Czechoslovakia became a member of the Eastern Bloc. In 1968, Warsaw Pact armies invaded the country to prevent further attempts to reform the communist system.
In late 1989, the Velvet Revolution replaced the communist regime with the democratic Czechoslovak Federal Republic. One of the opposition leaders, Vaclav Havel, became the first president of democratic Czechoslovakia. In 1992, representatives of the Czech Republic and Slovakia agreed to dissolve Czechoslovakia and create two separate states: the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The current Czech Republic was established on January 1, 1993. In 1999, the Czech Republic became a member of NATO and in 2004 a member of the European Union.
