Two small regions just west (Orava) and east (Spis) of the Tatra Mountains have throughout their history, until the early 1900's, belonged to the Hungarian Monarchy (which in turn became part of the Austrian Empire in the 17th century). During some periods, portions of Spis were the domains of Polish Kings. At the end of the Middle Ages these sparsely populated areas were settled by inhabitants of Polish ethnic background from overpopulated Little Poland. In later times Slovaks, Germans, Hungarians, Rusyns and Valachians were also present in Spis and Orava.

After WWI, a controversy arose as to the national status of those regions after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The entire territory of northern Hungaria with its predominately Slovak population was to become part of new Czechoslovakia, but Poland also claimed the regions of Spis and Orava since most of the population there spoke a Polish dialect, not Slovak (a similar situation was in the Duchy of Cieszyn). The Peace Conference decided to organize a plebiscite in those territories but ultimately, in 1920, both Spis and Orava were divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia without any plebiscite. In 1938 Poland annexed some Slovak parts of the controversial territory but in 1945 the pre-1938 situation was restored.

 A map showing Spis and Orava can be seen at the page about Galicia. They are marked in yellow and the red line denotes the border between Poland and Slovakia in 1920.

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