History Of The Czech Republic

One of the youngest nations of Europe, Yugoslavia was created after World War I as a homeland for several different rival ethnic groups. The country was put together mostly from remnants of the collapsed Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. Demands for self-determination by Slovenes, Croats, Serbs, and others were ignored. Yugoslavia thus became an uneasy association of peoples conditioned by centuries of ethnic and religious hatreds. World War II aggravated these rivalries, but Communist dictatorship after the war controlled them for 45 years. When the Communist system failed, the old rivalries reasserted themselves; and in the early 1990s the nation was rent by secessionist movements and civil war. Within several years these conflicts

First, before the Second World War, the nation of Czechoslovakia had been a strong democracy in Central Europe, but beginning in the mid 1930s it faced challenges from both the West and the East. Until the Soviet’s invasion where they installed a whole new communist government in Prague. For the next twenty

The executive branch consists of Chief of State, head of government, and cabinet. The legislative branches consist of members directly elected by majority in a two-round vote and also serve only a five-year term, and the judicial branch has the people’s supreme court, which is the highest court, and consist of 41 professional judges; additionally the elected judges only serve for 2.5

Russia and Poland were once under the single party control, communism. Communism is when the government owns nearly all aspects of society. The government controlled everything from means of production, property, to even media. The fall of communism throughout the world began in the late 1980s. Since the liberalization of the two countries, Russia and Poland have come to long ways. After independence, both countries faced many struggles but are now considered to be powerful middle-class nations today.

Between November and December of 1989, the Velvet Revolution took place in Czechoslovakia. The defeat of the Communist party in Czechoslovakia was a result of popular protest and student demonstrations. The country returned to capitalism and democracy and later separated to become the Czech and Slovak

Soviet Union stayed in control behind the Iron Curtain and no other country tried to get rid of Soviet troops until Czechoslovakia in 1968 meaning that there was no help from any outside country and the Hungarians were fighting this war by themselves. Even though the news of this revolution against the Soviets was spreading around the world, all the rest of the world could do was just sit and watch. It also led repression in Hungary; thousands of Hungarians were arrested and imprisoned by the Soviets. Some were executed and 200,000 Hungarian refugees fled to Austria ultimately changing a good proportion of the populations lives indefinitely forever by moving from their home country to a completely new one due to the amount of repression made by the Soviet Union. Although the sacrifices the Hungarians made did not go unseen, On 13 February 2006, the US State Department commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian

to states like Czechoslovakia, Poland and the now named Yugoslavia, as well as Hungary having

Although the 1956 Hungarian Revolution only lasted for a short period, there are many who believe that this revolution was the first step in decreasing the Soviet Union’s control over the Hungarian government. Despite the lack of an immediate change, the 1956 Hungarian Revolution had a major long-term effect by mobilizing the Hungarian civil society for future conflicts that took place between the Hungarians and the Soviet government. Towards the end of the Second World War the Soviet army came and occupied Hungary, and remained there until 1991. From the end of World War Two until the Cold War ended in 1991 the relationship between Hungary and the Soviet Union was characterized by the Soviet intervention in the domestic politics of Hungary.

Unlike the Hungarians, the Prague Spring was not a nationalist movement within the country, but an attempt to reform communism within the country under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek. Dubcek was explicit about remaining loyal to the Soviets instead of creating an independent nation. Following of the death of Stalin, the leader Antonin Novotny did not follow the trend of the Soviet thaw, but continued to implement the policies of the Stalin Era. Novotny’s strict rule on the civilian lives of the Czechoslovak people caused much unrest within Czechoslovakia. Economic downturn caused starvation within Czechoslovakia and citizens felt that the Soviets were exploiting the country’s resources and impeding on the

Communism in Eastern Europe was an ideology that took hold of the region for more than forty years. Each state fell into the Soviet sphere of influence after the end of World War II, and from then on until 1989, communism was the absolute norm for all of Eastern Europe. Though communism was the only form of government found in the region, each state was unique in how it carried out its policies as some were more lenient than others. As time progressed through the Communist Era, there were changes seen within the Soviet Union and these changes were reflected in its satellite states. Hungary is one such example of where communism took complete control of the country, and like the rest of Eastern Europe, went through different phases. Within

In the next couple of years, Russia began imposing itself upon other nations. Communism was imposed over Hungary in 1947, and in 1948, the Czechoslovakia government was also taken down. In resistance to the Russian force, the United States, Canada, and some European nations created a new defense organization

In the early nineteen hundreds relation between Bosnia and Austria-Hungary where high and tense. Bosnia was part of Austria-Hungary but many Serbs in Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia) believed that they should be ruled by Bosnia. On top of that the serbs in Sarajevo wanted Bosnia to become their own country and separate from Austria-Hungary.

Josip Broz came to power in 1943, and he made sure to keep everyone in check, making sure that no ethnic groups controlled the country.Unfortunately, after his death in 1980, Yugoslav went through many ups and downs due to different ethnic groups wanting independence. Finally in 1987 Slobodan Milosevic grew to power and he changed many things, so that it could favor Serbs. “He created an army that was 90% Serbian, and he extended his power over the country’s financial, media, and security structures. Later, with the help of Serbian separatists in Bosnia and Croatia, he convinced them that other ethnic groups posed a threat to their rights”(The Bosnian War and Srebrenica Genocide). That’s when the genocide started, of mass killings. Croatia and Bosnia wanted independence as well. Yugoslav began to attack Croatia to help any ethnic Serbs that lived there. They took over the city, Vukovar, and had

Stalin only exacerbated tensions when he succeeded in securing Czechoslovakia during the ‘coup’ in February 1948. It was clear that he would not tolerate a situation where a country that shared a land border with the Soviet Union would forge a relationship with the Western powers, as Czechoslovakia had intended when they demanded to access Marshall Aid. Thus, Czechoslovakia then became the last state to fall to communism securing Stalin’s buffer zone and therefore his security for his regime. By the end of the period it was clear that Stalin had very expansive tendencies and was very antagonistic towards the west.

The citizens of Czechoslovakia had not known freedom in decades. During much of World War II the nation was occupied by the Nazis and later by the Red Army as it drove the Nazis back to Berlin. When they Red Army moved into an area, communist regimes were set up to govern the area, and establish satellite nations. There were numerous uprisings throughout the decade that were violently suppressed by the communist governments with help from the USSR. After Alexander Dubcek tried to grant reforms to the people of Czechoslovakia in 1968, the USSR and most members of the Warsaw Pact sent their military forces to intervene and suppress any unrest or reforms. Things grew somewhat violent and brutal, as any demonstrators were either or beaten,