The ideology of nationalism exerted a powerful influence on the social thought, politics, culture and economics of Europe from the end of the eighteenth century through the nineteenth century; these factors also affected the Slovaks.

European nationalism rooted itself in the fertile soil produced by the rapid social changes that were occurring all over Europe during this period, but always in specific historic forms. Industrialisation, urbanisation and the modernisation that was associated with them combined with the rapid expansion of the socio-economic influence of the industrial and financial bourgeoisie, weakened the old social relationships that had been based on feudal principles and on the ancient privileges of the nobility. The advocates of the Enlightenment and incipient liberalism were soon engaged in a struggle against the old monarchic, dynastic and feudal principles that continued to dominate the continent, and they directed their attention not to traditional groups, but rather to what they defined as natural human communities.

Across a large swathe of Europe, the new cultural phenomenon of Romanticism became obsessed with ethnic manifestations – folk languages, folk literature and folklore. The comparative studies of Miroslav Hroch have shown that many ethnic groups, even those without their own ethnic or national states, all followed much the same line of development. The typical national movement began with a scholarly phase, in which an intellectual elite took an intense interest in the language, literature and history of its nation. Eventually, this scholarly interest led to a phase of political agitation.