Formation and Today's Questions of the Northern Slovene National Border

Abstract

The question of historical development of the Slovene northern border is one of the central questions of Slovene history. In the Middle Ages it was indicated by the proportion between Slovenes and Bavarians, after 1500, however, between Slovenes and Germans. Forced assimilation got on as late as from the middle of the 19th century, before that the shift of the northern border was more a result of economic development - especially agrarian colonisation. During this process the Slovene settlement area has diminished from approximately 70.000 km2 to about 23.000 km2 (20.256 km2 of that in the Republic of Slovenia).