formerly (1918–92, with Slovakia) Czechoslovakia
Country, central Europe.
Area: 30,450 sq mi (78,866 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 10,210,000. Capital: Prague . Czechs make up nine-tenths of the population; Slovaks are the largest minority. Language: Czech (official). Religions: Roman Catholicism, Protestantism. Currency: koruna. The landlocked country is dominated by the Bohemian Massif, a ring of mountains rising to 3,000 ft (900 m) to encircle the Bohemian Plateau. The Morava River valley, known as the Moravian Corridor, separates the Bohemian Massif from the Carpathian Mountains . Woodlands are a characteristic feature of the Czech landscape; most regions have a moderate oceanic climate. The economy has been privatized since the collapse of communism and is now largely market-oriented. The Czech Republic is a multiparty republic with two legislative houses; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. Until 1918 its history was largely that of Bohemia . In that year the independent republic of Czechoslovakia was born through the union of Bohemia and Moravia with Slovakia . Czechoslovakia came under the domination of the Soviet Union after World War II, and from 1948 to 1989 it was ruled by a communist government. Its growing political liberalization was suppressed by a Soviet invasion in 1968 (see Prague Spring ). After communist rule collapsed in 1989–90, separatist sentiments emerged among the Slovaks, and in 1992 the Czechs and Slovaks agreed to break up their federated state. On Jan. 1, 1993, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved and replaced by two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with the region of Moravia remaining in the former. In the late 1990s the Czech Republic started membership talks with the NATO .