ABSTRACT
In a sense, of course, one may assert that Slovenia’s basic cultural and social loyalties, based on the country’s Central European identity, did not change over the twentieth century. But loyalties in the sense of political sovereignty certainly did change from 1900 to 2000: from being a collection of Habsburg crown lands, the Slovene-inhabited parts of Europe evolved – through two state formations both bearing the name Yugoslavia and through the crucibles of two bloody and exhausting world wars – into a small, independent country. Needless to say, Europe also changed around Slovenia: Yugoslavia germinated, withstood a brutal world war, thrived in some ways, and then withered and disappeared; fascism and communism lent their intoxicating and dictatorial energies to an omnibus of conflicts both cold and hot; and the largely imperialistic and militaristic Great Power alliances of 1900 have been replaced by the European Union, stressing mutual prosperity, democracy, and peace.
