government now manages Slovenia’s destiny for the first time in 1,200 came under communist rule for the bulk of the post-World War II period. With the dissolution of the Yugoslav federation in 1991, a multiparty democratic political system emerged. Slovenia’s economic prosperity in the late 20th century attracted hundreds of thousands of migrants from elsewhere in the Balkans. In the early 21st century, Slovenia integrated economically and politically with western Europe, joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as well as the European Union in 2004. Slovenia’s capital and most important city is Ljubljana.