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The dissolution of Czechoslovakia (Czech: Rozdělení Československa, Slovak: Rozdelenie Československa), which took effect on December 31, 1992, was the self-determined secession of the federal republic of Czechoslovakia into the independent countries of the Czech Republic (also known as Czechia) and Slovakia.
Although Czechoslovakia was the only central European country to remain a parliamentary democracy during the entire period 1918 to 1938, [11] it faced problems with ethnic minorities such as Hungarians, Poles and Sudeten Germans, which made up the largest part of the country's German minority.
After World War II, Czechoslovakia was reestablished under its pre-1938 borders, with the exception of Carpathian Ruthenia, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR (a republic of the Soviet Union). The Communist Party seized power in a coup in 1948. From 1948 to 1989, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc with a planned economy.
Czechoslovakia had fielded a modern army of 35 divisions and was a major manufacturer of machine guns, tanks, and artillery, most of them assembled in the Škoda factory in Plzeň. Many Czech factories continued to produce Czech designs until converted to German designs. Czechoslovakia also had other major manufacturing companies.
By 16 November, many of Czechoslovakia's neighbours were beginning to shed authoritarian rule. The citizens of Czechoslovakia watched these events on TV through both foreign and domestic channels. The Soviet Union also supported a change in the ruling elite of Czechoslovakia, [8] although it did not anticipate the overthrow of the Communist regime.
Czechoslovakia became a satellite state of the Soviet Union; it was a founding member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) in 1949 and of the Warsaw Pact in 1955. The attainment of Soviet-style "socialism" became the government's avowed policy.
The establishment of "capitalist" Czechoslovakia on 28 October only became a public holiday in September 1988 in the Communist Czechoslovakia. Further demonstrations followed in January 1989 (commenorating the 20th anniversary of the death of Jan Palach on 16 January 1969), on 21 August 1989 (the 21st anniversary of the Soviet military ...
The Hungarian occupation of Carpatho-Ukraine did encounter resistance but the Hungarian army quickly crushed it. On 16 March, Hitler went to Czechoslovakia and from Prague Castle proclaimed the new Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Independent Czechoslovakia collapsed in the wake of foreign aggression, ethnic divisions and internal tensions.