Slovakia

**Slovakia** (Slovak: _Slovensko_) (Official name **The Slovak Republic**, _Slovenská republika_) is a landlocked country in the eastern region of Central Europe. It is bordered by Austria in the southwest, Hungary in the south, Ukraine in the east, Poland in the north and Czech Republic in the northwest. Its capital city is Bratislava, the only capital of the world that borders with other two countries. Other main cities are Košice, Prešov, Žilina, Banská Bystrica, Trenčín, Nitra and Trnava. Slovakia has been a member of the European Union since 2004 and its official currency is the Euro.

## History

The Celts started to settle since 450 BC. The coins named _Biatec_ represent the first use of writing in Slovakia. After the time of the Julio-Claudian dynasty many different Germanic tribes like Quadi and Marcomanni started to overtake the area. The Roman Empire established many outposts along the Danube river. They fought Germanic tribes, with the most northern presence being in Trenčín (_Laugaritio_), during the Marcomannic Wars.

Great Moravia was at first in constant quarrels with East Francia and at the beginning of the 10th century, with the Magyars who arrived from Asia. The Magyars conquered Great Moravia in 906, and established the Hungarian Principality, resulting later in the creation of the Kingdom of Hungary in year 1000. Slovaks continued to live in the north, while most Hungarians were in the south.

A huge population loss resulted from the Mongol invasions in 1241. The Hungarian kings started to invite other settlers, for example Germans in the 13th century, and many others started to arrive in the kingdom, Vlachs from Romania in the 14th century and Jews.

In the 16th century the Ottoman Empire occupied the southern part of the kingdom including the two most important towns, Buda (capital) and Székesfehérvár (coronation capital). Many Hungarian nobles moved to Slovakia and the king moved to Bratislava (_Pressburg_, _Pozsony_ at that time). The wars against the Ottomans and an uprising against the Habsburg<nowiki/>s caused much destruction. After the Ottomans started to retreat back from Hungary, Bratislava continued to be capital until 1848, when it was moved back to Budapest.

The creation of a dual monarchy, Austria-Hungary, enabled the Hungarian government to initiate a policy of suppressing the teaching of languages other than the Hungarian language in state schools. The official use of other languages than Hungarian was also discouraged. During this time, a nationalist movement arose among Slovakians. A part of this movement joined forces with a part of the Czech nationalist movement. During World War I, this movement convinced the future victorious powers to recognise a new state of Czechoslovakia after the war.

The territory of today's Slovakia was a part of Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 1938 and again from 1945 until 1989. Czechoslovakia was one of the states which came into existence after the breakup of Austria-Hungary at end of World War I in 1918. Czechoslovakia split up in 1939, when Slovakia, under Hitler's influence and pressure, declared independence and became a client state. The state existed during World War II. It was a totalitarian one-party state and ally of Nazi Germany. Under the regime, the state fought in the war on the side of Nazi Germany and deported about 70,000 of its Jewish citizens to Nazi extermination camps as part of the Holocaust.

The territory of Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II in 1945. After the liberation, Czechoslovakia was reunified and briefly existed as a democratic country. The Communist Party successfully performed a state coup in 1948 and ruled Czechoslovakia as a totalitarian one-party state which was a satellite of the Soviet Union. In 1989, the one-party rule of the Communist Party was overthrown during the Velvet Revolution, which was a series of large and peaceful demonstrations by the citizens in the streets.

Czechoslovakia again became a democratic country. However, it split up into two independent countries (Slovakia and Czech Republic) on January 1, 1993 when it became an independent country. Slovakia has been a member of the European Union since May 1, 2004.

## Geography

Slovakia is landlocked. It is noted primarily for its mountainous nature, with the Carpathian Mountains being in the north and various lowlands mostly in the south. The highest mountain range are the Tatra mountains with the highest peak, the Gerlachov Peak (Slovak: _Gerlachovský štít_; 2,654 m). Major Slovak rivers besides the Danube are the Váh and Hron.

At low altitudes, Slovakia's climate is humid continental (_Dfb_ in the Koeppen climate classification, with warm summers and cloudy, cold and humid winters. At high altitudes it is subarctic and alpine.

## Transport

- **Rail**: Slovakia has 3,662 km of rails, of which 3,512 km are in standard gauge. Rail network currently undergoes a modernisation.
- **Road**: Slovakia has 42,993 km of roads, of which 316 km are motorways (2003). The motorway network is currently under construction.
- **Air**: Slovakia has 6 international airports, with the most important ones being in Bratislava and Košice, others are near Sliač, Poprad, Žilina and Piešťany.
- **Marine**: Slovakia has no direct access to the sea. The most important waterway is the Danube, with the ports in Bratislava and Komárno. The Danube and the Rhine-Main-Danube canal connects Slovakia to the North Sea and the Black Sea.

## Administrative division

There are currently 8 regions of Slovakia:

1. Bratislava Region (_Bratislavský kraj_) (capital Bratislava)
1. Trnava Region (_Trnavský kraj_) (capital Trnava)
1. Trenčín Region (_Trenčiansky kraj_) (capital Trenčín)
1. Nitra Region (_Nitriansky kraj_) (capital Nitra)
1. Žilina Region (_Žilinský kraj_) (capital Žilina)
1. Banská Bystrica Region (_Banskobystrický kraj_) (capital Banská Bystrica)
1. Prešov Region (_Prešovský kraj_) (capital Prešov)
1. Košice Region (_Košický kraj_) (capital Košice)

These are further divided into many districts. There are currently 79 districts of Slovakia.

## Related pages

- List of rivers of Slovakia
- Slovakia at the Olympics
- Slovakia national football team
- Slovakia men's national ice hockey team

## Infobox (country)

- **conventional long name**: Slovak Republic
- **common name**: Slovakia
- **image flag**: Flag of Slovakia.svg
- **image coat**: Coat of Arms of Slovakia.svg
- **image map**: EU-Slovakia.svg
- **national anthem**: _Nad Tatrou sa blýska_<small>
"Lightning Over the Tatras"</small>

- **official languages**: Slovak language, Slovak
- **ethnic groups**: **85.8% Slovaks**,
 9.7% Hungarians in Slovakia, Hungarians,
 1.7% Roma in Slovakia, Roma,
 2.8% others and unspecified
- **ethnic groups year**: 2001
- **capital**: Bratislava
- **latd**: 48
- **latm**: 09
- **latns**: N
- **longd**: 17
- **longm**: 07
- **longew**: E
- **largest city**: capital
- **government type**: Parliamentary republic
- **leader title1**: List of Presidents of Slovakia, President
- **leader title2**: Prime Minister of Slovakia, Prime Minister
- **leader name1**: Peter Pellegrini
- **leader name2**: Robert Fico
- **accessioneudate**: 1 May 2004
- **area rank**: 129th
- **area magnitude**: 1 E10
- **area sq mi**: 18,932
- **percent water**: negligible
- **population**: XX
- **population estimate**: 5,440,078
- **population estimate rank**: 111th
- **population estimate year**: 2010
- **population census**: 5,379,455
- **population census year**: 2001
- **population density km2**: 111
- **population density sq mi**: 287
- **population density rank**: 88th
- **gdp ppp year**: 2017
- **gdp ppp per capita**: $33,054
- **gdp ppp per capita rank**: 39th
- **gdp nominal year**: 2017
- **gdp nominal per capita**: $16,412
- **gdp nominal per capita rank**: 40th
- **sovereignty type**: Independence
- **established event1**:
<small>as First Czechoslovak Republic, Czechoslovakia</small>
- **established date1**: 28 October 1918
- **established date2**: 1 January 1993<sup>1</sup>
- **gini**: 26
- **gini year**: 2005
- **gini category**: <span style="color:#090;">low</span>
- **hdi**: 0.834
- **hdi change**: decrease
- **hdi rank**: 35th
- **hdi year**: 2011
- **hdi category**: <span style="color:#090;">very high</span>
- **currency**: Euro (Euro sign, €)<sup>2</sup>
- **currency code**: EUR<sup>2</sup>
- **time zone**: Central European Time, CET
- **utc offset**: +1
- **time zone dst**: Central European Summer Time, CEST
- **utc offset dst**: +2
- **demonym**: Slovaks, Slovak
- **drives on**: right
- **cctld**: .sk<sup>3</sup>
- **calling code**: Telephone numbers in Slovakia, +421<sup>4</sup>
- **footnotes**: <sup>1</sup> Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia; see Dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Velvet Divorce.
<sup>2</sup> Before 2009: Slovak koruna, Slovak Koruna
<sup>3</sup> Also .eu, shared with other European Union member states.
<sup>4</sup> Shared code 42 with Czech Republic until 1997.