The Czech Republic is a land-locked country with Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the north.  It was the western part of Czechoslovakia until that country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
     After World War II Czechoslovakia was under the domination of the Soviet Union.  An effort to liberalize the government of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (called the "Prague Spring") was crushed by Soviet tanks.  With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia regained its freedom in 1990.  On January 1, 1993 the country peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.