Basics After centuries of cultural repression by the Hungarians, followed by 75 years of playing second fiddle to the Czechs within Czechoslovakia, the Slovaks finally gained their independence on January 1, 1993. After those heady celebratory days, however, life proved much harder for the Slovaks than for the Czechs. With no internationally popular figurehead to act as a public relations officer, the new Slovakia found it difficult jockeying for a position in the new Europe. Political instability, corruption and slow-moving reforms initially deterred overseas investors and drew criticism from abroad, though the country has since recovered and recently joined both NATO and the EU.
For the first-time visitor, however, perhaps the most striking difference between the Czechs and the Slovaks is their attitude to religion. Catholicism is much stronger in Slovakia and the country's churches are visibly fuller on a Sunday; indeed, it is not uncommon to see people crowded outside the entrance of an overflowing church with a service in progress. The republic also has a much more diverse population, with over half a million Hungarian-speakers in the area bordering Hungary, one of the largest Romany minorities in Europe and thousands of Rusyns in the east of the country bordering Ukraine. Geographically, Slovakia lies between two extremes: the flat, parched plains of the Danube basin in the west, and the limestone and granite peaks of the central mountains – including some of Europe's highest mountains outside the Alps – to the east. These have long formed barriers to industrialization and modernization, preserving and strengthening regional differences in the face of centralization from Vienna, Budapest, Prague and now Bratislava.
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