Slovakia

The Slovak Republic is situated in the heart of Europe. Slovakia border on with the Czech Republic to the West, Austria to the Southwest, Hungary to the Southeast, Poland to the North and Ukraine to the East. Slovakia has about 5 millions population. The most numerous minorities are Hungarians, Gypsies, Czechs. Ruthenians, Ukrainians and Germans. The official language is Slovak. Slovakia is mostly mountainous country. The mountains stretch from the Western Carpathians to the White Carpathians and Javorníky, near Czech – Slovak border, and to Beskids, near the Polish border. The fertile lowlands are in the south – west and south east of the SR. They are Danube Lowlands and East Slovakian Lawlands. The most important rivers of Slovakia are the Danube, the Vah, the Moravia, the Hron, the Nitra and the Orava. The rivers are short. The country has termal springs. The capital of Slovakia is Bratislava situated on the river Danube. The bigger towns of Slovakia are Košice, Žilina, BB, Trnava, Martin… The smaller towns are Bojnice, Zvolen, Trenčin are famous for their castles. Villages like Vlkolínec or Čičmany are known for their fold architecture. History

During the Bronze Age Slovakia was a crossroad of many different tribes and ethnic groups. The oldest West Slavonic national unit was Samo´s Empire. By the end of 8th century there were 2 princedoms. Pribina´s Princedom in Nitra and Mojmír´s Princedom in western Slovakia and in southern Moravia. Both of the princedoms united and in the 9th century laid the foundation of the Great Moravian Empire. In 863 Prince Rastilav invited 2 Byzantine brothers – Cyril and Metod who founded the oldest Slavonic alphabet and brough Christian religion to this region. After the disintegration of GME in the 11th century it became a part of Hungarian state (after Hun invasion). Hungarian dominated until 1918. Anton Bernolák and Ľ. Štúr were very important people in Slovak history. After World War I. the Czechs and Slovaks create the independent state the Czechoslovak Republik. This first republic lasted until World War II. In 1945 the Czechoslovak Republik was established.
On January 1st 1993, this ČSR split into 2 independent states the ČR and the SR. The official head of SR is the President. The legislative body is the National Council of SR which has 150 deputies = members.
The most important branch resort of Slovak economy is industry. The most important task is the installation of effective economy.