I was reading the Slovak Offical Site and they seem to indicate that they are happy to be divorced but the Czech site indicates that maybe they would’ve been better off staying together – Maybe.
What is the SD on the velvet divorce? Are both sides better or what?
I talked to a guy, an economic refugee, I guess you’d say. He says things have gotten quite screwed up since the split.
Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, (that goes without saying on this board :)) but it’s my undersatnding that the split was cultural in nature. The Czechs are Germanic and the Slovaks are Slavic, and they didn’t enjoy being in the same country. However, the Soviets (like they did with Yugoslavia) just said “Tough nuts, we’re sticking you two together.”
Taking you up on your offer, you’re being corrected. First, Czechs and Slovaks are both West Slavs. Their languages are quite close.
The reason that the two groups didn’t consolidate is essentially political. The Czech lands are dominated by Bohemia (Moravia being the other key part), which had a Germanic nobility (though Czech population) at least since the early 1600s. The Kingdom of Bohemia was part of Germanic Central Europe, the Holy Roman Empire, etc., etc. Under Austria-Hungary, Bohemia fell into the Austrian half. Slovakia, by contrast, was under Hungarian rule. While the Czech lands industrialized early, Slovakia stayed agrarian (much like the rest of the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary), and the Slovaks were essentially a peasant nation, whereas the Czechs developed a fairly substantial middle-class and intelligentsia.
When Austria-Hungary fell apart at the end of World War I, the Western Allies (US, UK, France, Italy) endorsed a united Czechoslovak state under Czech leadership as a bulwark against Germany. The Slovaks were not in much of a position to say a lot about this. To make the state viable, Czechoslovakia included not just the Czechs and Slovaks but also the Germans of the Sudetenland and some Ruthene / Ukrainians in the east. Czechs were a plurality but not a majority of the population.
During World War II, the Czech lands came under direct German rule, while Slovakia became a fascist puppet state. After WWII, the halves were put back together.
After Communism fell apart, democracy reared its ugly head and nationalists among the Slovaks agitated for independence. Motivated in part by the concurrent disintegration of Yugoslavia (which was NOT NOT NOT a creation of the Soviets), both sides agreed to an amicable divorce.
That was very informative, DRS. Thanks. 
Doh! Considering that I know so much about the recent war there, I really should have known that…
So after 8 years of seperation are either country better off seperate? Or should they have tried to stayed together.
It does appear neither Slovak or Czechs were really angry with each other as in Yugoslavia
Peace
One problem has been what to rename the Czech portion that remained after Slovakia quit. I mean, Slovakia just sounds right! That’s a no-brainer. But what about the remainder? Czechia won’t do. It just sounds dorky. You hear “Czech Republic” used, but that’s no good either. Too many syllables. It’s like “Dominican Republic” which was a mistake – too unwieldy for a country’s name.
I wish to propose a cool-sounding alternative that just trips off the tongue:
CZECHISTAN.
The only problem with this is that states ending in ‘Stan’ tend to be islamic states (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikstan, etc) and Czech Republic is not islamic.
But i have no idea about the OP, nothing I have looked at.
Back to the OP–the Czech Republic has done fairly well since the breakup. It’s nowhere close to Poland, the true star of post-communist Eastern Europe, but it’s on a par in terms of economic recovery with Hungary or Slovenia or Estonia–clearly on the way back up, though struggling with problems of corruption and effective privatization.
Slovakia is a somewhat different case. It was saddled with much more Soviet-style heavy industry (remember that the Czech lands had industrialized very early? The Communists tried to play catch up by building industrial behemoths in Slovakia.) As a result of that, it was in somewhat worse shape than the Czech Republic at the fall of communism.
Its biggest difficulty, however, was that it quickly turned into a semi-authoritarian nationalist state. That kept reform from happening. The general rule in post-Communist Europe seems to be that avoiding reform can maintain living standards temporarily, but makes the ultimate crash that much worse. It’s clear that the states that are progressing most rapidly (Poland, Estonia) pushed reforms the fastest.
Anyway, Slovakia has since returned to the path of democracy and reform. If you want a quick read, I find the Economist website to be a great spot for a relatively rapid catch-up.
Why no Yugoslav-style ethnic war? My thought: the Czech heritage of national struggle was against Austrian Germans. The Slovak one (such as it was) was against Hungarians. Interwar Czechoslovakia was an exceedingly well-run state by East European standards, so no room for really bitter resentments to build up. After WWII, Czechs and Slovaks alike were both pissed at the Soviets. Result: no history of mutual antagonism to make a break-up bloody.
Also, Slovakia was breaking away from a democracy with a tried-and-true humanist as president. Slovenia and Croatia, and later Bosnia, were trying to break out of a polity dominated by Slobodan Milosevic.
So what? In Turkish, most of the East European countries have this kind of name. For example:
Bulgaria is Bulgaristan.
Greece is Yunanistan, literally ‘Land of the Ionians’.
Hungary is Macaristan, ‘Land of the Magyars’.
Poland is Lehistan, ‘Land of Lech’ (Walesa).
So it would fit right in to call the land of the Czechs “Czechistan”! It sounds good. I say go for it.
Peace
Repeat after me: Czech Republic.
How about Chic Republic?
(Dives under desk…)
I know: Chick Republic! It works because there is a higher percentage of babes (at least in Prague) there than anywhere I’ve ever been. (Speaking of diving under the desk, John, I think I’ll join you under there…)
“I talked to a guy, an economic refugee, I guess you’d say. He says things have gotten quite screwed up since the split.”
Was Slovakia/Czech Republic the country where the government gave the general population shares in the once nationalised industries and some slick entrepreneur bought them all up for cheap? I can remember a story like that with regard to one of the ex-commie countries, it apparently messed things up quite badly.
The best name for the Czech Republic? Youse guys missed the obvious one: Czechland, literally land of the Czechs.
Or we can try some other endings:
Czechpan (as in Japan)
Czechmany (as in German)
Czechkey (as in Turkey)
Saudi Czechia
Czechypt
Czechvia
Czechbabwe (Zimbabwe)
Czechrocco (Morocco)
Czechdonesia
Czechnited States
Czechzil
Czechru (Peru)
Czech Zealand
Czechdagascar
Czechmaica
Czechixo
Czechance (France)
Czechain (Spain)
The possibilities are endless.
Or, since the Czech Republic is on the same land as the one-time Kingdom of Bohemia and Moravia, it could be Bohemia-Moravia. Or BoMo (got a ring to it, don’tcha think?), or even BM.
I was going to suggest Bohemoravia – they dovetail around that m.
But I gotta hand it to you, “Bomo” does have that “po-mo” ring to it.
It would go over well in China, where the phonetic writing system is called BoPo MoFo.
But there are certain neighborhoods where if you value your life you will not utter “MoFo” out loud.
Of course those of us who are from the “United States of America” aren’t really in any position to making fun of the Czechs for not having a good “short form” to the name of their country…