In March 1939, with pressure from Adolf Hitler, the First Slovak Republic was created as a satellite state of Germany with limited sovereignty.

Peaceful division was prioritized as the process ran in parallel with the violent breakup of Yugoslavia (another formerly socialist, Slavic federal state created after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary).

[4] On November 13, the Federal Assembly passed Constitution Act 541, which settled the division of property between the Czech lands and Slovakia.

In the following years, as Slovakia's economy struggled, Slovaks began to describe the dissolution as a "sandpaper divorce".

[7] Those who argue from the inevitability stance tend to point to the differences between the two nations, which date back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and to other issues.

[9][10] Since the coat of arms of Czechoslovakia was a composition of those of the historic geographic areas forming the country, each republic simply kept its own symbol: the Czechs the lion and the Slovaks the double cross.

Eventually, after a search for new symbols, the Czech Republic unilaterally decided to ignore the aforementioned law and to keep the Czechoslovak flag, with an altered meaning.

The most serious issues occurred around the following areas: The new countries were able to solve the difficulties via mutual negotiations, financial compensation and then an international treaty covering the border modifications.

Some minor disputes, such as gold reserves stored in Prague and federal know-how valuation, lasted for a few years after the dissolution.

[18] By a quirk of fate, the welcoming speech on the behalf of the European Union on the occasion of Slovakia's entry to the eurozone was delivered by Mirek Topolánek, the prime minister of the presiding country, the Czech Republic, naturally in his native language, but the other guest speakers used English.

Therefore, Czechoslovakia's membership in the United Nations ceased upon the dissolution of the country, but on January 19, 1993, the Czech Republic and Slovakia were admitted as new, separate states.

Both countries have ratified the Vienna Convention on Succession of States in respect of Treaties, and it was not a factor in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia since it did not come into force until 1996.

The Slovak gross national product (GNP), which includes citizens' incomes abroad and deducts the money multinational companies move out of the country, is higher than the Czech one.

[20] However, Martin Filko, the head of the Institute of Financial Policy of the Slovak Finance Ministry, pointed out that Slovakia is among the EU countries whose salaries form the lowest portion of their GDP.

In other words, some of people's incomes come from sources other than their main employment, which reduces the real difference between the Czech and the Slovak salaries.

[25] One of the problems not solved during dissolution was the question of a large number of Romani living in the Czech Republic born and officially registered in today's Slovakia.

For others, the right to citizenship required proof of a five-year period of residence, an "unobjectionable" criminal record, significant fees and a complicated bureaucratic process, which reportedly excluded a rather large percentage of Roma.

[27] Under pressure from the European Union, the Czech government made amendments to its nationality law in 1999 and 2003, which effectively solved the problem, but compensation has not been provided to those rendered stateless in 1992.

On the public Radio and Television of Slovakia, it is common to have at least one daily newscast from the Czech Republic during prime time news.

New impulses to mutual contacts coming via television are also common shows like the Intelligence Test of Nations, Czechoslovakia's Got Talent, and Masked Singer[28] broadcast by PRIMA and TV JOJ, and Czecho-Slovak SuperStar, the latter being the first international edition of the Pop Idol song contest broadcast by TV Nova and Markíza (both owned by CME), which also organized joint versions of MasterChef and The Voice in 2012.

The official breakup occurred right in the middle of the 1993 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships, which took place in Sweden.

In international ice hockey tournaments, the Czech Republic took over Czechoslovakia's place in the A-groups, and Slovakia had to start in the lower divisions.

In their qualifying section for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, the Czechoslovakia national football team competed under the name RCS, which stood for "Representation of Czechs and Slovaks".

[35][36][37][38][39] The mutual encounters between the national teams of both countries in many sports are followed by most of the populations, and the number of players and coaches active in the other republic is significant.

[48] Public perception of the dissolution has not changed much, with a December 2017 poll showing that just 42% of Czechs and 40% of Slovaks agree with what happened (compared to 36% and 37% in 1992, respectively).

Its leader, Ladislav Zelinka, said that he had received thousands of emails and calls from supporters, but it was unable to reach the necessary 350,000 petition signatures.

[52] Political influences between the countries are minimal, but social democrats tend to cooperate very closely on regional and European topics in recent years.

Furthermore, it has become customary that the elected presidents pay their first and last official foreign visits during their term to the other republic of the former Czechoslovakia.

[54] Trade relations were re-established and stabilised, and the Czech Republic continues to be Slovakia's most important business partner.

During the funeral mass in Prague's St. Vitus Cathedral, prayers were recited in an equal ratio in Czech and Slovak.