When did Slovakia separate from the Czech Republic?
Czech Republic–Slovakia relations
Before 1918, both countries were part of Austria–Hungary. However, after the Ausgleich of 1867 Czechia belonged to the Austrian Empire while Slovakia belonged to the administratively separate Kingdom of Hungary, and between 1918 and December 31, 1992, both countries were part of Czechoslovakia. 
Both countries established diplomatic relations on January 1, 1993. These international relations are usually referred to or described as "very good", "cordial", and "above standard" in the media. When a Czech or Slovak president is inaugurated, very often his first international visit is to the former part of the common country. The same custom applies to newly elected prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
German Zone of Protection in Slovakia
The German Zone of Protection in Slovakia, or the Protective Zone () was an area established in the western parts of the First Slovak Republic after the dissolution and division of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany during 1939. The special status of the zone was already created in the initial German-Slovak treaty of 23 March 1939, which defined the protective relationship between Germany and the Slovak State. The zone was codified by the German-Slovak treaty of August 28, 1939, which was signed in Bratislava ().
Andrej Hlinka
At the end of World War I, Hlinka significantly contributed to the creation of Czechoslovakia. On the confidential meeting of the Slovak National Party on 24 May 1918, he took a clear position and ended a prolonged discussion of undecided participants (""Thousand years old marriage with the Hungarians goes wrong. We have to divorce."") He became a member of the Slovak National Council and signed the Martin Declaration, which advocated a political union with the Czech nation. In the early period of Czechoslovakia, when a part of the Church hierarchy still preferred the Kingdom of Hungary, he intensively lobbied for the new state.
History of the Czech lands
On 1 January 1993, the Velvet Divorce occurred, whereby two separate states were created out of the former Czechoslovakia: the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic became a member of NATO in 1999, and the European Union in May 2004.Lists:
Jozef Tiso
Slovakia became the Slovak Republic, an independent state (under German protection) which was formally recognised by the Soviet Union and Germany, with "de facto" recognition by Great Britain and France (but not by the United States who were largely responsible, in 1919, for the new artificial state of Czechoslovakia). Czech émigrés and the United States considered Slovakia a puppet state of Germany. After the later recognition of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile by Great Britain, the British Foreign Office notified the Czech Foreign Ministry that Britain did not recognise any territorial claims of Czechoslovakia, nor could they commit to any fixed boundaries for the state, nor recognise the legal continuation of Czechoslovakia.
First Czechoslovak Republic
The First Czechoslovak Republic (, ) was the Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938. The state was commonly called Czechoslovakia (Czech and ). It was composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia.
Second Czechoslovak Republic
In January 1939, negotiations between Germany and Poland broke down. Hitler scheduled an invasion of Bohemia and Moravia for the morning of 15 March. In the interim, he negotiated with the Slovak People's Party and with the Kingdom of Hungary and its representatives for the Hungarian minority in Slovakia to prepare the dismemberment of the Second Czechoslovak Republic before the invasion. On 13 March he invited Monsignore Jozef Tiso to Berlin, where he offered Tiso the option of proclaiming the Slovak state and seceding from Czecho-Slovakia. In such a case, Germany would be Slovakia's protector and would not allow the Hungarians to press on Slovakia any additional territorial demands. If the Slovaks declined, Germany would occupy Bohemia and Moravia and disinterest himself in Slovakia's fate—in effect, leaving the Slovaks to the mercies of the Hungarians and the Poles (Poland had claimed the Slovak Spiš territory since the Polish-Czechoslovak War). During the meeting, Joachim von Ribbentrop passed on a (false) report saying that Hungarian troops were approaching Slovak borders. Tiso refused to make such a decision himself, after which he was allowed by Hitler to organize a meeting of the Slovak parliament ("Diet of the Slovak Land"), which would approve Slovakia's independence.
Tanks of Czechoslovakia
Thereafter, Czechoslovakia came under continuous pressure from the revisionist governments of Germany and Hungary. Eventually, this led to the Munich Agreement of September 1938, which allowed Nazi Germany to partially dismember the country by occupying what was called the Sudetenland, a region with a German-speaking majority bordering Germany and Austria. The Germans seized a large amount of the Czechoslovakian designed tanks and armored vehicles when they occupied Bohemia-Moravia in March 1939. The remainder of "rump" Czechoslovakia was renamed Czecho-Slovakia and included a greater degree of Slovak political autonomy.
After the Munich Agreement and its Vienna Award, Nazi Germany threatened to annex part of Slovakia and allow the remaining regions to be partitioned by Hungary or Poland unless independence was declared. Thus, Slovakia seceded from Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939 and allied itself, as demanded by Germany, with Hitler's coalition. The government of the First Slovak Republic, led by Jozef Tiso and Vojtech Tuka, was strongly influenced by Germany and gradually became a puppet regime in many respects.
Slovakia during World War II
The desire for autonomy was one of the great issues of Slovaks in Czechoslovakia. Josef Tiso and nationalists of the Slovak People's Party pushed for Slovak independence and aligned themselves with the National Socialist Party in Germany. On March 13, 1939 Hitler invited Tiso to Berlin. Hitler would support him if he separated Slovakia from Czechoslovakia or the Slovakia territory will be divided under Hungary, Czech Republic and Poland. On March 14, 1939 Slovakia declared independence, calling itself the Slovak Republic. German troops soon occupied Bohemia and Moravia.
Czech Cup
The Czech Cup was first held in 1961. The winner would then face the winner of the Slovak Cup in the Czechoslovak Cup final. This competition was discontinued in 1993, after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into two independent states (Czech Republic and Slovakia).
Tanks of Czechoslovakia
After the first World War, Slovakia and the regions of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Carpathian Ruthenia formed a common state, Czechoslovakia, with the borders confirmed by the Treaty of Saint Germain and Treaty of Trianon. In 1919, during the chaos following the breakup of Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia was formed with numerous Germans and Hungarians within the newly set borders. A Slovak patriot Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880–1919), who helped organize Czechoslovak regiments against Austria-Hungary during the First World War, died in a plane crash. In the peace following the World War, Czechoslovakia emerged as a sovereign European state. It provided what were at the time rather extensive rights to its minorities and remained the only democracy in this part of Europe in the interwar period.
Regions of Slovakia
In 1928–1939 (and formally also 1945–1948) Slovakia as a whole formed the administrative unit "Slovak land" ("Krajina slovenská") within Czechoslovakia.Each kraj was named after its principal city.Note: The "kraje" were abolished from July 1, 1969 to December 28, 1970 and reintroduced then.
Czech Republic
Czechoslovakia remained the only democracy in this part of Europe in the interwar period. However, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, while the Slovak region became the Slovak Republic; Czechoslovakia was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. Most of the three millions of the German-speaking minority were expelled following the war. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections and after the 1948 coup d'état, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence. In 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed and market economy was reintroduced. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.
Czechoslovakism
Both Czech and Slovak states officially and somewhat proudly embrace the Czechoslovak heritage as part of their common history; in October 2018 there were celebrations of 100th anniversary of foundation of Czechoslovakia in Prague and Bratislava, and respective governmental agencies of both states joined forces in common enterprises like a grand Czech-Slovak Exhibition, organized by national museums. However, the Slovak 2018 celebrations focused on October 30, the day of the Martin declaration, while the Czech ones focused on October 28, the day the Czechoslovak National Council declared Czechoslovak independence. Moreover, October 28 is traditionally a major holiday in Czechia, while Slovak public holidays commemorate rather the Slovak constitution, establishment of Slovak state and the Slovak National Uprising.
The vision of common history as perceived by Czechs and Slovaks in 2018 is visibly, though not strikingly different; in opinion polls both nations quote somewhat different sets of most and least preferred personalities or episodes. Opinion polls as to the breakup of Czechoslovakia are inconclusive. In the late 2010s a slight majority of both Czechs and Slovaks approved of emergence of their own nation states, though only some 40% positively evaluated the breakup of Czechoslovakia; it seems that a slightly higher percentage of Slovaks than Czechs view the common past favorably. In 2018 Slovakia was the 4th Czech trading partner (6,3%), while Czechia was the Slovak 2nd partner (11,5%). There is an increasing number of Slovaks migrating to Czechia; currently it stands at around 110,000, which in percentage terms is more than in the interwar period and less than in the Communist Czechoslovakia. In terms of general sentiment both nations seem fairly close. In ratings of most-liked nations the Slovaks top the list in Czechia and the Czechs in Slovakia; in case they do not compete against each other, national sport teams (typically ice hockey) are mutually supported by Czechs and Slovaks. For many mid-age and older people a sentiment towards times of youth extends to Czechoslovakia-made icons like Krtek or kofola.
Slovak Republic (1939–1945)
On 14 March, the Slovak parliament convened and heard Tiso's report on his discussion with Hitler as well as on a possible declaration of independence. Some of the deputies were skeptical of making such a move, among other reasons due to the fact that some worried that the Slovak state would be too small and with a strong Hungarian minority. The debate was quickly brought to a head when Franz Karmasin, leader of the German minority in Slovakia, said that any delay in declaring independence would result in Slovakia being divided between Hungary and Germany. Under these circumstances, Parliament unanimously declared Slovak independence, thus creating the first Slovak state in history. Jozef Tiso was appointed the first Prime Minister of the new republic. The next day, Tiso sent a telegram (which had actually been composed the previous day in Berlin) asking the Reich to take over the protection of the newly minted state. The request was readily accepted.
Hungary–Slovakia relations
Hungary and Slovakia are two neighboring countries in Central Europe. There are two major periods of official foreign relations between them in contemporary history. The first period included relations between the Kingdom of Hungary and the first Slovak Republic in 1939-1945. The second period has started in 1993, when the countries again established diplomatic relations, the year when Slovakia became independent of Czechoslovakia. Hungary has an embassy in Bratislava and a general consulate in Košice ("Hungarian": Kassa), and Slovakia has an embassy in Budapest and a general consulate in Békéscsaba.
Second Czechoslovak Republic
The Czechoslovak Republic was dissolved when Germany invaded it on 15 March 1939 and annexed the Czech region into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. On the same day as the German occupation, the President of Czechoslovakia, Emil Hácha was appointed by the German government as the State President of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which he held throughout the war.
Germany–Slovakia relations
Following World War II, Slovak Socialist Republic became a communist state with the Czech Socialist Republic as Czechoslovakia. This continued until a peaceful dissolution in 1993 into the Slovak Republic and Czech Republic.
Republic Day
The Day of the Establishment of the Slovak Republic marks Slovak independence from Czechoslovakia, which occurred on 1 January 1993, one day after the dissolution of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic.
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia, or Czecho-Slovakia (; Czech and , "Česko-Slovensko"), was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until its peaceful dissolution into the :Czech Republic and :Slovakia on 1 January 1993.
Slovak National Council's Declaration of Independence of the Slovak Nation
The Slovak National Council's Declaration of Independence of the Slovak Nation was a resolution of the Slovak National Council on 17 July 1992, by which members of the Council demanded Slovakia's independence. This event was part of a process, which finished with the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and creation of an independent Slovakia on 1 January 1993.
Axis powers
Slovakia had been closely aligned with Germany almost immediately from its declaration of independence from Czechoslovakia on 14 March 1939. Slovakia entered into a treaty of protection with Germany on 23 March 1939.
Czech Socialist Republic
The Czech Socialist Republic ("Česká socialistická republika" in Czech; abbreviated ČSR) was a republic within the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic that is now the independent Czech Republic. The name was used from 1 January 1969 to March 1990.
History of Slovakia
In an election held in June 1992, Václav Klaus's Civic Democratic Party won in the Czech lands on a platform of economic reform, and Vladimír Mečiar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) emerged as the leading party in Slovakia, basing its appeal on the fairness of Slovak demands for autonomy. Mečiar and Klaus negotiated the agreement to divide Czechoslovakia, and Mečiar's party — HZDS — ruled Slovakia for most of its first five years as an independent state, except for a 9-month period in 1994 after a vote of no-confidence, during which a reformist government under Prime Minister Jozef Moravčík operated.
History of Czechoslovakia
By 1992, Slovak calls for greater autonomy effectively blocked the daily functioning of the federal government. In the election of June 1992, Klaus's Civic Democratic Party won handily in the Czech lands on a platform of economic reform. Vladimír Mečiar's Movement for a Democratic Slovakia emerged as the leading party in Slovakia, basing its appeal on fairness to Slovak demands for autonomy. Federalists, like Havel, were unable to contain the trend toward the split. In July 1992, President Havel resigned. In the latter half of 1992, Klaus and Mečiar hammered out an agreement that the two republics would go their separate ways by the end of the year.
History of Slovakia
New signs of national and political life appeared only at the very end of the 19th century. Slovaks became aware that they needed to ally themselves with others in their struggle. One result of this awareness, the Congress of Oppressed Peoples of the Kingdom of Hungary, held in Budapest in 1895, alarmed the government. In their struggle Slovaks received a great deal of help from the Czechs. In 1896, the concept of Czecho-Slovak Mutuality was established in Prague to strengthen Czecho-Slovak cooperation and support the secession of Slovaks from the Kingdom of Hungary.
Czechoslovakia–Poland relations
Czechoslovakia gained independence in the aftermath of World War I, as Austria-Hungary fell apart, just as Poland regained independence as the Second Polish Republic after 123 years of partitions. Both emerging countries shared a long border, and soon became enveloped in a border conflict. Although it never developed into an open war, this conflict led to uneasy relations between both states in the interwar period.
Slovak mafia
In 1989, Czechoslovakia overthrew communism, and in 1993 the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic separated. In the first half of the 1990s, the issue of organized crime was underrated and legislature concerning the fight against it was inadequate. Crime rates in Slovakia soared in the 1990s, and the first post-communist gangsters emerged. At the time of the 1994-1998 Vladimír Mečiar's government, organized crime became well established in the country and it penetrated the highest political positions. An often cited example is the Slovak Secret Service under Ivan Lexa and his deputy Jaroslav Svěchota.
Origins of Czechoslovakia
Both Czechs and Slovaks struggled against a powerful neighbouring people; Germans in the case of the Czechs, Hungarians in the case of the Slovaks (see History of the Czech Republic and History of Slovakia). Contacts between the Czechs and Slovaks arose in the late fourteenth century, when Slovaks started to study at the University of Prague; in the fifteenth century, with the campaigns of the Czech Hussite armies to Slovakia; and in the seventeenth century, when Czech Protestants fled to Slovakia. Between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, some educated Slovaks used written Czech as well as Slovak and Latin (see History of the Slovak language). The Czechs and Slovaks were also formally united in 1436–1439, 1453–1457, and 1490–1918, when Hungary (which included Slovakia), Bohemia and other Central European states were ruled by the same kings.
Hungarians in Slovakia
After the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the Czech Republic and Slovakia separated peacefully in the Velvet Divorce of 1993. The 1992 Slovak constitution is derived from the concept of the Slovak nation state. The preamble of the Constitution, however, cites Slovaks and ethnic minorities as the constituency. Moreover, the rights of the diverse minorities are protected by the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights, and various other legally binding documents. The Party of the Hungarian Coalition (SMK-MKP) was represented in Parliament and was part of the government coalition from 1998 to 2006.
Following the independence of Slovakia, the situation of the Hungarian minority worsened, especially under the reign of Slovak Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar (1993 – March 1994 and December 1994 – 1998).
Martin Declaration
The declaration came two days after the declaration of Czechoslovak independence by the Czech National Committee in Prague. The Slovaks acted independently as news of the Czech declaration had not reached Martin by the time of the Slovak declaration. The council attempted to take control of Slovakia but was thwarted by a Hungarian military intervention which seized Martin on 15 November. Czech troops soon took the town and the new government in Prague appointed Vavro Šrobár as minister for Slovakia.
Martin Declaration
The Martin Declaration () is the name usually given to the "Declaration of the Slovak Nation" () that was proclaimed in the town of Turčiansky Svätý Martin (now Martin, Slovakia) on 30 October 1918. The declaration was effectively a declaration of independence from the Kingdom of Hungary (within the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and presaged Slovakia's unification with the Czech lands as part of the new state of Czechoslovakia.
Slovaks
The territory of present-day Slovakia was split in two parts between the Kingdom of Hungary (under Hungarian rule gradually from 907 to the early 14th century) to Upper Hungary and Royal Hungary (under the Habsburgs from 1527 – 1848 (see also Hungarian Revolution of 1848)) until the formation of Czechoslovakia in 1918. However, according to other historians, from 895 to 902, the whole area of the present-day Slovakia became part of the rising Principality of Hungary, and became (without gradation) part of the Kingdom of Hungary a century later. A separate entity called Nitra Frontier Duchy, existed at this time within the Kingdom of Hungary. This duchy was abolished in 1107. The territory inhabited by the Slovaks in present-day Hungary was gradually reduced.
Brush SEM
In 1989 Czechoslovakia broke away from communism and Soviet control and the country was separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Until this transition period the Škoda Elektrické Stroje works primarily manufactured generators and electrical control equipment products for the eastern European and Soviet markets.
František Chvalkovský
The Munich Agreement ended the First Republic of Czechoslovakia. Its previous pro-democratic and anti-totalitarian policies gave way to calls for authoritarian government and closer cooperation with Nazi Germany (more: ). The political elite, connected with former President Edvard Beneš, had to leave office and Chvalkovský became foreign minister. He tried to maintain the independence of the rump state by making concessions to neighbours, hoping to gain time for a more favorable outcome in the future. He grossly underestimated Hitler's desire to occupy Central Europe and the hunger for revenge from Poland and Hungary, who had been forced to make painful concessions to Czechoslovakia after World War I. He represented Czechoslovakia during the Vienna Arbitration. Due to insufficient preparation, Czechoslovakia had to concede significant parts of Slovak territory to Hungary. When Slovakia declared independence on 14 March 1939, Chvalkovský traveled with President Emil Hácha to Berlin, hoping that further concessions would preserve the independence of Czech lands. Instead, Hitler forced them - in violation of the Munich Agreement - to sign an agreement for the annexation of the country on 15 March 1939. Czechoslovakia ceased to exist.
History of Czechoslovak nationality
After World War I, the First Czechoslovak Republic was finally formed by combining the Czech lands, Upper Hungary, and Carpathian Ruthenia, which was annexed in 1919 due to the Allies’ pressure. If the desire for a Czechoslovak nation had been expressed for a long time, the Slovaks in the 1920s, nevertheless, felt resentment because they were proportionally less represented into the Czechoslovak administration. This, however, can be explained by the fact that, in Austria-Hungary, the Czechs had the opportunity to develop an elite which could then lead the new country and that such an elite was totally absent in the Slovak population. Moreover, the formation of a Czechoslovak Hussite Church which conducted its services in Czech created large discontent. New national holidays, such as July 6, which commemorated the death of Czech reformer Jan Hus, created opposition within the Catholics. Also during the 1920s, the Slovaks became more and more literate, thus developing their own culture, and the structures promoting such a Slovak culture.
Slovak Republic (1939–1945)
After the Munich Agreement, Slovakia gained autonomy inside Czecho-Slovakia (as the former Czechoslovakia had been renamed) and lost its southern territories to Hungary under the First Vienna Award. As the Nazi Führer Adolf Hitler was preparing a mobilisation into Czech territory and creation of his Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, he had various plans for Slovakia. German officials were initially misinformed by the Hungarians that the Slovaks wanted to join Hungary. Germany decided to make Slovakia a separate puppet state under the influence of Germany, and a potential strategic base for German attacks on Poland and other regions.
On 13 March 1939, Hitler invited Monsignor Jozef Tiso, (the Slovak ex-prime minister who had been deposed by Czechoslovak troops several days earlier), to Berlin and urged him to proclaim Slovakia's independence. Hitler added that, if Tiso did not consent, he would have no interest in Slovakia's fate and would leave it to the territorial claims of Hungary and Poland. During the meeting, Joachim von Ribbentrop passed on a report claiming that Hungarian troops were approaching the Slovak borders. Tiso refused to make such a decision himself, after which he was allowed by Hitler to organise a meeting of the Slovak parliament ("Diet of the Slovak Land") which would approve Slovakia's independence.
Communist Party of Slovakia (1939)
The Communist Party of Slovakia (, KSS) was a communist party in Slovakia. It was formed in May 1939, when the Slovak Republic was created, as the Slovak branches of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) were separated from the mother party. When Czechoslovakia was again established as a unified state, the KSS was still a separate party for a while (1945–1948). On 29 September 1948, it was reunited with the KSČ and continued to exist as an ""organizational territorial unit of the KSČ on the territory of Slovakia"". Its main organ (and thus the main newspaper in Slovakia at the time) was "Pravda".
Zaolzie
Poland signed a treaty with Czechoslovakia in Warsaw on 13 June 1958 confirming the border as it existed on 1 January 1938. After the Communist takeover of power, the industrial boom continued and many immigrants arrived in the area (mostly from other parts of Czechoslovakia, mainly from Slovakia). The arrival of Slovaks significantly changed the ethnic structure of the area, as almost all the Slovak immigrants assimilated into the Czech majority in the course of time. The number of self-declared Slovaks is rapidly declining. The last Slovak elementary school was closed in Karviná several years ago. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, Zaolzie has been part of the independent Czech Republic. However a significant Polish minority still remains there.
History of Czechoslovakia
On 14 March 1939, the Slovak State declared its independence as a satellite state under Jozef Tiso. Hitler forced Hácha to surrender what remained of Bohemia and Moravia to German control on 15 March 1939, establishing the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. On the same day, the Carpatho-Ukraine (Subcarpathian Ruthenia) declared its independence and was immediately invaded and annexed by Hungary. Finally, on 23 March, Hungary invaded and occupied some further parts of eastern Slovakia from Carpatho-Ukraine.
Administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia
This article deals with historic administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia up to 1992, when the country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia and the divisions were changed.
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
On 10 October 1938, when Czechoslovakia was forced to accept the terms of the Munich Agreement, Germany incorporated the Sudetenland, on the Czechoslovak border with Germany and Austria proper, with its majority of ethnic German inhabitants, directly into the Reich. Five months later, when the Slovak Diet declared the independence of Slovakia, Hitler summoned Czechoslovak President Emil Hácha to Berlin and intimidated him into accepting the German occupation of the Czech rump state and its reorganisation as a German protectorate.
Czechoslovakism
Repeated ľudák's autonomy demands were accepted by the Czechoslovak parliament in November 1938, in wake of major European political turmoil caused by German territorial demands versus Czechoslovakia and when the southern belt of Slovakia was about to be handed over to Hungary. In aftermath of the Sudetenland crisis and fearing total breakup of the country, the Czech deputies consented to the Slovak draft. Slovakia became a fully autonomous unit with own government, administration and special budgetary provisions; some overall Czechoslovak issues, e.g. presidential elections, were subjected to consent of qualified majority of the Slovak assembly. The constitutional amendment abandoned the original concept of Czechoslovak nation and referred to Czech and Slovak nations; the country was renamed from Czechoslovak to Czecho-Slovak Republic. This setup lasted only few months; in March 1939 the prime minister of autonomous Slovakia and the ľudák leader Jozef Tiso declared total independence. At the time Czech lands were overrun by German troops and soon got incorporated into the Reich as Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.
Czech nationalism
In 1990–1992 during transformation of Czechoslovakia into liberal market economy, due to disputes on shape of Czechoslovak federation, Slovak national aspirations strengthened and one of the reasons for final dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 were with the Slovak nationalism also Czech economic nationalism, for not to fund not so developed Slovak economy. Czech Republic became independent on 1 January 1993.
Spiš
In 1993, Czechoslovakia was split and Spiš became part of Slovakia.
Czech Republic
The remaining Czech territory was occupied by Germany, which transformed it into the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The protectorate was proclaimed part of the Third Reich, and the president and prime minister were subordinated to the Nazi Germany's "Reichsprotektor". Subcarpathian Rus declared independence as the Republic of Carpatho-Ukraine on 15 March 1939 but was invaded by Hungary the same day and formally annexed the next day. Approximately 345,000 Czechoslovak citizens, including 277,000 Jews, were killed or executed while hundreds of thousands of others were sent to prisons and Nazi concentration camps or used as forced labor. Up to two-thirds of the citizens were in groups targeted by the Nazis for deportation or death. One concentration camp was located within the Czech territory at Terezín, north of Prague. The Nazi "Generalplan Ost" called for the extermination, expulsion, Germanization or enslavement of most or all Czechs for the purpose of providing more living space for the German people.
Slovaks in Czechoslovakia (1948–89)
The division between Czechs and Slovaks in Czechoslovakia persisted as a key element in the reform movement of the 1960s and the retrenchment of the 1970s, a decade that dealt harshly with the aspirations of both Czechs and Slovaks. Ethnicity still remained integral to the social, political, and economic affairs of the country. In 1968, a Slovak writer called for a more positive reappraisal of the Slovak Republic. Although as a Marxist he found Monsignor Jozef Tiso's "clerico-fascist state" politically abhorrent, he acknowledged that "the Slovak Republic existed as the national state of the Slovaks, the only one in our history..." Comparable sentiments surfaced periodically throughout the 1970s in letters to Bratislava's Pravda, even though the newspaper's editors tried to inculcate in their readership a "class and concretely historical approach" to the nationality question.
First Vienna Award
Under pressure from Hitler, Slovakia declared total independence on March 14, 1939, and Czechoslovakia ceased to exist. Two days earlier, Hitler had given Hungary permission to occupy the rest of Carpatho-Ruthenia within 24 hours, but to abstain from attempting to annex the remainder of Slovakia, which Hitler wanted to turn into a strategically located German ally, especially for his planned invasion of Poland. On March 14–15, what remained of Carpatho-Ruthenia declared its independence as Carpatho-Ukraine, and shortly after, between March 15 and 18, was occupied by Hungary. After Carpatho-Ukraine, Hungary occupied a small part of Slovakia on March 15. Seeing no substantial reaction, Hungary on March 23 launched a larger attack on Eastern Slovakia. The plan was to "advance as far west as possible." After a short Slovak-Hungarian War (with several Hungarian air raids, e.g. March 24 on Spišská Nová Ves), Hungary was forced by Germany to stop and negotiate. As a result of the negotiations (March 27 – April 4), Hungary received further territories in Eastern Slovakia (1,897 km²) with 69,630 inhabitants, almost exclusively Slovaks or Rusyns. Unlike the earlier Vienna Award, these annexed territories were not justified on ethnic grounds. (The Hungarians justified this under the grounds that the Vienna award was an arbitration between Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and the latter had ceased to exist a few days earlier.)
Václav Havel
Despite increasing political tensions between the Czechs and the Slovaks in 1992, Havel supported the retention of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic prior to the dissolution of the country. Havel sought re-election in 1992. Although no other candidate filed, when the vote came on 3 July, he failed to get a majority due to a lack of support from Slovak deputies. The largest Czech political party, the Civic Democratic Party, let it be known that it would not support any other candidate. After the Slovaks issued their Declaration of Independence, he resigned as President on 20 July, saying that he would not preside over the country's breakup.
Second Czechoslovak Republic
The Second Czechoslovak Republic (, ), sometimes also called the Czech-Slovak Republic (Czech and ), existed for 169 days, between 30 September 1938 and 15 March 1939. It was composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and the autonomous regions of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the latter renamed as of 22 November 1938 as Carpathian Ukraine ("Karpatská Ukrajina" in Czech).
Otto Smik
On 15 March 1939 Nazi Germany partitioned the Second Czechoslovak Republic. Bratislava remained the capital of the Slovak Republic, which became a client state of Germany. Smik decided to escape to France to fight Germany. On 18 March 1940 he crossed illegally into Hungary, planning to reach the French Consulate in Budapest. Hungarian authorities arrested him and detained him in Toloncház prison, but was soon released.
Hungary–Slovakia relations
After the first break-up of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Hungary was the first state which officially recognized the independent Slovakia. Subsequently, Hungary and Slovakia established embassies in Bratislava and Budapest and kept diplomatic relations during the World War Two. Despite a formal alliance inside the Berlin pact (1940) and a common war against the Anti-Hitler coalition, Slovak-Hungarian political relations maintained on the brink of war due to the frontier dispute and the oppression of Slovak minority in Hungary and Hungarian minority in Slovakia. The restoration of Czechoslovakia and the liquidation of the independent Slovakia in 1945 led to the end of the first period of Hungary-Slovakia's relations.
Czech Social Democratic Party
The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria () was a political group founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary as a regional wing of the Social Democratic Party of Austria. It represented much of the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament, and its significant role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that led to the creation of an independent Czechoslovakia. After the collapse of Austria-Hungary at the end of the First World War, the party became one of the leading parties of the first Czechoslovak Republic. Its members were split over whether to join the Comintern, which in 1921 resulted in the fracturing of the party, with a large part of its membership then forming the new Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.
During the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, the party was officially abolished, but its members organized resistance movements contrary to the laws of the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, both at home and abroad. After the re-establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1945, the party returned to its pre-war structure and became a member of the National Front which formed a new governing coalition. In 1948, after the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia gained a parliamentary majority, the Czech Social Democratic Party was incorporated into the Communist Party. At the time of the Prague Spring, a reformist movement in 1968, there were talks about allowing the recreation of a Social Democratic party, but Soviet intervention put an end to such ideas. It was only after the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that the party was recreated. Since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which came into effect on 1 January 1993, the ČSSD has been one of the major political parties of the Czech Republic, and until October 2017 was always one of the two parties with the largest number of seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
Slovakia
In 1918, Slovakia and the regions of Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Silesia and Carpathian Ruthenia formed a common state, Czechoslovakia, with the borders confirmed by the Treaty of Saint Germain and Treaty of Trianon. In 1919, during the chaos following the break-up of Austria-Hungary, Czechoslovakia was formed with numerous Germans and Hungarians within the newly set borders. A Slovak patriot Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880–1919), who helped organise Czechoslovak regiments against Austria-Hungary during the First World War, died in a plane crash. In the peace following the World War, Czechoslovakia emerged as a sovereign European state. It provided what were at the time rather extensive rights to its minorities and remained the only democracy in this part of Europe in the interwar period.
Events preceding World War II in Europe
Hitler continued to put pressure on the Czech government. On March 14
Slovakia declared its independence under Jozef Tiso, which was
recognized by France, Britain and other important powers. The following day,
Emil Hácha accepted a German occupation of the remaining parts of the Czech
lands. From the Prague Castle, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed by Hitler.
Czech Socialist Republic
Later, in 1992, the Czech Republic became an independent state (see Dissolution of Czechoslovakia).
Avia B-534
On 14 March 1939, Germany forced the partition of Czechoslovakia, with Slovakia being declared as the nominally independent Slovak Republic with Germany annexing the remaining "Czech" part of Czechoslovakia as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia the next day. The abrupt partition of Czechoslovakia during 1939 prevented any actual combat operations of the B-534 to be conducted by the nation that had produced it. By then, high performance monoplanes such as the Bf 109 and Britain's leading models – the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire – were raising the bar of fighter/interceptor standards. The "Slovenské vzdušné zbrane" (Slovak Air Force) was organised out of the units of the Czechoslovak Air Force that were based in Slovakia at the time of partition, and inherited about 71 B-534s and Bk-534s.
Collaboration with the Axis Powers
The Slovak Republic ("Slovenská republika") was a quasi-independent ethnic-Slovak state which existed from 14 March 1939 to 8 May 1945 as an ally and client state of Nazi Germany. The Slovak Republic existed on roughly the same territory as present-day Slovakia (with the exception of the southern and eastern parts of present-day Slovakia). The Republic bordered Germany, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the German-occupied Poland, and Hungary.
Slovakia
The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries. In the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samo's Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra, which was later conquered by the Principality of Moravia to establish Great Moravia. In the 10th century, after the dissolution of Great Moravia, the territory was integrated into the Principality of Hungary, which would become the Kingdom of Hungary in 1000. In 1241 and 1242, much of the territory was destroyed by the Mongols during their invasion of Central and Eastern Europe. The area was recovered largely thanks to Béla IV of Hungary who also settled Germans which became an important ethnic group in the area, especially in what are today parts of central and eastern Slovakia. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Czechoslovak National Council established Czechoslovakia (1918–1939). A separate (First) Slovak Republic (1939–1945) existed during World War II as a totalitarian, clero-fascist one-party client state of Nazi Germany. At the end of World War II, Czechoslovakia was re-established as an independent country. A coup in 1948 ushered in a totalitarian one-party state under the Communist regime during whose rule the country existed as a satellite of the Soviet Union. Attempts for liberalization of communism in Czechoslovakia culminated in the Prague Spring, which was crushed by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. In 1989, the Velvet Revolution ended the Communist rule in Czechoslovakia peacefully. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia, sometimes known as the Velvet Divorce.
Postage stamps and postal history of Slovakia
From 1 January 1993, Slovakia became independent after splitting from the Czech Republic and stamps were issued from that date inscribed "Slovensko". Stamps of the former Czechoslovakia continued to be valid until 30 September 1993.
World War II by country
The newly separated Slovak Republic (1939–1945), led by Jozef Tiso was set up in Slovakia. Part of southern Slovakia and all of Ruthenia (the former eastern end of Czechoslovakia) was annexed by Hungary. Zaolzie was annexed by Poland, snatched from them by the Germans 11 months later, and returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945 by the Soviet Union. The Slovak National Uprising, commenced in August 1944, was suppressed by German forces at the end of October; partisans, however, continued fighting in the mountains until the war's end. In April 1945, the Red Army defeated the Germans and ousted Tiso's government, annexing Carpathian Ruthenia to the USSR.
Czech Socialist Republic
After the occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, liberalisation reforms were stopped and reverted. The only exception was the federalization of the country. The former centralist state Czechoslovakia was divided in two parts: the "Czech Socialist Republic" and the "Slovak Socialist Republic" by the Constitutional Law of Federation of 28 October 1968, which went into effect on 1 January 1969. New national parliaments (the Czech National Council and the Slovak National Council) were created and the traditional parliament of Czechoslovakia was renamed the "Federal Assembly" and was divided in two chambers: the "House of the People" (, ) and the "House of Nations" (, ). Very complicated rules of voting were put in effect.
Czechoslovakism
Breakup of Czechoslovakia came about though there was no vigorous independence movement on either side; according to opinion polls, only slightly more than one third of both Czechs and Slovaks supported dissolution. However, there was no vigorous movement in defense of the common state either; its key advocate was president Havel, at the time a moral authority rather than a political leader. In general, the dissolution is attributed to Slovak unease about a state union with Czechs, a formula which many of them considered Czech-biased by default; some claim that Slovaks rejected common state as means of advancing Czechoslovakism. Some scholars pointed also to different visions of socio-economic transformation or even suggested that things got out of hand. As there were no serious points of disagreement, e.g. in terms of mutually coveted territory or national minorities, negotiating a divorce was fairly easy. Factors which prompted Czechs and Slovaks to build a common state in 1918 did not exist anymore. There was no real threat of German or Hungarian revisionism in the early 1990s; there was virtually no German minority in Czechia, while in Slovakia the ratio of Slovaks to Hungarians went up from 3:1 in 1918 to 8:1 in 1991.
Czechoslovakia
From 1948 to 1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc with a command economy. Its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949 and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of political liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was forcibly ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by several other Warsaw Pact countries, invaded. In 1989, as Marxist–Leninist governments and communism were ending all over Europe, Czechoslovaks peacefully deposed their government in the Velvet Revolution; state price controls were removed after a period of preparation. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The country was of generally irregular terrain. The western area was part of the north-central European uplands. The eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the Carpathian Mountains and lands of the Danube River basin.
Slovakia
After the Munich Agreement and its Vienna Award, Nazi Germany threatened to annex part of Slovakia and allow the remaining regions to be partitioned by Hungary or Poland unless independence was declared. Thus, Slovakia seceded from Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939 and allied itself, as demanded by Germany, with Hitler's coalition. Secession had created the first Slovak state in history. The government of the First Slovak Republic, led by Jozef Tiso and Vojtech Tuka, was strongly influenced by Germany and gradually became a puppet regime in many respects.
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
Public perception of the dissolution has not changed much, with a December 2017 poll showing that just 42% of Czechs and 40% of Slovaks agree with what happened (compared to 36% and 37% in 1992, respectively). According to Czech political analyst Lubomir Kopeček, many Czechs and Slovaks view the breakup process unfavourably because they had no say in the matter. Most people would have rather had a referendum decide. In 2015, a Slovak movement called "Czechoslovakia 2018" was established to try to get a referendum by 2018. While its leader, Ladislav Zelinka, said he received thousands of emails and calls from supporters, it was unable to reach the necessary 350,000 petition signatures. The younger generations of both countries are largely indifferent to the issue, never having experienced the previous period themselves, while older generations are more focused on present issues such as immigration while also favouring their own separate nationalism.
History of Slovakia
The victorious Powers restored Czechoslovakia in 1945 in the wake of World War II, albeit without the province of Ruthenia, which Prague ceded to the Soviet Union. The Beneš decrees, adopted as a result of the events of the war, led to disenfranchisement and persecution of the Hungarian minority in southern Slovakia. (The affected Hungarians regained Czechoslovak citizenship in 1948.)
Constitution of the Czech Republic
The Constitution of the Slovak Republic was enacted on 1 September 1992, and came into force on 1 October 1992, three months before the dissolution of Czechoslovakia.
First Czechoslovak Republic
After 1933, Czechoslovakia remained the only functioning democracy in Central Europe. Under pressure from its Sudeten German minority, supported by neighbouring Nazi Germany, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede its Sudetenland region to Germany on 1 October 1938 as part of the Munich Agreement. It also ceded southern parts of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia to Hungary and the Zaolzie region in Silesia to Poland. This, in effect, ended the First Czechoslovak Republic. It was replaced by the Second Czechoslovak Republic, which lasted less than half a year before Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.
History of Czechoslovak nationality
On July 17, 1992, the Slovak national council adopted Slovakia’s declaration of sovereignty, and major constitutional changes gave the Slovaks their own state, which they had desired for a long time. The peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia led to the establishment of the Czech and Slovak Republics.
Czech and Slovak Federative Republic
After the fall of communism in 1989, Czechoslovakia adopted the official name Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (, ; ČSFR) during the period from 23 April 1990 until 31 December 1992, when the country was dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This period is also referred to as the Fifth Czechoslovak Republic.
Czech Republic
Despite the mobilization of 1.2 million-strong Czechoslovak army and the Franco-Czech military alliance, Poland annexed the Zaolzie area around Český Těšín; Hungary gained parts of Slovakia and the Subcarpathian Rus as a result of the First Vienna Award in November 1938. The remainders of Slovakia and the Subcarpathian Rus gained greater autonomy, with the state renamed to "Czecho-Slovakia". After Nazi Germany threatened to annex part of Slovakia, allowing the remaining regions to be partitioned by Hungary and Poland, Slovakia chose to maintain its national and territorial integrity, seceding from Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939, and allying itself, as demanded by Germany, with Hitler's coalition.
Poland–Slovakia border
When the Republic of Slovakia was established on March 14, 1939 (officially independent, but controlled by Nazi Germany), the Polish-Czechoslovak border ceased to exist, which became part of the Polish-Czech border (with the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia), the Polish border. Slovak and Polish-Hungarian border.
Mexico–Slovakia relations
In December 1992, Czechoslovakia was split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Mexico established diplomatic relations with newly independent Slovakia on 1 January 1993. Initially, Mexico maintained diplomatic relations with Slovakia from its embassy in Prague, however, in 1996 Mexico accredited relations to Slovakia from its embassy in Vienna, Austria due to its close proximity to the Slovak capital of Bratislava. During this time, Slovakia opened a resident embassy in Mexico City.
Jozef Tiso's speech in Holič
In March 1939, the Slovak State declared independence from Czechoslovakia; Germany invaded the Czech rump state. That October, Jozef Tiso, a Catholic priest, became president of Slovakia. Slovakia was the only country to pay for the deportation of its Jewish population, and the only country besides Nazi Germany to organize the deportation of its own Jewish citizens. In an 8 March petition, Slovak Jewish community leaders exhorted Tiso to cancel the planned deportation of Slovakia's Jews because it represented the "physical destruction of the Jews in Slovakia". Tiso ignored the petition, as well as the condemnation of papal ambassador Giuseppe Burzio. At the time of Tiso's speech, 55,000 Jews out of 89,000 had been deported from the Slovak State; the deportations had been halted on 1 August 1942. The Slovak government knew that the deportees were being systematically murdered.
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
In late-1989, the country became a democratic country again through the Velvet Revolution. In 1992, the federal parliament decided to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as of 1 January 1993.
History of the Czech lands
The Kingdom of Bohemia officially ceased to exist in 1918 when the Czecho-Slovak Republic was declared, a merger of the lands of the Bohemian Crown, Slovakia, and Carpathian Ruthenia. Czechoslovakia before WW2 remained the only democracy in central and eastern Europe.
Munich Agreement
Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles recognized the independence of Czechoslovakia with a population that included three million German-speaking people, 24 percent of the total population of the country. The Germans lived mostly in border regions of the historical lands of Bohemia and Moravia for which they coined the new name Sudetenland, bordering on Germany and the newly created country of Austria. The Sudeten Germans were not consulted about whether they wished to be citizens of Czechoslovakia. Although the constitution guaranteed equality for all citizens, there was a tendency among political leaders to transform the country "into an instrument of Czech and Slovak nationalism". Some progress was made to integrate the Germans and other minorities, but they continued to be under-represented in the government and the army. Moreover, the Great Depression beginning in 1929 impacted the highly industrialized and export-oriented Sudeten Germans more than it did the Czech and Slovak populations. By 1936, 60 percent of the unemployed people in Czechoslovakia were Germans.
Slovak Super Liga
Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia (1918–1993). First Slovak championship Zväzové Majstrovstvá Slovenska was played between Slovak teams (1925–1933). Until 1935-36, no Slovak team played in the Czechoslovak (professional, state) league. During German occupation of Czechoslovakia Czech and Slovak clubs were competed in their own, separate competitions. The sole Slovak club in the league, ŠK Bratislava, was removed from the league and joined a new Slovak league, the Slovenská liga (1939–1945), in the newly independent Slovak Republic.
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia was created with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I. In 1918, a meeting took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, where the future Czechoslovak president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and other Czech and Slovak representatives signed the Pittsburgh Agreement, which promised a common state consisting of two equal nations, Slovaks and Czechs. Soon after, the philosophy of Edvard Beneš pushed for greater unity and a single nation.
Postage stamps and postal history of Slovakia
After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Slovakia and the regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Carpathian Ruthenia formed the Czechoslovak Republic. From 1918 to 1939, stamps of the Czechoslovak Republic inscribed either "Česko-Slovensko" or "Československo" were used in Slovakia. 
Between 1939 and 1945, the Slovak Republic, a client state of Nazi Germany, issued stamps inscribed "Slovensko".
Slovak Americans
In 1915, the leaders of the Czech National Alliance and the Slovak League of America signed the Cleveland Agreement, in which they pledged to cooperate for the common goal of independent statehood for the Czechs and Slovaks. The agreement's five articles laid out the basics of a future joint state for the two nationalities. Three years later, the Pittsburgh Agreement was concluded by representatives of Czechs and Slovaks at a meeting of the American branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Pittsburgh. The agreement endorsed a program for the struggle for a common state of Czecho-Slovakia and agreed that the new state would be a democratic republic in which Slovakia would have its own administration, legislature, and courts. On October 18, 1918, the primary author of the agreement, T. G. Masaryk, whose father was Slovak and mother Moravian, declared the independence of Czechoslovakia on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was elected the first President of an independent Czechoslovakia in 1920.
Vojtech Tuka
On 9 March 1939, Czech troops moved into Slovakia in reaction to radical calls for independence from Slovak patriots (including Tuka, who had recently been released from prison). On 13 March, Adolf Hitler took advantage of this "Homolov Putsch", prompting Jozef Tiso—the Slovak ex–prime minister and Roman Catholic priest deposed by the Czech troops—to declare Slovak independence on 14 March by an act of the Slovak Assembly. The Czech part of Czechoslovakia was incorporated into the Third Reich as a protectorate. Tiso became Prime Minister of the new Slovak state on 14 March 1939; he was chosen as President on 26 October 1939 and immediately appointed Tuka as Prime Minister.
List of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to Slovakia
Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia. From then until 1994 David Brighty, who had been British ambassador to Czechoslovakia, continued as both ambassador to the new Czech Republic and also non-resident ambassador to Slovakia. In 1994 David Brighty was replaced and Michael Bates, who had been chargé d'affaires in Bratislava, became the first resident Ambassador to Slovakia.
List of ambassadors of the United States to the Czech Republic
In June 1992, the Slovak parliament voted to declare sovereignty and the Czech-Slovak federation dissolved peacefully on January 1, 1993. The United States recognized the Czech Republic and Slovakia as independent nations and moved to establish diplomatic relations. The previous ambassador to Czechoslovakia, Adrian A. Basora, continued as the ambassador to the Czech Republic and Theodore Russell, who served as deputy chief of mission under Ambassador Shirley Temple Black, became the first U.S. ambassador to Slovakia later that year.
Kadaň
In the final weeks of World War I, Czechoslovakia was established on 28 October 1918, its Bohemian, Moravian and Silesian component having been defined by the historic borders of the Czech (Bohemian) kingdom. However, most of the German border population, was not enthusiastic about becoming part of a new republic with a clearly Slavonic definition. Instead, four regional self-governed states emerged along the borderland, according to the right for self determination guaranteed by Woodrow Wilson in no. 10 of his Fourteen Points. Kaaden, (Kadaň in Czech), declared itself part of German Bohemia. On 4 March 1919, the first assembly of the German Austrian parliament was the occasion for both peaceful and violent demonstrations in the mostly German-populated border cities. In Kadaň, the curfew and martial law was declared and the Czechoslovak military forces were sent in. The demonstration in Kadaň for self determination was the bloodiest. According to Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung report of 7 March 1919, 17 persons were killed, 30 badly wounded, and 80 wounded there. Over all, 25 victims were buried in a memorial grave at the central cemetery. It was restored after the fall of communism in 1989.
History of the Slovak language
Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The Slovak language became the official language of Slovakia.
Compendium of postage stamp issuers (Co–Cz)
Czechoslovakia was dissolved on 31 Dec 1992 when the Czech Republic and Slovakia became separate
states. Stamps were issued soon afterwards with the inscription ČESKÁ REPUBLIKA.
Visegrád Group
The group was referred to as the Visegrád Triangle prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
Slovak Republic (1939–1945)
The First Slovak Republic ceased to exist "de facto" on 4 April 1945 when the Red Army captured Bratislava and occupied all of Slovakia. "De jure" it ceased to exist when the exiled Slovak government capitulated to General Walton Walker leading the XX Corps of the 3rd US Army on 8 May 1945 in the Austrian town of Kremsmünster. In summer 1945, the captured former president and members of former government were handed over to Czechoslovak authorities.
Cinema of Slovakia
Given that in the periods from the invention of film in 1896 to 1938 and from 1945 to 1992 Slovakia did not exist as an independent country, there has been some controversy over the naming of certain films as specifically either Slovak or Czech. Although the Czech and Slovak halves of Czechoslovakia each had separate languages, they were close enough for film talent to move freely between the two republics. As a result, during the Czechoslovak period — and even after it — a number of Slovak directors made Czech-language films in Prague, including Juraj Herz and Juraj Jakubisko.
China–Czech Republic relations
People's Republic of China–Czech Republic relations began on 6 October 1949 when the Czech Republic was a federal element of Czechoslovakia. The Czech Republic became an independent country on 1 January 1993, the Chinese government extended diplomatic relations. At the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, government officials from both sides signed and exchanged notes recognizing the treaties and agreements signed between China and the former Czechoslovakia Federal Republic continues to be upheld and binding.
Embassy of the United Kingdom, Bratislava
Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia. From then until 1994 David Brighty, who had been British ambassador to Czechoslovakia, continued as both ambassador to the new Czech Republic and also non-resident ambassador to Slovakia. In 1994 David Brighty was replaced and Michael Bates, who had been chargé d'affaires in Bratislava, became the first resident Ambassador to Slovakia.
Slovakia
The end of Communist rule in Czechoslovakia in 1989, during the peaceful Velvet Revolution, was followed once again by the country's dissolution, this time into two successor states. The word "socialist" was dropped in the names of the two republics, i.e. the Slovak Socialist Republic was renamed Slovak Republic. In July 17, 1992 Slovakia, led by Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar, declared itself a sovereign state, meaning that its laws took precedence over those of the federal government. Throughout the autumn of 1992, Mečiar and Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus negotiated the details for disbanding the federation. In November the federal parliament voted to dissolve the country officially on December 31, 1992.
History of Czechoslovakia
Members of Czechoslovakia's parliament (the Federal Assembly), divided along national lines, barely cooperated enough to pass the law officially separating the two nations in late 1992. On 1 January 1993, the Czech Republic (Czechia) and the Slovak Republic (Slovakia) were simultaneously and peacefully founded.
Origins of Czechoslovakia
On May 31, 1918, Czech and Slovak representatives in the United States signed the Pittsburgh Agreement endorsing a plan for a unified Czecho-Slovak state in which Slovakia would have its own assembly. In early October 1918, Germany and Austria proposed peace negotiations. On October 18, while in the United States, Masaryk issued a declaration of Czechoslovak independence. Masaryk insisted that the new Czechoslovak state include the historic Bohemian Kingdom, containing the German-populated borderland. On October 21, however, German deputies from Bohemia joined other German and Austrian deputies in the Austrian parliament in declaring an independent German-Austrian state. Following the abdication of Charles I on November 11, Czech troops took control of borderlands.
History of Slovakia
At the end of the war Austria-Hungary dissolved. The Prague National Committee proclaimed an independent republic of Czechoslovakia on 28 October, and, two days later, the Slovak National Council at Martin acceded to the Prague proclamation. The new republic was to include the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia), a small part of Silesia, Slovakia, and Carpatho-Ukraine. The new state set up a parliamentary democratic government and established a capital in the Czech city of Prague.
List of military headstamps
Czechoslovakia declared independence from Austro-Hungary in 1918. It was divided into the Czech and Slovak Republics in 1993.Early Cuban ammunition didn't use a headstamp code until the late 1970s.The first domestic ammunition plant was set up by Emperor Menelik II in 1911. It made 10.75×58mmR Russian Berdan Mk.2 and 7.62x54mmR M91 Russian cartridges. Ethiopia had long economic ties to Czechoslovakia dating back to the early 20th Century. An ammunition plant was set up by the Czechs in the reign of Empress Zäwditu in the 1920s that produced 7.92x54mmR Mauser cartridges for the new Czech weapons it was importing. A new plant was set up around 1947 to 1953 CE with assistance from the Považské Strojárne factory and was named after the contemporary ruler, Emperor Haile Selassie I. It made 7.92x57mm Mauser, .30-06 Springfield [7.62x63mm], and 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition for the military and .303 British rifle ammunition for the civilian market. Packaging lists the date in the Ethiopian calendar year (7 to 8 years less than that of the Gregorian calendar), while the cartridge headstamp uses the Common Era year.
Moravians
Only in the first years after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 did a few Moravian political parties seem to be able to gain some success in elections. However they lost much of their strength around the time of the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 when Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Slovakia)
After the peaceful dissolution of the former Czechoslovakia in 1993, Slovakia became an independent nation and has maintained official diplomatic relations with other nations since then.
History of Czechoslovakia (1989–92)
On November 25, 1992, Czechoslovakia's parliament (the Federal Assembly) voted to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia starting on January 1, 1993.