Slovakia (Slovenská Republika) was born from Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1993, when the country peacefully split into the Czech and Slovak republics; it's a parliamentary republic. Slovakia became a member of the European Union in May 2004. Slovakia is subdivided into 8 regions (kraje), each of which is named after its principal city (Bratislava, Trnava, Trenčín, Nitra, Žilina, Banská Bystrica, Prešov, Košice). The Slovak Republic borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south.

The Slovak landscape features rugged mountains in the central and northern part of the country, with the Carpathian Mountains extending across most of the northern half of the countryand. The High Tatras (Tatry) mountains along the Polish border are interspersed between many lakes and deep valleys, here is the highest point in Slovakia, the Gerlachovský štít at 2 655 metres. Bratislava is situated in Slovakia's only substantial region of plains, where the Danube River forms part of the border with Hungary. Major Slovak rivers, besides the Danube, are the Váh and the Hron.