How Do Czechia & Slovakia Compare TODAY?
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- Опубліковано 5 тра 2024
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▶ In this video I compare the two countries of Czechia / the Czech Republic and Slovakia among various factors. Czechoslovakia existed from 1918 to 1992, when Czechia and Slovakia decided to split. In 2023, they differ in size, with Czechia being larger, having more extensive railways, and a bigger population. The languages, Czech and Slovak, are similar, and their flags share colors. In terms of government, both are Parliamentary Republics, and they share good diplomatic relations. Czechia has more immigrants, particularly Ukrainians. Slovakia, part of the Eurozone, has a smaller economy than Czechia, which uses the Czech Koruna. GDP per capita is higher in Czechia, but both have low Gini coefficients, indicating wealth equality. Human Development Index is slightly higher in Czechia. Both countries are safe but differ in perceived corruption levels. Overall, they've evolved differently since their separation, raising the question of whether they would have remained together or not. What are your thoughts on their separation?
▶ TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:36 Historical Context
02:53 Curiosity Stream
04:06 Territory & Size
04:29 Infrastructure (Roads & Railways)
05:10 Population & Population Density
05:31 Average Age & Life Expectancy
05:41 Languages
06:02 Religious Comparison
06:54 National Flags
07:27 Coats of Arms
08:17 Government Types
08:40 Diplomatic & Foreign Relations
09:54 Immigration
10:35 Military Comparison
11:00 Currencies
11:41 Economy & GDP
12:19 Average Salary
12:28 Wealth Distribution / Gini Coefficient
12:51 Human Development Index
13:04 Security & Safety
13:33 Summary
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in my eyes Slovakia is the most corrupt country in Europe i born in slovakia and i also living here :D
Hi there! Thanks for the video :) Just a little note here, Czechia currently has 6 international airports. I think might've missed the one in České Budějovice, which started taking public flights last year :)
Prague and Bratislava being close to each other and one of closest capitals in the world? I think someones been thinking about Vienna instead of Prague...
Yeah definitely a mistake, I noticed it myself after uploading the video. Thank you for the correction!
what you meant was probably bratislava and budapest which are actually very close to each other and are both located on the danube
@@loleder its the triangle of vienna bratislava and budapest that is really close to each other, but vienna and bratislava in particular, like 50km between them, 70km road-wise. and you can even add 2nd biggest city in czechia, Brno, there, and you have 4th important city really close to others.
Tak nejblíže to má Bratislava do Vídně a pak do Budapešti. Praha je až třetí.
But even that is wrong. Kinshasa and Brazzaville are literally across the river from each other. Vienna and Bratislava are 50km apart@@General.Knowledge
I would like to add some interesting cultural aspects as a Czech.
1. Czech and Slovak media are still really connected, there are so many tv shows (for example Czechia and Slovakia got talent) or reality shows that are being made together. Also you would never find only czech or only slovak song playlists / music charts (usually it's written like cz/sk...) in tv or radios here. So many Czech and Slovak movies/ tv shows are also watched a lot in the othe country, and nowdays in the internet era there is only cz/sk UA-cam/twitch or some game communities.
2. Slovak and Czechs can freely study in eachothers universities without any fee, like their own citizens.
3. But what is different, is how Czechs or Slovaks are answering the nationality question. Usually Czechs are highlighting their kingdoms and science, Slovaks tend to often highlight their rich Slovak culture with traditional houses, dances, costumes, cousine, way of living...
4. There is also political culture aspect (i would say). For example first political journey by Czech or Slovak ministry or foreigner affairs are every time traditionaly to the other country. And when there was elected Czech President in the start of this year, the president of Slovakia, Zuzana Čaputová, arrived just few hours after the results to congratulate the newly elected president Petr Pavel.
I still think some things like this don't really happen in other countries and I like that. :)
I thought you can study freely anywhere as long as you are under the european union and get accepted
On point 4. I watched the innaguration from the USA even tnough I don't know Czech. I was so glad Pter Pavel won. When I saw Zuzanna Caputova do her congratulations, it brought tears to my eyes. It seemed it was less than 4 hours and that she was already there.
It happens in the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
And I do miss the name "Czechoslovakia", it was such a lovely name for a country.
6 syllables and it flows so nicely.
Much of the above is true for all of Europe.
@@JamesNeave1978 as a czech, it sounds communist to me
In your demographic/immigration breakdown you stated a 70k Romanian population - this is almost certainly a misunderstanding of Romani in your sources. The significant minority in Slovakia is Romani, not Romanian - this is also an ethnicity rather than nationality as the vast majority of Romani people would see themselves as either Slovak or Hungarian when it comes to their nationality.
But there is actually a lot of Romanians, at least here in Czechia, Romanians are literally new Ukrainians, they do all those unqualified jobs which even Ukrainians don't want to do.
Yea im romani slovak i was quite confused by the demographic
Could be! Thanks for pointing it out
@@General.Knowledge You're not the first UA-camr to make this mistake :|
@@AhimtarHoNand will most likely not be the last
I'm half Czech and half Slovak. I feel like I'm not even multinational, because there's literally no difference between the people :D 🇨🇿♥️🇸🇰
except czechs do more porn. much porn for such small country.
No tak nějaký změny by se našli 😄 ale chápu tvůj point
Ahoj
Taky :)
🇨🇿❤️🇸🇰😄
I was sad when Czechia and Slovakia separated in 1993, but it did give me some good material for my classes on Slavic culture for inner city 3rd graders. I talked about how the Czechs and Slovaks separated without bloodshed: "Nobody got shot, nobody went to the hospital, nobody got their leg cut off. Great way to solve problems, by talking and coming to an agreement instead of fighting." The border between Czechia and Slovakia is actually a very friendly and laid back place. When I crossed from Slovakia to Czechia the only question the border guard had for me was, "How does the American woman like riding in a Trabant?"
the same happened between Russia and Ukraine... an independance without one shot fired... untill the American Cabal and their representatives began manipulating Ukrainian politics
@@silveriorebelo2920until putin started his imperial dream actually. it's why we all from soviet occupied countries tried hard to get into NATO before russian bear wakes up hungry again. the issue is that Russia didn't experience such a loss as their counterpart nation to start ww2 experienced.
Most people didnt actually want to divide, majority of both Slovak as well as Czech populations wanted to stay in one country. That is rather interesting. It was mostly Slovak elites that wanted to separate and Czech elites were OK with that.
@@fridericusrex6289I was already yougn adult in the time and I remember that most of us Cezchs where like: 'Realy? But whatever, let's watch and have a fun!'
And then I saw more and more slovaks in Praha working as shopassistants. Anyway, in the end they do quite well. Better than we expected. And they deserve it. It was 2nd time in the history where Slovaks has chance to have Slovak state. And it's worth to try in peace time rather than wait for occassion like it was last time. They always felt 2nd in our shared republic. Konfederation fits us probably better than federation or union.
Honestly its sometimes hard to find common ground with Moravians in greater Czechia even though it doesn't feel that our siamese twin would like to really depart :)
@@ondrejlukas4727 I personally am very happy that we divided. I did not want to sound as if the split was bad, just stating that at that time support for it between common people was not super high.
You could have also mention vietnamese comunity. There is about 60k - 100k in Czechia.
I bought some bananas from a Vietnamese shop in Česká Třebová. It was quite a surprise to find such an 'exotic' thing in such a small place as that. I would have expected it in, say, Prague and some of the larger regional capitals. I suppose that illustrates the broad spread of the Vietnamese population in the Czech Republic (because 'Czechia' still doesn't feel right to me!) Is it a hang-over from Communist times, when there would have been very friendly relations between Czechoslovakia and certainly North Vietnam, followed by just plain Vietnam after the North's victory in the Vietnam War?
Bananas are sold basically in every grocery store in Czechia, even in the smallest villages.
@@barboradolejsova2156 lol, I think he meant the Vietnamese shop.
@@Asdasxel OK, fair enough, you're probably right. 😀 Anyway, Vietnamese shops are mostly just ordinary grocery stores, nothing exotic about them. And yes, they are everywhere, not just big cities.
There are some in Slovakia too. In Bratislava I heard Vietnamese people speaking better Slovak than I do! Props to them for learning a language so different from their own.
Czech here: Most of us really like Slovaks but enjoy making fun of them like older and younger brothers. That's why we call them Bratia (Slovak word for Brothers). In general there is a lot of respect towards them and we acknowledge they are awesome at doing many stuff. The main reason for separation was (to my knowledge) Slovak desire of independence which was granted to avoid friction. Good move, because now we calmly coexist in peace and respect. Slovakia enjoys autonomy and we enjoy being us. Although it's painful to watch sometimes, I admit that :-D
Another Czech here, Slovaks have very similar language and we share a short part of history together, however, there are pretty big differences between us - like religion (as mentioned in the video), opinion on Russia, USA, Ukraine, our culture is also different (and the list goes on). So I'm kinda glad that we can be 2 states, but with a good relationship.
And politics in Slovakia, oh boy, that's bizarre, not even Babiš is close.
@@tomas3300 Yes, you're right. But I wish they took Babiš back.
and who is voting for him? @@JohnnyOttosson85
I think the Czechs were very Noble to let free their Brother Slavs without them having to fight a War moreover, i have in my job met with many Czechs , Slovaks Truck Drivers who seem to get along very well and the separation did not appear to make any hatred between these two related people.
Slovaks just wanted to be their own Nation and should have kept their own Currency as the Euro has now taken much of their economic freedom away .
Thanks for sharing and all the best to you & Yours ………Abe ( uk )
I don't think that Euro as currency reduced our ecomical freedom, I would say the opposite is true. I'm not only Slovak, but also European and I'm definitely for one, united European currency.
I freaking love when country's are best friends and close relationships in both languages and history.
i wouldnt go as far as "best friends" there is plenty of bad blood from fourties when Slovaks betrayed the Czechoslovakia and these tensions are back on the rise as Slovakia is turning pro-russian while Czech republic is exact opposite.
I'm afraid I have to spoil your pleasure. The Czech Republic has more history in common with Poland than with Slovakia. This arose to a large extent after the end of the First World War, when the Czech state was being rebuilt. Well, the Czechs also took over the Slovaks. The capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, was stolen by the Czech (sorry, Czechoslovak) army from Hungary.
where did you get that slovakia is prorusian?(from slovakia) i know that one of our political parties had some debete with rusinan but that doesnt mean that we are prorusian .also you said that we betrayed chechoslovakia where did you get that from ? @@Asghaad
@@michalvavro2589are you seriously going to try to deny the betrayal of Slovaks in 1938 ? seriously ? ...
Combined with trying to act as if Slovakia at large isnt trying to sabotage the rest of the EU trying to help Ukraine and Slovaks instead jump on the hungarian bandwagon demanding all support for Ukraine being stopped to "force peace"
dont worry we will remember that when ruskies come for theyr "hystorically owned land" ...
@@michalvavro2589this is quite outdated, but there was a poll sometime last year i think, and Slovakia came out as one of the most pro-russian country having about 60% pro-russian.
While the "betreyal" probably refers to the German occupation of Chzechoslovakia where Slovakia was a puppet/satelite-state while Czechia was an official provice/territory of Germany
Just to let foreigners know: Although we are now separate countries, we still share most of the stuff: for example media (TV/internet/games) are still czecho-slovak (CZ/SK) and for example Food and medication are also both CZ/SK - if you buy something in Slovakia, you can see the name of it also in Czech language and vice-versa. So we are still like one country, but there is border between us now.
Yeah, right. People who didnt understood us were kinda shocked we "divorced" without shooting each other like the yugos. They simply did not understood there was no major animosity between us, well apart from some "hospoda" nagging on both sides.
@@matejkovalcik9976 what does the "hospoda" mean? i guess it does not cleanly translate (half of the reason i'm interested) but still, what would a rough explanation mean?
@@rosawoxo Mocking each other for fun.
@@rosawoxo Pub
Simply different politics but we are strongly connected with each other.
I'm a Slovak living Czechia. I've never viewed Czechia as a different country, from my point of view the only different thing is the currency, something which I've grown accustomed to. Yeah sometimes I have to convert beer prices from Korunas to Euros. But besides that I'd struggle to find a difference between us.
I believe that none of us truly wanted the dissolution of Czechoslovakia and that it was purely a political decision.
There are plenty of businesses in Switzerland that accepts Euros since most of their trade and tourism comes from Eurozone countries, are there any places like that in Czechia?
@@lucinae8510not czech citizen but defo thats the case bro. You cant ignore the currency thats all around your country
@@lucinae8510Some supermarket chains do accept Euro here, but only banknotes and you will receive your change in CZK. Apart from that, maybe some places near the border or some places with lots of tourists would accept it.
@@lucinae8510 It perhaps depends, but in areas close to border, some shops will accept that, card payment is not the issue, but shops in areas that are not touristy or close to borders will most likely not accept it or not officially. (there could be some byzantine regulation around that) But is is already possible for companies that do their business mostly in Euros to keep books in Euro, but the taxes are still paid in CZK, but it seems like that could change soon.
As Czech I would say that it is pity that we have not accepted Euro a decade ago.
Well, looking at your political situation over decades, I am kind of glad, we have enough issues ourselves :))
As a Czech, we will love our Slovak homies forever ♥️
except when some Slovakian peasant claims their hockey is better
Thanks bro, I’m slovak
díky, bráško :D :D
Díky
Přesně tak! Měli bychom se opět spojit, politikům navzdory a ještě si zpět vymoci ukradenou Podkarpatskou Rus! CZ❤🤝SK
I became aware of this at the very end of the Cold War. I had a professor at the University of Toronto, Josef Škvorecký, and on our first day in his class, he told us all rather plainly, "I am Czech, not 'Czechoslovakian'." There was a difference between ethnicity and nationality.
There was a difference for him, but not for most people.
Guy lost his connection with reality in Czechoslovakia after so many years in Canadistan...
@@robertab929 What do you mean? Czechoslovak ethnicity never existed. The difference is clear, unless you are American...
@@fridericusrex6289 I did not say that.
On other side, the difference between standard Slovak and standard Czech is smaller then between standard Slovak and Slovak dialects, and smaller then standard Czech and Czech/Moravian dialects.
Greetings from Poland.
@@robertab929 Not sure about Slovak dialects, but in case of Czechia that certainly isnt true. I was born in central Moravia (Haná), currently live in Bohemia on the other side of the republic and the differences in dialects are way smaller than differences between Czech and Slovak. And its not just different words, but also the grammar is different. For example Slovak has only 6 cases while Czech language has 7 cases. The only "dialect" which would be different would be the Silesian language, but us Czechs, unlike you Poles recognize it as separate language and Poles consider it dialect of Polish I think. So no one would consider that Czech dialect. Otherwise from souther or western Bohemia all the way up to Czech Silesia or southern Moravia the dialects are way closer to each other than Czech and Slovak languages are.
as a slovak I can confirm we do have more roads, there quality is a lot worse tho lmao. Also the cross on the flag doesnt just represent christianity it is also the same symbol that was used in the flag of the first slovak state, the prinicpality of nitra. Also one of the mountain ranges on the flag isnt in slovakia but in hungary. Also I can confirm the corruption thing, very real, so much corruption everywhere
vzhledem k tomu že silnice tady v česku vypadají skoro jakoby po bombardování... vy slováci tam asi musíte mít miny či co
I believe it's ridiculous but I should ask because of my curiosity that is the "Hostel" film real. 🤭
@@eikozanoid No it's not. Country was picked as a setting only because author of the movie assumed nobody in the US ever heard about Slovakia (which was/is kinda correct).
@@sanzannoryuki thanks, man. I thought the same. 🙏
Every post socialistic country suffers from corruption
8:30 There's one difference: Czechia's parliament is bicameral (lower house is the Chamber of Deputies (Poslanecká sněmovna Parlamentu České republiky) and the upper house is the Senate (Senát Parlamentu České republiky)), while Slovakia's is unicameral, and the house is called the National Council (Národná rada Slovenskej Republiky).
12:50 that was an unexpected shout-out for my tiny Faroe Islands... very nice, thanks.
Slovakia is definitely one of my favourite countries in the world but I used to live there so I may be biased. But yeah, I love the country. Need to go back there soon, it's been too long.
Czechia actually had conscription, but only until 2004 and also had the alternative of 2 years of civil service, in case one refused to serve in the military due to moral or religious reasons.
every car has a Czech Engine Light, they must be good machinists
My buddy's band used to have a sound technician who was a Slovak. They had a Czech one too.
Our Czech teacher has a shirt with "Czech me out" written on it
No, that is because Czechia is the assembly line of Europe :)
Czech car, Skoda, is now part of VW. Is the engine Czech? Mystery to me.
@@zvast it's made in Czechia, just the bigwigs speak German
Do a similar video between Romania and Moldova and other countries that share similarities just like in this video. I think it would be an awesome concept
He may have done Moldova. Basically the USSR took it as war reparations against Romania.
@@seed_drill7135USSR really sucks they steal land from everyone: Japan, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Germany etc etc and then they gave it to countries like Belarus and Ukraine 🤮🤮Soviets worst country ever
@@seed_drill7135As far as I know they took it before the war, so I don t know if it should be considered "war reparation".
Great idea! Saudi Arabia VS Iran is the next on one this series, but I'll add Romania vs Moldova to the list :)
@haxel8929 they took it before the war, sure, through a ultimatum, but moldova is the only reason romania joined the war
4:20 Hmm? Maybe you're thinking of Bratislava and Vienna, which are indeed very close at only 54 km apart. Bratislava and Prague, however, are a full 290 km apart, which is nothing remarkable or unusual.
Some notes concerning this video coming from a Slovak:
1. 5:21 As of 2023, Slovakia's population is 5.7 million, the 300k increasing stemming mainly from Ukrainian immigrants
2. 6:19 I can't say this for Czechia or even the whole of Slovakia, but at least in my social circles from my high school and uni, most young people are not very religious. Many people including I are still tracked as members of various churches while only minimally practicing the religion.
3. 8:19 As others have already mentioned, Czechia has Bicameral parliament while Slovakia has Unicameral parliament.
4. As you already suggested by talking about Slameka, Slovak can be used in various official communications, ranging from a uni thesis or government documents in Czechia and vice versa.
5. 10:24 There are two issues here, first being that Romanis (Gypsies) were mistaken for Romanians, the second being that all the Ukrainian refugees were omitted.
6. 12:18 Almost all of our biggest companies are foreign owned, and this goes double for the manufacturing industry. Due to the structure of our economy, we are located right in the middle income trap, where our current industry relies on paying comparatively lower wages, which in turn forces our young and highly educated population to look for jobs elsewhere in the EU. Among the many consequences of this is that our healthcare is heavily understaffed, for instance it is not uncommon to have to wait for a year before you can undergo a needed examination.
7. 13:49 If it was only a perception. Slovakia might as well be on a course to become the next Greece.
Good points, this Czech would like to offer some response.
ad 2. Judging by one's social circle is very tricky. I'm Czech and therefore I should be expected to be an atheist. I'm not (a Catholic), and very few people in my social circes are.
ad 3. Moreover, the formulation in the video is pretty unfortunate in the sense, that it seems to suggest, that the president nominates the government ministers. The prime minister does it, the president merely ratifies the prime minister's appointees.
ad 4. The minister's name was actually Gustáv Slámečka, not Slameka which doesn't even sound Slovak at all, and doesn't mean anything. I'm quite shocked at the typo making its way to the video (I mean, how hard is it to copy+paste). But I'm even more shocked, that the author of the video didn't choose agent Bureš, a.k.a. Andrej Babiš, a much more high profile case of a Slovak becoming the Czech prime minister (much bigger deal than just a minister of transportation).
ad 6. This is exactly the same for us in Czechia.
and also the 400k hungarians are not immigrants, they literally live on the same place for generations, just the borders changed...
Czechia and Slovakia had the most calm break up in Eastern European history so there is that.
it could probably even stay together weren't it for the goverment(s) at the time ig
Where is Chechia ?By the way, they are not Eastern Europe, but Central Europe
Probably in the Top 5 peaceful in the entire world
No resentment, just plain old simple mutual respect
Admirable
With the difference that these countries are in Central Europe. Russia is in Eastern Europe, and Belarus and Ukraine also belong there from a cultural and historical context. The center of Europe between the extreme southeast of Europe on the Atlantic coast of Portugal and the extreme northeast of Europe on the Ural Mountains is the border between Belarus and Russia.
Because it was a fake split nobody wanted, it was literally just like 5 people in the government that held power
Thanks for this video General Knowledge!! 🤗 The Czech Republic 🇨🇿 and Slovakia 🇸🇰 are two of my favorite countries in Europe; great people, beautiful cities like Prague and Bratislava, excellent beer 🍻… I’m sure that if Czechoslovakia is back, it will be a great country!! 🇪🇸❤️🇨🇿🇸🇰
Thanks!😊😊
I'am from Czech republic
Díky
But i doubt that Czechoslovakia will form again due to our curent political diferences with Slovakia curently being more anti-LGBTQ and with them being so much pro Russian, while Czechia is procesing the right for gay marriages and being so much pro Ukraine
I just have to ask, I was born and lived in Bratislava most of my life, and I am really flattered that you say it is beautiful but I don't understand why do you think that? 😅
@@timinigi no, myslem hsem to obecně, sám jsem nebyl v Bratislavě ale jezdívám do Žiliny, a co vím tak Slovenské hory jsou nádherné 😌
Yeah they are, sadly being ruined by the recent rapid development of private luxurious hotels 😔But the question was primarily for the @javiervll8077 I just wanted a honest unbiased opinion of the foreigner, I am really curious. Thank you! 😊
Quite surprised you didn't mention Czechia had a Slovak prime minister for 8 years. Thought he was populist , I think it would be interesting for foreig audience (plus he spoke a weird mix of Czech and Slovak which was kinda funny
He was a PM for 4 years, not 8. He may yet get to 8 though.
He is Jewish, not Slovak... He happened to be born in Slovakia.
@@milangacik994 just because he behaves like jew doesn't mean he's jew
@@milangacik994
What is your source for the claim taht Babiš is a jew? From what I found, his mother was a Carpathian German and his father was a Slovak.
@@obrnenydrevokocur9344 Well if you mean Wikipedia... that´s not reliable source of information. His aunt (sister of his mother) living in Australia is staunch adversary of jabbing (vaccination) and she is of Jewish origin. I found this out in times of J3#w jab (CVD19) frenzy when Babiš was proponent of jabbing people (fortunatelly not as that idiot Lula). Tell me how his mother sister can be Jewish and his mother cannot be.... According to rabbinical laws Jew is considered as Jew when his mother is Jewish... I guess you even don´t know, that Putin is Jewish too in same way...
Funny story when I was in the UK at a pub. I've met an older guy and told him that I'm from Slovakia. He said that it must have been hard to grow up in a war torn country after we split up. I've told him: your confusing something here, there was no war or anything. But he wouldn't listen and kept on nagging me about it.
as a czech student studying in moravia’s capital, it feels like there are almost as many slovak students as czech ones. there’s even something called “slovak night” every year which is basically a big party specifically dedicated to slovakia (and slovak students)
As a Slovak I much prefer the current “situationship”, as our joint state was quite Pragocentric. The example of how civilized the split of Czechoslovakia occured and how it is going could serve as a positive example of how a split is done, especially in light of what happened in Yougoslavia at the same time or the current RF/UA war.
What foreign Slovaks send money to build hospital in central Slovakia, government decided to fund building of Bulovka in Prague with these money. That was essence of that state. Nevertheless I must admit that Slovakia made great progress in Czecho-Slovakia and for that I´m sure common state with Czechs, Moravians and Silesians was positive thing.
@@milangacik994 As well as Havel destroying our heavy industry, which was quite profitable at that point in time and employing a lot of people. Still, we were better off together IMO.
You owe your peaceful separation to belonging to the same european culture and shared history. Not so Croats and Serbs, we were never before 1918 in the same civilisation. In the time of Yugoslavia we were held together by force of politics and the military.
Exactly the same problem exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina to this day, and is for the time being held together by an international military/political intervention. It is a conflict of three civilisations: Croatian (the one to which belong Slovakia and Czechia), Serbian (same civilisation as Russia, plus nearly 500 years of Ottoman occupation) and the Islamic component (with the affinity with the muslim world).
As the proud Moravian I can feel the massive "Czechisation" of Moravia ...however Moravia will NEVER become Czechia... !!! a strcte si to posrane cesko nekam...
@@ferdomrkvicka1247 Morava + Slovensko = ❤
as a Czech Czechs and Slovaks are really connected in media and social medias like its normal for there to be youtube group where are 2 Czechs and 2 Slovaks and in videos they speak their languages normally and they and their fans understand everything
While I enjoy these videos, I would suggest trying to find someone from the relevant country/countries to act as a kind of consultant / fact checker. Saying "but I don't know" or "I would imagine" as much as you did in this video really takes away from the otherwise excellent quality.
A great idea it is
That's a good idea!
5:45 about the language. Czech and Slovak are different languages, however the roots of the words are mostly similar, that's why we understand each other. Its like if in English, we said "guod" instead of "good" and "baad" instead of "bad" etc. Slovaks also have a different nose-like accent (and they probably think we have an effeminate one). I think many people know this already but there are still some people that think that one Czechoslovak language existed during Czechoslovakias existence, which was a Czechoslovak propaganda to support the cause that the Czechs and Slovaks are one nation. And also the thing with the capitals being close to each other is not true, but i think you already know that.
Interesting point. I also speak Polish and the Poles make fun of the Czech language (less so of Slovak) calling it "dziecinny", (childish) because of the ending of some words, e.g. "ičky" which to Poles sounds "cutesey". What the Poles don't acknowledge is that Czechs and Slovaks rarely use diminutive forms of words in normal conversation, while Poles use diminutives all the time. Who's "dziecinny" now? LOL
dialects within the German language differ much more than Czech and Slovak languages
@@cimbalok2972 yeah thats true friend of mine from poland ask me once whats word for czech twins in polish? -> 2 pepíčci z jedný pičky
5:12 regarding slovak airports: Bratislava is the biggest airport and you would use it for most travels. Your other choice is Košice (second biggest city), it has less flights and it's smaller but you can still get somewhere. Other are small and have few flights, I honestly don't even know where they are. I think there is one in Poprad and Trenčín but I don't know that for sure
Bratislava, Košice, Poprad, Žilina, Piešťany a Sliač.
And then there is also the Schwechat/Vienna airport the Austrians have kindly built for us :-P
@@MichalBrat This made me laugh, because it's true. :D
@@MichalBrat like Pandorf and other shopping centres in Kitsee and Hainburg :D
Interesting detail to add about the Liechtenstein dispute you mentioned in the video. The Czech territory they disputed (Lednice, very beautiful place) is really large in comparison to the size of Liechtenstein itself. So much so, in fact, that if somehow Liechtenstein did get the Lednice Manor and all of its land back from Czechia it would more than double the size of Liechtenstein, meaning there would be literally more of Liechtenstein in Czechia then there would be in Liechtenstein lmao (Liechtenstein is only 160 square km and the Lednice territory is more than 250 square km).
This will obviously never happen but it's a hilarious thought.
It would be very funny for a country's posession abroad to be bigger than the country itself.
@@General.Knowledge
But that's how it always was during history. The Spanish empire abroad bigger than Spain. The Portuguese empire abroad bigger than Portugal. The British empire bigger than the UK. And so forth.
@@General.KnowledgeDenmark and Greenland
@@l.n.3372 I would argue that colonial empires are something different than Duke of Lichtenstein owning swaths of land in other countries that are larger than his own country.
@@MrToradragon yeah but it wasnt a different country for most of its history. Behoemia was a part of the HRE and Liechtenstein is all that is left of the HRE today.
Just a note: there is almost no Romanian minority in Slovakia, there is a Romani minority, that's a difference
I m quite sure Czechoslovakia was founded after WWI (and not WWII)
yes it is
I am neither Czech nor Slovak. Soon after the 1992 split, I asked a Czech official " are the Slovaks still your friends?" He responded ; "No. They are our brothers. One chooses one's friends". 😂😂😂
We Slovaks ser it exactly same way
One rather important difference that I like to mention: unlike Slovakia-and I believe unlike any other European country-Czechia has the “shall-issue (that is concealed carry licence)” type of gun law, meaning that Czech citizens have the right to keep and carry guns (and proper ammo with expanding bullets, and silencers and so-called high capacity magazines &c.) for self defence. We are indeed an amazing country! Greetings from Prague.
A helpful video about Czechia and Slovakia; thank you!
My friend Maria Petrova found some inconsistencies:
1. Czechoslovakia was established after World War I, not WWII.
2. The dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 was a self-determined decision, not a result of the collapse of the Soviet Block.
3. CZ and SK were jointly ruled under the Habsburg monarchy since 1526 and later under Austria-Hungary, not only during the times of Great Moravia.
4. The reference to Great Moravia in the 9th and 10th centuries is misleading. The region that later became Czechoslovakia was PART of the Great Moravian Empire, not "a version of it."
5. During World War II, the government of Czechoslovakia operated in exile while the country itself was under the administration of Nazi Germany. After the war, Czechoslovakia was reestablished under its pre-1938 borders, except Carpathian Ruthenia, which became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, NOT Germany.
6. It is more accurate to specify “Nazi Germany” when referring to Germany during the World War II period.
ad 2) 1993* 1st of January
Finally! An actually good video about Czechia and Slovakia
Jsem tak rád, že General Knowladge udělal video zrovna o nás a v této kvalitě
Vám sa to stáva častejšie, mi zase sme v úžase a skrajší nám celý týždeň
@@ChrisW101 však vám to také přeji, především bych rád viděl více videí o historii Slovenska protože ta jdou poměrně vzácná
Ďakujeme. Je naozaj vzácne vidieť takéto videá, a hlavne porovnania.
@@renote5559 Vlaste väčšina toho je iba: Morava, Československo, Nemecko, Československo, Slovensko a všetko iné Maďari a Uhory
Thanks :)
Those brothers who grew up together in the same house and enjoy hanging out together as adults.
The weird thing is I still find myself sometimes calling it Czechoslovakia, even though I was 5 when they split 🤷♂️ I blame the fact I used to play Italia 90 football well into the 90s 😅
fun fact: if Czechoslovakia would have qualofied for the 1994 world cup it would have competed as Czechoslovakia despite not existing at that point
This was great. I'd be interested in seeing a comparison between the north and south of Italy, as well as a comparison between Spain and Portugal. Also a comparison of the 3 Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
Rather Baltics + Finland in single comparison.
Lithuania and Latvia are using Baltic languages.
Estonia and Finland are using Ugro-Finnic languages.
why would you like that the author of the video 'compare' Spain and Portugal?? - because they are neighbors?
@@silveriorebelo2920yes, why not?
I did not expect this video to pop out from my notifications today, but I am happily suprised. ❤ from Slovakia
In regards to the minorities in Slovakia - Romas and Romanians are not the same, you better fix that one flag ;-) beside that a good one for somebody not living there 🙂
My part of Minnesota has. a lot of people who's ancestry is Czech. We even have a New Prague, Mn.
@general.Knowledge I didn't see mentioned Podkarpatská Rus which was taken from Czechoslovakia after WWII by SSSR.
I know the story how that map got changed.... in Slovakia. There were these two drunk Russians who drew the borders, without really knowing all the area, really true. Not too much thought nor negotiation. Also what was not mentioned that lot of the so called Hungarian kings actually wrote in Slovak, and these documents are under the lock in Hungary, even now, only available to some scholars.
We (Czechia) will be raising the defence budget to 2% od GDP next year
Javol, general. Now you will also have your own MIC (Military Industrial Complex) milking your tax money.
@@Cyclonut96 pal, we got one. brenn for example are quite effective machine guns when british SAS use them. what do yo think?
Glad you made video about Slovakia and Czechia glad to see that video
I would like to stay in Czechoslovakia NGL but well it is what it is also I think we disolved in 1993 not 1992 but ok
Also u asked about the roads in Slovakia they are pretty bad 😅
Veľa šťastia s vašim kanálom General Knowledge
Ono záleží no, 92 se to dotáhlo do konce a 1.1.1993 v 0:01 už to byly 2 státy, takže bych úplně neřek že 1992 je špatně
@@matyasbrabec Pravda len my sme sa učili 93 ale nemyslím si že 92 je zle ale formálne rozdelenie a vznik Českej a Slovenskej Republiky bol až v roku 93
@@kristiandobias5533 Jojo, taky jsme se učili 93, ale v roce 92 už to bylo úplně jasný
2:37 "Soviet friendly regime"
1968: 🙃🫠
tankies: 🥳
This is a very well made video and covers a vast amount of time and changes. To do this in such a short video format and at this quality is very hard to accomplish while keeping it both interesting and informative. This video does both.
As far as the split is concerned, both countries seem to have thrived in their current forms AND remained very friendly and helpful to each other. So, I would not venture to tell another country to do what I thought they should, especially considering that they are successful.
As I was born in Czechoslovakia, I will be forever feeling like Czechoslovak and that the czechs are part of us slovaks. ❤
Nazdar ❤
we didnt decided to split. Our goverment agreed without letting anyone know
as a Pole i've always considered them oth as brotherly nations. Don't know if they feel the same lol
Czechs and slovaks don't like you, Poles. They aren't brothers for you.
We feel great about both Poles and Slovaks. Honestly I have more sympathy towards Poland and would love to see closer ties in the future.
As a Czech, I think Poles are the second closest to us after the Slovaks. And honestly, I think it's mainly due to the fact that Poles are much more religious and the languages are (while still similar) different enough to not allow for a complex conversation without some knowledge of the other language.
Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia were hammered together in 1918 because individually they were too small to resist reintegration with Austria, Germany, Hungary, or Poland. (Yugoslavia was pushed together for the same reason.) Even then, they required a mutual defense treaty with France to remain viable. France and Britain abrogating their responsibilities at the Munich Conference of 1938 is what led to the partition of the Sudetenland.
In a more peaceful Europe, there was not a lot of reason for Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia to remain together.
Back then the language differences were also smaller over all, akin to German and Austrian German.
Of these four only Germany alone was strong enough to pose a threat to Czechia's independence.
Small correction, Bohemia and Moravia were part of one country for most of the time since some 9th century.
As a Czech I appriciate your video. And also thank you for using the word Czechia
Curious about the double cross on the Slovak coat of arms, while it's similar with the Hungarian one due to two countries having historial ties but there are two countries which virtually have no ties with Slovakia have it in their coat of arms - Lithuania & Belarus.
The Lithuanian one is on the shield of the Vytis and the Belarusian one is also on one of the Pahonia (both Vytis & Pahonia are kinda the same) and I find it interesting as it's quite coincidental
That as something to do with religion, rather than with history.
The double cross is a religious symbol that turned a state symbol of the Kingdom of Hungary. Christianity was spread to the Great Moravia in the 9th century from the Byzantine Empire because the byzantine priests translated the liturgy to the slavic language (priests from present-day Germany and Italy used latin and were not successful). The eastern orthodox church used double cross instead of the normal one I think. Over the years the influence of eastern orthodoxy decreased and was replaced by the roman-catholic influence and the orthodox priests were expelled. But the double cross was still used by the people. Later, Hungarians also adopted the christianity and used local double cross. Present-day Slovakia then became part of the Kingdom of Hungary, which, at some point (not sure when exactly) incorporated the double cross on its coat of arms. I am not sure about Lithuania though. Maybe the influence of the eastern orthodoxy played a role there too.
@@davidkovac7170 as far as I know, I don't think so. Orthodoxy doesn't play a big rule in Lithuania 🤔
The cross is either associated with the Jagiellonian dynasty or Lithuania's rule over parts of Ruthenia (which is parts of Belarus today)
Wow. I liked it! Format is good! Straightforward, facts pretty accurate, no much fuss around before anything relevants is said.
Pretty gooood! Great job mate! 🙂
I am Slovak. I prefer Czechoslovakia. It was only political agreenent to split up. Majority of people wanted Czechoslovakia and not separate states. I hope we can connect again one day. Great video ❤
There's no animosity between the two peoples. I don't pretend to know about the situation but couldn't they be stronger as one nation? I think of Switzerland, with four different languages predominantly being spoken in separate areas. Yet they seem to be fine existing together as one country.
@@takashitamagawa5881It’s probably because Czechia and Slovakia are already in the EU together, so there’s no point in them being the same country when they’re already tied economically. Meanwhile, Switzerland isn’t in the EU and is itself a confederation, so the ethnicities already have political autonomy
Wasn't there a problem over the name of the combined country that contributed to the split (specifically, "Czechoslovakia" versus "Czecho-Slovakia")? Also, If the two countries reunited, Bratislava would lose its position as the only capital city that actually shares a border with two other nations.
@@charlesyoung7436 does it? It’s about 10 minutes drive from Hungarian border, not sure it reaches the Austrian either…
@@cz2604 Yes, it does. All the villages south of the city on the west bank of Danube are a part of Bratislava
Not gonna lie though, the name Czechoslovakia was a pretty cool name.
ya, but Americans can not say long names or words. And that's also why they came up with Czechia.
Non religious doesn't mean atheist in most cases
Not believing in any higher power is literal definition of atheism.
Fun fact:chechoslovakia collapsed because of dissagreements between chechian and slovakian side of the parlament.
Buddy didn’t it collapse because a certain Austrian painter split it in half and then it was occupied by the soviets?
I don’t know much about the parliament but I swear that it just happened due to the third Reich rather than political division.
I think split, partition, or separation is more appropriate term, rather than collapse.
@@DominionOfNewfoundlandCzechoslovakia was disbanded in 1992 so the 3rd Reich was probably not the reason why they split up haha
@@DominionOfNewfoundland the first seperation in 1939 was because of the austrian painter. The second collapse in 1992 was because political instability.
Chechian?
Having never been to either country, I'd assume the reason Czechia has more railroads and Slovakia has more roads, is that Slovakia is primarily mountainous while Czechia has a significant central plain. Railroads simply do not work as well with significant grades. Anything more than a percent makes them less economical because it reduces the number of cars a locomotive can pull. Anything over two percent is exceedingly rare. This requires workarounds like switchbacks, blasting, and building many more bridges and tunnels in areas where you can often just build a normal road with a grade of three to five percent for a couple of miles. While a rail line is generally cheaper to operate and maintain than roads that can handle similar load bearing capacities, when you have to spend many times much more to construct them and can only run short trains or trains with multiple engines to pull the same load the equation changes.
Calling hungarians that have lived their whole lifes in slovakia immigrants is crazy
Especially when Hungarian kings were crowned in Bratislava (Pozsony) !
Beside Prague other international airports in Czechia are small, like one runway, as there is not that great demand for air traffic as much larger airports at Schwechat and Katowice are easily accessible from Moravia.
as someone from Brno, people from here usually fly either from Prague or Vienna, I don't think many people go all the way to Poland for an airport
edit: nevermind schwechat is the name of the airport in Vienna
@@jirimatejka7394 Sure, but it is closer for folks from Northern Moravia and Czech Silesia to Katowice, than to Vienna.
Awesome video! I was always curious about this.
14:07 As a proud Slovakian, I ask you should send as much love to the Czechs as I did. 🇨🇿❤🇸🇰 The breakup was purely political disision, crafted by Slovakian political Mafia like this:It's much easier to steal out 2 smaller states than one big. Bet this wasn't what people wanted-71% wanted to remain in Czechoslovakia. Yes there were tensions, but those were so less painfull than for example southern and northern Italy.
Actually split was desired more from Czech side and they just used patriotism on Slovak side carefully fueled by Czech stubborness in questions like Name of country...
It's not matter where is stems from, but I am glad that Slovaks have their own country which they can destroy as much as they want without Czechs paying for it again. Enough that we still have Babiš in politics. We dont want Slovak Mafia ruin even our country. It's very sad tho. So much young Slovaks I meet now in Brno don't even want to go back to Slovakia after university. :(
@@jannovak5481 Sad reality, but dont fall into trap of hopeless, because that's exactly what Fico wants.
I don't know if it was better if the two countries stay united, but I think there is some nostalgia for the old Czechoslovak days in both countries.
Certainly not after the last elections in Slovakia.
It would not be better at all. Slovaks desired of their own independence and czechs did not want to pay for development of 'far east'. Both nations had very different priorities and could not even agree on the name of the common state Czechoslovakia/Czecho-Slovakia/Czechia and Slovakia (it was so called 'dash war' between representatives of both nations)..
@@radekmasopust489 It was basically same relation as Scotland and UK have now. UK is sending constant flow of money from England into Scotland and sponsoring their kingdom from work of English people and meanwhile Scots cry about how UK oppresses them and they want independence. If Scottish nationalists want independence in referendum, its rather simple - they should allow voters from England to vote as well and most of them will vote for Scottish independence lol. It was same with Czechoslovakia. When it was formed, Czechia was about 90 % of GDP, provided all institutions and so on. During its existence there was never a time when Slovakia would pay money to Czech part, it was always the other way. For nearly a century Czechs were working so that Slovaks can improve their country and live better life from Czech money. And after those decades they start to shout they arent independent and want higher autonomy? Naturally the response of Czechs was "F off, we can separate completely and you can finally take care of yourselves". And well judging quickly increasing number of Slovak migrants to Czechia, it didnt work that well for Slovaks.
@@fridericusrex6289 AFAIK it was Slovaks, who wanted to split away, kinda. In the end it was mostly about Klaus and Mečiar meeting and deciding for split. But I know for sure there's enough Czechs who dislike or even hate Slovaks. Not to a degree of Yugoslavian civil wars, but enough not to create another Czechoslovakia anytime soon. For the same reasons any similar federation with Austria, Poland, Germany or Hungary would be currently impossible. Anything more united than EU, NATO or programs like ESA. Still too much bad blood and differences among countries which are almost the same (nuclear energy, hyper-correctness, religion or conspiracy theories...).
There is some nostalgia for the First Republic: Strong legions, which were on the winning side of the WWI, fighting it all the way through Russia to Vladivostok (with the stop at the only Czechoslovak Naval battle on Baikal), growing industrial power, concrete fortresses capable to send Nazi packing (if the Münnich Betrayal didn't happen)... Now we didn't have any president, who wasn't controversial at some way. In case of Beneš it was being too much to the left, with Masaryk too much to the right and the fact, he kept his office even when unable to do the job. He was also criticized for the moves against nobles and other things. But he made the state possible and he wasn't afraid to make his hand dirty, for example paying assassination of Lenin (to provide some breathing space).
Really? I don't have nothing against Slovaks, but I'm so happy we are not together, especially with Fico government.
*Which other two countries should I compare next?*
Romania and Moldova
India and Pakistan
North Korea South korea
The Koreas
several guianas guinies in africa and south america
Update: After recent Slovak elections political goals of the Czech and Slovak governments no longer align, so for the time being there are not much political talks.
Such a great video, even though I am Czech and I know most of these things, it was still so entertaining to watch. Great job overall!
Belíssimo mapa no começo do vídeo! Valeria a pena explorar mais mapas assim... Abraços!
I always use the name "Czech Republic" in English, rather than Czechia. That's because one of my best friends is Czech and she absolutely despises the name Czechia, she would never use it.
Because she didnt know the word existed in English and didn't get used to it yet but Czechia is catching on very quickly now. It's quite moronic to call a country by its political system rather than the short geographical name. No one says French Republic, Portuguese Republic or Russian Federation for that same reason
as czech, honestly i've never understood this, czechia is just as good/bad as czech republic, just shorter
@@Sergiovision Actually everyone says "Russian Federation" now for some reason 😀
@@Pidalin In informal speech, no one "normal" says that. Not even in the news.
@@Sergiovision Ofcourse, in normal speech noone says that, but politicians use it on purpose to make fun of Russia or something. 😀
I love hearing about the international relationships that are not just alliances, but seem to be true friendships. Like Canada and the Netherlands, or France and the US
The first Czech state formation is from the 6th century, known as the Sámi Empire, then the Czech Principality is documented from Bořivoj at least from 845 and as the Czech Kingdom from 1212 hereditary.
R.I.P Czechoslovakia 1918-1992 😔
10:54, as Czech, we should start spending 2% of HDP on military next year, and few seconds after, there is the possibility, that our goverment may enter into ERM II, so I think that we've could have euro around year 2030.
I hear from some government parties we can have Euro at year 2027, but who knows. If SPD party and ANO party win next elections, I am not much sure about that.
@@StratosCZ I hope, that at least this goverment joins ERM II, but if ANO and SPD will be voted, and they create new goverment, then we will end up like Slovakia.
@@radored7750 Not that bad then. ODS betrayed Czechia.
mr. Rapeseed vs. mr. Tomato vs. mr. Violet
now I heard that we probably won't spend 2% next year, I guess that we just can't afford that
In 1992 "they" didn't spit up, Slovak PM Meciar declared the separation.
About czech atheism. It goes much deeper that just middle class. In 1620 in czech lands begun thirty years wars. This war was mostly about religion and czech lands were mostly protestants. Habsburgs which ruled the country were Catholics. Protestants lose this war(at least in czech lands). So catolicism begun something connected to Habsburgs and german culture. In 19th century in czech begun movement called national revival. This movement was fighting again germanification and Habsburgs were german. After getting independence catholicism lost a lot of its power in czech, because it was seen as something from Habsburgs. But because of 200 years of strong represion of protestants there wasnt any other religion strong enough to fill the gap. Last hit was done by Soviet union after WWII because communist were fighting against religion as whole.
If Prague and Bratislava are one of the closest capitals then Wien is a district of Bratislava :D
Well, we joke that Bratislava is Vienna's suburb 😄. (I'm a proud Bratislava girl, btw.)
GDP per capita means nothing? Since when?
better for price , living cost. but slovakia have 229B
7:20 before joining in one state Czechs had flag with only white and red stripes. After creating Czechoslovakia blue triangle was added to represent Slovakia and stayed in Czech flag til today.
The flag with white and red stripes is flag of Bohemia.
Thank you for making this video. I love your content and thanks again from slovakia.
I live in Poland (though I'm not Polish). I've been to Czechoslovakia, Czechia and Slovakia many times, plus I lived in Czechoslovakia (in Slovakia) in 1991. I wish they had stayed together, maybe divided into three republics: Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. But, as some Czech and Slovak commenters here point out, in many ways they still function as one country, and relations between them are good.
Yes and so are relations to Hungarians and Polish as well. Only corrupt politicians love to divide people for sake of wars and profits...
There is no point in dividing Bohemia and Moravia. They are just names of historical regions inhabited by the same people and part of the same country for nearly all of our existence. The internal division into administrative districts dont even follow Moravian-Bohemian border so some districts contain both. Not to mention that our country isnt made just from Bohemia and Moravia, but also from Silesia. Splitting into those three would be even harded as our second largest aglomeration (around 1M people) is sitting directly on the Moravian-Sileasian border with part of the city in Silesia, part in Moravia. When people think of Moravia and Bohemia they should not think of separate entitites like US or German states. There is no separate government, no different laws, no different people and so on. Those are just names for the geographical regions.
@@fridericusrex6289 So, if they're like American or German states, what's the problem with dividing Czechia into Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia within a Czechoslovak state? I didn't talk about an independent Moravia. In Czechoslovakia a big problem was the imbalance between the Czech and Slovak republics. So a 3 or 4 republic solution would be better - if you want a reunified CS.
@@aviadilo Sorry, missed "not" in that sentence. They arent separate at all. The thing is, while Slovakia is indeed different from Czechia and Slovaks are different people from Czechs, but we people from Moravia arent different from people in Bohemia. Both are Czechs. We speak same language, have same culture, history etc. Different republics in Germany have unique culture and different history and were independent for most of their history. on the contrary, Moravia and Bohemia were together. Not to mention administrative issues because the border between Moravia and Bohemia is just a historical one, as ive said we have towns which are partly in one region and partly in the other.
@@fridericusrex6289 Understood. Thanks for the clarifications. But I've heard (from Slovaks and others) that Moravians are kind of midway between Bohemians and Slovaks, e.g. Moravians are more wine-drinking that Bohemians. My point is that in a possible reunified Czechoslovakia, there could be a separate Moravian republic with its capital in Brno. Even if Bohemians and Moravians are the same people. To reduce the Czech vs Slovak divide, which was big in 1991, when I lived for a few months in Bratislava. Pennsylvanians and Ohioans are pretty much the same people, as are Washingtonians and Oregonians. Anyway, all this doesn't matter if Czechia and Slovakia remain separate countries!
I wanna add just few things (otherwise, it was a great video)
1st: we have around 66K Vietnamiese people living here, making them one of the largest imm. groups as well
2nd: in the last few years of Czechoslovakia before the split, many slovaks were actually pretty hostile to Czechs, wanting independents
3rd: Yes, Slovakia has quite a big problem a lot of corruption and mafia's, which even as e Czech person, who went to slovakia almost every year of my life at least once, I actually feel a bit weird or non-relaxed, when walking alone outside during the night lol
4th: we actually used to be I think the 5th or 6th most safest country in the world at some point, but it dropped quickly after the start of the conflict in eastern europe
But in general, the people here are still holding as one, though recently there was more and more tencion and hate between the two...
Nice vid btw~ would wanna here you dive more deeply into some aspects of these nations
Corruption i understand but this is not southern italy where the mob just casually walks in the city or something i dont think
Thanks!
I'm curious about your 4th point. In what was has safety decreased in Czechia despite the war being somewhat far away?
@@Yxcell i think he is bluffing i live in slovakia about hour and a half from the border of ukraine and i feel as safe as before the war began
@@pavoldunka9902 around an hour away from the Ukraine border in Slovakia is where I go every year lol
How these two countries are seen from a neighbor on the north? I live in Lower Silesia, just 40 km north from a Czech border, so I go there very often. I love this country. There are many stereotypes about Czech people in Poland, good and bad, but I will not address them here. What I love is that people seem to be much more social than in Poland. Almost every village has an inn, where locals meet in the evenings, eat drink and chat. Local cuisine may be a bit boring after a while, but still it is great. Very different from Poland, where sometimes even in towns with ~10k people all you can get is a pizza.
I visit Slovakia often too, but there are not that spontaneous trips. Usually we go there in the summer to hike in Tatras or Fatra. So much nicer places to visit than the crowded Polish mountains. Slovakia seems to me bit more chilled and relaxed. People seem to live slower ad closer to nature, yet the inns do not seem to be that popular.
But in general, both of these countries are considered in Poland as completely separate and independent. They may share a language (from our perspective) but Germany and Austria share a language too. We look with respect and also admiration on both nations.
I have a good amount of Slovakian friends, visited the country a couple of times and even went to a wendding there. I have to say that The Slovaks are some of the nicest people I got to know :)
It's a little crazy is Ireland is almost half the size of both of them combined and we have 100,000 Km of roads roads too but serving 5 million people instead of their 16 million!
3 times more miles per person in an area half the size. (All paved)
10,000km of that is crossing just one peat bog; up and down miles and miles and miles. Took us sixteen days and the peat bog was only 1.5 km wide. ;-) !!
60% of slovakia are mountains up to 2650m high and ireland is only flat.
it might have something to do with the fact that you didn't have 40 years of communist decline and a Russian occupation.@@JxH
The distribution of population and categorization of roads can play huge role, from the map it seems like Ireland has much more farms scattered over countryside which are connected by paved roads, while in Czechia rural population is usually concentrated in villages. I would say tat that has something to do with different societal organization and philosophies in medieval times or something like that.
@@MrToradragon They are remnants of famine days when most of the population was in the now sparsely populated, yet most connected west.
The reason we paved all these roads comes down to the British work for food program, which basically widened and flattened these what would be private grass tracks to 2 or 3 cottages and make them public regional roads and now we have to pave them.
I live in the countryside and no joke I can take 4 totally different routes from my house to town all taking from 7-10km, then of course all those routes are connected between them at multiple interviles. It's a nightmare for our council budgets. It costs 1mil to repave 1.5km.
As a slovak citizen I love it❤
While not everything is spot on, I think the author made a great job researching the subject and it is example of how such material should look like. 👏👍
As a slovak who is now a czech citizen, I'd just like to clarify that Czech and Slovak are more than just dialects, they are truly two distinct languages each with their own set of dialects. They are mutually inteligible, but that is more thanks to exposure. Since we split, there is less slovak content in czechia and so the understanding of slovak in czechia is worse than vice versa, because in slovakia we still get czech movies, or other content on a regular basis. The grammar is similar though not the same, and the vocabulary is different, even though there is an overlap of similar words. I actually started to speak czech, because I got annoyed by not being fully understood, and having to explain.
My dad's family is 100% Slavic on both sides. Something to add. Part of the Czech Republic's lack of religion is due to its proximity to the former East Germany. While Slovakia is sandwiched between Poland and Hungary. Communism seeks to remove organized religion, so Czech Republic was more exposed with their location and big cities. Slovakia was further away and more rural. My grandfather was from Hubrov and my grandmother was from Pakistov according to their records.
It was little to do with East Germany, and more to do with the Communist puppet government in 48' and the subsequent invasion by USSR in 68'.
We always say that's one of the very few good things the Soviets did for us 😅 (Atheism that is)
Czech history regarding mistrust of the church is much much older.
Starting in late 1300s-early 1400s we had a pre-lutherian protestant reformation under the priest and master of the Prague university - Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake as a heretic by the council of Constance. This caused his believers to rise up, causing Hussite wars, with the defenestration of catholic chairmen of the New Town townhall in Prague being defenestrated in 1419 and hussites taking over. Hussites had to defeat five crusades launched at them by the pope, only for all to end by an internal conflict between more conservative and more … let’s say… anarchist faction.
Czech practiced mostly a freedom of religion during 1400s-1600s, with majority in many places being protestant, although some disputes between catholics and hussites did happen (2nd defenestration in Prague in 1483)
By early 1600s the Emperor, a very devout catholic, saw the Czech way of dealing with religion as very heretical and not of the right faith and slowly started to deny Czech protestants privileges and rights. In 1618, Czech nobility, enraged by this, went into the Prague castle, defenestrating two Emperors advisors and stewards together with their scribe. This defenestration was the only non lethal one, as all free man survived the fall thanks to a convenient pile of manure that was just under the window.
They complained to the Emperor, who was enraged that Czech nobles are trying to gain independence.
Czech nobility had always had the right to elect their new king of there were no heirs (and thus they were the once who elected habsburgs as our kings and emperors in the first place) . They argued that thus it must also be their right to choose a different king if they weren’t satisfied by the current one. They elected a new protestant king. Austrian emperor saw this move as illegitimate
resulting in the Battle of White Mountain in Prague. Czechs lost and the thirty years war followed and caused clashes between many protestant and catholic nations.
After the lost battle, forceful recatholisation follow together with the symbolic execution of 27 Czech nobles. Protestants of any faith had to either convert or they would be banished from the lands of Austrian Empire.
By 19th century we had the national revival. The middle class emerged and became very strong and widespread. Czechs were competing with Austrians quite heavily (mainly in education and industrial power), quickly gaining very high literacy rates and strong bourgeoisie and workforce. While Slovakia was still very rural and never had such a complicated history, Slovaks saw religion as part of their culture, while Czechs saw the church as the symbol of histostorical oppression and also as a challenging force to their efforts in boosting education and rational thinking - thus first atheist movements emerged. After WW1 Atheism started to be somewhat more common, although christianity was still rooted among the older generation.
if we skip to the communist coup of 1948, it is easier to see why anti religious propaganda was very effective. Hussites were shown as an example of our past bravery in battling the evils of the church, with recatholisation being the symbol of these evils.
@@gas4348 Protestantism is still Christianity bud... of course we had a mistrust of the Church, they used to control everything in most European nations. Hence the Protestant movement all across Europe.
@@gas4348that’s honestly cope. Hungary had the exact same religious history of recatholization and it isn’t like that at all. It’s 100% because the Czech communist party was way more hardline against religion than anywhere else in the eastern bloc except Albania and some of the SSRs
Czech non religionism predates the communist era
Czechia and Slovakia were together as Czechoslovakia starting at the end of World War 1 not 2 (which you correct 2 minutes later).
He said they were REJOINED at the end of WW2.
I can't explain why, but I still can remember and whistle the two-part Czechoslovak national anthem - the bigger half first followed by a bouncy folk tune for Slovakia.
On the history, don't forget the role the Czechoslovak Legion. It was important as a Western intervention in the Russian civil war/revolution, fighting on the side of the Whites. UK & FR forces also helped the Whites, but the impact of the Czechoslovak Legion was much greater than "its weight" for a country its size.
My dad's parents came from Czechoslovakia. When it divided his side of the family turned out to be Slovakian. He was proud of that because of them having a high percentage of Roman Catholics.
That's an outdate figure, nowadays it's only about half of the population, according to the most recent census.
Uff. Being catholic is not something to be proud of... no offence.
Well 65% os still a lot
@@richardfoldes7793 More like 55. And a lot of those are just "culturally Catholic".
@@marioa.l.2665 sorry yes ik ive just messed up my numbers.
Thanks for sharing. It is informative and useful.
The double-armed cross also dates back to the Kingdom of Hungary, which itself adopted it from older church use in the region since the time Christianity spread in the region during the early Middle Ages. Both Slovakia and Hungary were once part of the core area of the pre-1900s Hungarian monarchy, and the presence of the symbol in the coats of arms of both countries is a nod to that, or an acknowledgement of that. It's an old symbol, dating back to between the Early Middle Ages and High Middle Ages, ca between the 9th/10th century and the 12th/13th century.
The very first Slovak National Council of the late 1840s, part of the national revival movement, used a coat of arms that is identical to the modern one, albeit with a green set of hills instead of the dark blue one. Once the white-blue-red tricolour was adopted as part of the national flag in later decades, the colour was adjusted to a dark blue set of hills (also to help avoid confusion with the Hungarian version, which kept the green colour and has some added details in the coat of arms).
Im Czech And I Can Confirm Almost everything in this video
Well, I am Slovak guy and I have way worse picture in my head about my country, than you have presented here :D Hopefully I am just wrong and - "pasture is always greener on the other side" effect I hope is the case.
Yeah, we tend to do that. Objectively we have a lot to catch on western Europe, we are still just a young country that needs to learn a lot, but that doesn't mean the life here is bad. We have beautiful nature, many historic cities, castles, traditions, language and people. Be proud my friend. 😊
I think this is almost always the case. We're always more aware of the negative aspects of our own country; and even though we're also aware of the positive, negativity always gets most of our attention. As an outsider, the negative aspects aren't as evident and you end up focusing more on the positive.
I would recommend to every Slovak to travel a bit if possible. Around europe, maybe to SE Asia. Gives you a bit of perspective on "holy cr*p, we don't have it that bad". It can definitely make you see both the good and bad parts of your country compared to others. Then you're able to evaluate what to improve and what should be preserved.
Although it may not be the main point of the video introduction, it's rather odd that nothing is said about (1) why they united in 1918, (2) the part of Czechoslovakia annexed by the Soviet Union, (3) why they split, specifically that it seemed like a power grab by leaders that the population did not want but were not consulted on.
@General.Knowledg tnx for the informative video. I learned some new facts about our european neigthbours.
I probably will never be able to, but the #1 city in the world I would like to visit, would have to be Prague
I hope I don't have a skewed vision of the city, but the little I have seen, I feel it's the moat beautiful city in the world
I am from South-Africa
It has been rated as the worlds most gorgeous city in 2021 by a US travel magazine, so you're fully correct...
I'm living in Prague for the last 34 years and still there are new things to be discovered almost every day...
I recommend to watch this video serie from a South African couple visiting Prague last year (there are 7 videos in total): ua-cam.com/video/Krmb8KvT9Pg/v-deo.html