Czechia and Slovakia compared

Entangled histories

13 events in which either nation’s sourced chronicle names the other — including under earlier names of the same state. Each is the same record, with the same sources, as on its own chronicle; nothing here was written for this page.

1. 28–30 Oct 1918

   Czechoslovakia and the Martin Declaration

   Czechoslovakia was declared in Prague on 28 October 1918; on 30 October the Slovak National Council endorsed the union in the Martin Declaration, giving the Slovaks their first modern statehood alongside the Czechs.

   Formation · from the Slovakia chronicle · Czechoslovakia, the Slovak State and the Uprising · Czechoslovakia, History of Slovakia

2. 28 Oct 1918

   Foundation of Czechoslovakia

   With Austria-Hungary collapsing, independence was proclaimed in Prague on 28 October 1918; Tomas Garrigue Masaryk became the first president of the new multi-ethnic democratic republic.

   Formation · from the Czechia chronicle · Czechoslovakia, the Munich Betrayal and Nazi Occupation · Tomas Masaryk, Foundation of Czechoslovakia

3. 1–10 Oct 1938

   German annexation of the Sudetenland

   Following the Munich Agreement, German forces occupied the Sudetenland, stripping Czechoslovakia of its border defences and around three million inhabitants in its German-speaking borderlands.

   War & Rupture · from the Czechia chronicle · Czechoslovakia, the Munich Betrayal and Nazi Occupation · Munich Agreement, Sudetenland

4. 29–30 Sep 1938

   The Munich Agreement

   Germany, Italy, Britain and France agreed at Munich that Czechoslovakia must cede the German-majority Sudetenland to Nazi Germany; Czechoslovakia was not a party and yielded under Anglo-French pressure.

   Politics & Power · from the Czechia chronicle · Czechoslovakia, the Munich Betrayal and Nazi Occupation · Munich Agreement, Munich Agreement

5. 15 Mar 1939

   Occupation and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia

   In breach of Munich, Germany occupied the Czech lands on 15 March 1939 and proclaimed the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, while a separate Slovak state was set up under German control.

   War & Rupture · from the Czechia chronicle · Czechoslovakia, the Munich Betrayal and Nazi Occupation · Czechoslovakia, Munich Agreement

6. 14 Mar 1939

   Proclamation of the Slovak State

   As Germany dismembered Czechoslovakia, a separate Slovak State was proclaimed under the priest Jozef Tiso, a clerical-authoritarian regime that became a client and ally of Nazi Germany.

   Politics & Power · from the Slovakia chronicle · Czechoslovakia, the Slovak State and the Uprising · Jozef Tiso, The Holocaust in Slovakia

7. 1945–1946

   Expulsion of the Sudeten Germans

   Under the Benes decrees and Allied agreement at Potsdam, Czechoslovakia stripped the citizenship and property of its Germans and expelled some three million Sudeten Germans, the largest forced migration in the history of the Czech lands.

   Peoples & Migration · from the Czechia chronicle · Expulsion, Communism, the Velvet Revolution and the Modern Republic · Edvard Benes, Sudetenland, Potsdam Conference

8. Feb 1948

   Communist coup

   In February 1948 the Communist Party seized full power in Czechoslovakia, ending postwar democracy and bringing the country firmly into the Soviet bloc for the next four decades.

   Politics & Power · from the Czechia chronicle · Expulsion, Communism, the Velvet Revolution and the Modern Republic · Czechoslovak history, Vaclav Havel

9. 1948

   Communist takeover

   The Communist Party seized full power in Czechoslovakia, establishing a one-party state under Soviet domination that would last for four decades.

   Politics & Power · from the Slovakia chronicle · Communism, the Velvet Revolution and the Velvet Divorce · Czechoslovakia, Velvet Revolution

10. 1968–1969

    Federalization of Czechoslovakia

    After the Prague Spring was crushed, the Constitutional Law of Federation of 28 October 1968 created, from 1 January 1969, a Slovak Socialist Republic within a federal Czechoslovakia, the Slovaks' first republic in name.

    Politics & Power · from the Slovakia chronicle · Communism, the Velvet Revolution and the Velvet Divorce · Czechoslovakia

11. 20–21 Aug 1968

    Prague Spring crushed by Warsaw Pact

    Alexander Dubcek's reforms of 'socialism with a human face' were ended when roughly half a million Warsaw Pact troops, led by the Soviet Union, invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968.

    War & Rupture · from the Czechia chronicle · Expulsion, Communism, the Velvet Revolution and the Modern Republic · Prague Spring, Warsaw Pact

12. 1 Jan 1993

    The Velvet Divorce

    Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993, creating, after more than a thousand years, the first fully independent Slovak state.

    Independence · from the Slovakia chronicle · Communism, the Velvet Revolution and the Velvet Divorce · Czechoslovakia, U.S. Relations With Slovakia

13. 1 Jan 1993

    The Velvet Divorce and birth of the Czech Republic

    After a 1992 vote to divide, Czechoslovakia split peacefully on 1 January 1993 into the Czech Republic and Slovakia; the Czech Republic later joined NATO in 1999 and the EU in 2004.

    Formation · from the Czechia chronicle · Expulsion, Communism, the Velvet Revolution and the Modern Republic · Velvet Divorce, NATO member countries (Czechia joined 12 March 1999), 20 years together: the 2004 EU enlargement