Slovakia

The Slovak Republic (short form: Slovakia; Slovak: Slovensko) is a landlocked country in Central Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi). It borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava. Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, NATO, UN, OECD, WTO, UNESCO and other international organizations.

The Slavs arrived in the territory of present day Slovakia between the fifth and sixth centuries AD during the Migration Period. In the course of history, various parts of today's Slovakia belonged to Samo's Empire (the first known political unit of Slavs), Great Moravia, Kingdom of Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Habsburg Empire, and Czechoslovakia. An independent Slovak state was created for a brief period during World War II, during which Slovakia was a dependency of Nazi Germany 1939-1944. From 1945 Slovakia once again became a part of Czechoslovakia. The present-day Slovakia became an independent state on January 1, 1993 after the dissolution of its federation with the Czech Republic.

Slovakia is a high-income advanced economy with the fastest growth rates in the EU and OECD. It joined the European Union in 2004 and joined the Eurozone on the 1st of January, 2009.