Czechoslovakia
Former Central European country (1918–92) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short, summarize this topic like I'm... Ten years old or a College student
Czechoslovakia[2] (/ˌtʃɛkoʊsloʊˈvækiə, -kə-, -slə-, -ˈvɑː-/;[3][4] Czech and Slovak: Československo, Česko-Slovensko)[5][6] was a landlocked country in Central Europe,[7] created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland became part of Germany, while the country lost further territories to Hungary and Poland. Between 1939 and 1945 the state ceased to exist, as Slovakia proclaimed its independence and the remaining territories in the east became part of Hungary, while in the remainder of the Czech Lands the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed. In 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, former Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš formed a government-in-exile and sought recognition from the Allies.
Czechoslovakia Československo[lower-alpha 1] | |||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1918–1939 1939–1945: Government-in-exile 1945–1992 | |||||||||||
Motto: ‘Pravda vítězí / Pravda víťazí’ (Czech / Slovak, 1918–1990) ’Veritas vincit’ (Latin, 1990–1992) ’Truth prevails’ | |||||||||||
Anthems: ’Kde domov můj’ (Czech) ’Where my home is’ ’Nad Tatrou sa blýska’ (Slovak) ’Lightning Over the Tatras’ | |||||||||||
![]() Czechoslovakia during the interwar period and the Cold War | |||||||||||
Capital and largest city | Prague 50°05′N 14°25′E | ||||||||||
Official languages | Czechoslovak, after 1948 Czech · Slovak | ||||||||||
Recognised languages | |||||||||||
Demonym(s) | Czechoslovak | ||||||||||
Government | First Republic (1918–38) Second Republic (1938–39) Third Republic (1945–48) Socialist Republic (1948–89) Federative Republic (1990–92) Details
| ||||||||||
President | |||||||||||
• 1918–1935 | Tomáš G. Masaryk | ||||||||||
• 1935–1938 · 1945–1948 | Edvard Beneš | ||||||||||
• 1938–1939 | Emil Hácha | ||||||||||
• 1948–1953 | Klement Gottwald | ||||||||||
• 1953–1957 | Antonín Zápotocký | ||||||||||
• 1957–1968 | Antonín Novotný | ||||||||||
• 1968–1975 | Ludvík Svoboda | ||||||||||
• 1976–1989 | Gustáv Husák | ||||||||||
• 1989–1992 | Václav Havel | ||||||||||
KSČ General Secretary / First Secretary | |||||||||||
• 1948–1953 | Klement Gottwald | ||||||||||
• 1953–1968 | Antonín Novotný | ||||||||||
• 1968–1969 | Alexander Dubček | ||||||||||
• 1969–1987 | Gustáv Husák | ||||||||||
• 1987–1989 | Miloš Jakeš | ||||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||||
• 1918–1919 (first) | Karel Kramář | ||||||||||
• 1992 (last) | Jan Stráský | ||||||||||
Legislature | National Assembly (1948–1969) Federal Assembly (1969–1992) | ||||||||||
History | |||||||||||
28 October 1918 | |||||||||||
30 September 1938 | |||||||||||
14 March 1939 | |||||||||||
10 May 1945 | |||||||||||
25 February 1948 | |||||||||||
21 August 1968 | |||||||||||
17 – 28 November 1989 | |||||||||||
31 December 1992 | |||||||||||
HDI (1992) | 0.810[1] very high | ||||||||||
Currency | Czechoslovak koruna | ||||||||||
Driving side | right | ||||||||||
Calling code | +42 | ||||||||||
Internet TLD | .cs | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Today part of | |||||||||||
Calling code +42 was withdrawn in the winter of 1997. The number range was divided between the Czech Republic (+420) and Slovak Republic (+421). Current ISO 3166-3 code is "CSHH". |
After World War II, the pre-1938 Czechoslovakia was reestablished, with the exception of Carpathian Ruthenia, which became part of the Ukrainian SSR (a republic of the Soviet Union). From 1948 to 1989, Czechoslovakia was part of the Eastern Bloc with a command economy. Its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949 and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of 1955. A period of political liberalization in 1968, the Prague Spring, ended violently when the Soviet Union, assisted by other Warsaw Pact countries, invaded Czechoslovakia. In 1989, as Marxist–Leninist governments and communism were ending all over Central and Eastern Europe, Czechoslovaks peacefully deposed their communist government on 17 November 1989 in the Velvet Revolution. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the two sovereign states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia as the result of national tensions of the Slovaks.[8][9]