Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

One of the two succession states (the other being slovakia ) inaugurated on January 1, 1993 following the peaceful dissolution of czechoslovakia . This new creation (with a population of some ten million) covered Bohemia and Moravia, regions of largely homogeneous Czech ethnicity. Its founding head of state was havel , who as president of Czechoslovakia had previously attempted to avert the “velvet divorce” that had eventually come about largely in response to the demands of Slovak nationalism . During the rest of the 1990s the Czech Republic, boosted by substantial foreign investment, pursued policies of rapid Westernization in economic and security matters. In 2004 it became, like Slovakia, a member both of the European Union (see european integration ) and of nato . ... log in or subscribe to read full text