When did Slovakia separate from the Czech Republic?

After the Czech and Slovak Republics separated into independent republics in 1993, church activity continued in each country as separate legal entities: in the Czech Republic as the Orthodox Church in the Czech Lands and in the Slovak Republic as the Orthodox Church in Slovakia, but canonical unity was maintained as the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia. The church is now organized into four eparchies divided into two administrative centers: the Metropolitan Council for the Czech Republic resident in Prague and the Metropolitan Council for the Slovak Republic in Prešov. Under the Council of the Czech Lands (Prague) are the eparchies of Prague and Olomouc-Brno, while the eparchies of Prešov and Michalovce are under the Council of Slovakia (Prešov).

Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia is a self-governing body of the Eastern Orthodox Church that territorially covers the countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Archbishop Rastislav of Prešov was elected by the Extraordinary Synod held on January 11, 2014, as the new primate. On December 9, 2013, the Synod removed Archbishop of Olomouc and Brno from his position as Locum Tenens (ad interim administrator following the resignation of the previous primate, Archbishop Krystof, over allegations of sexual relations with women), and appointed Archbishop Rastislav in his place, an action against which Archbishop Simeon protested and which was deplored by Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.

The Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia presents both an ancient history as well as a very modern history. The present day church occupies the land of Great Moravia, where the brothers Ss. Cyril and Methodius began their mission to the Slavs, introducing the liturgical and canonical order of the Orthodox Church, translated into the Church Slavonic language, using mostly Greek calques to explain concepts for which no Slavic term existed. In doing this they developed the first Slavic alphabet, a mixture of Greek and Hebrew-based characters with a few invented characters of their own to represent unique Slavic sounds.

This was done at the express invitation of the powerful ruler Rastislav of Moravia. Yet within the Moravian state there was a Frankish party among the nobility who desired closer ties with the Kingdom of Francia, whose ruler, Louis the German, was Ratislav's nominal suzerain, and a Frankish bishop had ecclesiastical jurisdiction over a small part of Ratislav's domain that had earlier converted to Christianity. Despite the Photian Schism, the churches of Rome and Constantinople still preserved some semblance of unity, and Pope Nicholas I did not want to see the formation of a large independent Frankish church in Central Europe. When an appeal of the ecclesiastical issue was made to Rome, Nicholas summoned both Cyril and Methodius and the complaining Frankish parties to his court to hear them out. Nicholas died before their arrival, but the new Pope Adrian II reached a compromise after hearing both sides: Old Church Slavonic was confirmed as a liturgical language alongside Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and Methodius was confirmed as bishop with a Frankish co-adjutor, Wiching. Adrian was convinced by Cyril's impassioned defence of the Slavic liturgy in which he cited 1 Corinthians 14:19 "Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." Cyril fell ill while the brothers were still at Rome, and on his deathbed he asked Methodius to swear to return to Moravia and complete the mission to the Slavs instead of returning to the monastic life on Mount Olympus as he had intended to do.

Methodius kept his word and returned, but his mission was interrupted by the death of Ratislav, as the new ruler, Svatopluk I of Moravia sided with the pro-Frankish party and had Methodius imprisoned for almost three years, until he was freed through the intercession of Pope John VIII. For the next ten years, Methodius continued his work, but the death of John VIII in 882 removed his papal protection, and Methodius died in 885. After this, Pope Stephen V of Rome confirmed his Swabian co-adjutor Wiching as bishop. Methodius's disciples were imprisoned, expelled to Bulgaria or enslaved. The expelled, led by Ss. Clement and Naum of Ohrid, formed the nucleus of the Slavic participation in the conversion of Bulgaria to Orthodoxy, after they were released from prison and escorted to the Danube.

The Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical order survived in present-day eastern Slovakia and neighboring regions due to its nearness and influence to Kievan Rus, especially among the population of Rusyn people, until the middle of 17th century when the Union of Uzhhorod was brought about in the Kingdom of Hungary. During the times of suppression, remaining Eastern Orthodox Christians from the region kept their ties with neighboring Eastern Orthodox Eparchy of Buda of the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć and later with the Metropolitanate of Karlovci. One of the most northern parishes of the Serbian Orthodox Church existed in the Slovak city of Komárno with local church built in 18th century still standing today.

After the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, legal restraints to Eastern Orthodoxy were removed. In the new state, Eastern Orthodox communities were mainly located in the eastern parts of the country, including Carpathian Rusynia that was incorporated into Czechoslovakia in 1919. In that region, the city of Mukačevo was located with its traditions going back to the old Eastern Orthodox Eparchy of Mukačevo, that existed before the Union of Užgorod. In the spirit of Eastern Orthodox revival, many people in the region left the Greek Catholic Church. Since there were no Eastern Orthodox bishops in Czechoslovakia, local leaders looked to the Serbian Orthodox Church because Serbs were historically and ethnically close to Czechs, Slovaks and Rusyns. That view was also supported by state authorities of Czechoslovakia (1920). In order to regulate the ecclesiastical order, Bishop Dositej Vasić of Niš (Serbia) arrived in Prague and met with leaders of Eastern Orthodox community, receiving them into full communion (1921).

Among those seeking to restore ties with Eastern Orthodox Church was a Catholic priest Matěj Pavlík, who had been interested in Eastern Orthodoxy for years. The Serbian Orthodox Church thus consented to receive him in full communion and he became Archimandrite with the name Gorazd, in honor of Saint Gorazd of Moravia, disciple and successor of Saint Methodius, Archbishop of Moravia. On September 25, 1921, Archimandrite Gorazd was consecrated Bishop of Moravia and Silesia at the Cathedral of the Holy Archangel Michael in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, by Serbian Patriarch Dimitrije. Bishop Gorazd received jurisdiction over Czech Lands.

As the Orthodox leader in the new nation of Czechoslovakia, Bishop Gorazd laid the foundations of the Orthodox Church throughout Bohemia, Moravia, and also into Slovakia. In Bohemia, he oversaw the building of eleven churches and two chapels. He also published the essential books for the conduct of church services that were translated in the Czech language. He provided aid to those in Slovakia and Carpathian Rusynia, which then was part of Czechoslovakia, and who wanted to return to Eastern Orthodox faith from the Union with Rome. Thus, in the interwar period, Bishop Gorazd built the small Czech church that during World War II would show how firmly it was connected to the Czech nation.

By 1931, Eastern Orthodox renewal in eastern Slovakia and Carpathian Rusynia was progressing very well, allowing the creation of the second Diocese that was named: Eparchy of Mukačevo and Prešov. That diocese was also created under the auspices of Serbian Orthodox Church. First bishop of Mukačevo and Prešov was Damaskin Grdanički. In 1938, he was succeeded by Bishop Vladimir Rajić.

In 1938 the Third Reich succeeded in annexing the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia during the Munich Conference. In the same year, after First Vienna Award, southern parts of Slovakia and Carpathian Rusynia were annexed by Hungary. Since the city of Mukačevo was taken by Hungary, bishop Vladimir had to move to the city of Khust. In 1939, the Third Reich annexed the remainder of the Czech lands into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and installed a pro-Nazi regime in Slovakia. In the same time, Hungary occupied the rest of Carpathian Rusynia and in 1941 Hungarian authorities arrested bishop Vladimir Rajić and deported him back to Serbia.

Years of Nazi occupation (1938/9-1944/5) were marked by renewed restrictions and persecutions. By 1942 Reinhard Heydrich, architect of the Final Solution, had become governor of the Czech Protectorate. After May 27, 1942, assassination attack on Heydrich's car in Prague, Czech partisans took refuge in the crypt of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral before continuing their escape. They were aided by senior church laymen, who kept Bishop Gorazd informed. However, their presence was discovered by the Nazis, and on June 18 the Nazis attacked their hiding place in the cathedral, forcing them to commit suicide. The Orthodox priests, laymen, and Bishop Gorazd were arrested and killed by firing squads on September 4, 1942.

In reprisal the Nazis forbade the church to operate in Bohemia and Moravia. Churches and chapels were closed, and a rounding up of Czechs was conducted, including the whole village of Lidice, whose inhabitants were either killed or sent to forced labor camps. For the Orthodox the whole church fell under the Nazi persecution and was decimated. A total of 256 Orthodox priests and laymen were executed, and church life came to a stop.

In 1945, after the integration of Zakarpattia Oblast into USSR, eastern parts of the Eparchy of Mukačevo and Prešov were transferred from the supreme jurisdiction of Serbian Orthodox Church to the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, and on that territory new Eparchy of Mukačevo and Užgorod was formed, while the western part of the diocese remained in Czechoslovakia and was reorganized as Eparchy of Prešov.

After World War II the Orthodox Church in Czechoslovakia began its recovery without its bishop. On December 9, 1951, the Patriarch of Moscow granted autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Czechoslovakia, though this action was not recognized by Constantinople, which regarded the Czechoslovak church as being autonomous under its authority. The Patriarch of Constantinople later issued a Tomos, or official proclamation, of autocephaly in 1998.

When the Communists seized the country in April 1950, the government convoked a synod of the Greek Catholic Church at Prešov, at which five priests and a number of laymen signed a document declaring that the union with Rome was disbanded and asking to be received into the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, later the Orthodox Church of Czechoslovakia. The government then transferred control of the Greek Catholic churches and other property to the Orthodox Church.

During the Prague Spring in 1968, the former Greek Catholic parishes were allowed to restore communion with Rome. Of the 292 parishes involved, 205 voted in favor. This was one of the few reforms by Dubček that survived the Soviet invasion the same year. However, most of their church buildings remained in the hands of Orthodox Church. After communism was overthrown in the 1989 Velvet Revolution, most of the Church property was returned to the Slovak Greek Catholic Church by 1993.

The martyrdom of Bishop Gorazd was recognized by the Serbian Orthodox Church on May 4, 1961, which canonized Gorazd as a New Martyr. Subsequently, on August 24, 1987, he was canonized at the Cathedral of St. Gorazd in Olomouc, Moravia.

After the death of Metropolitan Dorotheus of Prague and All Czechoslovakia, Archbishop Nicholas of Prešov was elected the new metropolitan, and the church's primatial see was moved from Prague to Prešov. Metr. Nicholas reposed on January 30, 2006, and was replaced by Archbishop Christopher of Prague and the Czech Lands (elected May 2, 2006).

In the Czech Republic there are 82 parishes, with 51 in Bohemia and 31 in Moravia and Silesia. In the Republic of Slovakia there are 90 parishes, with 69 in the eparchy of Prešov and 21 in the eparchy of Michalovce. The Orthodox Theological Faculty of the University of Prešov provides an education for future priests of combined Church. The faculty maintains a detached branch in Olomouc.

The Monastery of St. Procopius of Sazava is located in Most, and that of the Dormition in Vilemov.

The current primate of the Czechoslovak Orthodox Church is (born Ondrej Gont), Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia since 2014.

The Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic went their separate ways after 1 January 1993, an event sometimes called the Velvet Divorce. Slovakia has remained a close partner with the Czech Republic. Both countries co-operate with Hungary and Poland in the Visegrád Group. Slovakia became a member of NATO on 29 March 2004 and of the European Union on 1 May 2004. On 1 January 2009, Slovakia adopted the Euro as its national currency.

Slovakia

Slovakia (; ), officially the Slovak Republic (, ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's territory spans about and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5.4 million and consists mostly of Slovaks. The capital and largest city is Bratislava, and the second largest city is Košice. The official language is Slovak.

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.

Slovakia is a high-income advanced economy with a very high Human Development Index, a very high standard of living and performs favourably in measurements of civil liberties, press freedom, internet freedom, democratic governance and peacefulness. The country maintains a combination of market economy with a comprehensive social security system. Citizens of Slovakia are provided with universal health care, free education and one of the longest paid parental leave in the OECD. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009. Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes. In 2018, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 179 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 10th in the world. Its legal tender is the Euro. Slovakia is the world's largest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone and the 7th largest car producer in the European Union. The car industry represents 43% of Slovakia's industrial output, and a quarter of its exports.

The first written mention of name "Slovakia" is in 1586 (). It derives from the Czech word "Slováky"; previous German forms were "Windischen landen" and "Windenland" (the 15th century). The native name "Slovensko" (1791) derives from an older name of Slovaks "Sloven" what may indicate its origin before the 15th century. The original meaning was geographic (not political), since Slovakia was a part of the multiethnic Kingdom of Hungary and did not form a separate administrative unit in this period.

Radiocarbon dating puts the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BCE, in the Early Paleolithic era. These ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia.

Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era (200,000 – 80,000 BCE) come from the Prévôt (Prepoštská) cave near Bojnice and from other nearby sites. The most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium (c. 200,000 BCE), discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia.

Archaeologists have found prehistoric human skeletons in the region, as well as numerous objects and vestiges of the Gravettian culture, principally in the river valleys of Nitra, Hron, Ipeľ, Váh and as far as the city of Žilina, and near the foot of the Vihorlat, Inovec, and Tribeč mountains, as well as in the Myjava Mountains. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone (22,800 BCE), the famous Venus of Moravany. The statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina, and Radošina. These findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and central Europe.

The Bronze Age in the geographical territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BCE. Major cultural, economic, and political development can be attributed to the significant growth in production of copper, especially in central Slovakia (for example in Špania Dolina) and northwest Slovakia. Copper became a stable source of prosperity for the local population.

After the disappearance of the Čakany and Velatice cultures, the Lusatian people expanded building of strong and complex fortifications, with the large permanent buildings and administrative centres. Excavations of Lusatian hill forts document the substantial development of trade and agriculture at that period. The richness and the diversity of tombs increased considerably. The inhabitants of the area manufactured arms, shields, jewellery, dishes, and statues.

The arrival of tribes from Thrace disrupted the people of the Kalenderberg culture, who lived in the hamlets located on the plain (Sereď) and in the hill forts like Molpír, near Smolenice, in the Little Carpathians. During Hallstatt times, monumental burial mounds were erected in western Slovakia, with princely equipment consisting of richly decorated vessels, ornaments and decorations. The burial rites consisted entirely of cremation. The common people were buried in flat urnfield cemeteries. A special role was given to weaving and the production of textiles. The local power of the "Princes" of the Hallstatt period disappeared in Slovakia during the last century before the middle of first millennium BC, after strife between the Scytho-Thracian people and locals, resulting in abandonment of the old hill-forts. Relatively depopulated areas soon caught interest of emerging Celtic tribes, who advanced from the south towards the north, following the Slovak rivers, peacefully integrating into the remnants of the local population.

From around 500 BCE, the territory of modern-day Slovakia was settled by Celts, who built powerful "oppida" on the sites of modern-day Bratislava and Devín. Biatecs, silver coins with inscriptions in the Latin alphabet, represent the first known use of writing in Slovakia. At the northern regions, remnants of the local population of Lusatian origin, together with Celtic and later Dacian influence, gave rise to the unique Púchov culture, with advanced crafts and iron-working, many hill-forts and fortified settlements of central type with coinage of the "Velkobysterecky" type (no inscriptions, with a horse on one side and a head on the other). This culture is often connected with the Celtic tribe mentioned in Roman sources as Cotini.

From 2 AD, the expanding Roman Empire established and maintained a series of outposts around and just south of the Danube, the largest of which were known as Carnuntum (whose remains are on the main road halfway between Vienna and Bratislava) and Brigetio (present-day Szőny at the Slovak-Hungarian border). Such Roman border settlements were built on the present area of Rusovce, currently a suburb of Bratislava. The military fort was surrounded by a civilian vicus and several farms of the villa rustica type. The name of this settlement was Gerulata. The military fort had an auxiliary cavalry unit, approximately 300 horses strong, modelled after the Cananefates. The remains of Roman buildings have also survived in Devín Castle (present-day downtown Bratislava), the suburbs of Dúbravka and Stupava, and Bratislava Castle Hill.

Near the northernmost line of the Roman hinterlands, the Limes Romanus, there existed the winter camp of Laugaricio (modern-day Trenčín) where the Auxiliary of Legion II fought and prevailed in a decisive battle over the Germanic Quadi tribe in 179 CE during the Marcomannic Wars. The Kingdom of Vannius, a kingdom founded by the Germanic Suebian tribes of Quadi and Marcomanni, as well as several small Germanic and Celtic tribes, including the Osi and Cotini, existed in western and central Slovakia from 8–6 BCE to 179 CE.

In the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, the Huns began to leave the Central Asian steppes. They crossed the Danube in 377 AD and occupied Pannonia, which they used for 75 years as their base for launching looting-raids into Western Europe. However, Attila's death in 453 brought about the disappearance of the Hun tribe. In 568, a Turko-Mongol tribal confederacy, the Avars, conducted its own invasion into the Middle Danube region. The Avars occupied the lowlands of the Pannonian Plain, and established an empire dominating the Carpathian Basin.

In 623, the Slavic population living in the western parts of Pannonia seceded from their empire after a revolution led by Samo, a Frankish merchant. After 626, the Avar power started a gradual decline but its reign lasted to 804.

The Slavic tribes settled in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th century. Western Slovakia was the centre of Samo's empire in the 7th century. A Slavic state known as the Principality of Nitra arose in the 8th century and its ruler Pribina had the first known Christian church of the territory of present-day Slovakia consecrated by 828. Together with neighbouring Moravia, the principality formed the core of the Great Moravian Empire from 833. The high point of this Slavonic empire came with the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863, during the reign of Duke Rastislav, and the territorial expansion under Duke Svätopluk I.

Great Moravia arose around 830 when Mojmír I unified the Slavic tribes settled north of the Danube and extended the Moravian supremacy over them. When Mojmír I endeavoured to secede from the supremacy of the king of East Francia in 846, King Louis the German deposed him and assisted Mojmír's nephew Rastislav (846–870) in acquiring the throne. The new monarch pursued an independent policy: after stopping a Frankish attack in 855, he also sought to weaken influence of Frankish priests preaching in his realm. Duke Rastislav asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to send teachers who would interpret Christianity in the Slavic vernacular.

Upon Rastislav's request, two brothers, Byzantine officials and missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius came in 863. Cyril developed the first Slavic alphabet and translated the Gospel into the Old Church Slavonic language. Rastislav was also preoccupied with the security and administration of his state. Numerous fortified castles built throughout the country are dated to his reign and some of them (e.g., "Dowina", sometimes identified with Devín Castle) are also mentioned in connection with Rastislav by Frankish chronicles.
During Rastislav's reign, the Principality of Nitra was given to his nephew Svätopluk as an appanage. The rebellious prince allied himself with the Franks and overthrew his uncle in 870. Similarly to his predecessor, Svätopluk I (871–894) assumed the title of the king ("rex"). During his reign, the Great Moravian Empire reached its greatest territorial extent, when not only present-day Moravia and Slovakia but also present-day northern and central Hungary, Lower Austria, Bohemia, Silesia, Lusatia, southern Poland and northern Serbia belonged to the empire, but the exact borders of his domains are still disputed by modern authors. Svatopluk also withstood attacks of the Magyar tribes and the Bulgarian Empire, although sometimes it was he who hired the Magyars when waging war against East Francia.

In 880, Pope John VIII set up an independent ecclesiastical province in Great Moravia with Archbishop Methodius as its head. He also named the German cleric Wiching the Bishop of Nitra.
After the death of Prince Svatopluk in 894, his sons Mojmír II (894–906?) and Svatopluk II succeeded him as the Prince of Great Moravia and the Prince of Nitra respectively. However, they started to quarrel for domination of the whole empire. Weakened by an internal conflict as well as by constant warfare with Eastern Francia, Great Moravia lost most of its peripheral territories.

In the meantime, the semi-nomadic Magyar tribes, possibly having suffered defeat from the similarly nomadic Pechenegs, left their territories east of the Carpathian Mountains, invaded the Carpathian Basin and started to occupy the territory gradually around 896. Their armies' advance may have been promoted by continuous wars among the countries of the region whose rulers still hired them occasionally to intervene in their struggles.

It is not known what happened with both Mojmír II and Svatopluk II because they are not mentioned in written sources after 906. In three battles (4–5 July and 9 August 907) near Bratislava, the Magyars routed Bavarian armies. Some historians put this year as the date of the break-up of the Great Moravian Empire, due to the Hungarian conquest; other historians take the date a little bit earlier (to 902).

Great Moravia left behind a lasting legacy in Central and Eastern Europe. The Glagolitic script and its successor Cyrillic were disseminated to other Slavic countries, charting a new path in their sociocultural development. The administrative system of Great Moravia may have influenced the development of the administration of the Kingdom of Hungary.

Following the disintegration of the Great Moravian Empire at the turn of the 10th century, the Hungarians annexed the territory comprising modern Slovakia. After their defeat on the Lech River they abandoned their nomadic ways; they settled in the centre of the Carpathian valley, adopted Christianity and began to build a new state – the Hungarian kingdom.

From the 11th century, when the territory inhabited by the Slavic-speaking population of Danubian Basin was incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary, until 1918, when the Austro-Hungarian empire collapsed, the territory of modern Slovakia was an integral part of the Hungarian state. The ethnic composition became more diverse with the arrival of the Carpathian Germans in the 13th century, and the Jews in the 14th century.

A significant decline in the population resulted from the invasion of the Mongols in 1241 and the subsequent famine. However, in medieval times the area of the present-day Slovakia was characterised by German and Jewish immigration, burgeoning towns, construction of numerous stone castles, and the cultivation of the arts. In 1465, King Matthias Corvinus founded the Hungarian Kingdom's third university, in Pressburg (Bratislava, Pozsony), but it was closed in 1490 after his death. Hussites also settled in the region after the Hussite Wars.

Owing to the Ottoman Empire's expansion into Hungarian territory, Bratislava was designated the new capital of Hungary in 1536, ahead of the old Hungarian capital of Buda falling in 1541. It become part of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, marking the beginning of a new era. The territory comprising modern Slovakia, then known as Upper Hungary, became the place of settlement for nearly two-thirds of the Magyar nobility fleeing the Turks and far more linguistically and culturally Hungarian than it was before. Partly thanks to old Hussite families, and Slovaks studying under Martin Luther, the region then experienced a growth in Protestantism. For a short period in the 17th century, most Slovaks were Lutherans. They defied the Catholic Habsburgs and sought protection from neighboring Transylvania, a rival continuation of the Magyar state that practiced religious tolerance and normally had Ottoman backing. Upper Hungary, modern Slovakia, became the site of frequent wars between Catholics in the west territory and Protestants in the east, also against Turks, the frontier was on a constant state of military alert and heavily fortified by castles and citadels often manned by Catholic German and Slovak troops on the Habsburg side. By 1648, Slovakia was not spared the Counter-Reformation, which brought the majority of its population from Lutheranism back to Roman Catholicism. In 1655, the printing press at the Trnava university produced the Jesuit Benedikt Szöllősi's Cantus Catholici, a Catholic hymnal in the Slovak language that reaffirmed links to the earlier works of Cyril and Methodius.

The Ottoman wars, rivalry between Austria and Transylvania, and the frequent insurrections against the Habsburg Monarchy inflicted a great deal of devastation, especially in the rural areas. In the Austro-Turkish War (1663–1664) a Turkish army led by the Grand Vizier decimated Slovakia. Even so, Slovaks from the Principality of Upper Hungary fought alongside the Turks against the Austrians and Poles at the Battle of Vienna of 1683 led by John III Sobieski. As the Turks withdrew from Hungary in the late 17th century, the importance of the territory comprising modern Slovakia decreased, although Pressburg retained its status as the capital of Hungary until 1848, when it was transferred back to Buda.

During the revolution of 1848–49, the Slovaks supported the Austrian Emperor, hoping for independence from the Hungarian part of the Dual Monarchy, but they failed to achieve their aim. Thereafter relations between the nationalities deteriorated (see Magyarization), culminating in the secession of Slovakia from Hungary after World War I.

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.

During the Interwar period, democratic Czechoslovakia was allied with France, and also with Romania and Yugoslavia (Little Entente); however, the Locarno Treaties of 1925 left East European security open. Both Czechs and Slovaks enjoyed a period of relative prosperity. There was progress in not only the development of the country's economy, but also culture and educational opportunities. The minority Germans came to accept their role in the new country and relations with Austria were good. Yet the Great Depression caused a sharp economic downturn, followed by political disruption and insecurity in Europe.

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 and bordering Germany and Austria. The remainder of "rump" Czechoslovakia was renamed Czecho-Slovakia and included a greater degree of Slovak political autonomy. Southern and eastern Slovakia, however, was reclaimed by Hungary at the First Vienna Award of November 1938.

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.

Meanwhile, the Czechoslovak government-in-exile sought to reverse the Munich Agreement and the subsequent German occupation of Czechoslovakia, and to return the Republic to its 1937 boundaries. The government operated from London and it was ultimately considered, by those countries that recognised it, the legitimate government for Czechoslovakia throughout the Second World War.
As part of the Holocaust in Slovakia, 75,000 Jews out of 80,000 who remained on Slovak territory after Hungary had seized southern regions were deported and taken to German death camps. Thousands of Jews, Gypsies and other politically undesirable people remained in Slovak forced labor camps in Sereď, Vyhne, and Nováky. Tiso, through the granting of presidential exceptions, allowed between 1,000 and 4,000 people crucial to the war economy to avoid deportations.
Under Tiso's government and Hungarian occupation, the vast majority of Slovakia's pre-war Jewish population (between 75,000–105,000 individuals including those who perished from the occupied territory) were murdered. The Slovak state paid Germany 500 RM per every deported Jew for "retraining and accommodation" (similar payment, but only 30 RM was paid by Croatia).

After it became clear that the Soviet Red Army was going to push the Nazis out of eastern and central Europe, an anti-Nazi resistance movement launched a fierce armed insurrection, known as the Slovak National Uprising, near the end of summer 1944. A bloody German occupation and a guerilla war followed. Germans and their local collaborators completely destroyed 93 villages and massacred thousands of civilians, often hundreds at a time. The territory of Slovakia was liberated by Soviet and Romanian forces by the end of April 1945.

After World War II, Czechoslovakia was reconstituted and Jozef Tiso was executed in 1947 for collaboration with the Nazis. More than 80,000 Hungarians and 32,000 Germans were forced to leave Slovakia, in a series of population transfers initiated by the Allies at the Potsdam Conference. Out of about 130,000 Carpathian Germans in Slovakia in 1938, by 1947 only some 20,000 remained.

As a result of the Yalta Conference, Czechoslovakia came under the influence and later under direct occupation of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact, after a coup in 1948. The country was invaded by the Warsaw Pact forces (with the exception of Romania and Albania) in 1968, ending a period of liberalisation under the leadership of Alexander Dubček. In 1969 Czechoslovakia became a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic and the Slovak Socialist Republic. Czechoslovakia was never part of the Soviet Union and remained independent to a degree.

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.

The Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic went their separate ways after 1 January 1993, an event sometimes called the Velvet Divorce. Slovakia has remained a close partner with the Czech Republic. Both countries co-operate with Hungary and Poland in the Visegrád Group. Slovakia became a member of NATO on 29 March 2004 and of the European Union on 1 May 2004. On 1 January 2009, Slovakia adopted the Euro as its national currency.

Slovakia lies between latitudes 47° and 50° N, and longitudes 16° and 23° E. The Slovak landscape is noted primarily for its mountainous nature, with the Carpathian Mountains extending across most of the northern half of the country. Among these mountain ranges are the high peaks of the Fatra-Tatra Area (including Tatra Mountains, Greater Fatra and Lesser Fatra), Slovak Ore Mountains, Slovak Central Mountains or Beskids. The largest lowland is the fertile Danubian Lowland in the southwest, followed by the Eastern Slovak Lowland in the southeast. Forests cover 41% of Slovak land surface.

The Tatra Mountains, with 29 peaks higher than AMSL, are the highest mountain range in the Carpathian Mountains. The Tatras occupy an area of, of which the greater part lies in Slovakia. They are divided into several parts.

To the north, close to the Polish border, are the High Tatras which are a popular hiking and skiing destination and home to many scenic lakes and valleys as well as the highest point in Slovakia, the Gerlachovský štít at and the country's highly symbolic mountain Kriváň. To the west are the Western Tatras with their highest peak of Bystrá at and to the east are the Belianske Tatras, smallest by area.

Separated from the Tatras proper by the valley of the Váh river are the Low Tatras, with their highest peak of Ďumbier at.

The Tatra mountain range is represented as one of the three hills on the coat of arms of Slovakia.

There are 9 national parks in Slovakia, they cover 6.5% of Slovak land surface.

Slovakia has hundreds of caves and caverns under its mountains, of which 30 are open to the public. Most of the caves have stalagmites rising from the ground and stalactites hanging from above. There are currently five Slovak caves under UNESCO's World Heritage Site status. They are Dobšinská Ice Cave, Domica, Gombasek Cave, Jasovská Cave and Ochtinská Aragonite Cave. Other caves open to the public include Belianska Cave, Demänovská Cave of Liberty, Demänovská Ice Cave or Bystrianska Cave.

Most of the rivers stem in the Slovak mountains. Some only pass through and the others make a natural border with surrounding countries (more than ). For example, the Dunajec () to the north, the Danube () to the south or the Morava () to the West. The total length of the rivers on Slovak territory is.

The longest river in Slovakia is the Váh (), the shortest is the Čierna voda. Other important and large rivers are the Myjava, the Nitra (), the Orava, the Hron (), the Hornád (), the Slaná (), the Ipeľ (, forming the border with Hungary), the Bodrog, the Laborec, the Latorica and the Ondava.

The biggest volume of discharge in Slovak rivers is during spring, when the snow melts from the mountains. The only exception is the Danube, whose discharge is the greatest during summer when the snow melts in the Alps. The Danube is the largest river that flows through Slovakia.

The Slovak climate lies between the temperate and continental climate zones with relatively warm summers and cold, cloudy and humid winters. Temperature extremes are between although temperatures below are rare. The weather differs from the mountainous north to the plains in the south.

The warmest region is Bratislava and Southern Slovakia where the temperatures may reach in summer, occasionally to in Hurbanovo. During night, the temperatures drop to. The daily temperatures in winter average in the range of to. During night it may be freezing, but usually not below.

In Slovakia, there are four seasons, each season (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) lasts three months. The dry continental air brings in the summer heat and winter frosts. In contrast, oceanic air brings rainfalls and reduces summer temperatures. In the lowlands and valleys there is often fog, especially in winter.

Spring starts with 21 March and is characterised by colder weather with average daily temperature of in the first weeks and about in May and in June. In Slovakia, the weather and climate in the spring is very unstable.

Summer starts on 22 June and is usually characterised by hot weather with daily temperatures exceeding. July is the warmest month with temperatures up to about, especially in regions of southern Slovakia – in the urban area of Komárno, Hurbanovo or Štúrovo. Showers or thunderstorms may occur because of the summer monsoon called Medardova kvapka (Medard drop – 40 days of rain). Summer in Northern Slovakia is usually mild with temperatures around (less in the mountains).

Autumn in Slovakia starts on 23 September and is mostly characterised by wet weather and wind, although the first weeks can be very warm and sunny. The average temperature in September is around, in November to. Late September and early October is a dry and sunny time of year (so-called Indian Summer).

Winter starts on 21 December with temperatures around. In December and January it is usually snowing, these are the coldest months of the year. At lower altitudes, snow does not stay the whole winter, it is changing into the thaw and frost. Winters are colder in the mountains, where the snow usually lasts until March or April and the night temperatures fall to and colder.

Slovakia signed the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity on 19 May 1993, and became a party to the convention on 25 August 1994. It has subsequently produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, which was received by the convention on 2 November 1998.

The biodiversity of Slovakia comprises animals (such as annellids, arthropods, molluscs, nematodes and vertebrates), fungi (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota, Glomeromycota and Zygomycota), micro-organisms (including Mycetozoa), and plants.

Over 4000 species of fungi have been recorded from Slovakia. Of these, nearly 1500 are lichen-forming species. Some of these fungi are undoubtedly endemic, but not enough is known to say how many. Of the lichen-forming species, about 40% have been classified as threatened in some way. About 7% are apparently extinct, 9% endangered, 17% vulnerable, and 7% rare. The conservation status of non-lichen-forming fungi in Slovakia is not well documented, but there is a red list for its larger fungi.

Slovakia is a parliamentary democratic republic with a multi-party system. The last parliamentary elections were held on 5 March 2016 and two rounds of presidential elections took place on 15 and 29 March 2014.

The Slovak head of state and the formal head of the executive is the president (currently Andrej Kiska), though with very limited powers. The president is elected by direct, popular vote under the two-round system for a five-year term. Most executive power lies with the head of government, the prime minister (currently Peter Pellegrini), who is usually the leader of the winning party, but he/she needs to form a majority coalition in the parliament. The prime minister is appointed by the president. The remainder of the cabinet is appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister.

Slovakia's highest legislative body is the 150-seat unicameral National Council of the Slovak Republic ("Národná rada Slovenskej republiky"). Delegates are elected for a four-year term on the basis of proportional representation.

Slovakia's highest judicial body is the Constitutional Court of Slovakia ("Ústavný súd"), which rules on constitutional issues. The 13 members of this court are appointed by the president from a slate of candidates nominated by parliament.

The Constitution of the Slovak Republic was ratified 1 September 1992, and became effective 1 January 1993. It was amended in September 1998 to allow direct election of the president and again in February 2001 due to EU admission requirements. The civil law system is based on Austro-Hungarian codes. The legal code was modified to comply with the obligations of Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and to expunge the Marxist–Leninist legal theory. Slovakia accepts the compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction with reservations.

Slovakia joined the European Union and NATO in 2004 and the Eurozone in 2009.

Slovakia is a member of the United Nations (since 1993) and participates in its specialized agencies. The country was, on 10 October 2005, elected to a two-year term on the UN Security Council from 2006 to 2007. It is also a member of the Schengen Area, the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and part of the Visegrad Four (V4, Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Poland).

Slovakia maintains diplomatic relations with 134 countries, primarily through its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As of December 2013, Slovakia maintained 90 missions abroad, including 64 embassies, seven missions to multilateral organisations, nine consulates-general, one consular office, one Slovak Economic and Cultural Office and eight Slovak Institutes. There are 44 embassies and 35 honorary consulates in Bratislava.

The Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic number 14,000 uniformed personnel. Slovakia joined NATO in March 2004. The country has been an active participant in US- and NATO-led military actions. There is a joint Czech-Slovak peacekeeping force in Kosovo. From 2006 the army transformed into a fully professional organisation and compulsory military service was abolished.

Slovak Ground Forces are made up of two active mechanised infantry brigades. The Air and Air Defence Forces comprise one wing of fighters, one wing of utility helicopters, and one SAM brigade. Training and support forces comprise a National Support Element (Multifunctional Battalion, Transport Battalion, Repair Battalion), a garrison force of the capital city Bratislava, as well as a training battalion, and various logistics and communication and information bases. Miscellaneous forces under the direct command of the General Staff include the 5th Special Forces Regiment.

The US State Department in 2017 reported:

The government generally respected the human rights of its citizens; however, there were problems in some areas. The most significant human rights issues included incidents of interference with privacy; corruption; widespread discrimination against Roma minority; and security force violence against ethnic and racial minorities government actions and rhetoric did little to discourage. The government investigated reports of abuses by members of the security forces and other government institutions, although some observers questioned the thoroughness of these investigations. Some officials engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. Two former ministers were convicted of corruption during the year.

Human rights in Slovakia are guaranteed by the Constitution of Slovakia from the year 1992 and by multiple international laws signed in Slovakia between 1948 and 2006.

As for administrative division, Slovakia is subdivided into 8 "krajov" (singular – "kraj", usually translated as "region"), each of which is named after its principal city. Regions have enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy since 2002. Their self-governing bodies are referred to as Self-governing (or autonomous) Regions (sg. "samosprávny kraj", pl. "samosprávne kraje") or Upper-Tier Territorial Units (sg. "vyšší územný celok", pl. "vyššie územné celky", abbr. VÚC).

The "kraje" are subdivided into many "okresy" (sg. "okres", usually translated as counties). Slovakia currently has 79 districts.

The "okresy" are further divided into "obcí" (sg. "obec", usually translated as "municipality"). There are currently 2,890 obcí.

In terms of economics and unemployment rate, the western regions are richer than eastern regions. Bratislava is the third richest region of the European Union by GDP (PPP) per capita (after Hamburg and Luxembourg City), GDP at purchasing power parity is about three times higher than in other Slovak regions.

The Slovak economy is a developed, high-income economy, with the GDP per capita equalling 77% of the average of the European Union in 2016. The country has difficulties addressing regional imbalances in wealth and employment. GDP per capita ranges from 188% of EU average in Bratislava to 54% in Eastern Slovakia.

The OECD in 2017 reported:

The Slovak Republic continues exhibiting robust economic performance, with strong growth backed by a sound financial sector, low public debt and high international competitiveness drawing on large inward investment.

In 2017, Slovakia was ranked by the International Monetary Fund as the 39th richest country in the world (out of 187 countries), with purchasing power parity per capita GDP of $32,895. The country used to be dubbed the "Tatra Tiger". Slovakia successfully transformed from a centrally planned economy to a market-driven economy. Major privatisations are completed, the banking sector is almost completely in private hands, and foreign investment has risen.
The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and 3rd fastest in eurozone (2017). In 2007, 2008 and 2010 (with GDP growth of 10.5%, 6% and 4% retrospectively). In 2016, more than 86% of Slovak exports went to European Union, and more than 50% of Slovak imports came from other European Union member states.

The ratio of government debt to GDP in Slovakia reached 52% by the end of 2016, far below the OECD average.

Unemployment, peaking at 19% at the end of 1999, decreased to 5,95% at the end of 2017, lowest recorded rate in Slovak history.

Inflation dropped from an average annual rate of 12% in 2000 to just 3.3% in 2002, an election year, but it rose again in 2003–2004 because of rising labour costs and taxes. It reached only 1% in 2010 which is the lowest recorded rate since 1993. The rate was at 4% in 2011.

Slovakia adopted the Euro currency on 1 January 2009 as the 16th member of the Eurozone. The euro in Slovakia was approved by the European commission on 7 May 2008. The Slovak koruna was revalued on 28 May 2008 to 30.126 for 1 euro, which was also the exchange rate for the euro.
Slovakia is an attractive country for foreign investors mainly because of its low wages, low tax rates and well educated labour force. In recent years, Slovakia has been pursuing a policy of encouraging foreign investment. FDI inflow grew more than 600% from 2000 and cumulatively reached an all-time high of $17.3 billion in 2006, or around $22,000 per capita by the end of 2008.

In March 2008, the Ministry of Finance announced that Slovakia's economy is developed enough to stop being an aid receiver from the World Bank. Slovakia became an aid provider at the end of 2008.

Although Slovakia's GDP comes mainly from the tertiary (services) sector, the industrial sector also plays an important role within its economy. The main industry sectors are car manufacturing and electrical engineering. Since 2007, Slovakia has been the world's largest producer of cars per capita, with a total of 1.040.000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone. There are currently four automobile assembly plants: Volkswagen's in Bratislava (models: Volkswagen Up, Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7, Audi Q8, Porsche Cayenne, Lamborghini Urus), PSA Peugeot Citroën's in Trnava (models: Peugeot 208, Citroën C3 Picasso), Kia Motors' Žilina Plant (models: Kia Cee'd, Kia Sportage, Kia Venga) and Jaguar Land Rover's in Nitra (model: Land Rover Discovery).

From electrical engineering companies, Foxconn has a factory at Nitra for LCD TV manufacturing, Samsung at Galanta for computer monitors and television sets manufacturing.

ESET is an IT security company from Bratislava with more than 1,000 employees worldwide at present. Their branch offices are in the United States, Ireland, United Kingdom, Argentina, the Czech Republic, Singapore and Poland.
Bratislava's geographical position in Central Europe has long made Bratislava a crossroads for international trade traffic. Various ancient trade routes, such as the Amber Road and the Danube waterway, have crossed territory of present-day Bratislava. Today, Bratislava is the road, railway, waterway and airway hub.

In 2012, Slovakia produced a total of 28,393 GWh of electricity while at the same time consumed 28 786 GWh. The slightly higher level of consumption than the capacity of production (- 393 GWh) meant the country was not self-sufficient in energy sourcing. Slovakia imported electricity mainly from the Czech Republic (9 961 GWh – 73.6% of total import) and exported mainly to Hungary (10 231 GWh – 78.2% of total export).

Nuclear energy accounts for 53.8% of total electricity production in Slovakia, followed by 18.1% of thermal power energy, 15.1% by hydro power energy, 2% by solar energy, 9.6% by other sources and the rest 1.4% is imported.

The two nuclear power-plants in Slovakia are in Jaslovské Bohunice and Mochovce, each of them containing two operating reactors. Prior to the accession of Slovakia to the EU in 2004, the government agreed to turn-off the V1 block of Jaslovské Bohunice power-plant, built in 1978. After deactivating the last of the two reactors of the V1 block in 2008, Slovakia instantly stopped being self-dependent in energy production. Currently there is another block (V2) with two active reactors in Jaslovské Bohunice. It is scheduled for decommissioning in 2025. Two new reactors are under construction in Mochovce plant. The nuclear power production in Slovakia sometimes draws attention to Austrian green-energy activists who occasionally organise protests and block the borders between the two countries.

There are four main highways D1 to D4 and eight express ways R1 to R8. Most of them are still in the planning phase.

The D1 motorway connects Bratislava to Trnava, Nitra, Trenčín, Žilina and beyond, while the D2 motorway connects it to Prague, Brno and Budapest in the north-south direction. A large part of D4 motorway (an outer bypass), which should ease the pressure on Bratislava's highway system, is scheduled to open in 2020.

The A6 motorway to Vienna connects Slovakia directly to the Austrian motorway system and was opened on 19 November 2007.

Bratislava's M. R. Štefánik Airport is the main international airport in Slovakia. It is located northeast of the city centre. It serves civil and governmental, scheduled and unscheduled domestic and international flights. The current runways support the landing of all common types of aircraft currently used. The airport has enjoyed rapidly growing passenger traffic in recent years; it served 279,028 passengers in 2000, 1,937,642 in 2006 and 2,024,142 in 2007. Smaller airports served by passenger airlines include those in Košice and Poprad.

The Port of Bratislava is one of the two international river ports in Slovakia. The port connects Bratislava to international boat traffic, especially the interconnection from the North Sea to the Black Sea via the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal.
Additionally, tourist boats operate from Bratislava's passenger port, including routes to Devín, Vienna and elsewhere.

Slovakia features natural landscapes, mountains, caves, medieval castles and towns, folk architecture, spas and ski resorts. More than 5,4 million tourists visited Slovakia in 2017, and the most attractive destinations are the capital of Bratislava and the High Tatras. Most visitors come from the Czech Republic (about 26%), Poland (15%) and Germany (11%).

Slovakia contains many castles, most of which are in ruins. The best known castles include Bojnice Castle (often used as a filming location), Spiš Castle, (on the UNESCO list), Orava Castle, Bratislava Castle, and the ruins of Devín Castle. Čachtice Castle was once the home of the world's most prolific female serial killer, the 'Bloody Lady', Elizabeth Báthory.

Slovakia's position in Europe and the country's past (part of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Habsburg monarchy and Czechoslovakia) made many cities and towns similar to the cities in the Czech Republic (such as Prague), Austria (such as Salzburg) or Hungary (such as Budapest). A historical center with at least one square has been preserved in many towns. Large historical centers can be found in Bratislava, Trenčín, Košice, Banská Štiavnica, Levoča, and Trnava. Historical centers have been going through restoration in recent years.

Historical churches can be found in virtually every village and town in Slovakia. Most of them are built in the Baroque style, but there are also many examples of Romanesque and Gothic architecture, for example Banská Bystrica, Bardejov and Spišská Kapitula. The Basilica of St. James in Levoča with the tallest wood-carved altar in the world and the Church of the Holy Spirit in Žehra with medieval frescos are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The St. Martin's Concathedral in Bratislava served as the coronation church for the Kingdom of Hungary. The oldest sacral buildings in Slovakia stem from the Great Moravian period in the 9th century.
Very precious structures are the complete wooden churches of northern and northern-eastern Slovakia. Most were built from the 15th century onwards by Catholics, Lutherans and members of eastern-rite churches.

Typical souvenirs from Slovakia are dolls dressed in folk costumes, ceramic objects, crystal glass, carved wooden figures, črpáks (wooden pitchers), fujaras (a folk instrument on the UNESCO list) and valaškas (a decorated folk hatchet) and above all products made from corn husks and wire, notably human figures. Souvenirs can be bought in the shops run by the state organisation ÚĽUV ("Ústredie ľudovej umeleckej výroby" – Centre of Folk Art Production). "Dielo" shop chain sells works of Slovak artists and craftsmen. These shops are mostly found in towns and cities.

Prices of imported products are generally the same as in the neighbouring countries, whereas prices of local products and services, especially food, are usually lower.

The Slovak Academy of Sciences has been the most important scientific and research institution in the country since 1953. Slovaks have made notable scientific and technical contributions during the history. Slovakia is currently in the negotiation process of becoming a member of the European Space Agency. Observer status was granted in 2010, when Slovakia signed the General Agreement on Cooperation in which information about ongoing education programmes was shared and Slovakia was invited to various negotiations of the ESA. In 2015, Slovakia signed the European Cooperating State Agreement based on which Slovakia committed to the finance entrance programme named PECS (Plan for the European Cooperating States) which serves as preparation for full membership. Slovak research and development organizations can apply for funding of projects regarding space technologies advancement. Full membership of Slovakia in the ESA is expected in 2020 after signing the ESA Convention. Slovakia will be obliged to set state budget inclusive ESA funding.

According to the 2011 census, the majority of the inhabitants of Slovakia are Slovaks (80.7%). Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority (8.5%). Other ethnic groups include Roma (2%), Czechs (0.6%), Rusyns (0.6%) and others or unspecified (7.6%). Unofficial estimates on the Roma population are much higher, around 5.6%.

In 2007 Slovakia was estimated to have a total fertility rate of 1.33 (i.e., the average woman will have 1.33 children in her lifetime), which is significantly below the replacement level and is one of the lowest rates among EU countries.

The largest waves of Slovak emigration occurred in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1990 US census, 1.8 million people self-identified as having Slovak ancestry.

The official language is Slovak, a member of the Slavic language family. Hungarian is widely spoken in the southern regions, and Rusyn is used in some parts of the Northeast. Minority languages hold co-official status in the municipalities in which the size of the minority population meets the legal threshold of 15% in two consecutive censuses.

Slovakia is ranked among the top EU countries regarding the knowledge of foreign languages. In 2007, 68% of the population aged from 25 to 64 years claimed to speak two or more foreign languages, finishing 2nd highest in the European Union. The best known foreign language in Slovakia is Czech. Eurostat report also shows that 98.3% of Slovak students in the upper secondary education take on two foreign languages, ranking highly over the average 60.1% in the European Union.

The deaf community uses the Slovak Sign Language. Even though spoken Czech and Slovak are similar, the Slovak Sign language is not particularly close to Czech Sign Language.

The Slovak constitution guarantees freedom of religion. In 2011, 62.0% of Slovaks identified themselves as Roman Catholics, 8.9% as Protestants, 3.8% as Greek Catholics, 0.9% as Orthodox, 13.4% identified themselves as atheists or non-religious, and 10.6% did not answer the question about their belief. In 2004, about one third of the then church members regularly attended church services. The Slovak Greek Catholic Church is an Eastern rite sui iuris Catholic Church. Before World War II, an estimated 90,000 Jews lived in Slovakia (1.6% of the population), but most were murdered during the Holocaust. After further reductions due to postwar emigration and assimilation, only about 2,300 Jews remain today (0.04% of the population).

There are 18 state-registered religions in Slovakia, of which 16 are Christian, one is Jewish, and one is Bahá'í. In 2016, a two-third majority of the Slovak parliament passed a new bill that will obstruct Islam and other religious organisations from becoming state-recognised religion by doubling the minimum followers threshold from 25,000 to 50,000; however, Slovak president Andrej Kiska vetoed the bill. In 2010, there were an estimated 5,000 Muslims in Slovakia representing less than 0.1% of the country's population. Slovakia is the last member state of the European Union without a mosque.

The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Slovak secondary education the 30th in the world (placing it just below the United States and just above Spain).
Education in Slovakia is compulsory from age 6 to 16. The education system consists of elementary school which is divided into two parts, the first grade (age 6–10) and the second grade (age 10–15) which is finished by taking nationwide testing called Monitor, from Slovak language and math. Parents may apply for social assistance for a child that is studying on an elementary school or a high-school. If approved, the state provides basic study necessities for the child. Schools provide books to all their students with usual exceptions of books for studying a foreign language and books which require taking notes in them, which are mostly present at the first grade of elementary school.

After finishing elementary school, students are obliged to take one year in high school.

After finishing a high school, students can go to university and are highly encouraged to do so. Slovakia has a wide range of universities. The biggest university is Comenius University, established in 1919. Although it's not the first university ever established on Slovak territory, it's the oldest university that is still running. Most universities in Slovakia are public funded, where anyone can apply. Every citizen has a right to free education in public schools.

Slovakia has several privately funded universities, however public universities consistently score better in the ranking than their private counterparts. Universities have different criteria for accepting students. Anyone can apply to any number of universities.

Folk tradition has rooted strongly in Slovakia and is reflected in literature, music, dance and architecture. The prime example is a Slovak national anthem, ""Nad Tatrou sa blýska"", which is based on a melody from ""Kopala studienku"" folk song.

Manifestation of Slovak folklore culture is the ""Východná"" Folklore Festival. It is the oldest and largest nationwide festival with international participation, which takes place in Východná annually. Slovakia is usually represented by many groups but mainly by SĽUK ("Slovenský ľudový umelecký kolektív – Slovak folk art collective"). SĽUK is the largest Slovak folk art group, trying to preserve the folklore tradition.

An example of wooden folk architecture in Slovakia can be seen in the well preserved village of Vlkolínec which has been the UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993. The Prešov Region preserves the world's most remarkable folk wooden churches. Most of them are protected by Slovak law as cultural heritage, but some of them are on the UNESCO list too, in Bodružal, Hervartov, Ladomirová and Ruská Bystrá.

The best known Slovak hero, found in many folk mythologies, is Juraj Jánošík (1688–1713) (the Slovak equivalent of Robin Hood). The legend says he was taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Jánošík's life was depicted in a list of literature works and many movies throughout the 20th century. One of the most popular is a film "Jánošík" directed by Martin Frič in 1935.

Visual art in Slovakia is represented through painting, drawing, printmaking, illustration, arts and crafts, sculpture, photography or conceptual art. The Slovak National Gallery founded in 1948, is the biggest network of galleries in Slovakia. Two displays in Bratislava are situated in Esterházy Palace ("Esterházyho palác") and the Water Barracks ("Vodné kasárne"), adjacent one to another. They are located on the Danube riverfront in the Old Town.

The Bratislava City Gallery, founded in 1961 is the second biggest Slovak gallery of its kind. It stores about 35,000 pieces of Slovak and international art and offers permanent displays in Pálffy Palace and Mirbach Palace, located in the Old Town. Danubiana Art Museum, one of the youngest art museums in Europe, is situated near Čunovo waterworks (part of Gabčíkovo Waterworks). Other major galleries include: Andy Warhol Museum of Modern Art, East Slovak Gallery, Ernest Zmeták Art Gallery, Zvolen Castle.

For a list of notable Slovak writers and poets, see List of Slovak authors.

Christian topics include: poem Proglas as a foreword to the four Gospels, partial translations of the Bible into Old Church Slavonic, "Zakon sudnyj ljudem".

Medieval literature, in the period from the 11th to the 15th centuries, was written in Latin, Czech and Slovakised Czech. Lyric (prayers, songs and formulas) was still controlled by the Church, while epic was concentrated on legends. Authors from this period include Johannes de Thurocz, author of the Chronica Hungarorum and Maurus, both of them Hungarians. The worldly literature also emerged and chronicles were written in this period.

There were two leading persons who codified the Slovak language. The first was Anton Bernolák whose concept was based on the western Slovak dialect in 1787. It was the codification of the first ever literary language of Slovaks. The second was Ľudovít Štúr, whose formation of the Slovak language took principles from the central Slovak dialect in 1843.

Slovakia is also known for its polyhistors, of whom include Pavol Jozef Šafárik, Matej Bel, Ján Kollár, and its political revolutionaries and reformists, such Milan Rastislav Štefánik and Alexander Dubček.

Traditional Slovak cuisine is based mainly on pork meat, poultry (chicken is the most widely eaten, followed by duck, goose, and turkey), flour, potatoes, cabbage, and milk products. It is relatively closely related to Hungarian, Czech and Austrian cuisine. On the east it is also influenced by Ukrainian and Polish cuisine. In comparison with other European countries, "game meat" is more accessible in Slovakia due to vast resources of forest and because hunting is relatively popular. Boar, rabbit, and venison, are generally available throughout the year. Lamb and goat are eaten but are not widely popular.

The traditional Slovak meals are bryndzové halušky, bryndzové pirohy and other meals with potato dough and bryndza. Bryndza is a salty cheese made of a sheep milk, characterised by a strong taste and aroma. Bryndzové halušky must be on the menu of every traditional Slovak restaurant.

A typical soup is a sauerkraut soup ("kapustnica"). A blood sausage called "krvavnica", made from any and all parts of a butchered pig is also a specific Slovak meal.

Wine is enjoyed throughout Slovakia. Slovak wine comes predominantly from the southern areas along the Danube and its tributaries; the northern half of the country is too cold and mountainous to grow grapevines. Traditionally, white wine was more popular than red or rosé (except in some regions), and sweet wine more popular than dry, but in recent years tastes seem to be changing. Beer (mainly of the pilsener style, though dark lagers are also consumed) is also popular.

Sporting activities are practised widely in Slovakia, many of them on a professional level. Ice hockey and football have traditionally been regarded as the most popular sports in Slovakia, though tennis, handball, basketball, volleyball, whitewater slalom, cycling and athletics are also popular.One of the most popular team sports in Slovakia is ice hockey. Slovakia became a member of the IIHF on 2 February 1993 and since then has won 4 medals in Ice Hockey World Championships, consisting of 1 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze. The most recent success was a silver medal at the 2012 IIHF World Championship in Helsinki. The Slovak national hockey team made five appearances in the Olympic games, finishing 4th in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The country has 8280 registered players and is ranked 7th in the IIHF World Ranking at present. Prior to 2012, the Slovak team HC Slovan Bratislava participated in the Kontinental Hockey League, considered the strongest hockey league in Europe, and the second-best in the world.

Slovakia hosted the 2011 IIHF World Championship, where Finland won the gold medal. Competitions took place in Bratislava and Košice.Association football is the most popular sport in Slovakia, with over 400,000 registered players. Since 1993, the Slovak national football team has qualified for the FIFA World Cup once, in 2010. They progressed to the last 16, where they were defeated by the Netherlands. The most notable result was the 3–2 victory over Italy. In 2016, the Slovak national football team qualified for the UEFA Euro 2016 tournament, under head coach Ján Kozák. This helped the team reach their best ever position of 14th in the FIFA World Rankings.

In club competitions, only three teams have qualified for the UEFA Champions League Group Stage, namely MFK Košice in 1997–98, FC Artmedia Bratislava in 2005–06 season, and MŠK Žilina in 2010–11. FC Artmedia Bratislava has been the most successful team, finishing 3rd at the Group Stage of the UEFA Cup, therefore qualifying for the knockout stage. They remain the only Slovak club that has won a match at the group stage.

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.

Czech Republic–Slovakia relations

Czech Republic–Slovakia relations are foreign relations between the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic.

Both countries are full members of NATO and of the European Union. There are around 200,000 people of Slovak descent living in the Czech Republic and around 46,000 people of Czech descent living in Slovakia. Gustáv Slamečka, a Slovak citizen, was a Minister of Transportation of the Czech Republic from 2009 to 2010 and in his office he exclusively used the Slovak language.

In December 2016 Slovak government ratified the Treaty of Cooperation on Mutual Protection of Airspace, which allows the use of Czech and Slovak military aircraft in the airspace of the other one and the possible reinforcement of one air force by its neighbour's counterpart in time of need. After the ratification from the Czech side, it came into effect in July 2017.

In 2017, Andrej Babiš, Slovak billionaire, had been elected the new prime minister of the Czech Republic.

Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in January 1993. The IIHF recognized the Czech Republic's team as the successor to Czechoslovakia and it retained its position in the top division. Slovakia's team began in the lowest division (Pool C) in 1994 and was forced to work its way up. Following this, the next decade was dominated by the so-called "Big Six"–Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. From 1992 to 1996, five different teams won the World Championship. At the 1993 World Championships, Russia won its first title as an independent nation and the Czech Republic won its first medal (bronze). In 1994, the Canadian team finished the preliminary round undefeated and defeated Finland in the final to win their first World Championship since 1961. The following year in Sweden, the Finnish team won its first ever World Championship. Led by their top line of Saku Koivu, Ville Peltonen and Jere Lehtinen, the Finns defeated rival Sweden in the gold medal game. At the 1995 Pool B championships, Slovakia, led by Peter Šťastný won Pool B and was promoted to the top division, where it has remained ever since. In 1996, the Czech Republic won its first World Championship as a separate country. During this period, the United States was the only one of the "Big Six" not to win the World Championship, although they did win the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and their bronze at that year's World Championship was their first medal since 1962.
In the mid-1990s, several new teams such as Slovakia, Latvia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were quickly improving and older nations such as Austria, France, Italy, Norway and Switzerland were at risk of being relegated to Pool B. The IIHF feared that it would lose advertising revenue if that happened, so the number of teams was increased to 16 starting in 1998.

Ice Hockey World Championships

The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament.

The IIHF was created in 1908 while the European Championships, the precursor to the World Championships, were first held in 1910. The tournament held at the 1920 Summer Olympics is recognized as the first Ice Hockey World Championship. Between 1920 and 1968, the Olympic hockey tournament was also considered the World Championship for that year.

The first World Championship that was held as an individual event was in 1930 in which twelve nations participated. In 1931, ten teams played a series of round-robin format qualifying rounds to determine which nations participated in the medal round. Medals were awarded based on the final standings of the teams in the medal round. In 1951, thirteen nations took part and were split into two groups. The top seven teams (Pool A) played for the World Championship. The other six (Pool B) played for ranking purposes. This basic format would be used until 1992 (although small variations were made). During a congress in 1990, the IIHF introduced a playoff system. As the IIHF grew, more teams began to participate at the World Championships, so more pools (later renamed divisions) were introduced.

The modern format for the World Championship features 16 teams in the championship group, 12 teams in Division I and 12 teams in Division II. If there are more than 40 teams, the rest compete in Division III. The teams in the championship play a preliminary round, then the top eight teams play in the playoff medal round and the winning team is crowned World Champion. Over the years, the tournament has gone through several rule changes. In 1969 body-checking in all three zones in a rink was allowed, helmets and goaltender masks became mandatory in the early 1970s and in 1992 the IIHF began using the shootout. The current IIHF rules differ slightly from the rules used in the NHL. From the 1920 Olympics until the 1976 World Championships, only athletes designated as "amateur" were allowed to compete in the tournament. Because of this, players from the National Hockey League and its senior minor-league teams were not allowed to compete, while the Soviet Union was allowed to use permanent full-time players who were positioned as regular workers of an aircraft industry or tractor industry employer that sponsored what would be presented as an after-hours amateur social sports society team for their workers. In 1970, after an agreement to allow just a small number of its professionals to participate was rescinded by the IIHF, Canada withdrew from the tournament. Starting in 1977, professional athletes were allowed to compete in the tournament and Canada re-entered. The IIHF requires that players are citizens of the country they represent and allow players to switch national teams provided that they play in their new nation for a certain period of time.

Canada was the tournament's first dominant team, winning the tournament 12 times between 1930 and 1952. The United States, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Great Britain and Switzerland were also competitive during this period. The Soviet Union first participated in 1954 and soon became rivals with Canada. From 1963 until the nation's breakup in 1991, the Soviet Union was the dominant team, winning 20 championships. During that period, only three other nations won medals: Canada, Czechoslovakia and Sweden. Russia first participated in 1992 and the Czech Republic and Slovakia began competing in 1993. In the 2000s, the competition became more open as the "Big Six" teams – Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, and the United States – as well as Slovakia and Switzerland have become more evenly matched.

As this tournament takes place during the same period as the later stages of the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs, many of that league's top players are not available to participate for their national teams or have only become available after their NHL teams have been eliminated, after playing 90+ games. North American teams, and especially the United States, have been criticized for not taking this tournament seriously. For example, USA Hockey often sent teams made up of younger NHL players alongside college players, not using top level stars even when they are available.

The 2015 World Championship, held in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic, was the most successful to date in terms of overall attendance; it was visited by 741,690 people and average attendance was at 11,589.

The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the sport's governing body, was created on 15 May 1908 under the name Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace (LHG). In 1908, organized ice hockey was still relatively new; the first organized indoor ice hockey game took place on 3 March 1875 at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink. In 1887, four clubs from Montreal formed the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) and developed a structured schedule. Lord Stanley donated the Stanley Cup and the trustees decided to award it to either the best team in the AHAC, or to any pre-approved team that won it in a challenge. The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) was formed in 1905, which mixed paid and amateur players in its rosters. The ECAHA eventually folded and as a result of the dissolution, the National Hockey Association (NHA) formed.

The Ice Hockey European Championships, first held in Les Avants, Switzerland in January 1910, were the precursor to the World Championships. It was the first official tournament meant for national teams, the participating nations were Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. In North America, professional hockey was continuing to grow, the National Hockey League (NHL), the largest professional hockey league in the world, was formed in 1917. The European Championships were held for five consecutive years but were not held between 1915 and 1920 due to World War I.

The IIHF considers the ice hockey tournament held at the 1920 Summer Olympics to be the first Ice Hockey World Championship. It was organized by a committee that included future IIHF president Paul Loicq. The tournament was played from 23 to 29 April. Seven teams participated: Canada, Czechoslovakia, the United States, Switzerland, Sweden, France and Belgium. Canada, represented by the Winnipeg Falcons, won the gold medal, outscoring opponents 27–1. The United States and Czechoslovakia won the silver and bronze medals respectively. Following the 1921 Olympic Congress in Lausanne, the first Winter Olympics were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France, though they were only officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as such in the following year.

Subsequently, every Olympic tournament up to and including the 1968 Winter Olympics is counted as the World Championship. Canada won the gold medal at both the 1924 and 1928 Winter Olympics. In 1928, the Swedish and Swiss teams won their first medals–silver and bronze, respectively–and a German team participated for the first time, finishing ninth.

The first World Championship that was held as an individual event was in 1930. It was held in Chamonix, France; Vienna, Austria; and Berlin, Germany. Canada, represented by the Toronto CCMs, defeated Germany in the gold medal game, and Switzerland won the bronze. Canada, represented by the Manitoba Grads, won the following year, and the Winnipeg Winnipegs won Gold for Canada at the 1932 Winter Olympics. At the 1933 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia, the United States won the gold medal, becoming the first non-Canadian team to win the competition. As of 2018, it is the only gold medal the United States has won at a non-Olympic tournament.
Two days before the 1936 Winter Olympics in Germany, Canadian officials protested that two players on the British team—James Foster and Alex Archer—had played in Canada but transferred without permission to play for clubs in the English National League. The IIHF agreed with Canada, but Britain threatened to withdraw if the two could not compete. Canada withdrew the protest before the games started. Britain became the first non-Canadian team to win Olympic gold, with the United States taking bronze. Canada won the remainder of the World Championship tournaments held in the 1930s. The 1939 World Championships marked the first time that a team from Finland competed in the tournament. World War II forced the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Winter Olympics and the World Championships from 1941 to 1946.

Following World War II, Czechoslovakia's team was quickly improving. They won the 1947 World Championships, although a Canadian team had not participated in the event. In 1949, they became the third nation to win a World Championship tournament that Canada participated in. During the run-up to the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, a conflict broke out between the two American hockey bodies: the American Hockey Association (AHA, a forerunner to USA Hockey) and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). The AAU refused to support the AHA's team because they believed that AHA players were "openly paid salaries" and at the time, the Olympics were strictly for amateur players. A compromise was reached that the AHA team would be allowed to compete but would be considered unofficial and unable to win a medal. By the end of the tournament, the AHA team finished fourth in the standings. Both Czechoslovakia and the RCAF Flyers of Canada won seven games and tied when they played each other. The gold medal winner was determined by goal average: Canada won the gold because they had an average of 13.8 compared to Czechoslovakia's average of 4.3.

At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, the Edmonton Mercurys won Canada's second consecutive Olympic gold medal. It was the last time that a Canadian team would win an Olympic gold medal in hockey for 50 years. The 1953 tournament featured only three teams that played all of their games: Sweden, West Germany, Switzerland. Sweden finished the tournament undefeated and won their first World Championship.

The 1954 World Championships has been described by the IIHF as "the start of the modern era of international hockey." The tournament saw the first participation of the Soviet Union in international competition. The Soviet Union had organized its first ice hockey league in 1946, having previously focused on bandy. Led by coach Arkady Chernyshev, the Soviet national team finished their first six games undefeated. Canada, represented by the East York Lyndhursts, was also undefeated and, in the final game of the tournament, the two teams met for the first time in international competition. The Soviet Union won the game 7–2, becoming the fifth team to win a World Championship tournament. The 1955 World Championship was held in West Germany, and the two teams again met in the final game of the tournament. The game was so high profile in Canada that announcer Foster Hewitt flew to Germany to provide play-by-play coverage. Both teams were undefeated and Canada, represented by the Penticton Vees, defeated the Soviets 5–0 to reclaim the World Championship. At the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Canada's Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen lost to both the Soviets and the United States in the medal round and won the bronze. The Soviets went undefeated and won their first Olympic ice hockey gold medal. It would be seven years until the Soviet Union won another World Championship.

The 1957 World Championships were held in Moscow. Canada and the United States did not participate in protest of the Soviet occupation of Hungary. Most of the games were held in the Luzhniki Sports Palace, but the Soviet officials decided to hold the final game in a nearby outdoor soccer stadium. The game was attended by at least 55,000 people, which stood as a World Championship attendance record until 2010. In the final game, Sweden edged the Soviet Union to finish with six wins and one tie (the Soviet Union had five wins and two ties) and won the gold medal. Canada returned to the World Championship in 1958 and won two consecutive titles, with the Soviets winning silver both times. At the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, Canada, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Sweden were the top four teams heading into the Games. All four were defeated by the American team, which won all seven games en route to its first Olympic gold medal.

In 1961, Czechoslovakia defeated the Soviet Union and tied Canada to make it a three-way race for gold. In the final game, Canada defeated the Soviets 5–1 to win their nineteenth gold medal. The Trail Smoke Eaters became the final club team to represent Canada. The following year, Canada implemented a national team program, led by Father David Bauer. Canada would not win another world championship gold until 1994. In 1962, the World Championships were held in North America for the first time. The tournament was held in Denver, United States, and was boycotted by the Soviet and Czechoslovak teams. Sweden defeated Canada for the first time in the history of the competition and won their third gold medal.

At the 1963 World Championships in Stockholm, the Soviet Union won the gold medal, beginning a streak of nine consecutive World Championship golds. The 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria marked the first time that Canada failed to win an Olympic medal in hockey. The Soviet Union won all seven of their games and the gold medal, but Canada finished the tournament with five wins and two losses, putting them in a three-way tie for second place with Sweden and Czechoslovakia. Prior to 1964, the tie-breaking procedure was based on goal difference from games against teams in the medal round and under that system, Canada would have placed third ahead of the Czechoslovaks. The procedure had been changed to count all games and that meant the Canadians finished fourth. However, the Olympics also counted as the World Championships, and under IIHF rules, Canada should have won a bronze. In April 2005, the IIHF admitted that a mistake had occurred and announced that they had reviewed the decision and would award the 1964 Canadian team a World Championship bronze medal. However, two months later, the IIHF over-turned their decision and rejected an appeal in September.

The Soviets dominated the remainder of the decade. Following 1963, the team went undefeated in Olympic and World Championship competition for four years. Their streak was broken by Czechoslovakia at the 1968 Winter Olympics. Despite the loss, the Soviets still won gold. It was the last time that the Olympics were also counted as the World Championships. In 1969, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia played "the most emotionally charged games in the history of international hockey." The rights to host the tournament had originally been awarded to Czechoslovakia but they were forced to decline the rights following the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of the nation in August 1968. The tournament was held in Stockholm, Sweden, and with these international tensions, the Czechoslovak team was determined to defeat the Soviets. They won both of their games 2–0 and 4–3 but despite these wins, the Czechoslovaks lost both of their games to Sweden and won bronze.

With European teams using their best players who are de facto professionals, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) felt their amateur players could no longer be competitive and pushed for the ability to use players from professional leagues. At the IIHF Congress in 1969, the IIHF voted to allow Canada to use nine non-NHL professional players at the 1970 World Championships. The rights to host the tournament were awarded to Canada for the first time–in Montreal and Winnipeg. However, the decision to allow the use of professionals was reversed in January 1970. IOC president Avery Brundage was opposed to the idea of amateur and professional players competing together and said that ice hockey's status as an Olympic sport would be in jeopardy if the change was made. In response, Canada withdrew from International ice hockey competition. Canada's ice hockey team did not participate in the 1972 and 1976 Winter Olympics. Canada also waived their rights to host the 1970 World Championship, so it was held in Stockholm, Sweden instead.

Led by goaltender Vladislav Tretiak and forwards Valeri Kharlamov, Alexander Yakushev, Vladimir Petrov and Boris Mikhailov, the Soviet Union won gold at the 1970 and 1971 World Championships and the 1972 Winter Olympics. 1972 marked the first time that both the Olympics and World Championships were held in the same year as separate events. At the World Championships in Prague, the Czechoslovak team ended the Soviet team's streak and won their first gold since 1949. The Soviet team quickly returned to their winning ways, winning 1973 and 1974 World Championships. However, during the latter tournament, the Czechoslovak team defeated the Soviets 7–2. It was one of the biggest margins the Soviet team had ever lost by in an official game. The 1976 World Championships were held in Katowice, Poland. On the opening day of the tournament, Poland defeated the Soviet Union 6–4 thanks to a hat-trick from forward Wieslaw Jobczyk and the goaltending of Andrzej Tkacz. It was one of the biggest upsets in international hockey history; two months earlier at the 1976 Winter Olympics, Poland had lost 16–1 to the Soviets. The Soviets lost two more games and won the silver, and Czechoslovakia won gold. Poland finished seventh and was relegated to Pool B, the division in which teams play for ranking purposes and not the championship (now known as Division I).

Günther Sabetzki became president of the IIHF in 1975 and helped to resolve the dispute with the CAHA. The IIHF agreed to allow "open competition" between all players in the World Championships, and moved the competition to later in the season so players not involved in the NHL playoffs could participate. However, NHL players were still not allowed to play in the Olympics, because of both the unwillingness of the NHL to take a break mid-season and the IOC's strict amateur-only policy. The IIHF also agreed to endorse the Canada Cup, a competition meant to bring together the best players from the top hockey-playing countries.

The 1976 World Ice Hockey Championships in Katowice were the first to feature professionals although in the end only the United States made use of the new rule, recalling eight pros from the Minnesota North Stars and Minnesota Fighting Saints. The first fully open World Championship was held in 1977 in Vienna, Austria, and saw the first participation of active Canadian NHL players, including two-time NHL MVP Phil Esposito. Sweden and Finland also augmented their rosters with a few NHL and WHA players. Many of the players on the Canadian team were not prepared for the tournament and were unfamiliar with the international game. The team finished fourth, losing both games to the Soviet Union by a combined score of 19–2. Czechoslovakia won gold, becoming the third team (after Canada and the Soviet Union) to win consecutive championships.

As a result of these events, full world championship status was given to the IIHF World Under-20 Championship, which had been held annually since 1974 as an unofficial invitational tournament. Colloquially known as the World Junior Hockey Championship, the event was structured after the World Championships, but limited to players under the age of 20. The World Under-18 Championship was established in 1999 and typically held in April. It usually does not involve some of the top North American-based players because they are involved in junior league playoffs at the time.

Starting in 1978, the Soviet team won five consecutive World Championships, and had an unbeaten streak that
lasted from 1981 through the 1984 Winter Olympics and until 1985. During that period, Canada remained competitive, winning three bronze medals. World Championship tournaments were
not held in 1980, 1984 or 1988–the Olympic years.

The 1987 World Championships in Vienna were over-shadowed by several controversies. At the beginning of the tournament, the roster of the West German team included Miroslav Sikora, a Polish-German forward who had previously played for Poland at the 1977 World Under-20 Championship. Sikora became a naturalized citizen of West Germany and played in the first three games, scoring a goal in a 3–1 win over Finland. Following the game, Finland launched a protest, demanding that the result be over-turned because the Germans had used an
ineligible player. At the time, players were not allowed to switch nationalities under any circumstances and the IIHF agreed to overturn the result and award the two points to Finland. This angered German officials, who filed a protest in an Austrian court. The court agreed with the Germans, overturning the IIHF decision and allowing them to keep their points. The result affected the final standings because had the IIHF's decision stood, Finland would have advanced to the medal round instead of Sweden. However, the Finns finished out of the medal round, and Sweden won their first gold medal since 1962. The tournament format also became controversial because the Soviet Union finished undefeated in the preliminary round but the Swedish team, which had lost three games in the preliminary round, won on goal differential because of a 9–0 win over Canada in the medal round.

Before 1989, players that lived in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and other nations behind the Iron Curtain were not allowed to leave and play in the NHL. In March 1989, Sergei Pryakhin became the first member of the Soviet national team who was permitted to play for a non-Soviet team. Several Soviet players, including Igor Larionov and Viacheslav Fetisov, wanted to leave and play in the NHL. Soviet officials agreed to allow players to leave if they played one final tournament with the national team. Players agreed to this, and the Soviet Union won its 21st World Championship. Shortly after, Soviet players began to flood into the NHL. Many of the Soviet Union's top players left, including the entire "Green Unit"–Larionov, Fetisov, Vladimir Krutov, Sergei Makarov and Alexei Kasatonov. The following year, the Soviet team was in disarray but still managed to win the 1990 World Championships. It was the final championship the Soviet team would win. In 1991, Swedish forward Mats Sundin–the first European player to be drafted first overall in the NHL–led his team to the gold medal. The Soviets won bronze–the last medal the team would ever win.

The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991. Nine former soviet republics became part of the IIHF and began competing in international competitions, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Ukraine. Russia was named the successor to the Soviet Union. With this flood of new teams, the IIHF expanded the number of spots from eight to twelve. From 1963 to 1991, only four teams won a World Championship medal: the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia (failing to win a medal only three times), Sweden and Canada. The Soviets won a medal in every tournament they participated in (1954 to 1991). At the 1992 World Championships, Sweden won their second consecutive gold. Finland won the silver medal, the nation's first ever World Championship medal (the Finnish team had previously won a silver at the 1988 Winter Olympics).

From 1996 to 2001, the Czech Republic won six consecutive World Championship medals, including World Championship gold from 1999 to 2001, as well as gold at the 1998 Winter Olympics. In 2002, the Czechs were favoured to win, but were upset in the quarter final by Russia. In the gold medal game between Russia and Slovakia, Slovakian Peter Bondra scored in the final two minutes of the game and the nation won its first ever World Championship. At the 2003 World Championships, Sweden made one of the biggest comebacks in tournament history, rallying from a 5–1 deficit in their quarterfinal game against Finland to win 6–5. The gold medal game between Canada and Sweden went into overtime. Canada's Anson Carter scored the winning goal 13 minutes into play, but the goal had to be reviewed for ten minutes to determine if the puck had crossed the line. In a rematch between the two nations the following year, Canada won and repeated as champions.
The 2004–05 NHL season was locked out, and eventually cancelled, because of a labour dispute between the league and the players. The 2005 World Championships, which featured more top players than normal, was won by the Czech Republic. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Sweden won the gold medal over Finland. Three months later, Sweden defeated the Czech Republic and won the 2006 World Championships. They became the first team to win Olympic gold and a separate World Championship tournament in the same year. At the 2007 World Championship in Moscow, Canada defeated Finland to win the gold medal. The following year, the tournament was held in Canada for the first time. Russia defeated the home team to win their first gold medal since 1993. The Russian team successfully defended their title with a 2–1 win over Canada in 2009.
In 2009, NHL Players' Association director Paul Kelly suggested that the World Championships be held every other year and that the NHL go on break to allow full player participation. IIHF president René Fasel responded that the tournament has television contracts and hosting commitments and that a large change would be difficult to put in place.

The 2010 tournament took place in Germany. The first game, between Germany and the United States, was played at Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen and was attended by 77,803 people, setting a new record for the most attended game in hockey history. The tournament was noted for having several surprising preliminary round results, including: Switzerland beating Canada for the first time in World Championship play; Norway defeating eventual champions the Czech Republic; and Denmark upsetting Finland and the United States en route to their first ever quarterfinal appearance. The German team, which had finished 15th in 2009 and only avoided relegation to Division I because they were set to host the 2010 tournament, advanced to the semi-finals for the first time since the new playoff format was adapted. They finished fourth, losing to Sweden in the bronze medal game. In the gold medal game, the Czech Republic defeated the Russian team, winning gold.

The 2011 tournament was held in independent Slovakia for the first time. Finland won its second world championship with a 6-1 victory over Sweden. The Czech Republic won the bronze medal over Russia.

The 2012 tournament was held in Sweden and Finland. Russia beat Slovakia in the final, while the Czech Republic beat Finland in the bronze medal game.

In 2013, Switzerland finished the preliminary round undefeated before losing the gold medal game 5–1 to co-hosts Sweden. Switzerland's silver medal was the first for the nation since 1953. Sweden's gold made them the first team to win the tournament at home since the Soviet Union in 1986.

The 2014 was held for the first time in independent Belarus in spite of concerns of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the authoritarian government. The tournament saw more upsets by the less prominent ice-hockey nations. France has beaten Canada for the second time in the modern history and made it to the quarterfinals. Eventual finalist Finland lost to Latvia and made it to the quarterfinals only due to a shootout win over Switzerland. The tournament was won by Russia (which had a stacked NHL squad compared to other teams who sent in younger players after the 2014 Winter Olympics), Finland won silver and Sweden won bronze defeating the Czech Republic.

The 2015 IIHF World Championship was held in Prague and Ostrava, it was the most attended championship in history. It was to be the last appearance of Jaromír Jágr on the Czech national hockey team, and the home crowd had great expectations for its national team, who had failed to win a gold medal since 2010, matching its longest run without a win since the break-up of Czechoslovakia. However, the tournament was dominated by an excellent Canadian team, which went undefeated and beat Russia 6-1 in the gold medal match. Its captain, Sidney Crosby joined the Triple Gold Club, becoming the first player to achieve that honour as captain of each winning team. The bronze was won by the United States, leaving the Czechs with a second consecutive fourth place.

2016 IIHF World Championships was won by Canada who defeated Finland in the final.

2017 IIHF World Championship was won by Sweden who defeated two-time defending champions Canada 2-1 in a shootout.

The first World Championship to be held as an individual event was in 1930. Twelve different nations participated. Canada's team was given a bye to the gold medal game, and the rest of the nations played an elimination tournament to determine which nation would also play for the gold.

In 1931, the World Championships switched to a similar format to what was used at the Olympics. Ten teams played series of round-robin format qualifying rounds were played to determine which nations participated in the medal round. Medals were awarded based on the final standings of the teams in the medal round. The format was changed several times in the 1930s, in some years there was a gold medal game, while in others the gold medal was awarded based on points.

In 1937, the tournament format was again switched to being similar to the version used at the Olympics. A preliminary round involving 11 teams was played, then the top four advanced to the medal round and medals were awarded based on points; no gold medal game was played. A gold medal game was played in 1938; it was the last gold medal game played in the World Championships until 1992.

In 1951, thirteen nations took part and were split into two groups. The top seven teams (Pool A) played for the World Championship. The other six (Pool B) played for ranking purposes. Generally eight teams played in the top-level Championship, although the number varied over the years, going as low as three (in 1953) and as high as twelve (in 1959). The same format was used until 1992. The format was criticized because often the gold medal winner was decided before the final game was played, such as at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

During a congress in 1990, the IIHF introduced a playoff system.

As the IIHF grew, more teams began to participate at the World Championships, so more pools were introduced. Pool C games were first played in 1961 and Pool D was introduced in 1987. In 2001, the pools were renamed: Pool B became Division I, Pool C became Division II and Pool D became Division III.

The modern format for the World Championship features a minimum of 40 teams: 16 teams in the main championship group, 12 teams in Division I and 12 teams in Division II. If there are more than 40 teams, the rest compete in Division III.

From 1998 to 2011, the teams were divided into four groups and played each other in a round robin format preliminary round, and the top 3 teams in each group advance into the qualifying round. The qualifying round is another round of group play with two groups of six, with the top four teams in each group advancing into the knockout playoff stage. The bottom four teams in the preliminary round played in another group as well; this group determined relegation. After a round-robin format, the bottom two teams were usually relegated to play in Division I the following year.

Between 1998 and 2004, the IIHF held a "Far East" qualifying tournament for Asian teams with an automatic berth in the championship division on the line. Japan always won this tournament, but finished last at every World Championship except in 2004, when they finished 15th. The IIHF discontinued the qualifying tournament following the 2004 tournament, and Japan was relegated to compete in Division I.

The main group features 16 teams. The 16 teams are split into two groups based on their world ranking. The ranking is based on the standings of the last Winter Olympics and the last four World Championships. The results of more recent tournaments have a higher weight in the ranking. The last World Championship has 100% value, the tournament before 75% and so on. The Olympic tournament has the same value as the World Championship the same year.

Beginning with the 2012 tournament, the qualifying round will be eliminated, and the 16 teams will be divided into two groups of eight, with each team playing seven games in the preliminary round.

The top four teams from these groups will advance to the knockout playoff stage. In the quarterfinals, the first place team from one group plays the fourth place team from the opposite group, and the second place team from one group plays the third place team from the opposite group. The winners advance to the semi-finals. In cases where the quarter-final venues are deemed too far apart to allow easy travel between them, the teams stay within their groups for the quarters. The winners of the quarter-finals advance to the semi-finals, with the winners of the semi-finals advancing to the Gold medal game and the losers advancing to the Bronze medal game.

Also starting in 2012, there will no longer be a relegation round. Instead, the eighth-place team in each group will be relegated to Division I.

Division I is split into two groups of six, both groups play in round robin tournaments independent of each other and the championship division. Previously the top team from both groups was promoted to the championship, while the bottom team was relegated to Division II. Beginning in 2012, the top two teams from the 'A' group will be promoted to the championship, the bottom team will be exchanged with the group 'B' winner, and that group's last place team will go down to Division II.

Division II works similarly to Division I, with two six-team groups where group 'A' promotes one team to Division I and group 'B' exchanges its last placed team with Division III. Division III is now composed of one group of six, and if more than six nations register for this, the lowest level, then a qualification tournament will be held.

At the first tournament in 1920, there were many differences from the modern game: games were played outdoors on natural ice, forward passes were not allowed, the rink was 56x18 metres (the current International standard is 61x30 metres) and two twenty-minute periods were played. Each side had seven players on the ice, the extra position being the rover. Following the tournament, the IIHF held a congress and decided to adopt the "Canadian rules"–six men per side and three periods of play.

At an IIHF congress in 1969, officials voted to allow body-checking in all three zones in a rink similar to the NHL. Prior to that, body-checking was only allowed in the defending zone in international hockey. The IIHF later described the rule change as "arguably the most substantial and dramatic rule changes in the history of international hockey" because it allowed for a more aggressive game. The rule, which was first applied at the 1970 World Championships, was controversial: IIHF president Bunny Ahearne feared it would make ice hockey "a sport for goons." Several other rule changes were implemented in the early 1970s: players were required to wear helmets starting in 1970 and goaltender masks became mandatory in 1972. In 1992, the IIHF switched to using a playoff system to determine medalists and decided that tie games in the medal round would be decided in a shootout. The IIHF decided to test a new rule in 1997 that would allow two-line passes. Prior to that, the neutral zone trap had slowed the game down and reduced scoring. At the 1997 World Championships, teams were allowed to decide if they wanted to test the rule. Although no team accepted the offer, the rule was adopted. The IIHF described it as "the most revolutionary rule change since allowing body-checking in all three zones in 1969. [...] The new rule almost immediately changed the game for the better. The 1999 IIHF World Championship in Norway was a stark contrast to the finals the year before with many more goals scored and with end-to-end action – not defence – dominating play."

The current IIHF rules differ slightly from the rules used in the NHL. One difference between NHL and IIHF rules is rink dimensions: the NHL rink is narrower, measuring 61x26 metres (200x85 feet), instead of the international size of 61x30 metres (200x98.5 feet). Another rule difference between the NHL and the IIHF rules concerns how icings are called. As of the 2013-14 regular NHL season, a linesman stops play due to icing using the hybrid icing method, instead of the former method, where a defending player (other than the goaltender) touched the puck before an attacking player was able to, in contrast to the IIHF rules that use "no-touch" icing, where play is stopped the moment the puck crosses the goal line. The NHL and IIHF differ also in penalty rules. The NHL, in addition to the minor and double minor penalties called in IIHF games, calls major penalties which are more dangerous infractions of the rules, such as fighting, and have a duration of five minutes. This is in contrast to the IIHF rule, in which players who fight are ejected from the game.

Beginning with the 2005–06 season, the NHL instituted several new rules. Some of them were already used by the IIHF, such as the shootout and making the two-line pass legal. Others which were not picked up by the IIHF, such as requiring smaller goaltender equipment and the addition of the goaltender trapezoid to the rink. However, the IIHF did agree to follow the NHL's league's zero-tolerance policy on obstruction and required referees to call more hooking, holding and interference penalties. In 2006, the IIHF voted to eliminate tie games and institute a three-point system: wins in regulation time would be worth three points, overtime wins would be two points and over-time losses would be worth one point. The system was first used at the 2007 World Championships.

The World Championships have been open to all players, both professional and amateur, since 1977. The IIHF lists the following requirements for a player to be eligible to play:If a player who has never played in an IIHF competition changes their citizenship, they must participate in national competitions in their new country for at least two consecutive years and have an international transfer card (ITC). If a player who has previously played in an IIHF tournament wishes to change their national team, they must have played in their new country for four years. A player can only do this once.

As this tournament takes place during the same time period as the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs, NHL players generally only become available if their respective NHL team did not make the playoffs, or once they have been eliminated from Stanley Cup contention. It is therefore common for several NHL players to join the World Championships while the tournament is already in progress.

As of 2018, the IIHF World Championships are split up into four different divisions. This is the alignment of the divisions, accurate as of the 2018 IIHF World Ranking. Teams that are not ranked are not included here, for a full list of IIHF members, see List of members of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Keys:

The Championship division comprises the top sixteen hockey nations in the world. The 82nd championship was held from 4 to 20 May 2018, in Copenhagen and Herning, Denmark.
A. The IIHF recognizes Bohemia, which joined in 1908, and Czechoslovakia as the predecessors to the Czech Republic, which officially became a member in 1993.
B. The IIHF recognizes the Soviet Union, which joined in 1952, as the predecessor to Russia, which officially became a member in 1992.

Division I comprises twelve teams. Group A teams compete for promotion to the Elite Division with the loser being relegated to Division I Group B. Group B teams compete for promotion to Division I Group A while the loser is relegated to Division II Group A. In 2018, Group A games were played in Budapest, Hungary, and Group B games were played in Kaunas, Lithuania from 22 to 28 April.

Division II comprises twelve teams. Group A teams compete for promotion to Division I Group B with the loser being relegated to Division II Group B. Group B teams compete for promotion to Division II Group A while the loser is relegated to Division III. In 2018, Group A games were played in Tilburg, Netherlands from 23 to 29 April and Group B games were played in Granada, Spain from 14 to 20 April.
C. The IIHF recognizes Yugoslavia, which joined in 1939, as the predecessor to Serbia, which officially became a member in 2007.

Division III is usually made up of two groups of ten teams. The top teams in this year's tournament compete for promotion to Division II Group B with the loser being relegated to Division III Qualification. The qualification teams compete for promotion to Division III. In 2018, the Division III tournament was played in Cape Town, South Africa from 16 to 22 April and the qualification tournament was played in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 25 to 28 February.

78 championships (as of 2016); 57 teamsKey: Current division (if no window is coloured, country doesn't play in any competition in the current year)

Since 1954, the IIHF has given awards for play during the World Championship tournament. Voted on by the tournament directorate, the first awards recognised the top goaltender, forward and defenceman. In 1999, an award for the most valuable player was added. There is also an all-star team voted on by members of the media. In 2004, Canadian Dany Heatley became the first player to lead in scoring, win the MVP award, win the best forward award and be named to the all-star team in the same year. He repeated the feat in 2008.

The Dissolution of Czechoslovakia (, ), which took effect on 1 January 1993, was an event that saw the self-determined split of the federal state of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, entities that had arisen before as the "Czech Socialist Republic" and the "Slovak Socialist Republic" in 1969 within the framework of a federal republic.

Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

It is sometimes known as the Velvet Divorce, a reference to the bloodless Velvet Revolution of 1989 that led to the end of the rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the restoration of a capitalist state in the country.

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.

Some Slovaks were not in favour of this change, and in March 1939, with pressure from Adolf Hitler, the First Slovak Republic was created as a satellite state of Germany with limited sovereignty. Occupation by the Soviet Union after World War II oversaw their reunification into the third Czechoslovak republic.

In 1968, the Constitutional Law of Federation reinstated an official federal structure (of the 1917 type), but during the "Normalization period" in the 1970s, Gustáv Husák (although a Slovak himself) returned most of the control to Prague. This approach encouraged a regrowth of separatism after the fall of communism.

By 1991, the Czech Republic's GDP per capita was some 20% higher than Slovakia's. Transfer payments from the Czech budget to Slovakia, which had been the rule in the past, were stopped in January 1991.

Many Czechs and Slovaks desired the continued existence of a federal Czechoslovakia. Some major Slovak parties, however, advocated a looser form of co-existence and the Slovak National Party complete independence and sovereignty. In the next years, political parties re-emerged, but Czech parties had little or no presence in Slovakia, and vice versa. In order to have a functioning state, the government demanded continued control from Prague, while Slovaks continued to ask for decentralization.

In 1992, the Czech Republic elected Václav Klaus and others who demanded either an even tighter federation ("viable federation") or two independent states. Vladimír Mečiar and other leading Slovak politicians of the day wanted a kind of confederation. The two sides opened frequent and intense negotiations in June. On 17 July, the Slovak parliament adopted the declaration of independence of the Slovak nation. Six days later, Klaus and Mečiar agreed to dissolve Czechoslovakia at a meeting in Bratislava. Czechoslovak president Václav Havel resigned rather than oversee the dissolution which he had opposed; in a September 1992 opinion poll, only 37% of Slovaks and 36% of Czechs favoured dissolution.

The goal of negotiations switched to achieving a peaceful division. On 13 November, the Federal Assembly passed Constitution Act 541 which settled the division of property between the Czech lands and Slovakia. With Constitution Act 542, passed on 25 November, they agreed to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia as of 31 December 1992.

The separation occurred without violence, and was thus said to be "velvet", much like the "Velvet Revolution" that preceded it, which was accomplished through massive peaceful demonstrations and actions. In contrast, other post-communist break-ups (such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia) involved violent conflict. Czechoslovakia is the only former socialist state to have an entirely peaceful breakup.

A number of reasons are given for the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, with the main debates focusing on whether dissolution was inevitable or whether dissolution occurred in conjunction with, or even in contrast to, the events that occurred between the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the end of the joined state in 1992.

Those who argue from the inevitability stance tend to point to the differences between the two nations, which date back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and other issues. There are ethnic differences between the Czechs and Slovaks. These issues included, but were not limited to, problems with the shared state during communism, the success of the communist state in Czech lands and its failure in the Slovak lands which still resulted in the adoption of communism, because the Czechs were more influential in the running of the state than Slovaks, and the 1968 constitution, which had a minority veto.

Those who argue that events between 1989 and 1992 led to dissolution point to international factors such as the breakaway of the Soviet satellite nations, the lack of unified media between the Czech and Slovak republics, and, most importantly, the actions of the political leaders of the two nations (most specifically the disagreements between prime ministers Klaus and Mečiar).

Since the coat of arms of Czechoslovakia was a composition of those of the historic geographic areas forming the country, each republic simply kept its own symbol – the Czechs the lion and the Slovaks the double cross. The same principle was applied to the two-part bilingual Czechoslovak national anthem that comprised two separate pieces of music, the Czech stanza Kde domov můj and the Slovak stanza Nad Tatrou sa blýska. Disputes occurred only with respect to the Czechoslovak national flag. During the 1992 negotiations about the details of dissolution of Czechoslovakia, on demand made by Vladimír Mečiar and Václav Klaus, a clause forbidding the use of the state symbols of Czechoslovakia by its successor states was inserted into the Constitutional Law about the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia.

From 1990 to 1992, the red and white Flag of Bohemia (differing from the Polish flag only by the proportion of the colours) officially served as the flag of the Czech Republic. Eventually, after a search for new symbols, the Czech Republic unilaterally decided to ignore the constitutional law on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia (article 3 of law 542/1992 says the "Czech republic and Slovak republic shall not use the national symbols of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic after its dissolution.") and to keep the Czechoslovak flag with an altered meaning.

The national territory was divided along the existing internal borders. Nevertheless, the border was not clearly defined at some points and, in some areas, the border cut across streets, access roads and communities that had co-existed for centuries. The most serious issues occurred around the following areas:The newly born countries were able to solve the difficulties via mutual negotiations, financial compensation and, finally, an international treaty covering the border modifications.
People living or owning property in the border area, however, continued to experience practical problems until both new countries entered the Schengen Agreement Area in 2007, after which the borders became less significant.

Most federal assets were divided in a ratio of 2 to 1 (the approximate ratio between the Czech and Slovak population within Czechoslovakia), including army equipment, rail and airliner infrastructure. Some minor disputes (e.g. about gold reserves stored in Prague, federal know-how valuation) lasted for a few years after dissolution.

Initially the old Czechoslovak currency, the Czechoslovak koruna, was still used in both countries. Fears of economic loss on the Czech side caused the two states to adopt two national currencies as early as 8 February 1993. At the beginning, the currencies had an equal exchange rate, but later on, for most of the time, the value of the Slovak koruna was lower than that of the Czech koruna (up to "ca." 30%, in 2004 around 25–27%). Starting on 2 August 1993, the two currencies were distinguished by different stamps first affixed to and then printed on the old (Czechoslovak koruna) banknotes.

On 1 January 2009 Slovakia adopted the Euro as its currency with the exchange rate of 30.126 SK/€, and the €2 commemorative coin for 2009, Slovakia's first, featured the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in remembrance of the common struggle of the Czechoslovak people for democracy. By a quirk of fate, the welcoming speech on the behalf of the European Union on the occasion of Slovakia's entry to the Eurozone was delivered by Mirek Topolánek, the prime minister of the then-EU presiding country, the Czech Republic, naturally in his native language while other guest speakers used English. The Czech Republic continues to use the Czech koruna, or crown.

Neither the Czech Republic nor Slovakia sought recognition as the sole successor state to Czechoslovakia. This can be contrasted to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, where the Russian Federation was recognized as successor state to not only the RSFSR but the USSR itself. Therefore, Czechoslovakia's membership in the UN ceased upon dissolution of the country, but on 19 January 1993 the Czech and Slovak Republics were admitted to the UN as new and separate states.

With respect to other international treaties the Czechs and Slovaks agreed to honour the treaty obligations of Czechoslovakia. The Slovaks transmitted a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations on 19 May 1993 expressing their intent to remain a party to all treaties signed and ratified by Czechoslovakia, and to ratify those treaties signed but not ratified before dissolution of Czechoslovakia. This letter acknowledged that under international law all treaties signed and ratified by Czechoslovakia would remain in force. For example, both countries are recognized as signatories of the Antarctic Treaty from the date Czechoslovakia signed the agreement in 1962.

Both the Czech and Slovak Republics have ratified the Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties. However, it was not a factor in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia since it did not enter into force until 1996.

The dissolution had some negative impact on the two economies, especially in 1993, as traditional links needed to accommodate the bureaucracy of international trade were severed, but the impact was considerably less than expected by many people.

Many Czechs hoped that dissolution would quickly start an era of high economic growth in the Czech Republic (without the need to "sponsor the less developed Slovakia"). Similarly others looked forward to a stand-alone, unexploited Slovakia which might become a new "economic tiger".

According to "The Prague Post", "Slovak GDP reached 95 percent of the Czech GDP, and it is likely to draw level with it. The Slovak gross national product (GNP), which includes citizens' incomes abroad and deducts the money multinational companies move out of the country, is higher than the Czech one. Old-age pensions are more or less at the same level in both countries, and the consumption per capita is slightly higher in Slovakia. However, salaries are 10 percent lower on average in Slovakia than in the Czech Republic.

But Martin Filko, head of the Institute of Financial Policy of the Slovak Finance Ministry, pointed out that Slovakia is among the EU countries where salaries form the lowest portion of GDP. In other words, a part of people's incomes comes from sources other than their main employment, and this reduces the real difference between the Czech and Slovak salaries, Respekt says.

Slovakia has higher political stability than the Czech Republic: as of 2018, Slovaks have had only four prime ministers since 1998, while the Czechs have had ten. Slovaks have become a more integral part of the EU thanks to their adoption of the euro, and they are more resolved to take part in the banking and fiscal unions, Respekt writes. In the Czech Republic, the right wing opened the economy, and the left wing privatized banks and attracted foreign investors.

Until 2005 the GDP of the two countries was growing at a similar rate. But in 2005–08, the Slovak economy grew faster than the Czech one. Economists agree this was thanks to the right-wing reforms of the Mikuláš Dzurinda government and the promise of the euro adoption, which attracted investors.
When left-wing populist Robert Fico replaced Dzurinda as Slovak prime minister after eight years in 2006, he reduced the right-wing reforms only moderately, but he did not abolish them, unlike the Czech Social Democrats (ČSSD).

In this period, the Czechs had three ČSSD prime ministers in four years (2002–06), followed by a shaky center-right cabinet that cut and simplified taxes but failed to push through other reforms and did not want to adopt the euro, due to the financial crisis and the Civic Democrats’ (ODS) ideological prejudices.

Why have the Czech reforms and modernization failed? This is rather unclear as the detailed reasons are obscured by the fog of the political operation. The pension reform failed due to the left-wing's disapproval and the right wing lacking courage, while the healthcare reform failed due to the hospital lobby and government disunity. The university and labor market reforms have not even been prepared yet. A reform making the civil service independent of politicians was approved but did not take effect because the government was afraid of losing influence over state bodies. It says other serious problems of the Czech economy include complicated business rules, widespread corruption and a highly overpriced and slow motorway construction.

"Slovaks proved to be more consistent in choosing their priorities. They were more capable of reaching agreement, which is important for the economy and the state," Czech economist Petr Zahradník told Respekt.

Experts addressed by Respekt say the Czech economy might grow faster if the country were capable of using EU subsidies more effectively, modernizing the energy sector, attracting foreign investments, and quicker and cheaper building of motorways and modern railways.

Since the federalization in 1968, Czechoslovakia had divided citizenship, either of the Czech Socialist Republic or of the Slovak Socialist Republic (the word 'Socialist' was dropped from both names shortly after the Velvet Revolution). This distinction, however, had little effect on the citizen's life. On January 1, 1993, all Czechoslovak citizens automatically became citizens either of the Czech Republic or the Slovak Republic, based on their previous citizenship, permanent residence address, birthplace, family ties, job, and other criteria. Additionally, people had one year's time to claim the other citizenship under certain conditions.

Slovak legislation allowed dual citizenship until 2010 when this possibility was abolished (see Citizenship Act (Slovakia)). Only a handful of people have exercised this right; however, the significance of this is lessened by both nations' membership in the EU as the freedom of movement for workers policy guarantees EU citizens the right to work and live anywhere in the Union. In the case of movement between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, this policy took effect from 2004.

By contrast, the Czech Republic has formerly prohibited dual citizenship for naturalized citizens, requiring them to give up existing citizenship(s) prior to receiving citizenship of the Czech Republic. This requirement could only be waived if giving up an existing citizenship might put the applicant or their relatives in danger of persecution in their homeland, which was not the case of applicants from Slovakia. This situation changed with the new Citizenship Act of 2013 (186/2013 Sb.), in force since January 1, 2014. However, most Slovak citizens are still unable to become dual citizens of both the Czech Republic and Slovakia, since they automatically lose Slovak citizenship upon voluntarily acquiring another one (see previous paragraph). Exempt from this law are only those Slovak citizens who obtain a foreign citizenship by virtue of marriage with a foreign national. Some Slovak politicians have speculated in the media about softening the Citizenship Act, but no change has yet materialized as of January 2015.

People of both countries were allowed to cross the border without a passport and were allowed to work anywhere without the need to obtain an official permit. Border checks were completely removed on 21 December 2007 when both countries joined the Schengen Agreement. Customs union between the Czech Republic and Slovakia remained in place from the dissolution until May 1, 2004, when both countries entered the European Union.

Under the current European regulations, citizens of either country are entitled to the diplomatic protection of any other EU country and, therefore, the Czech and Slovak Republics have been considering merging their embassies together with nations of the Visegrád Group in order to reduce costs.

One of the problems not solved during dissolution was the question of a large number of Romani living in the Czech Republic, who were born and officially registered in today's Slovakia. Most of them did not re-register their official place of stay during the months before dissolution, and so the question of their citizenship was left open. The 1992 Czech Nationality Act allowed a grant of automatic citizenship only to those born on Czech territory. For others, the right to citizenship required proof of a five-year period of residence, an "unobjectionable" criminal record, significant fees and a complicated bureaucratic process; this reportedly excluded a rather large percentage of Roma.

The Slovak government did not want to grant citizenship to non-residents. Significant numbers of Roma living in Czech orphanages did not have their legal status clarified, and were released from care as adult non-citizens without any right to work or live in the Czech Republic. Under pressure from the European Union, the Czech government made amendments to its nationality law in 1999 and 2003 which effectively solved the problem; however, compensation has not been provided to those rendered stateless in 1992.

In the former Czechoslovakia, the first television channel was a federal one and the Czech and Slovak languages were used in equal ratios in the TV news there, although foreign films and TV series were almost exclusively dubbed into Czech, for example. This (and the fact that the languages are very similar) made almost all people of both nations passively bilingual, i.e., they were able to understand but not necessarily speak the other language. After the dissolution in 1990s the new TV channels in the Czech Republic practically stopped using Slovak, and young Czech people now have a much lower understanding of the Slovak language. Also, the number of Slovak-language books and newspapers sold in the Czech Republic dropped drastically. The Czech TV news, however, started to reintroduce Slovak-language coverage from Slovakia and Slovak TV (STV2) rebroadcasts the Czech TV newscast "Události ČT" daily, ten minutes after midnight.

On the public RTVS, it is common to have at least one daily newscast from the Czech Republic during prime time news. Furthermore, many TV programmes on Slovak TV channels are still dubbed into Czech, some films in cinemas are subtitled in Czech and there are far more Czech-language books and periodicals on the market than before the dissolution. The major boost for the language interchange has come from private TV channel providers like CS Link (Czech Republic) and Sky Link (Slovakia) that offer Slovak channels in the Czech Republic and vice versa. Additionally, several channels, regardless of their national origin, offer programs both in Czech and Slovak (CSFilm, TV Barrandov) or even mix like TV Nova's Nova Sport coverage of the English Premier League. New impulses to mutual contacts coming via TV are also common shows like the Intelligence Test of Nations, Czechoslovakia's Got Talent broadcast by PRIMA and TV JOJ, and Czecho-Slovak SuperStar, the latter being the first international edition of the Pop Idol song contest broadcast by TV Nova and Markíza, which also organized joint versions of MasterChef and The Voice in 2012. Also, the New Year's Eve Program for 2009 was prepared and broadcast jointly by ČT and STV and for 2010 by the Czech TV PRIMA and the Slovak TV JOJ, this time even including the singing of the Czechoslovak national anthem.

Young Slovak people still have the same knowledge of the Czech language as their predecessors, if not better. Even today, in Slovakia, Czech may be used automatically in all judicial proceedings, plus all documents written in Czech are acknowledged by Slovak authorities, and vice versa. Further, the Slovak Official Language Act passed in 2009 did reconfirm the right of Czechs to use their language in all official communication when dealing with Slovak authorities (however, the Act explicitly limited the use of Czech in Slovakia only to persons with Czech as their mother tongue). The same is true about using the Slovak language in the Czech Republic owing to the Administration Procedure Act of 2004. Gustáv Slamečka, a Slovak citizen who was the Czech transport minister (2009 - 2010), used the Slovak language exclusively in his official communication.

For the language comparison see differences between Slovak and Czech languages.

The official break-up occurred right in the middle of the 1993 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, which took place in Sweden. The team representing Czechoslovakia was called "Czech-Slovak" starting on 1 January. In international ice hockey tournaments, the Czech Republic took over Czechoslovakia's place in the A-groups, while Slovakia had to start in the lower divisions.

During the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1993 in Falun, Sweden, the ski jumping team competed as a combined Czech Republic-Slovakia team in the team large hill event, winning a silver. The team had been selected prior to the dissolution. Jaroslav Sakala won two medals in the individual hill events for the Czech Republic at those games along with his silver in the team event.

In their qualifying section for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the Czechoslovakia national football team competed under the name RCS which stood for "Representation of Czechs and Slovaks". It was after this that the teams were then officially split up into Czech Republic and Slovakia. The team failed to qualify after they could only draw their final match against Belgium, a match they needed to win to qualify.

The mutual encounters between the national teams of the two countries in many sports are followed by a majority of the populations, and the number of players and coaches active in the other republic is significant. Martin Lipták, a Slovak handball coach, successfully led the Czech national team to the EHF 2010 Handball European Championship in Austria. A Slovak team under his coaching, Tatran Prešov, won the Czech national league in 2008 and 2009. Czech ice hockey coach Vladimír Vůjtek led the Slovak national team to the silver medal at the 2012 IIHF World Championship, having beaten the Czech team in the semifinals.

Several sports did or do feature a common league, and discussions about having a common football or ice hockey league continue.

The two successor states continued to use the country code +42 until 28 February 1997, when this was replaced by two separate codes: +420 for the Czech Republic and +421 for Slovakia. Since then, telephone calls between the two countries have required international dialing.

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.

Surveys from 2010 showed that the majority of the population of Prague (Czechs) still considers the division of the country a mistake; similarly, the general representative survey in Slovakia (from 2008) showed that society is still divided in opinion on the dissolution: 47% favouring the dissolution, while 44% considering it as a mistake.

Political influences between the countries are minimal, but social democrats tend to cooperate very closely on regional and European topics in recent years. Furthermore, it has become customary that the elected presidents pay their first and last official foreign visits during their term to the other republic of the former Czechoslovakia. Appointed foreign ministers tend to follow this unwritten rule. On 29 October 2012, in order to commemorate Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence, which occurred on 28 October 1918, the Czech and the Slovak governments held for the first time a joint cabinet meeting in the communities of Trenčín and Uherské Hradiště in the vicinity of the common border.

Also, peace keeping troops stationed in the former Yugoslavia were put under joint command on several occasions. For example, from 2002 until July 2005, the Czech Armed Forces joined with the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic to form a joint Czech-Slovak KFOR battalion in Kosovo that contributed to the Multinational Brigade CENTRE. Trade relationships were re-established and stabilized, and the Czech Republic continues to be Slovakia's most important business partner. After a short interruption, Slovakia's resorts in the Carpathian mountains are again the destination of a growing number of Czech tourists.

Following the death of the last Czechoslovak president Václav Havel on 18 December 2011, both the Czech and the Slovak Republics observed the day of national mourning. During the funeral mass in Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral prayers were recited in an equal ratio in the Czech and the Slovak languages.

Since the federalization in 1968, Czechoslovakia had divided citizenship, either of the Czech Socialist Republic or of the Slovak Socialist Republic (the word 'Socialist' was dropped from both names shortly after the Velvet Revolution). This distinction, however, had little effect on the citizen's life. On January 1, 1993, all Czechoslovak citizens automatically became citizens either of the Czech Republic or the Slovak Republic, based on their previous citizenship, permanent residence address, birthplace, family ties, job, and other criteria. Additionally, people had one year's time to claim the other citizenship under certain conditions.

Dissolution of Czechoslovakia

The Dissolution of Czechoslovakia (, ), which took effect on 1 January 1993, was an event that saw the self-determined split of the federal state of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, entities that had arisen before as the "Czech Socialist Republic" and the "Slovak Socialist Republic" in 1969 within the framework of a federal republic.

It is sometimes known as the Velvet Divorce, a reference to the bloodless Velvet Revolution of 1989 that led to the end of the rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the restoration of a capitalist state in the country.

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.

Some Slovaks were not in favour of this change, and in March 1939, with pressure from Adolf Hitler, the First Slovak Republic was created as a satellite state of Germany with limited sovereignty. Occupation by the Soviet Union after World War II oversaw their reunification into the third Czechoslovak republic.

In 1968, the Constitutional Law of Federation reinstated an official federal structure (of the 1917 type), but during the "Normalization period" in the 1970s, Gustáv Husák (although a Slovak himself) returned most of the control to Prague. This approach encouraged a regrowth of separatism after the fall of communism.

By 1991, the Czech Republic's GDP per capita was some 20% higher than Slovakia's. Transfer payments from the Czech budget to Slovakia, which had been the rule in the past, were stopped in January 1991.

Many Czechs and Slovaks desired the continued existence of a federal Czechoslovakia. Some major Slovak parties, however, advocated a looser form of co-existence and the Slovak National Party complete independence and sovereignty. In the next years, political parties re-emerged, but Czech parties had little or no presence in Slovakia, and vice versa. In order to have a functioning state, the government demanded continued control from Prague, while Slovaks continued to ask for decentralization.

In 1992, the Czech Republic elected Václav Klaus and others who demanded either an even tighter federation ("viable federation") or two independent states. Vladimír Mečiar and other leading Slovak politicians of the day wanted a kind of confederation. The two sides opened frequent and intense negotiations in June. On 17 July, the Slovak parliament adopted the declaration of independence of the Slovak nation. Six days later, Klaus and Mečiar agreed to dissolve Czechoslovakia at a meeting in Bratislava. Czechoslovak president Václav Havel resigned rather than oversee the dissolution which he had opposed; in a September 1992 opinion poll, only 37% of Slovaks and 36% of Czechs favoured dissolution.

The goal of negotiations switched to achieving a peaceful division. On 13 November, the Federal Assembly passed Constitution Act 541 which settled the division of property between the Czech lands and Slovakia. With Constitution Act 542, passed on 25 November, they agreed to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia as of 31 December 1992.

The separation occurred without violence, and was thus said to be "velvet", much like the "Velvet Revolution" that preceded it, which was accomplished through massive peaceful demonstrations and actions. In contrast, other post-communist break-ups (such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia) involved violent conflict. Czechoslovakia is the only former socialist state to have an entirely peaceful breakup.

A number of reasons are given for the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, with the main debates focusing on whether dissolution was inevitable or whether dissolution occurred in conjunction with, or even in contrast to, the events that occurred between the Velvet Revolution of 1989 and the end of the joined state in 1992.

Those who argue from the inevitability stance tend to point to the differences between the two nations, which date back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and other issues. There are ethnic differences between the Czechs and Slovaks. These issues included, but were not limited to, problems with the shared state during communism, the success of the communist state in Czech lands and its failure in the Slovak lands which still resulted in the adoption of communism, because the Czechs were more influential in the running of the state than Slovaks, and the 1968 constitution, which had a minority veto.

Those who argue that events between 1989 and 1992 led to dissolution point to international factors such as the breakaway of the Soviet satellite nations, the lack of unified media between the Czech and Slovak republics, and, most importantly, the actions of the political leaders of the two nations (most specifically the disagreements between prime ministers Klaus and Mečiar).

From 1990 to 1992, the red and white Flag of Bohemia (differing from the Polish flag only by the proportion of the colours) officially served as the flag of the Czech Republic. Eventually, after a search for new symbols, the Czech Republic unilaterally decided to ignore the constitutional law on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia (article 3 of law 542/1992 says the "Czech republic and Slovak republic shall not use the national symbols of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic after its dissolution.") and to keep the Czechoslovak flag with an altered meaning.

The national territory was divided along the existing internal borders. Nevertheless, the border was not clearly defined at some points and, in some areas, the border cut across streets, access roads and communities that had co-existed for centuries. The most serious issues occurred around the following areas:The newly born countries were able to solve the difficulties via mutual negotiations, financial compensation and, finally, an international treaty covering the border modifications.
People living or owning property in the border area, however, continued to experience practical problems until both new countries entered the Schengen Agreement Area in 2007, after which the borders became less significant.

Most federal assets were divided in a ratio of 2 to 1 (the approximate ratio between the Czech and Slovak population within Czechoslovakia), including army equipment, rail and airliner infrastructure. Some minor disputes (e.g. about gold reserves stored in Prague, federal know-how valuation) lasted for a few years after dissolution.

Initially the old Czechoslovak currency, the Czechoslovak koruna, was still used in both countries. Fears of economic loss on the Czech side caused the two states to adopt two national currencies as early as 8 February 1993. At the beginning, the currencies had an equal exchange rate, but later on, for most of the time, the value of the Slovak koruna was lower than that of the Czech koruna (up to "ca." 30%, in 2004 around 25–27%). Starting on 2 August 1993, the two currencies were distinguished by different stamps first affixed to and then printed on the old (Czechoslovak koruna) banknotes.

On 1 January 2009 Slovakia adopted the Euro as its currency with the exchange rate of 30.126 SK/€, and the €2 commemorative coin for 2009, Slovakia's first, featured the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in remembrance of the common struggle of the Czechoslovak people for democracy. By a quirk of fate, the welcoming speech on the behalf of the European Union on the occasion of Slovakia's entry to the Eurozone was delivered by Mirek Topolánek, the prime minister of the then-EU presiding country, the Czech Republic, naturally in his native language while other guest speakers used English. The Czech Republic continues to use the Czech koruna, or crown.

Neither the Czech Republic nor Slovakia sought recognition as the sole successor state to Czechoslovakia. This can be contrasted to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, where the Russian Federation was recognized as successor state to not only the RSFSR but the USSR itself. Therefore, Czechoslovakia's membership in the UN ceased upon dissolution of the country, but on 19 January 1993 the Czech and Slovak Republics were admitted to the UN as new and separate states.

With respect to other international treaties the Czechs and Slovaks agreed to honour the treaty obligations of Czechoslovakia. The Slovaks transmitted a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations on 19 May 1993 expressing their intent to remain a party to all treaties signed and ratified by Czechoslovakia, and to ratify those treaties signed but not ratified before dissolution of Czechoslovakia. This letter acknowledged that under international law all treaties signed and ratified by Czechoslovakia would remain in force. For example, both countries are recognized as signatories of the Antarctic Treaty from the date Czechoslovakia signed the agreement in 1962.

Both the Czech and Slovak Republics have ratified the Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties. However, it was not a factor in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia since it did not enter into force until 1996.

The dissolution had some negative impact on the two economies, especially in 1993, as traditional links needed to accommodate the bureaucracy of international trade were severed, but the impact was considerably less than expected by many people.

Many Czechs hoped that dissolution would quickly start an era of high economic growth in the Czech Republic (without the need to "sponsor the less developed Slovakia"). Similarly others looked forward to a stand-alone, unexploited Slovakia which might become a new "economic tiger".

According to "The Prague Post", "Slovak GDP reached 95 percent of the Czech GDP, and it is likely to draw level with it. The Slovak gross national product (GNP), which includes citizens' incomes abroad and deducts the money multinational companies move out of the country, is higher than the Czech one. Old-age pensions are more or less at the same level in both countries, and the consumption per capita is slightly higher in Slovakia. However, salaries are 10 percent lower on average in Slovakia than in the Czech Republic.

But Martin Filko, head of the Institute of Financial Policy of the Slovak Finance Ministry, pointed out that Slovakia is among the EU countries where salaries form the lowest portion of GDP. In other words, a part of people's incomes comes from sources other than their main employment, and this reduces the real difference between the Czech and Slovak salaries, Respekt says.

Slovakia has higher political stability than the Czech Republic: as of 2018, Slovaks have had only four prime ministers since 1998, while the Czechs have had ten. Slovaks have become a more integral part of the EU thanks to their adoption of the euro, and they are more resolved to take part in the banking and fiscal unions, Respekt writes. In the Czech Republic, the right wing opened the economy, and the left wing privatized banks and attracted foreign investors.

Until 2005 the GDP of the two countries was growing at a similar rate. But in 2005–08, the Slovak economy grew faster than the Czech one. Economists agree this was thanks to the right-wing reforms of the Mikuláš Dzurinda government and the promise of the euro adoption, which attracted investors.
When left-wing populist Robert Fico replaced Dzurinda as Slovak prime minister after eight years in 2006, he reduced the right-wing reforms only moderately, but he did not abolish them, unlike the Czech Social Democrats (ČSSD).

In this period, the Czechs had three ČSSD prime ministers in four years (2002–06), followed by a shaky center-right cabinet that cut and simplified taxes but failed to push through other reforms and did not want to adopt the euro, due to the financial crisis and the Civic Democrats’ (ODS) ideological prejudices.

"Slovaks proved to be more consistent in choosing their priorities. They were more capable of reaching agreement, which is important for the economy and the state," Czech economist Petr Zahradník told Respekt.

Experts addressed by Respekt say the Czech economy might grow faster if the country were capable of using EU subsidies more effectively, modernizing the energy sector, attracting foreign investments, and quicker and cheaper building of motorways and modern railways.

Since the federalization in 1968, Czechoslovakia had divided citizenship, either of the Czech Socialist Republic or of the Slovak Socialist Republic (the word 'Socialist' was dropped from both names shortly after the Velvet Revolution). This distinction, however, had little effect on the citizen's life. On January 1, 1993, all Czechoslovak citizens automatically became citizens either of the Czech Republic or the Slovak Republic, based on their previous citizenship, permanent residence address, birthplace, family ties, job, and other criteria. Additionally, people had one year's time to claim the other citizenship under certain conditions.

Slovak legislation allowed dual citizenship until 2010 when this possibility was abolished (see Citizenship Act (Slovakia)). Only a handful of people have exercised this right; however, the significance of this is lessened by both nations' membership in the EU as the freedom of movement for workers policy guarantees EU citizens the right to work and live anywhere in the Union. In the case of movement between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, this policy took effect from 2004.

People of both countries were allowed to cross the border without a passport and were allowed to work anywhere without the need to obtain an official permit. Border checks were completely removed on 21 December 2007 when both countries joined the Schengen Agreement. Customs union between the Czech Republic and Slovakia remained in place from the dissolution until May 1, 2004, when both countries entered the European Union.

Under the current European regulations, citizens of either country are entitled to the diplomatic protection of any other EU country and, therefore, the Czech and Slovak Republics have been considering merging their embassies together with nations of the Visegrád Group in order to reduce costs.

One of the problems not solved during dissolution was the question of a large number of Romani living in the Czech Republic, who were born and officially registered in today's Slovakia. Most of them did not re-register their official place of stay during the months before dissolution, and so the question of their citizenship was left open. The 1992 Czech Nationality Act allowed a grant of automatic citizenship only to those born on Czech territory. For others, the right to citizenship required proof of a five-year period of residence, an "unobjectionable" criminal record, significant fees and a complicated bureaucratic process; this reportedly excluded a rather large percentage of Roma.

The Slovak government did not want to grant citizenship to non-residents. Significant numbers of Roma living in Czech orphanages did not have their legal status clarified, and were released from care as adult non-citizens without any right to work or live in the Czech Republic. Under pressure from the European Union, the Czech government made amendments to its nationality law in 1999 and 2003 which effectively solved the problem; however, compensation has not been provided to those rendered stateless in 1992.

For the language comparison see differences between Slovak and Czech languages.

The official break-up occurred right in the middle of the 1993 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, which took place in Sweden. The team representing Czechoslovakia was called "Czech-Slovak" starting on 1 January. In international ice hockey tournaments, the Czech Republic took over Czechoslovakia's place in the A-groups, while Slovakia had to start in the lower divisions.

During the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1993 in Falun, Sweden, the ski jumping team competed as a combined Czech Republic-Slovakia team in the team large hill event, winning a silver. The team had been selected prior to the dissolution. Jaroslav Sakala won two medals in the individual hill events for the Czech Republic at those games along with his silver in the team event.

In their qualifying section for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the Czechoslovakia national football team competed under the name RCS which stood for "Representation of Czechs and Slovaks". It was after this that the teams were then officially split up into Czech Republic and Slovakia. The team failed to qualify after they could only draw their final match against Belgium, a match they needed to win to qualify.

The mutual encounters between the national teams of the two countries in many sports are followed by a majority of the populations, and the number of players and coaches active in the other republic is significant. Martin Lipták, a Slovak handball coach, successfully led the Czech national team to the EHF 2010 Handball European Championship in Austria. A Slovak team under his coaching, Tatran Prešov, won the Czech national league in 2008 and 2009. Czech ice hockey coach Vladimír Vůjtek led the Slovak national team to the silver medal at the 2012 IIHF World Championship, having beaten the Czech team in the semifinals.

Several sports did or do feature a common league, and discussions about having a common football or ice hockey league continue.

The two successor states continued to use the country code +42 until 28 February 1997, when this was replaced by two separate codes: +420 for the Czech Republic and +421 for Slovakia. Since then, telephone calls between the two countries have required international dialing.

Surveys from 2010 showed that the majority of the population of Prague (Czechs) still considers the division of the country a mistake; similarly, the general representative survey in Slovakia (from 2008) showed that society is still divided in opinion on the dissolution: 47% favouring the dissolution, while 44% considering it as a mistake.

Political influences between the countries are minimal, but social democrats tend to cooperate very closely on regional and European topics in recent years. Furthermore, it has become customary that the elected presidents pay their first and last official foreign visits during their term to the other republic of the former Czechoslovakia. Appointed foreign ministers tend to follow this unwritten rule. On 29 October 2012, in order to commemorate Czechoslovakia's declaration of independence, which occurred on 28 October 1918, the Czech and the Slovak governments held for the first time a joint cabinet meeting in the communities of Trenčín and Uherské Hradiště in the vicinity of the common border.

Also, peace keeping troops stationed in the former Yugoslavia were put under joint command on several occasions. For example, from 2002 until July 2005, the Czech Armed Forces joined with the Armed Forces of the Slovak Republic to form a joint Czech-Slovak KFOR battalion in Kosovo that contributed to the Multinational Brigade CENTRE. Trade relationships were re-established and stabilized, and the Czech Republic continues to be Slovakia's most important business partner. After a short interruption, Slovakia's resorts in the Carpathian mountains are again the destination of a growing number of Czech tourists.

Following the death of the last Czechoslovak president Václav Havel on 18 December 2011, both the Czech and the Slovak Republics observed the day of national mourning. During the funeral mass in Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral prayers were recited in an equal ratio in the Czech and the Slovak languages.