Slovakia

Slovakia is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the southwest, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's predominantly mountainous region covers approximately 49,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) and has a population of over 5.4 million. The largest city in the capital is Bratislava and the second largest city is Košice.

The Slavs arrived in what is now Slovak territory in the 5th and 6th centuries. In the 7th century, they played an important role in the creation of the Samo Empire. In the 9th century, they founded the Principality of Nitra. The Principality of Nitra was later conquered by the Principality of Moravia and founded Great Moravia. After the dissolution of Great Moravia in the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Grand Duchy of Hungary and became the Kingdom of Hungary in 1000. Much of the territory was destroyed after Mongolia invaded Europe in 1241 and 1242. The region has largely recovered thanks to Béla IV of Hungary, where the Germans also settled, and has become an important ethnic group in the region, especially in parts of central and eastern Slovakia today.

After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Czechoslovakia was established. It was the only country in Central and Eastern Europe that maintained democracy during the interwar period. Nevertheless, the local Fascist Party gradually came to power in the land of Slovakia, and the first Slovak Republic existed as a partially recognized subordinate state of Nazi Germany during World War II. .. At the end of World War II, Czechoslovakia was rebuilt as an independent country. After the 1948 coup, Czechoslovakia came under communist regime and became part of the Soviet-led eastern nations. Attempts to liberalize Czechoslovak communism culminated in the spring of Prague, which was crushed by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. In 1989, the Velvet Revolution peacefully ended the communist rule of Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on January 1, 1993, after the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia. This is also known as a velvet divorce.

Slovakia is a developed country with a highly high-income economy and is ranked very high in the Human Development Index. It also favors citizen freedom, press freedom, internet freedom, democratic governance, and the measurement of peace. The country maintains a combination of a market economy and a comprehensive social security system, offering universal health insurance, free education, and one of the longest paid parental leave in the OECD. Slovakia is a member of NATO, CERN, the European Union, the Eurozone, the Schengen Area, the United Nations, the OECD, WTO, the Council of Europe, the Visegrad Group, and the OSCE. This is the largest per capita car producer in the world. In 2019, a total of 1.1 million vehicles will be manufactured, which is 43% of total industrial production.