ABSTRACT
The key to the dam question lies in the difficult relationship between Slovak nationalism and the Czechs and Hungarians. Gabcikovo has become a symbol of Slovak national independence and pride, to be defended equally against Prague and Budapest. The Danube region has a complex and conflictual history, and it is only against this background that the present suspicions and conflicts can be understood. The Czechs and Slovaks had separate histories until 1918 when they came together in a common state. Slovaks were part of Hungary since the early Middle Ages, but the Czech lands, Slovakia and Hungary never were under a single political authority until 1526. The Slovaks faced a repressive Magyarisation policy that saw their schools and cultural organisations suppressed and their political representation denied. Not surprisingly, both Czechoslovakia and Hungary were both internally unstable, threatened from outside and manipulated instruments of the Great Powers in the inter-war period.
