In spite of the threat of Magyarization, the C19th saw a Slovak National Awakening within the country, where Slovak intellectuals began fighting the cause for a separate Slovak State. In 1863, the Matica Slovenska was founded and became the focal point for Slovak Culture. The Bishop of Banska Bystrica, Stefan Moyses became its first president. Meanwhile, the cause for a separate Slovak State was also taken up outside of Europe across the Atlantic, in the USA and Canada. There were also similar moves by the Czechs, who were suffering a comparable fate to the Slovaks, under Austrian rule.
At the beginning of the C20th, as the Hungarian government stepped up their policy of Magyarization, the calls for a separate Slovak State also increased. Furthermore, Andrej Hlinka, a Catholic priest who was central in championing the Slovak cause, founded the Slovak People's Party. Throughout Europe, change was rife and revolution was in the air, the situation in Hungary was also heading for a change, and it finally came in the catalyst of WWI.
During the war, Slovaks and Czechs, both at home and abroad, fiercely campaigned for an independent state from Austria-Hungary. In October 1915, Czech and Slovak Americans signed the Cleveland Agreement, which set out the creation of a federal state composing of the two independent nations. Three notable campaigners for a Czechoslovak Republic during the war were Tomas G. Masaryk, a Czech academic, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, a Slovak who also became a general in the French army, and Eduard Benes, a young Czech graduate, who had been singled out by Masaryk. Together, the three formed a triumvirate, who worked hard to form a new independent state.
In May 1918, Masaryk together with Slovak and Czech organizations in America signed the Pittsburgh Pact, a further agreement to how a Czechoslovak Republic would operate after the war had finished. Later that year, the 1st Czechoslovak Republic was officially recognized by France, UK and the USA. The final act that would spell the end of Hungarian rule in Slovakia took place in Martin, in October 1918. The newly constituted Slovak National Council issued the Declaration of the Slovak Nation, finally putting an end to the Hungarian rule in Slovakia, and announcing the participation of Slovakia in a Czechoslovak Republic.