Czech Republic

Country Briefs: The beautiful nation, Czech Republic lies in the central Europe, to the southeast of Germany. Czech republic is a neighbor to Poland in the north, to Austria in south, Germany in northwest and west and Slovakia in the east.

Czech Republic is a densely populated state. At an area of not more than seventy-eight thousand it has a population of more than ten million.

One of the biggest attractions of Czech Republic is its capital city, Prague. Prague is the largest city of this nation. It alone nestles a population around 1.2 million people. Prague, also known as the Golden City is categorized among most beautiful cities of the world. Prague is also a paradigm evidence of the history of the Czech nation.

When we ponder over the history of Czech Republic we find that settlement commenced in this country in the Neolithic era. The Celts and Boiis came here in 3^rd century BC and they were followed by the Germanic tribes of Marcomanni and Quadi in the 1^st century.

The Czech state or Bohemian state came up in the 9^th century after its unification by the Premyslids. During the Middle Ages the Kingdom of Bohemia was an important local power in central Europe. It remained a part of the Holy Roman Empire for a long time.

Around 15^th century Bohemia became the arena for many religious wars. Prominent among these were the Hussite Wars in 15^th century and Thirty Years of War in 17^th century. These wars lead to widespread destruction of both, lives and infrastructure. As a result of these conflicts Bohemia came under the Habsburg influence and became a part of Austria-Hungary.

But the Austrian-Hungary Empire buckled during the First World War due to which an independent republic of Czechoslovakia was created in 1918.

The population of Czechoslovakia comprised mainly of Germans, Hungarians and polish minorities yet the primary language of the country was German.

But peace did not prevail in Czechoslovakia. The centralistic states did not grant political autonomy too the minorities due to which they rebelled and asked to break Czechoslovakia into pieces.

The dictator Hitler sensed the wave of discontent in the Czechoslovakian population and thought to benefit out of it. He succeeded in his plans through the Munich Agreement that gave him the majority of the German speaking Sudentenland. Poland occupied the majority of Polish speaking areas. Slovakia acquired greater autonomy and was renamed to Czecho-Slovakia.

In 1939 Slovakia separated and Hitler occupied the rest of the Czech territory.

In 1948 Czechoslovakia came under Soviet influence. In 1989, Czechoslovakia managed to gain political freedom through the Velvet Revolution. This peaceful country bifurcated on 1^st January 1993 into Czech and Slovak republics.

In the years that followed, The Czech Republic joined NATO and became a member of European Union in 2004.   

Czech Republic Regions

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