Slovakia, landlocked country of central Europe. It is roughly coextensive with the historic region of Slovakia, the easternmost of the two territories that from 1918 to 1992 constituted Czechoslovakia.

The short history of independent Slovakia is one of a desire to move from mere autonomy within the Czechoslovak federation to sovereignty – a history of resistance to being called “the nation after the hyphen.” Although World War II thwarted the Slovaks’ first vote for independence in 1939, sovereignty was finally realized on January 1, 1993, slightly more than three years after the Velvet Revolution – the collapse of the communist regime that had controlled Czechoslovakia since 1948.