Final answer:
Bohemia and Moravia, historical regions of the modern Czech Republic, face challenges such as industrial modernization and environmental improvements. Their overarching challenge has been the economic transition from communism to capitalism, including efforts to privatize industries and integrate into the EU, with the Czech Republic generally making more rapid progress than Slovakia.
Step-by-step explanation:
The challenges Bohemia and Moravia face are not principally about large ethnic minorities seeking independence from the Czech Republic, nor about small family farms being displaced by large corporate-owned farms. Instead, Bohemia and Moravia primarily confront issues related to heavily polluted areas needing modernization of industries and improvement in air and water quality. While becoming independent nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia had to grapple with economic stability, with the Czech Republic modernizing its industry more rapidly than Slovakia. Both regions have experienced obstacles in transitioning from communist to capitalist systems including environmental concerns, with the Czech Republic often being cited as more successful in managing this transition than Slovakia.
Historically, these areas were part of Czechoslovakia, which split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, leading to different paths in economic reform and integration into the European Union. Although economic opportunities expanded after joining the EU in 2004, the transition has had its difficulties, evident in Slovakia's higher unemployment rates, less industrialization and the problem of defence industry-related job losses post-Communism.
The factor most heavily influencing these challenges has been the shift from centralized planning under the Communist regime to more open market systems, which necessitates revamping state-controlled industry towards privatization and dealing with environmental concerns that arise from such transitions.