Ja som Slovák a mám rád Česko

Slovensko je pro mě takové "polozahraničí". Náš vztah asi nemá ve světě moc obdob. 🙂

@@rickfrombohemia9550 I was thinking maybe Belgium and the Netherlands. Tho the Flemish and Dutch are basically the same which with close to 0 cultural and linguistic differences.

@@tunahan4418 Yeah, Benelux is close. Or Scandinavia.

@@tunahan4418 Bosnia Croatia Serbia Montenegro situation, they speak the same language

Fight between us is like between you brother who live next door and go on daily basis borrow milk from you and you visit him for talk, beer and cigarette. All together we are 15-16 million of people who do not get a damn about others until they mess with us. Both nations were oppressed and like to live in peace. Nicely watch to the valleys in the sunset full of beer and cannabis 🎉

Not every divorce ends with the spouse are flinging plates at each other, breaking their things by throw out a window of flat, wrangling over property and fighting over the children in court. Sometimes ex-spouses remain friends who are happy to help each other in their life.

It's not really a divorce: both are in EU

I remember the split, and how peaceful and friendly it was. A fine historic moment for humanity. Made me proud to be a human.

@@petervlcko4858 tak neviem ci si taky mlady, zaciatkom 90tych to bolo huste Cesi pesi do Prahy, Havel v podstate nemohol verejne vystupit na SVK, aby nedostal vajcom … veci sa upravili az par rokov po prevrate

Maybe Albania and Kosovo?

not slovakian... but slovak

Greece and Cyprus

There are … Romania and Moldova we have the exact same language and heritage and half of Moldovans have Romanian citizenship now😂

Koszi szepen! I am a Slovakian

@@SFjunior the funny thing is, you are Slovakian and your family name in Hungarian means "potmaker, potter". I am a Hungarian, and my name literally means "Croatian". Some heritages are just interesting.

hat igen tenlegvitszes@@zoltanhorvathandsomenumbers

Slovak/Hungarian relationship is one of the biggest missed opportunities for brotherly relationship. We lived for centuries side by side, only to be divided by the turmoils of 19th century nationalism. But hey, we all are part of the Central European family of nations. There is really no "Hungarian isolation".

I remember first time visiting Budapest and thinking its basically the same as Prague. Heck the two cities even have a castle in almost the same spot lol.

Well said.

At a 2:1 ratio

When it’s this peaceful, this mutual and were not long unified as one, I do agree separate and not collapse. Collapse to me means violent or where one side was trying to force the other the stay.

​@@JaziTheWolfthats a 0:100 failed ratio

@@DragonTheOne what?

Rent?

@@sarkis951 Ah it's no big deal. But if you feel that bad about it, you can buy me pizza sometime

We could've been a greater nation together.. Feels bad

@@mrditkovich2339 LOL. Carrying the torch like a boss. Mad respects

@briansedlacek1963 Learning more about the history of Nations that became Countries and beaten back into States holds a large category. Fear not for it is the individual, their perspective and amount of BS they will palletize under the guise of a flag that has and will decide the pages as they continue to turn.

So well said!

I don't know a lot about Czech's History, but clearly it does matter. I mean, your place in the HRE was significant and that's not something we should discard. The Slovaks, however (and I'm sorry to say this), their history have not the same weight. Still, I'm pretty sure there is some cool stuff about the Slovak's History, but I don't know it.

@Tenval Mestr Czech history isn't as complicated as Slovak history. Slovaks were occupied by Hungarians for centuries. Slovaks were not even allowed to use/teach their native language because of Hungarian rule, but then Bratislava was a coronation city for the Hungarian kingdom, so it wasn't as boring as some people think. Hungarians built a lot of beautiful chateaus and manor houses in Slovakia. We've been fighting together against Ottomans for centuries (Czechs were lucky enough to avoid Turkish attacks), but Ottomans also built a beautiful SPA in Trencianske Teplice. There are several examples of foreign influences in Slovakia which in my view makes the country more interesting but it also shows how different Slovakia is to Czech Republic. In Czechia, pretty much everything is Czech, Slovakia is way more diverse than many people realise

@@vkdrk Don't get me wrong, I didn't mean it as an insult. I am myself from an "unknown" people (Bretons). It's just that our people weren't the ones who wrote History, it doesn't mean we had no influence on it and no culture to show. After all, Slovakia was in the middle of Poland, the HRE, Hungary, Russia, the Ottoman Empire, ... so I have no doubt about the diversity in Slovakia !

@@vkdrk "We've been fighting together against Ottomans for centuries" such true words!

I'm from Slovakia and it's a little bit wilder here. (mainly in East)

​@@The_technic_Nuget kamo bratislava obchodna battle royale

Iam Czech and love Brazil. So nice country and people. In Brazil is popular beer Bohemia. This is name for ancient Czech Kingdom.

Obrigado💚

Im Czech and I was in Brasilia, ist nice place, lots of joyful people around, many friendly faces, wish there is not that much corruption, Florianopolis seemd like a nice place to live.

We couldn't reach an agreement about how the federation would look like, so we splitted before it would harm our state and our relations. Considering how wild the 90s were, it was probably the best choice.

Slovak populist nationalists spread the "Czechs are only holding us back on purpose and don't want us to succeed" narrative for winning the elections, similar to Trump and Putin agenda

Well it all was just a power play of power hungery politicians that partitioned and destroied big portions of indurstrial welth. (Opinion shared by 80% people i knou

Actually it was a super secret plot by Canada 🇨🇦 to weaken the Czechoslovakian National hockey team by splitting it in two and we succeeded beautifully 😀😃😄😁😆😅🤣

Ask older ones ;)

Czech republic is more of a slavic nation with lot of germanic influence. Due to lot of ethnic german living there due to its history. It was part of austrian empire as a recent example Prague was even a sort of bilingual german-czech city during austro-hungarian. German being the elite language While slovakia is more of pure slavic nation more similar to poland/yogoslavia/russia. Since a lot less ethnic german lived there. And it was a very rural country. So less german elites and german industries settled there

@@mathewvanostin7118 Bratislava wasn't that much different from Prague when it came to languages. It was probably divided into nearly perfect thirds - slovakian, german (austrian) and hungarian. And the rest of the country was also full of german-speaking or hungarian-speaking peoples. But yes, the national movements of WW1 and communist movements of WW2 quickly get rid of both germans and hungarians.

@@mathewvanostin7118 sounds like czech is west germany, slovakia east germany (perhaps not culturally but by industries... west got all industry, east farming).

Indeed. When one thinks of the wars caused by independence movements throughout the world, this was a very amicable separation.

@@MrLeedebt With the EU, Schengen and the Euro, what's really changed other than both groups getting their own space. If anything it might have made their relations BETTER

Yep, Slovaks were a bit bitter over dominance of Czech region in politics.

🤝CZ👋PL🤝SK

We wanted to live in the same house,even if it meant more independence for Slovaks and refendum wouldn´t pass,but once again policitians ignored will of the people...

There is more division between Red and Blue states than there is between Czechs and Slovaks.

@@tefky7964 That's not the only place where politicians ignore the population.... My bet is that every politician of any country and nation does that and never do what's right for everyone, they do what's better for themselves and only take action if pressured or charged, at least that's what happens in third world countries.

The reason for separation was all about the money from privatisation. Getting rid of Czechs was the only way to ensure more influece. The argument of Slovak nationalism was the only thing what could mrs Mečiar and his post communists come up with to destroy this state.

@@yuukiyoshizawa7007 the struggle to ensure individual leaders accurately interpret the will of their people seems to be an age old human story regardless of time or governmental type, with the recurring result being the more power individuals get without equal accountability by law, the more things go off the rails. I would consider Czechoslovakia to not have been a failure in breaking up considering how peaceful and cooperative even that was. If it were my country, it would have started because someone figured out how to make money off the split, these people would then rile up a certain section of the populace that gets real angry over anything the TV says to, and someone would definitely get hurt before everything was through, probably no civil war, but it wouldn’t be Czechoslovakia’s “okay, that can be your half, and this mine” and the borders of this new entity would be a snaking nightmare of wealth inequality with an undertone of racism.

In a world with many groups hating each other we can all learn something from the Czech and Slovaks.

Czech-American, and I also came here to object to the word "collapse". The split followed accepted political procedures with comparatively minimal conflict , and everything worked out fine.

@@lfilm3 We have what you could call friendly rivalry. Also Slovaks didnt like that during Czechoslovakia years Prague was the capital and not Bratislava.

it's what should have happened between Russia and other ex soviet states , and what should have happened in ex yougoslavia , meaningless wars between ethnicities that are so close with languages and cultures that aren't so diffrent , it's a tragedy !!

You decided nothing. You just did what your masters told you to do, just as in 1938, and again join Reich.

Agree ... It's quite accurate ... Czechs basically didn't care much and did not understand Slovak's nationalism ... Guess, we've already passed the period of self-determination during 1918. But I think that if we wouldn't split, there would be much more conflicts later ... It was political only (no referendum in Slovakia) but I don't think there was other solution acceptable for political parties on both side ...

Very informative. This seems like the real story of the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. I wonder if there weren't additional reasons, like different historical paths that led to different attitudes. I guess Bohemia was very rich and industrialized even from the Middle Ages, while Slovakia was I think much more rural historically. Recently I saw statistics showing that far more Slovaks consider themselves Christians while most Czechs consider themselves areligious. I also wonder whether the crushing of the Hussite rebellion led to some religious differences between the two regions, given that Catholicism was in part imposed on Bohemia. Is Slovakian Catholicism at all influenced by Orthodoxy? And what about the lost Czechoslovaks, the Transcarpathians? They were made into Ukrainians after WWII.

@@charlesiragui2473but why were they integrated into Ukraine? What happened to the tail that Slovakia had until WWII when they were given to Ukraine?

@@therealspeedwagon1451 I'm not sure about the rationales from Stalin's perspective. It is true that linguistically the Rusyns speak a Slavic language considered to be Eastern Slavic and many other Rusyns lived inside pre-war Poland too, on the other side of the Carpathians (the part of Poland was incorporated into Soviet Ukraine as well). The people of Transcarpathia also tend to be Eastern Orthodox, more so than others in western Ukraine, so from a cultural standpoint combining this territory with Ukraine/Russia made some sense. It's also true that Rusyns of Transcarpathia were not sure what to do after WWI when both Austria-Hungary and Hungary collapsed into ethnic states. Independence wasn't feasible. So apparently 2/3 of the Rusyns voted to join Czechoslovakia. I would love to hear Knowledgia handle this.

well said

I love the emoji created from the keyboard !!

Kaomoji normie

@@TheGecko213 normie

How do you create the middle part of your "emoji" at the end of your comment, pls?

They had religion problems down there in Yugoslavia, thankfully, it was totaly different situation than in mostly atheist Czechoslovakia. But religion is also what makes a difference between Czechs and Slovaks, you barely find a religious person in Czechia, but it's considered standard to be a catholic in Slovakia. They have their "classic christian values" nazis and most of Slovaks support that, while Czechia is liberal atheist country, which is massive cultural difference.

@@Pidalin Slovakia is a Christian country...well, only 50 - 60% of Slovaks are religious and the % of people who actively practice religion is even lower. Spain, Greece, Poland etc. are far more religious than Slovakia. Slovaks don't take religion that seriously. Czech republic is an atheist communist country. We had communism in Czechoslovakia ''thanks'' to our Czech voters...communist parties did not win in Slovakia but because there were more Czech than Slovak voters...we ended up with communism

@@vkdrk Communist parties didn't win in the Czech part either. But they did gain enough government clout to push a violent coup (hint: oppose openly violent opposition from gaining direct control of the instruments of violence in a state if you want to avoid that fate). It's all rather complicated, just like the religiousness. There's plenty of people who identify as Christian, quite similar to Slovakia really; but it's not generally considered something you share publicly. It's considered a private matter. Though disturbingly, little fish symbols on cars have started appearing at an alarming rate, so that might be changing again. The power of the Christian voters also seems to be increasing, with significant strength behind "traditionalist" (=Christian) laws being pushed. It's going to be an interesting century for sure.

Wasn't peaceful. People didn't want to split. Only the politicians.

@Ondřej Matějka That's a very oversimplified explanation. Moravians have been more religious than Czechs. Slovaks are often religious. In all parts of ČSFR, catholicism was the dominant religion and it also used to strongly influence our cultures. Czechs are liberal rather in the sense that they don't care what other people do. As a result, religion is not something people would fight over in Czechia or Slovakia. A fun fact: at least 4 of 5 leaders of the current Czech governmental parties are religious.

This is the most accurate comment I have read here.

@@petrkarafiat1707 Thank you! :)

Shoulda read this comment and skipped the vid.

I think it should be noted at point 3 that this was not the case as when Czechoslovakia was formed about 90 % of its money came from Czech part and way more than 10 % was invested into Slovakia. So basically part of the money gained in Czechia was going to Slovakia. And throughout the history the gradient did not change. This lead to quicker development of Slovakia and the difference between the countries got smaller and smaller and smaller as the time went on. If they did not split, I think western half of Slovakia would have pretty much the same level as Moravia (eastern half of Czechia) by now. But as you hint at point 4, privatization and rush to build market economy and rebuild the market did not go that well in Slovakia. Also Id argue Czechia has better geographical position to build strong economy (though both of them kinda suck and are landlocked). Sadly in last few years Slovakia is not doing that well and the process of catching up to Czechia even reverted. I personally think it is the direct result of the late Slovak governments which to an outsider interested in Slovak politics feels like a fight between various groups of populists or nationalists while more moderate parties/voters just have to watch.

​@@fridericusrex6289 I totally agree - Czechs mounted an enormous effort to uplift Slovaks in many ways but unfortunately Slovaks had different expectations - very similar in fact to the current popular opinions concerning EU, that is not improvements in education, infrastructure etc. but a raise in salaries is what really matters (to them). Despite all the heroic efforts, Czechs could not force development of Slovak economy to catch up with the Czech one, as Czech economy never stopped growing and the gap remained the same at best - pretty much as the race to catch up with the Western Europe nowadays. Well, I would sum up Slovak politics like this: Super populist Mečiar got beaten by a super right-wing coalition (SDKU) - that super right-wing coalition passed critical reforms that basically catapulted Slovakia into EU, NATO and earned Slovakia nickname Tiger from under Hight Tatras mountains as our economy growth outpaced everyone, including Czech Republic. Those reforms also targeted public spending and populists along with nationalists criticized those heavily + there was this leak from Slovak secret service about heads of the right-wing coalition taking bribes from companies that privatized state companies (Gorila) - this lead to populists beating the super-coalition so much that one populist party had the parliamentary majority - and that's when the growth stopped as many reforms were thwarted and state capture began - the entire justice department along with the police force got corrupted almost through and through as contemporary investigations have been revealing past 2 years. When one of the investigative journalists Jan Kuciak and his fiancée got killed by a hitman, the populist parties lost trust of the people and the loudest anti-corruption movement won the elections - unfortunately, that movement is also super--populistic but also combined with ultra-conservative Catholics which makes matters even worse. These anti-corruption populists found themselves in a crisis after crisis though (Covid, then war in Ukraine and energy crisis and then inflation) and unfortunately proved to be totally inapt to deal with any of them. You are right that our centrists and non-populists have always stood aside with little to no power: our libertarian party always had only a minority in parliament and our progressive party did not even get into the parliament by ridiculous 1000 votes, because they alone respected the law about coalitions (raising the minimum % of votes) and they also botched their campaign few days before the elections... Nevertheless I see similar patterns in Czech Republic - right-wing ODS and their coalitions and populist ČSSD taking turns to rule - periods of reforms and progress and periods of debt growth and stagnation...

Wait there are brothers who arent best friends?

What happened to the Moravians, the central part of the former Czechoslovakia?

@@Dutch_Uncle they resent being called czech (as they always did), but they're entirely too lazy to actually separate... they can handle the nagging, so long as they don't actually have to make decisions themselves lol. The lazyness is present in all of us... so when the politicians decided to separate into 2 countries, the people were like "Dude! Uncool"... but as always, people were too damn passive to do something about it. It's a small miracle we're not still enslaved by Hungarians to work their farms (which we basically were for around 1000 years)

@@ytubestolemyhandle Thanks, "Moravian" in contemporary US usage indicates a religious group of protestants. In the 1870-1890 period there was substantial emigration of "Bohemians" to the Great Plains of the US, Nebraska to Texas. Their language was described by them and their neighbors as "Bohemian," and the term "Czech" was not used until after WWI. I attended a Slovak event and was told that Slovak nationalism arose when Hungarian replaced Latin as the language of the courts, the schools, and public administration.

From what I read, the average Czech and Slovak didn't really care that much about being in the same state or having their own states. The split was really just caused by the politicians thinking this is what's best

Exactly that! It's like switching from relationship into friends with benefits! That's how you can describe the situation.

Better good friendship than bad marriage.

The problem with you analogy is briefly mentioned in the video at around 7:50. It was a political and not a popular decision. If it was given as a referendum question, it would have never passed and we would have Czechoslovakia to this day. So if you want your analogy to work, it should be something like "parents of the young couple decided that they are not good for each other so with tears on both sides they parted but stayed friends". To be fair - there was a part of a population that wanted the split - in Slovakia mostly because of nationalist tendencies and feelings their voice is not strong enough in the federation, but some also in Czechia, because they felt that they are pulling Slovakia (funds were flowing more from west to east).

@@petrkubena The minority is always the loudest. That's why at the time it seemed that the dissolusion as popular even tho it wasn't.

So a cuck basically? yuck

That's hard to do with Orbán, he only makes enemies around him. During his government, the interest in cooperation with HU declined a lot.

oh so effectively like a different dialect

There was no war because 1) we are too lazy for that 2) people didn't know about that, they just woke up one day and Czechoslovakia was no more, so people were like "ok" and that was all 😀

Slovak people have more possibility with Hungary together.

@@Ftibor7 in what way? the cultures different, the language is too

@@kralkralovsky8416 The culture is same the languages only are different.

If you watched the video, it is clearly stated from 08:40 on...

@@PetrVita not even close enough. They basically say "there was a threat of germanization and hungarization, but then it wasn't an issue anymore and velvet revolution ..." That doesn't explain how any of these "foreign-izations" even work and that they are often actually opposed by both the larger and the smaller cultures. As in, Austro-Hungarian empire was really forthcoming in supporting Czech culture, kaiser and family paid for a significant part of our National Theater (both before it burned and even more after it burned). But also were genuine big fans, kaiser visited the "Interim Theatre" on every visit and also visited the construction site of the future National Theatre. Meanwhile, it was portrayed as if Czechs were in fierce battle for it and paid for everything, in spite of evil Germanic forces. Never happened. Same goes for Czechs who possible paid "our" money to further Slovakian language and culture, only to see it still fighting for survival. It's not an explicit process and this video explains none of this and only obfuscates the situation by portraying it as a hostile and intentional clash of cultures.

@@miroslavhoudek7085 Really? The video clearly states "Czechs outnumbered and overpowered the Slovaks within the union, but they had been the lesser of two evils..." And that is exactly the point you made with your original comment. The creation of Czechoslovakia by Masaryk and Stefanik was a marriage of the necessity to fight greater evils in 1918. That was not the threat present in 90's, and the split was a natural solution to the feeling of Slovaks being the lesser partner in the marriage. Many Czechs felt sad about Meciar suggesting we were not fair to them...

My family is more Diaspora Slovak and the miro comment is a great description. The Diaspora was more concerned with the differences than the countries. But because Diaspora tries to preserve some homeland culture outside the country it is sensitive to losing it's identity. That does not make bad feelings, it just made Slovak Diaspora worry more about being lost. As an aside the restoration of old Prague is truly special. And now we see similar efforts starting in Bratislava. Both cities are becoming fantastic cites in Europe. Prague is more complete of course. But Bratislava is affordable and ... well Slovakian. 🙂

There was no "explicit" law to germanize Czechs? So the forced recatolisation, centralisation - schools and offices only in German language, persecution of personalities of Czech national movement, was not "explicit"? :D Neither was the one in WW2, right?

You mean Polish Soviet Socialist Republic?

@@notoriousfly9260 You mean Polish People's Republic? (Poland was never part of the USSR)

Dziękuję bardzo z Republiki Czeskiej👍👋

That is true as Czechia was basically factory of whole Austria-Hungary (and wallet of Vienna) and Slovakia was mostly agrarian part of Hungary, so there was big difference between various parts of the country from the beginning. (Not to mention Carpathian Ruthenia that was part of Czechoslovakia during interwar period which was basically stuck in some 17-18th century.) And as well most easily accessible deposits of Coal were in Czech part of Czechoslovakia, so the industry and country was developing from early 19th century.

Czech lands in Austrian-Hungarian empire wer higly industralized, whereas Slovakia was neglected and greatly rural in the part of the empire ruled by Hungarians. After the formation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, there wa a lots of effort to help not only Slovakia'economy, but also its state administartion an education. A great effort was made to industralize Slovakia especially after the WW2. The propaganda given above was spread by some politicians

one thing I found interesting in my reading is the manner in which the Czechs used their political sway in the a/h empire to suppress the Slovak language and culture.

@@cones914 The government gave up on highway on flat land and instead pushes it into hills where they need excessive bridges and tunnels to dig. 1km there cost multiple kms on flat lands so it is unreasonable, they can finish the southern highway much faster than move to the hills but nah

As a son of Yugoslavians, it was the same here, everything went into Serbia while we were there to make money for Serbia to spend

There could be a federal unity, as in Canadian provinces. And another way to look at it would be like a local EU-isation.

I'm from Slovakia and I've never seen how Czechoslovakia works, but I think we shouldn't have split up. There are differences, but to me it's the same as someone from Bayern having a slightly different dialect and culture than someone from Lower Saxony. For me, Czechs are the same as Slovaks.

Maybe, but there is no need to worry about it anymore. All is well that ends well.

Don’t worry, countries are unifying again. Soon Russia will unite with Ukraine too and you will as well

@@MrPeterPan What a joke. The situation is not at all comparable. People in this specific thread are for peaceful unification. When both parties are in favor of union. Russia is not unifying with Ukraine, it is invading it. And failing horribly at that. Go back into your hole.

In such team will play max. 2-3 Slovaks and the trainer will be a Czech as usually. So was the reality.

@@adriangrunert513 Do you really wonder? Who went to further lengths in Ice hockey after separation? The talent was CLEARLY on the czech sides of things. That is historically objective truth. To represent is to earn it and the players did.

thats how it was, no referandum, no questions, just some few guys wanting more power for themselfs, i think i am not the only one of this opinion but i am from slovakia and i think that if i was born into czechoslovakia i wouldnt mind but i'm glad to be just slovak today

Obviously politicians. It is better to be a king in a small kingdom thena a duke under the king of a bigger kingdom..

Maybe like this!! In a united country I'm a politician, but in a divided country I might make president. Easy choice. Lemos, patronage, honor guards, and international travel. Medium sized frog in a small pond.🤣🤣🤣

This is exactly what happened!

That but also the fact that at the time democracy was still young and referendum weren't as common as today. It was more like that people voted their representatives to their government to make collective decisions for everybody. It was the time when e.g. president was voted by government not citizens.

In fact, this video was weak with some misinterpretations. If you are interested in the topic and I can recommend a video called ‘VELVET DIVORCE after 30 years‘ by @DreamPrague

Well of course as like 1000 years ago there was The Great Moravia where the ancestors of the modern Czechs, Moravians and Slovaks lived. That is why all these languages are somehow similar. For example as Slovak, I hardly understand Ukrainian and I do not understand Russian at all.

@@bes5164 how much of Polish can you understand?

My Slovak friend explained to me the same thing regarding the Czechs and Slovaks difference in dialects. She said they see themselves as cousins of the same tribe like Scots and Irish.

@@chrisklitou7573 quite a bit 50-60%

​@@bes5164 it is possible to understand russian too, but because of their strong accent it's really hard.

I am very glad at least some people care and want to be informed. Unlike most Americans I've met.

Heh, you just inspired me to wiki the independence of Bangladesh. I am old enough to remember having a globe that had "East Pakistan" on it.

Go back to bangladesh..

@@thecringeinspector5636 Majority of mericans, yeah lol, but the very few who do, they're usually often more educated and possess more knowledge compared to the average American.

Even Bangladesh got it's independence from Pakistan. So much for being a Muslim but then Bangladeshis were treated worst by Pakistani Army (who did genocide of 3-million Bengalis). But in reality, both sides of Indian West Bengal state and Bangladeshis speak the same Bengali language.

In part it was bc of that, in part bc of ethnic and language similarities and because they wanted a cordon sanitaire to contain communism

This might be the most Czech response I have ever heard :D

Jako kdyby jsme vzali předchozí vlajku, tak by si nás lidi pletli s polskem. :D

Well tbf, never met a single person celebrating the creation of slovak republic in practice. State had introduced a lot of crap including it being a holiday while not having creation of czechoslovakia a state holiday, but it is not really what anyone wanted them to do, just like with the split, just no one asked. With regards to flag, it would probably make more sense if czechia and slovakia both adopted czechoslovak flag with emblems on them like moldova had.

@@starborneolympus3907 Exactly, we celebrate 1st of January as a New Year rather than an independence day. I've never heard of anyone celebrating that as such although most Slovaks I know are happy that we are not Czechoslovakia anymore.

Well, there was "the other" independent slovakian state and "independence moment" during the protectorate era .

@@decimusdecius7858 Nebo Indonesií.

the relations between the Serbs, Croats etc. were very different in comparison to C-S: we had no minority issues, no border issues, we never fought each other; actually, we had barely any significant touching points before establishing the Czechoslovak republic; most of the Slovaks had virtually no knowledge about the Czechs in 1918

By some members of former Yugoslavia living in my country, I don’t wonder at all. Even the generations that never saw Yugoslavia or the wars have pure hatred in their heart for their former brothers. It makes living with them a pain. But since I traveled to the region, I learned that those here are just bad examples living in the past .

@@odeode4338 It's really a mixed bag. Some people born after the war are way more hateful than some who actually lived through it.

@Al Pahlavi - I wonder the same. My theory is that this would work if every region was Slovenian-like (calm, basically nearer to Austria in culture than to rest of Balkan) or Bosnian-like (mixture of all nationalities and religions, so bit of less us-them tendencies and the famous "ethnic cleansing" mentality.

I am czech. My friend was serving in KFOR forces in Yugoslavia during war. I have seen many terrible terrible photos, heard terrible terrible stories from him. I am very sorry for you guys down there..

As an American he’s kind of a complicated figure. Did a lot of good and bad across the world.

@@drewkaton6785 I know many Americans who regard WW as one of the very worst POTUS, ever.

He also promoted the KKK propaganda film birth of a nation

As a Czech i can tell you that we dont give a shit about Wilson. We just say T.G Masaryk created Czechoslovakia with American support and thats it.

Not really. Wilson is a footnote in our (Czech) history books and only few people would tell you what role did he play. It's maybe unfair, but that's the way it is.

As a Czech, I like your story. It certainly felt like something similar has happened as out of the blue, with no tensions among regular population, we were told we are separated by a border.

Ne, Slováci jsou nacisté a necivilizovaní ve srovnání s námi jsou to Maďaři

@@ximrade4287 ne všichni jsou Kotlebové. Taky máme Okamura a trikolóru

@@janhejcman Slováci žijí v zaostalém lesnatém národě, mají štěstí, že dokonce dostali svůj stát, kdyby Česko nebylo po revoluci, rozdrtili bychom každého Slováka protestujícího za nezávislost a teď by mluvili česky.

@@ximrade4287 kdyby každý Slovák mluvil česky tak bychom ztratili velké kulturní dědictví. Východ Slovenska je sice zaostalý, ale to neznamená že nejsme jakožto národy bratři. Kdybychom drtili lid přející si nezávislost tak bychom nebyli o nic lepší než komunisti před revolucí. Je jejich právo chtít a mít nezávislý stát. Jen bych o odtržení udělal referendum, spíše než ho prostě udělal.

@@janhejcman Slovensko bylo českou kolonií a mělo to tak zůstat, udělali pro nás a my jsme vybudovali jejich stát, jen kvůli Čechům Slovensko není na vývojové úrovni Moldavska nebo zničene Ukrajiny.

Fun fact is that czechoslivaks wasnt nation. It was fake nation due to huge amount of germans in CS and hungarians. If slovaks would have some rights then german would ask for them to also hungarians. So fake CS nation was created. Also CSR ment to be federal republic like the USA which never happend and czech look at slovakia as part of czech lands not as same nation.

@@ejo5336 German-speaking Czechs, more like :D As much as Hitler loved to play the nationality card to help destabilize Czechoslovakia, the Czech Germans were treated far worse under his government than the Czech one (even more so than "East Germans" - back then mostly meaning the Germanized Slavs, rather than the more modern "post-communist Germans"). There were some very visible differences in religious practices and bits of culture, but other than that and the language, they were rather Czech. Heck, most of the Czech Germans (a non-negligible fraction of whom were Jews, of course) volunteered for the army when it seemed like the government might chose to defend the country from Hitler. But yeah, the interwar republic was certainly rather imperialistically moulded. The promised federation failed to shape up and kept getting delayed, territorial squabbles kept jeopardising relationship with key potential allies... and the whole republic was rather less democratic than it tried to appear even if you ignore the underrepresentation of "minorities" - the president's influence was far too strong. But of course, compared to the neighbours...

​@@ejo5336 Who's to say whether a country deserves to exist or not

@@ejo5336 well that's a complicated topic. Czechs never really considered Slovakia "Czech lands". They were simply naturally a dominant nationality of the state, which officially didn't recognize the two as separate nationalities. Czechia was also much economically stronger. The truth is, to this day Czechs are prouder of the Czechoslovakian heritage than Slovakians. However, Slovakians reached what they wanted after WW1. They got separated from Hungary, could speak their language and develop their culture with no issues, and the investments of Czechoslovakia gave them the very option to exist as an independent country.

@@tomasmalin that is the main fact. Slovakia never had rights as it was agreed. As you said slovaks got what they want same as czech as they was kept under german control. There is a possibility slovakia may wouldnt exist but czechia same borders as we know them now. It would be possible as it was in protectorat. Both nations needed each other. Slovakia was agrear and rural compare to czechia. Separation only help slovakia in grow. Czechia is in better condition of course as when split happend czech had 75% of EU GDP and slovakia 50%. Czech was in profit and slovakia in deficit. Provement was currency as when countries separate course was 1:1. Also slovakia got Meciar who put it down and 90s was hard compare to czech so slovakia lost 7-10 years + 12 years of Fico. But even in this time makes huge progress compare to czechia. Atm each countries cowork and are best friends at least in Europe which is great. In same countries there would blame each other as in past or as moravia blame bohemia or prague or eastern slovakia blame bratislava and west slovakia.

Well if the politicians tried to send us fight each other we would just get drunk together and make fun of the politicians 😅

It's not the true. There were election. And in Slovakia the politicians, which wanted to keep Czecoslovakia togather, was defeated. You need to ask people which remember that time.

@@julm7744 That's a very good point, it's the same in Scotland with the SNP. Not all their supporters want to seperate from the UK, people vote for parties on lots of issues, not just one. Only in a Referendum do you have one issue to vote on.

@@johnbrereton5229 I think you Scots should totally go independent mate

@@SaturnineXTS Well, that's not the opinion of the majority of Scots, it's just the noisy minority that think that.

"Politicians wanted to fill their pockets simple as that." stup-id popular mantra of ignorant citizens

Fun fact we have a lot of Vietnamese in Czech republic. They mostly own shops in small cities or villages

@@martinvyslouzil2163 It would be just polite to learn something about their country aswell haha

@@kanga-ross i know some things about their country dont worry.

@@martinvyslouzil2163 i meant in general, in schools

what lớp do you learn about European history in Vietnam? (I left after 4th grade)

Having another cold beer is just the right time to gripe. :-))

I misread your first sentence as saying you're Austrian and then when you said New Zealand I was like wut then I went and reread the sentence

Yeah if almost every Australian has some family in New Zealand and vice versa. Czechia tends to be more liberal (the bohemian part at least) and Slovakia more conservative (excluding the capital). Slovaks are perceived as more passionate and hot headed and Czechs as more fatalistic and phlegmatic.

@@aidenbooksmith2351 austro-kiwi empire

🦘 🥝

Austrian alien = Australien

That is a very nice description of today's status actually! (Slovak here)

Thats the same for almost every region on the planet.

More like 100, maybe 500?

@@martinvyslouzil2163 True. Bohemia in particular though has a far richer and more impactful history than someone might think considering where they sit in the grand scheme of things today.

@@HandlesAreDumb420 1500

@@martinvyslouzil2163 not really, Europe is a very unique continent in that regard.

1:00 Do you also consider Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, which were created in 1918 by the state of Czechoslovakia on the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, to be Eastern European?

I once heard a joke about how someone from Zakarpattia region of Ukraine has lived in five different countries despite never stepping out of their village because it's changed hands so much 😅

you can´t learn this; there have to be favourable preconditions

In case of both Germans and Hungarians in those areas,they came there,they settled there and claim it to be their. Sudetenland was Czech for centuries and fact that Germans got an offer to move there didn´t make it their land,yet they tried to take it multiple times. Even in the first Czechoslovakian republic,Germans had quite a lot of power and privileges,especially in contrast to other minorities,yet they chose to betray the republic and expel Czechs from Sudetenland... by force. (also German being main language in Prague in times of A-H wasn´t exactly thing that we wanted,it was kind of an expected effect of being under rule of Germans...)

I have small objection about "trapping behind foreign borders" border of Bohemia and Moravia were like that (save for several minor changes) for several centuries.

@@tefky7964 Czechs, Slovaks, and Hungarians all lived good under Habsburg leadership. Liberal Western Cultural (Catholic), values predominated, as opposed to the restrictive life style in Eastern Europe under Eastern Orthodox cultural dominance. Austria-Hungary was a free country, with a vibrant economy, and system of open borders, and international trade.

@@tefky7964 German language dominance was due to economic forces. The HRE, and German Confederation policies, benefitted all ethnic groups. None of these facts have anything to do with Nazis.

Totally agree. The First World War was a huge mistake for Europe. Central European countries would be 10 times stronger and richer if the Austrian empire still intact and it should. The nationalism movement was a trap to enslave the Central Europe developed by the French and English.

I know it is not a good time to bring it up, but I would like to see that Zakarpatie - part of today´s Ukraine was Czechoslovakia too!

We didn’t exactly want it, It was mostly a political motive. In most polls on the topic of break-up most people were in favor of staying together

There would be differences between people living in Prague and in a small village, there would be differences between Bavarians in the mountains and Berliners, or between people I already mentioned above.

My family heritage is from Krasna Luka and Hertnik.I have researched these two towns and find them to be somewhat on the poor side. Do you know where these small towns are located? Would you recommend someone with 100% slovak blood to visit there? I am certain I still have distant family living in these towns.

@@christinepalsa6307 sure if you have a good liver and aren't afraid of gaining some weight because Slovaks are very welcoming people who love getting their relations drunk and stuffed full of delicious food when they visit.

@@afiiik1 that's true, but you will not get fat so easily in Slovakia :)

Interesting observation!!But true!!Too late to do anything but my view is that they should stay together and build strong economic identity!!!Love them both!!!

No such person !

You still call yourself Czechoslovak as one parent is Czech and other is Slovak so you're Czech-Slovak :) My ancestry is Slovak and of course I'm sure I have Czech ancestry.

Not only for the English. I remember the Expo 2000 in Hannover, where the Slovakia was placed into the "Adriatic states" and Slovenia into the continental middle-Europe. Very funny. So the Slovak have got some sea for the first time, at least by mistake.

As a citizen of Slovakia let me tell you, many people were not happy with our new flag after separation. It looked too much like Russian. And I'm still unhappy with our flag as a state symbol. I think we should change it.

It was centairly a dark joke. Probably they even remembered the quick 1968 invasion, "one country more" would not be a difference. Joining NATO in 1999 was the big difference.

@@phh2400 no doubt a dark joke. Something that seems to get a laugh out of all northern Slavs is a joke from Poland right after the German reunification. Two Polish soldiers are standing guard duty when the younger asks the older a question: Younger: “You know, with Germany reunited, never a good thing for Poles, and the Russians having trouble keeping things together, which is never good because then they might invade us to distract their people from more important problems. So if the Germans and the Russians both invade us again, who do we shout first, the Germans or the Russians?” Older, after thinking for a minute: “Obviously, the Germans.” Younger: “Why is that?” Older: “Always business before pleasure.” That’s a dark joke as well but one that Czechs, Slovaks, Lithuanians and Latvians all found not only humorous but agreeable.

It's just another border. The distance to russia didn't change at all.

@@holger_p it was a joke.

Huh? Quebec is a part of Canada I'm confused

@@tunahan4418 means the two attempts to seperate both which were referendum votes barely if any violence except flq days 50 years ago

@@tunahan4418 Quebec has had a couple of referendums on separating, including a 1995 vote that was 49.5% in favor of leaving Canada and 50.5% in favor of staying. IT REMAINS A CONTENTIOUS ISSUE

@@tunahan4418 openly separatist parties continue to exist in Quebec at the Federal and Provincial level

@@beepboop204 as someone in BC I wish Quebec would leave but they stay, sucking money from western Canada. Real welfare pros. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Bohemia for the win!!!!

I am Czech (or rather Moravian) with Slovakian ancestry and I don't think we are not separate nations. Slovaks have always had a bit different mindset, which is normal since they were developing under different influences. Czechoslovakia was rather an attempt to escape oppression and gain our independency, which we have achieved, but there's no reason to keep it alive by force.

Thanks for the story. You sound like the expert on the subject. My grandfather is from Seilnica Liptov Slovensko. He immigrated to the US in 1910 when he was 14 years old. He wrote the story of his journey and the life he left. Not to get into it but it his story sounds like he was an indentured servant. At that time was serfdom practiced in that area of Slovakia? My grandmother's father immigrated from czechoslovakia as well but the city is now located in Ukraine. Was the far west part of Ukraine once czechoslovakia?

I must disagree here. For us czechs, nothing really changed in past centuries. Kingdom known as Kingdom of Bohemia, or by it´s official name "Lands of Bohemian Crown" is in our language called "Czech Kingdom" or "Lands of Czech Crown" So we don´t feel like "young" nation. We are czechs who were in Central Europe for more then 1000 years. Slovaks on the other hand, were slavic part of Kingdom of Hungary. Yes, both our nations were part of Great Moravia in 9. century, but so were others west slavic comunities. Since then, we Czechs had our own Kingdom, where slovaks were part of Kingdom of Hungary. Yes, we were autonomous part of Holy Roman Empire, and then not really by choice autonomous part of Austro-Hungarian Empire, but we still kept our nation identity and partial sovereignty. Slovaks didn´t felt to be Hungarians also, so they leant towards us, during both nations National Revival they created similar language (from mix of protoslavics, moravian and czech) but their traditions, mentality and customs were totally different. Slovaks don´t like hearing it, but their mentality and customs are more hungarian when czech customs (and this we don´t like to agree with) are influenced by Germany, or in some parts by Poland. With mentalities and values it is similar situation. We created "Czechoslovakia" just to overwhelm Other nations present in our lands to be able to create "National Country" even tho, it was basically just fraud how to get support from other countries, United States included. As of now, opinions on whole spliting things differs. As for me, I am actually more leaning towards "pro-splitting" as i like to have my own country, not an confederation. There was country called Czechoslovakia, but there never was czechoslovakian nation. As for calling our countries Czechoslovakia, it is the same nonsense as calling, Greece Otoman Empire, Croatia Yugoslavia, Ukraine SSSR or Aliaska Russia.

@@lukasfelix6509 This is actually a great comment! I'm from Slovakia and I agree with the part that mentality and way of life might have been influenced by the Hungarians, only because mainly on the south parts of Slovakia there was a lot of Hungarians living there fo so long. And yes the country was called Czechoslovakia but on both ends there were Slovaks and Czechs living separately, minding their own traditions and business.

Exactly !

We Czechs are like that... hold my beer... Slovaks are more temperament.

​@@72badry:}

Interesting, but difficult to read without any paragraphs.

@@Spacemongerr No one is perfect, although sometimes it scares me how close I am! :))

It's not true that Czechoslovakia was created by the Allies. Czech and Slovak elite fought a lot for the common state, which then built its army on the Czechoslovak legion, which had played an important role in WW1 and the Russian revolution. Of course, the Allies didn't mind a non-German state emerging from the ashes of Austria-Hungary, so they agreed. Also it was more complicated with Czechoslovakian minorities. All around the borders were Germans, which were pissed off by not having a German-speaking center of power. In Silesia the national identity has never been clear and the border with Poland was problematic. Slovaks were labeled as Czechoslovaks. However, Czechoslovakia was still a democratic state that just didn't care much about minorities.

@@tomasmalin Dear Friend, After the First World War, no state in Europe could be established without the knowledge and consent of the Allies (local ambitions mattered only when they matched global politics, and that was decided by the victorious powers. Although it is a certain simplification and mental shortcut, the allies always had the last word. It was at their conferences that Europe was reorganized anew, after the dissolution of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and the German Empire. (Ultimately, the Czechs also fought on the side of the enemy, so where and how the borders would now be, was decided in Paris and London, and the Czechs had to seek the favor of the Allies). That is why, among other things, the creation of an independent Slovak state was not agreed at that time (Slovaks wanted such, but the Allies did not want fragmentation. For the same reason, the creation of Yugoslavia was actively supported - local independence ambitions and differences in religion, history and mentality of the Balkan people were not taken into account). As a compromise, the Slovaks were offered a rather undefined autonomy within Czechoslovakia. This in turn led to constant conflicts between Prague and Bratislava. The Allies also tempered some grandiose ambitions of Czech politicians, because they reached further than the borders of Czechoslovakia as seen by the Allies. It is true that national identity began to awaken among the Czechs early (compared to many other nations) already in the 15th century. However, this concerned primarily Bohemia, to a lesser extent Moravia and not at all the areas of Slovakia (they had a completely separate history). In the 1930s, pre-war Poland actively wanted to divide Czechoslovakia (it even proposed to the then Hungarians a joint division of this country, it also sent military groups to Czechoslovakia with sabotage tasks. The Hungarians, however, preferred to take Hitler's offer. With Hitler's annexation came the end of Czechoslovakia (Hitler - as an Austrian - saw this as a remedy for the "wrongs" inflicted on the Austro-Hungarians by the Allies at the Saint-Germain and Trianon conferences. Hitler also "fixed" the "mistake" of the Allies and allowed the Slovaks to create their own state (later he had some trouble because of this). The second Czechoslovakia, which was created after World War II, was in fact a satellite state of the USSR and now Moscow decided about its existence, national composition and borders (e.g. the eastern territories were taken away and the border with Poland was forced - because there were several border armed clashes between the communist armies of Poland and Czechoslovakia). The Russians also did not allow the Slovaks to become independent. It was a kind of "punishment" for collaborating with the Nazis. Also the fact that at the end of the war they organized an armed uprising against Hitler did not help the Slovaks. Even then, the Russians ignored the Slovaks, waited for the Germans to deal with the rebellious Slovakia, and entered these areas only after the Slovaks were so weakened that they ceased to count as a political player. Also during the communist period there were serious clashes and differences between Prague and Bratislava, which is why after the collapse of the USSR (and the overthrow of local communists) the paths of the Czechs and Slovaks diverged. Today, despite the fact that both countries are in the EU (and there is practically no border between them), they still do not see the need for reunification and remain independent of each other. Unlike the Moravians, the Slovaks have not lost the sense of a separate national identity, they have remained with their traditions and culture (which, apart from the short period of two Czechoslovak states), was shaped separately for centuries. But who knows, maybe one day some historical perturbation will bring these nations together again? However, I doubt that any of these great nations will decide to abandon their individuality and old traditions just to create something in common. Because in politics, as in marriage, someone is always on top (and someone has to submit). Regards.

@@charlesgrant-skiba5474 That's what I said - the Allies naturally had to put Czechoslovakia on the map of Europe. However, it wasn't artificial "something" that was just established from the outside. T. G. Masaryk and his companions agitated for Czechoslovakia during WW1 and provided the Allies with the Czechoslovak legion. Therefore after the war he basically was given what he wanted. A Czechoslovak national state. In constrast, the Hungarian Trianon treaty has been seen as a national disaster to this day.