ABSTRACT
For long centuries, local and regional identities belonged to the core of the self-understanding of European masses, localities and regions often being the most tangible geographic frame of everyday experiences. Since the late 18th century, when the industrial revolution and new ideas of a political community based on liberty, equality, and nationalism started to penetrate in Western Europe, this spatial affiliation has been condemned by advocates of modernity and nationalism. The contest of nation building in multicultural areas had a wide-ranging impact on the process of region-building. The first remarkable aspect is the discouragement and abandonment of regional particularities. The Hungarian government, fearing Slovak nation-builders in Northern Hungary, promoted the idea that East Slovaks were an ethnic group on their own, developed under various influences from Hungarian, Polish, and Ruthenian cultures. Through the creation of the people called Slovyaks, a pro-Hungarian minority was to be formed.
