Czech Republic

Lore & Background

The Duchy of Bohemia was founded in the late 9th century under Great Moravia. It was formally recognized as an Imperial Estate of the Holy Roman Empire in 1002 and became a kingdom in 1198. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, all of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were gradually integrated into the Habsburg monarchy. Nearly a hundred years later, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt led to the Thirty Years' War. After the Battle of White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Crown lands became part of the Austrian Empire. During the 19th century, the Czech lands underwent significant industrialization. Following the collapse of Austria-Hungary after World War I, most of the region became part of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. Czechoslovakia was the only country in Central and Eastern Europe to remain a parliamentary democracy during the entirety of the interwar period. After the Munich Agreement in 1938, Nazi Germany systematically took control over the Czech lands. Czechoslovakia was restored in 1945 and three years later became an Eastern Bloc communist state following a coup d'état in 1948. Attempts to liberalize the government and economy were suppressed by a Soviet-led invasion of the country during the Prague Spring in 1968. In November 1989, the Velvet Revolution ended communist rule in the country and restored democracy. On 31 December 1992, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

In Their Own Story

The mist clung to the Vltava River as dawn broke over Charles Bridge. Tourists had not yet arrived; only a few locals walked their dogs along the stone balustrades adorned with statues of saints. Inside a nearby tavern, the smell of roasted pork and dark lager lingered in the air. A glass was raised silently toward the castle looming on the hill, a toast to centuries that had passed beneath these cobblestones without erasing the spirit of the people.

Reader's Guide

The Czech Republic is a unitary parliamentary republic and developed country with an advanced, high-income social market economy. It is a welfare state with a European social model, universal health care and free-tuition university education. It ranks 32nd in the Human Development Index. The Czech Republic is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, the OECD, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group.

Did You Know?

• The traditional English name 'Bohemia' derives from Latin Boiohaemum, meaning 'home of the Boii'.
• The current English name comes from the Czech word Čech, which may trace back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning 'member of the people; kinsman'.
• The country has been traditionally divided into three lands: Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the east, and Czech Silesia in the northeast.
• After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992, the short name Czechia was recommended for English use and was officially directed by the Czech government in 2016.