Slovakia, which official name is the Slovak Republic is located in central Europe, south of Poland, and north of Hungary, and south east of the Czech Republic. Slovakia and the Czech Republic were former parts of Czechoslovakia, until they emerged as republics on January 1, 1993. When Slovakia separated from Czechoslovakia it was left with 49,036 sq km (18,933 sq miles). The official language in the Slovak Republic is of course Slovak, and the majority of the Slovak’s are Catholic. The capitol city, Bratislava is located in the far west of the country. The population of Slovakia is 5 268 935, which was conducted in 1995. The population growth rate is 0.13%.The birth rate is 10.05, and death rate is 9.25 both per 1,000 persons in the population. Slovakia’s GDP is $55.3 billion and the GDP per capita is $10,200. Slovakia’s main exports include: machinery, transportation equipment, intermediate manufactured goods, miscellaneous manufactured goods, and chemicals this comes to a cost of $12 billion dollars. Present day Slovakia was settled by Slavic Slovaks about the 6th century. “The people of Slovakia are descended from the Slavic peoples who settled the Danube river basin in the 6th and 7th centuries B.C.E”. They were politically united in the Moravian empire in the 9th century. In 1907, the Germans and the Magyars conquered the Moravian state, and the Slovaks fell under Hungarian control from the 10th century up until 1918. When the Hapsburg ruled empire collapsed in 1918 following World War I, the Slovaks joined the Czech lands of Bohemia, Moravia, and part of Silesia to form the new joint state of Czechoslovakia. In March 1939, Germany occupied Czechoslovakia, established a German protectorate, and created a puppet state out of Slovakia with Monsignor Josef Tiso as prime minister. The country was liberated from the Germans by the Soviet army in the spring of 1945, and Slovakia was restored to its prewar status and rejoined to a new Czechoslovakian state.
After the Communist Party took power in Feb. 1948, Slovakia was again subjected to a centralized Czech dominated government, and antagonism between the two republics developed. In January 1969, the nation became the Slovak Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia. “The imposition of communist regime extinguished civil liberties and democratic institutions”
Nearly 42 years of Communist rule for Slovakia ended when Vaclav Havel became president of Czechoslovakia in 1989 and democratic political reform began. However, with the demise of Communist power, a strong Slovak nationalist movement resurfaced, and the rival relationship between the two states increased. By the end of 1991, discussions between Slovak and Czech political leaders turned to whether the Czech and Slovak republics should continue to coexist within the federal structure or be divided into two independent states.
After the general election in June 1992, it was decided that two fully independent republics would be created. “Czechoslovakia ended because it was no longer necessary”. The Republic of Slovakia came into existence on Jan. 1, 1993. The parliament in February elected Michal Kovac as president. Populist Vladimir Meciar, who served three times as Slovakia's prime minister, exhibited increasingly authoritarian behavior and was cited as the reason Slovakia was for a time eliminated from consideration for both the EU and NATO. “The coming to power of the HZDS-SNS-ZRS coalition after the elections of 1994 had a negative impact on the quality of democracy in Slovakia” Slovakia's very low influx of foreign capital during Meciar's tenure was the result of his government's lack of transparency. Meciar was unseated in 1998 elections by the reformist government of Mikulás Dzurinda. In April 2000 Meciar was arrested and charged with paying illegal bonuses to his cabinet ministers while in office. A three week standoff with police preceded the arrest, ending only when police commandos blew open the door on Meciar's