Practical Information for Incoming Students - UJEP

10
But peace did not prevail in Czechoslovakia
. The centralistic states did
not grant political autonomy to the
minorities due to which they rebelled
and asked to break Czechoslovakia
into pieces .
The dictator Hitler sensed the wave
of discontent in the Czechoslovakian
population and thought to benefit
out of it . He succeeded in his plans
through the Munich Agreement that
gave him the majority of the German
speaking Sudetenland . In 1939
Slovakia separated from Czechoslovakia
and Hitler occupied the rest
of the Czech territory . From 1939
to 1945 the state did not have de
facto existence, due to its forced division
and partial incorporation into
Nazi Germany, but the Czechoslovak
government-in-exile nevertheless
continued to exist during this period
of time .
Between 1948 and 1989 Czechoslovakia
was a Communist state with a
centrally planned economy . In 1989
Czechoslovakia managed to gain
political freedom through the Velvet
Revolution . This peaceful country
split into the Czech Republic and
the Slovak Republic on 1st January
1993 . In 1999, the Czech Republic
was accepted as a member of the
NATO and together with nine other
states the Czech Republic became
one of the members of the European
Union on 1st May 2004 .