斯洛伐克(Slovakia)
正式名称斯洛伐克共和国（Slovak Republic）
欧洲中部国家。面积49,035平方公里。人口5,410,000（2001）。首都︰布拉迪斯拉发。人口中约9/10为斯洛伐克人。匈牙利人是最大的少数民族。语言︰斯洛伐克语（官方语）。宗教︰天主教、新教和东正教。货币︰斯洛伐克克朗（SK）。全境地形以喀尔巴阡山脉为主。西南部和东南部为低地。摩拉瓦河和多瑙河形成南部的部分边界。该国种植谷物－－甜菜和蔬菜作物，饲养猪、羊和牛。经济以采矿业和制造业为基础，有大量铁、铜、镁、铅和锌矿开采。政府形式为共和国，一院制。国家元首为总统，政府首脑为总理。
西元最初的数世纪先有伊利里亚人、塞尔特人和日耳曼人在此居住。6世纪时，斯洛伐克人在此定居，9世纪成为摩拉维亚的一部分。约907年被匈牙利人征服。该国归在匈牙利王国，直至第一次世界大战结束。1918年，斯洛伐克人结合捷克人共同组成新的国家捷克斯洛伐克。1938年，斯洛伐克人宣布自己是捷克斯洛伐克联邦内的一个自治体。1939～1945年，斯洛伐克成为德国保护下的一个徒有虚名的独立国家。驱逐德国之後，斯洛伐克加入重组的捷克斯洛伐克。1948年苏联控制了捷克斯洛伐克。1969年捷克人与斯洛伐克人之间的伙伴关系建立了斯洛伐克社会主义共和国。1989年共产党政权倒台後，导致对自治的兴趣复活。1993年斯洛伐克成为一个独立的国家。
English version：
Slovakia
Nation, central Europe. Area: 18,933 sq mi (49,035 sq km). Population (1997 est.): 5,404,000. Capital: Bratislava. About nine-tenths of the population are Slovak; Hungarians form the largest minority. Language: Slovak (official). Religion: Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Orthodoxy. Currency: Slovak koruna. The Carpathian Mtns. dominate Slovakia, with lowlands in the southwestern and southeastern regions. The Morava and Danube rivers form parts of the southern border. The country grows grain, sugar beets, and vegetable crops and raises pigs, sheep, and cattle, but the economy is based on mining and manufacturing; it has substantial deposits of iron ore, copper, magnesite, lead, and zinc. It is a republic with one legislative house; its chief of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. Slovakia was inhabited in the first centuries AD by Illyrian, Celtic, and Germanic tribes. Slovaks settled there around the 6th century. It became part of Great Moravia in the 9th century but was conquered by the Magyars c. 907. It remained in the kingdom of Hungary until the end of World War I, when the Slovaks joined the Czechs to form the new state of Czechoslovakia in 1918. In 1938 Slovakia was declared an autonomous unit within Czechoslovakia; it was nominally independent under German protection 1939-45. After the expulsion of the Germans, Slovakia joined a reconstituted Czechoslovakia, which came under Soviet domination in 1948. In 1969 a partnership between the Czechs and Slovaks established the Slovak Socialist Republic. The fall of the Communist regime in 1989 led to a revival of interest in autonomy, and Slovakia became an independent nation in 1993.