History
The name derives from the early mediæval Slavic principality of Carantania, whose territory stretched from the present-day Austrian state of Carinthia down to the Styrian lands on the Sava river. The area was part of the Imperial Carinthian duchy from 976, which in 1867 became a Cisleithanian crown land Austria-Hungary. Upon the Austrian defeat in World War I, the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later renamed to Yugoslavia) in 1919 occupied southern Carinthia. The Meža Valley, the area around Dravograd and Jezersko, which are today the territory of Slovenia, were split off without a referendum. However, in the occupied region north and west of this, on 10 October 1920 the voters in the Carinthian Plebiscite determined that those parts should become part of the newly founded Republic of Austria.
During the 1941 Balkan Campaign of World War II, the area was annexed by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Reichsgau of Carinthia. Upon the German Instrument of Surrender in May 1945, Yugoslav Partisans entered the region, killing numerous alleged collaborators in what became known as the Bleiburg tragedy. The region formed part of the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Slovenia and became part of independent Slovenia after the Breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991.
Read more about this topic: Carinthia (Slovenia)
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