The Czechs accepted Christianity in the 9th century and founded the Kingdom of Bohemia. The country reached its peak in the second half of the 14th century under leadership of King Charles I (also known as Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV). In the 15th century the country was shaken by the Hussite Wars whose leader Jan Hus fought against the Catholic Church and German dominance in the government. However the Hussites were defeated and in 1620 Bohemia and Moravia were declared provinces of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I Czechoslovakia gained independence on October 18, 1918. In 1938 after Munich appeasement Germany occupied the Sudetenland. Later Bohemia and Moravia followed. During World War II Czech Republic was an important industrial base for military production for the needs of German Wehrmacht. In 1945 after liberation by the Soviet Armies the country went under influence of Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia became part of the Warsaw Pact until 1990. On January 1st, 1993 Czechoslovakia broke apart and Czech Republic and Slovakia became independent. Today Czech Republic is a member of the UN, GATT, WHO and associate member of the EU.
Stone Age
A fragment of the crown of the left lower molar of
Homo heidelbergensis (300-650 thousand years ago) was found near the
village of Přezletice in the Prague-east region.
A fragment
of a Neanderthal upper jaw, a fragment of the parietal bone and
several teeth were found in the Kulna Cave in the Middle Paleolithic
layer. Classical Neanderthals from the caves of Ojos (Shvedo stol)
date back to 45-80 thousand years ago. In 1880, a fragment of the
lower jaw of a Neanderthal child, together with Middle Paleolithic
tools, was found by Karel Mashka in the Shipka Cave.
The
transition from the Middle to Upper Paleolithic on the Middle Danube
is characterized by the presence of two transitional technocomplexes
- Bohunitsa and Settlement, as well as the early appearance of the
Aurignacian. Bohunice sites (Bohunice, Stranska Skala, Lisen,
Podoli, Tvarozna) are mainly concentrated in the Brno area. In this
region, the Bohunitsa industry lacks a local predecessor and looks
like an imported one. The term "bohunice" comes from the western
suburb of Brno, where this industry was first discovered,
characterized by the use of a technology described as a combination
of the Levallois Middle Paleolithic technique and the Upper
Paleolithic ribbed core splitting method. On a larger scale, the
bohunitsa fits into a complex of similar industries called the
Emiran-Bohunitsky. These industries are represented in the Middle
East (Boker-Takhtit in Israel, Kzar-Akil in Lebanon, Yuchagizli in
Turkey), in the Balkans (Temnata), in Ukraine (Kulichivka), in Altai
(Kara-Bom) and in Northern China (Shuidungou) ...
In the Pod
Hradem cave in the central part of the Moravian Karst, near Brno,
layers from 28 to 50 thousand years ago were traced and a tubular
bone rod decorated with notches was found.
In the Upper
Paleolithic era, the territory of the Czech Republic was inhabited
by Cro-Magnons (Brunnians), whose tools belonged to the Gravettian
culture (Předmosti, Dolny Vestonice, Pavlov). Since then, the
artifact Vestonice Venus has been preserved in Dolni Vestonice. The
most famous of the Madeleine settlements in Bohemia is the Pekarna
(Kostelik) Cave, where a harpoon with three rows of teeth was found.
The Milovice G site is considered to be a cutting site for mammoth
carcasses.
In the Mladec Caves near Olomouc, the remains of
more than 100 representatives of the species Homo sapiens, ca. 30
thousand years. A study of mitochondrial DNA sequenced from twelve
samples from Mladech showed that they did not contain Neanderthal
mtDNA.
65 km east of Prague is the Neolithic settlement
Bylana, typical of Danube cultures. In the Neolithic era, carriers
of the agricultural culture of funnel-shaped cups came here from the
Balkans, which were later replaced by the Indo-European pastoral
peoples of the Corded Ware culture (battle axes).
Bronze Age
In the Bronze Age, on the territory of the Czech Republic there were
Unetice, Knoviz and a number of other archaeological cultures, the
speakers of which supposedly belonged to the western (centum) branch
of the Indo-European languages. In the early Bronze Age, the Nitrino
(Nitránian) culture was widespread in eastern Moravia.
The
phase A2 of the Bronze Age (about 1950-1700 BC), according to P.
Reinecke's chronology, included the Veterian culture, which
disappeared at the B1 stage of the Bronze Age (1700-1500 BC) as a
result of distribution in Moravia of carriers of the culture of
burial mounds.
Early Iron Age (Celts)
The first traces of
the Celts in Bohemia are the settlements of the Hallstatt culture,
which was dominated by the Celts.
The most ancient historical
inhabitants of the Czech Republic were the Celts of the Boyi tribe
of the La Tene culture, who migrated from northern Italy in the 4th
century BC. From them the country received its Latin and derived
German name Bohemia (Bojohemum, Bohemia, Böhmen). Around the middle
of the 1st century BC e. the Celts left the Czech Republic, yielding
to the pressure of the Germanic tribes (this time in archeology is
designated as the Planian horizon).
Late Iron Age (Germans
and Romans)
Period from 50 BC until 350/380 AD - the time when
mainly Germans were on the territory of the Czech Republic. Several
years BC. e. the country was occupied by the Marcomans, a Germanic
tribe led by Marobod, who united under his rule numerous East
Germanic tribes that occupied the lands from the middle Danube to
the lower reaches of the Vistula. The state founded by Marobod did
not last long - unable to resist the struggle with Arminius, and
then with Catualda (a noble Marobod who lived in exile among the
Goths), Marobod fled in 19 under the protection of the Romans and
ended his days in Ravenna. Nevertheless, the remnants of the
Marcomans remained in Bohemia until the beginning of the 5th
century.
In parallel with the Marcomans, in the northern part of the Czech
Republic at that time there was still a culturally-ethnically mixed
mare archaeological group. Since the II century, the Przeworsk
culture penetrates from the north (in Moravia, its traces have been
observed since the beginning of the Roman era), and in the 1st half
of the III century. a new population arrives in the Czech Republic
from the territory of Polabia. These new waves of settlers in the
2nd half of the 3rd century also settled in Moravia (the Kostelec
group). At the same time, permanent settlements appeared in the
south of Moravia, which testify to the participation of Roman troops
in the Marcomanian wars on the territory of the Czech Republic. In
2001, archaeologists discovered the presence of Romans even on the
territory of Olomouc-Nyredin.
The Roman Empire skillfully
took advantage of tribal struggles and rivalries among their leaders
until the start of the so-called Marcomanian War 165-180.
Oppressed by the Goths, the Marcomans, Quads and a number of other
Germanic and non-Germanic peoples (Yazygs, Bastars, Sarmatians),
acting in an alliance, tried to seize the northern provinces of the
Roman Empire. Marcus Aurelius could hardly restrain this pressure,
but still for a long time the Danube River remained the northern
border of the Roman Empire. In the 3rd century, the Marcomans waged
wars with the Romans and their Germanic neighbors. With the
emergence of the Huns in Europe, the Marcomans submitted to their
authority. With Attila, the Marcomans took part in the campaign
against Gaul and in the Battle of Catalaun (451).
It is not
known whether the Marcomanites subsequently returned to the Czech
Republic. It is quite possible that in the second half of the 5th
century, Czechia was occupied by various peoples, replacing each
other here during the movement from the north to the borders of the
Roman Empire, until the Slavs finally settled in this land.
According to archeological data, the advance of the Slavs to the
Czech Republic dates back to the 1st half of the 6th century, which
is reliably confirmed by the spread of the Prague-Korczak ceramics
here. After the Lombards left Central Europe for Northern Italy in
568, the Slavs of the Prague-Korchak group settled widely in the
basin of the upper reaches of the Laba (Elbe); it was these settlers
who laid the foundation for the early medieval Czech tribes.
Based on the inventory and stucco ceramics of the Merovingian circle
on the early Slavic monuments of Břeclav-Libiva, Určice,
Břeclav-Pohansko, Přítluka, the inhumation burial in Přítluki, we
can talk about the partial coexistence of two massifs of the
population. The appearance of the Slavs in Moravia dates back to the
second half - the end of the 6th century. One of the largest and
most ancient burial grounds of the Western Slavs was found in
Prytluky on Dyi - more than 500 burial graves were discovered. The
oldest burials in this burial ground date back to the second half of
the 4th century. It was. Near the burial ground, a typical Slavic
settlement was found with square and somewhat recessed dwellings
with a stone hearth in the corner. The Slavic population penetrated
into Moravia from the territory north of the Carpathians: between
the Oder and the Dnieper in the 4th century, and maybe in the 3rd
century (according to Josef Poulik).
Resettlement of the
Slavs
Based on folk legends, at the beginning of the 12th
century, in the Czech Chronicle, Kozma of Prague “invented” a heroic
eponym for the peoples who inhabited Bohemia at that time (Beheim,
Bohemia, Beheimi, Behemani, Boemare). In the presentation of Kozma
Prazhsky, Czech (Latin Bohemus) was the leader of the Slavs, who
came to the land of the Boyev and Markomanians and stopped initially
near Mount Rzip, near the confluence of Moldova (Vltava), Laba
(Elba) and Ohře - after whom the descendants of the settled Slavs
and began to be nicknamed Bohemians. In fact, the Slavs entered the
country gradually, settling in clans and tribes.
The
etymology of the ethnonym "Czech" is still a problem that has not
been resolved by historians and philologists. The combination česky
muži occurs once in the legend of St. Wenceslas (Wenceslas; the
source dates from 930-970), but there it is used to designate the
squad and personal protection of the prince. At the same time, the
earliest use of a proper name as a basis is noted in the Dalimilov
Chronicle (early 14th century): using Kozma Prazhsky's Chronica
Boemorum as one of his primary sources, the author replaced Bohemus
(Bohem) in it with Čech (Czech).
Little is known about the
tribal division of the Czech Slavs. The Czechs lived in the middle
of the country - the most powerful tribe, which gradually
subordinated all other tribes to its power and gave them its name.
All other tribes - Litomerz, Dechans, Lemuz, Luchans, Sedlicians,
Doodlebs, Zlichians, Pshovans, Croats, etc. - occupied the lands
around the territory of the Czechs proper. Of these tribes, the most
powerful - after the Czechs - were the Lutsk people, the villains
and the Croats. The Lucians lived along the Ohře River and its
tributaries, in the area from the Ore Mountains to the Šumava
Mountains; even at the beginning of the 12th century, the memory of
the tribal state of the Lutsk people and its division into 5
districts was preserved. Croats and villagers occupied the eastern
part of the country with their settlements and remained independent
even in the 10th century.
Avar invasion
Each of the Czech tribes was ruled by its own elders or princes.
In the second half of the 6th century and at the beginning of the
next century, the Czech Slavs were under the rule of the Avars, who
settled in Pannonia around 568. An unsuccessful campaign against
Constantinople (626) and the attacks of the Khazars and Bulgars
shaken the power of the Avars. Slavic peoples hastened to overthrow
the yoke of the wild horde. The struggle for independence led to the
creation of a temporary union of various tribes of the Czech Slavs -
the state of Samo (623–658), to which other neighboring Slavic
peoples also joined.
The alliance thus formed turned out to
be so strong that the attempt of the Frankish king Dagobert to
conquer the lands of the Czech Slavs ended in complete failure: the
Frankish army was defeated in the three-day battle of Vogastisburg
(630).
The news of the overthrow of the Avar yoke and the
victory over the Franks is preserved in that part of the Chronicle
of Fredegar, which was written about 658 by an unknown person (who
lived, as it is assumed, in Metz). According to his story, in the
40th year of the reign of the Frankish king Chlothar II (623), a
Frankish merchant named Samo, having appeared in the land of the
Slavs, took part in the struggle against the Avars, was elected by
the Slavs as the supreme leader or king and happily ruled over them
during 35 years. The union of Czech and other Slavs, which arose out
of necessity, collapsed after the danger was over.
Unification of Czech Slavs and creation of the Czech state
The
tribe of Czechs, who lived in the center of the country, sought to
extend their power to neighboring tribes. The political center of
the Czechs was originally Budech, but by the 10th century the center
shifted to the territory of present-day Prague, where Vysehrad
fortresses were laid on the banks of the Vltava and, a little later,
on the opposite bank, Prague Castle.
The first Czech
chronicler Kozma of Prague, who wrote at the beginning of the 12th
century, drew his scant information about the founding of the Czech
state from folk legends. According to him, Krok was the first prince
of the Czechs. His daughter and heiress, Libushe, married Přemysl, a
simple plowman, a native of the village of Staditsa, in the land of
the Lemuz tribe. The names of the descendants and successors of
Přemysl - the first Přemyslids - Kozma Prazhsky conveys in the
following sequence: Nezamysl, Mnata, Voyon, Unislav, Kresomysl,
Neklan, Gostivit and Borzhivoi, who adopted Christianity. The
chronicler adds to the names of these princes a story about the
struggle of the Czech prince Neklan with Vlastislav, the prince of
the Luchan tribe.
At the beginning of the IX century, the
Czech lands were subjected to Frankish aggression. The first
campaign of Charlemagne's troops in Bohemia (805) was not crowned
with success, but the next year was followed by a new Frankish
invasion, as a result of which the Czech tribes agreed to pay
tribute to the Frankish Empire - 500 hryvnia of silver and 120
bulls. Charlemagne's imperial claims to the subordination of Bohemia
were inherited by the East Frankish kingdom.
In January 845,
14 Czech princes (representing the Lutsk and other Western Bohemian
tribes), having decided to convert to Christianity, arrived in
Regensburg to visit King Louis II of Germany and were baptized by
his order. However, already the next year (when Louis II made a
campaign against Great Moravia and instead of Moymir planted
Rostislav on her princely throne), they attacked the king's army
returning from Great Moravia and inflicted a heavy defeat on him (so
that this episode did not lead to the founding of a Christian church
in Czech Republic).
In the 880s, the Czech lands were
subordinated to the Great Moravian prince Svyatopolk I. As his
protege in the Czech Republic, Svyatopolk chose the Central Bohemian
prince Borzhivoi from the Přemyslid clan. Around 883, Borzhivo and
his wife Lyudmila were baptized in Velehrad by Archbishop Methodius
(who had been conducting missionary work in Moravia since 863 -
initially together with his brother Kirill, as a result of which
Christianity spread there according to the Greco-Byzantine rite
using Church Slavonic as a language worship). Borzhiva was baptized
without the consent of the Czech Diet, for which he was deposed, and
the Diet chose another prince - by the name of Stroymir. However, in
884 Svyatopolk put his protégé on the throne again and confirmed his
supremacy over the other Czech princes; Borzhivoi, having won a
victory over the Diet, built his fortress (modern Prague Castle) in
884-885 on the old Diet field, on the territory of which he erected
the first Christian church.
After Borzhivoi died (889), Svyatopolk himself took the Czech
throne; Soon the East Frankish king Arnulf abandoned (890) his
claims to Bohemia. However, after the death of Svyatopolk (894), the
Czech princes Spytignev and Vratislav, the sons of Borzhivoi,
hastened to get rid of the Moravian dependence: they came to
Regensburg (895), took a vassal oath to Arnulf with the obligation
to pay tribute in the old days and agreed to the Czech Republic's
submission to the church authority of Regensburg bishop (after which
the Latin church rite began to penetrate into the Czech Republic).
At the head of the princes who arrived in Regensburg were a certain
Vitislav and Borzhivoi's son Spytignev I (894-915).
As for
the Byzantine (Slavic) rite of worship, it was partially preserved
in the Czech Republic for more than two hundred years. The mainstay
of this rite was the monastery on Sazava, founded by St. Prokopy
Sazavsky.
In the VIII century of the Czech Republic there
were already large "towns" (kremlins). At the end of the 8th century
or at the beginning of the 9th century, connections between Czech
and Moravian centers appeared. In the middle and in the second half
of the 9th century, both products of skilled Moravian jewelers and
spiritual currents - Christianity that swept Great Moravia, which
was especially strong in the Old Town, penetrated into Bohemia from
Great Moravia. Around 900, in the burials in the cemeteries near the
Prague Castle, founded at the very end of the 10th century, there
are no more precious Veligrad items of the Byzantine type - there
are only simple decorations characteristic of the last stage of the
Veligrad workshops.
Early Christian burials in the Old Place
near Uherske Hradiste have direct analogies in the nature and
details of the funeral rituals not only in the monuments on the
territory of Great Moravia in Mikulčice, Pogansko (near Břeclav),
Skalice, Stara Kourjima, Kolín, elenki, but also in burials with
corpses in the Middle Dnieper region - on the Starokievskaya
mountain in Kiev, in Chernigov (Black Grave).
In 1097, the
place of the Greco-Slavic monks in the Sazavsky monastery was taken
by the Benedictines.
Czech Republic under the first
Přemyslids
Prince Vratislav I (915-921), the younger brother and
successor of Spytignev I, successfully repelled the attack on the
Czech Republic by the Magyars, who had defeated the Great Moravian
state before, and stopped, taking advantage of the troubles that
arose in Germany, the payment of tribute to the German king, as a
result of which the Czech principality for a time gained
independence.
The beginning of the reign of his son St.
Wenceslas (921-935) was overshadowed by an evil deed. Dragomira, the
prince's mother, seized power and ordered the death of St. Lyudmila,
fearing her influence on the young prince. Vaclav fought a war with
Radislav - the prince of the Zlican tribe (their main city was
Libice) - and forced him to recognize the supreme power of the Czech
prince. Coping with internal enemies, Vaclav did not have enough
strength to fight Germany. The powerful King Henry I (King of
Germany) in 929 approached Prague and forced Wenceslas to pay
tribute.
Brother of St. Wenceslas Boleslav I the Terrible
(935-967), reigning in the land of Pshovan, the patrimony of the
father of St. Lyudmila, invited his brother to a church celebration
in Old Boleslavl, which he had recently rebuilt, and killed him
there, seizing power in Bohemia. For 14 years Boleslav waged a
stubborn struggle against the Germans, but in 950 he recognized his
dependence on the German state. In the Battle of the Lech River
(955), the Czechs fought against the Magyars as allies of the
Germans. The victory of Christians over the Hungarians made it
possible for Boleslav I the Terrible to annex Moravia and the Polish
lands located along the upper reaches of the Oder and Elbe to the
Czech Republic.
The son of Boleslav the Terrible, Boleslav II
the Pious (967-999), founded, with the assistance of Emperor Otto I,
a bishopric in Prague subordinate to the Archbishop of Mainz. The
first bishop of Prague was Saxon Detmar, who knew the Slavic
language well, and the second was Vojtech, also known as Adalbert of
Prague, a friend of Emperor Otto III. Vojtech was the son of
Slavnik, who created a virtually independent principality on the
lands of Zlichan and gradually extended his power to a third of the
Czech Republic. Voytech did not get along with the prince and the
nobility, left the pulpit twice and ended his life as a martyr in
the land of the Prussians (997).
Brothers of St. Vojtekha -
Slavnikovichi - strove for complete independence from the Czech
Republic and were in relations with both the Polish prince Boleslav
I the Brave and the imperial court. Boleslav II the Pious attacked
the capital of the Slavnikovichi Libice, ravaged it and finally
annexed to his state the lands of the eastern and southern parts of
Bohemia, subject to this princely family (995). Thus, the work of
uniting the lands of the Czech Slavs under the rule of the Přemyslid
dynasty was completed.
Boleslav I of Poland, taking advantage of the strife under the Czech
prince Boleslav III the Red, the son and successor of Boleslav II,
placed his brother Vladivoy on the princely throne in Prague, after
his death seized power and expelled from the country Jaromir and
Oldrich (Ulrich), the younger sons Boleslav II. With the help of
Emperor Henry II, power was returned to the Přemyslids, but the
Czech lands, conquered by Boleslav I of Poland, and Moravia remained
under Polish rule. At the end of the reign of Oldřich (1012-1034),
his son Bryachislav I took Moravia from the Poles, and since then
this country has finally become part of the Czech state. The reign
of Bryachislav I (1035-1055) was marked by the conquest of Poland by
the Czechs and an attempt to found a powerful West Slavic empire.
This attempt was unsuccessful due to the intervention of Pope
Benedict IX and Emperor Henry III, who, after an unsuccessful
campaign (1040) and defeat at Domažlice, went to Prague in 1041 and
forced the Czech prince to recognize his dependence on the empire.
From that moment on, the Czech Republic became part of the Holy
Roman Empire.
Czech Republic under the rule of German
emperors (XI-XIV centuries)
In 1086 in Prague, Prince Vratislav
II was crowned as Czech king by Bishop Edilbert of Trier. This title
was not hereditary. The grandson of Vratislav II Vladislav II was
able to receive the royal title in 1158, but he was unable to
transfer it to his son and heir Frederick. In 1198, by decision of
Philip of Swabia, the son of Vladislav II Přemysl Ottokar I, who
supported Philip in the struggle for the imperial crown, was crowned
in Mainz as king of Bohemia, and Bohemia received a number of
privileges. The right to inherit the Czech crown was finally
established in 1212 by the so-called Golden Sicilian bull.
In
1241, the combined army of the Czech king Wenceslas I and the dukes
of Austria and Carinthia successfully repelled the invasion of the
Horde troops into Moravia and the Czech Republic.
King
Wenceslas I (1230–1253), married to a princess from the House of
Hohenstaufen, started a lush courtyard and contributed to the
penetration of German customs and language into Bohemia. Needing
money to maintain the splendor of his court and his pleasures, he
mortgaged and distributed crown lands due to the lack of ordinary
sources of income. This provoked an uprising of his son Přemysl
Otakar, Margrave of Moravian, on whose side most of the Czech nobles
and rulers took sides. The uprising was suppressed, and the king
remained true to his former way of life.
Přemysl Otakar II
(1253-1278), no less than his father, was devoted to the customs
brought from neighboring Germany, but at the same time he was
zealously involved in state affairs. Taking advantage of the
interregnum in Germany and the extinction of the princely families
in neighboring lands, he significantly increased his possessions.
While his father was still alive, he became Duke of Austria, and
then took possession of Styria, Carinthia and Carinthia. When Rudolf
of Habsburg was elected king in Germany in 1273, a struggle began
between him and Ottokar, which ended with the death of the latter in
the battle on the Moravian field on September 26, 1278 and the loss
of all the lands he had seized.
After Otakar's death, the
country remained with his young son as king and his widow, Kunigunda
Slavonskaya, as regent. However, in reality, under Wenceslas II
(1278-1305), the son and successor of Ottokar II, Otto of
Brandenburg, his relative, was the ruler of the state for 5 years.
These years were especially unhappy for the Czech Republic: the
ruler plundered and ravaged the country, and a terrible famine and
pestilence radically undermined the well-being of the population and
almost depopulated the Czech Republic.
Rudolph greatly
contributed to the restoration of order: he insisted on the release
of Wenceslas from the burdensome care of Otto, married the king to
his daughter and helped him cope with his willful stepfather, Pan
Zavisha of Falkenstein, and his allies. Large revenues from the
Kutnogorsk silver mines enabled Vaclav to mint full-weight Prague
pennies since 1300. Wenceslas managed to achieve supreme power first
over the princes of Silesia, and then he was also recognized as king
of Poland. When the Arpad family ceased in Hungary, the son of
Wenceslas (later King Wenceslas III) was elected king. With the
death of Wenceslas III, who was killed by a hired killer on August
4, 1306 in the city of Olmutz, where the king stopped with an army
on his way to Poland, the male line of the Premyslid clan ceased.
After the death of
Wenceslas III, Albrecht, the son of Rudolf of Habsburg, forced the
Czech Diet to elect Albrecht's son, Rudolf, as king, who married El
Эльbiet, the widow of King Wenceslas II. When, after a 10-month
reign, he died (July 4, 1307), the Bohemian Sejm elected Henry, Duke
of Carinthia, wife of Anna, the eldest daughter of King Wenceslas
II. The reign of this king (1307-1310) was full of troubles. The
German bourgeoisie, having enriched themselves in the Czech
Republic, raised their heads and clearly began to strive for a
complete political equalization with the masters. To achieve this
goal, the Prague and Kutnogorsk burghers seized suddenly at night
(February 15, 1309), by prior agreement, the zemstvo gentry, who
were then at the head of the government, and kept them in captivity
until they, on behalf of the entire nobility, agreed to the demands
of the bourgeoisie and did not promise their sons and daughters to
give in marriage to bourgeois children. This case aroused the
indignation of all the nobility. The liberated nobles, with Jindrich
of Lipa at their head, took possession of the cities and punished
the outstanding German families, whose members were the perpetrators
of the courageous enterprise, by expulsion from the country. The
victory of the lords was promoted by disagreements among the German
philistine. The king, who did not know which side to hold on to, was
also expelled from Prague, and the pans seized the supreme power.
Soon an agreement took place between the masters and the king, but
the latter surrounded himself with German mercenaries, who plundered
the country and ruined the population.
The pans turned to the
then emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg, who agreed to give them the
king of his 14-year-old son John (1310-1346), who had married
Eliška, the daughter of King Wenceslas II. Ascending the throne, the
young king had to issue a letter or privilege: he pledged to
preserve the rights and liberties of the zemstvo, not to introduce
any changes at his discretion, not to demand military service from
his subjects outside the state, not to appoint foreigners to zemstvo
and court positions, not to give his estates in Bohemia, etc. King
John's foreign policy was successful and led to an increase in Czech
possessions (annexation of the Upper Lusatia, receiving from the
empire of the Cheb or Eger region on terms of mortgage, the
subordination of the rulers of almost all Silesia to the supreme
power of the Czech sovereign). Through his efforts, most of the
electors elected his son Wenceslas-Charles IV as emperor.
Under Charles I (1346-1378) (aka Charles IV, as Emperor of Germany)
an archbishop's see was established in Prague, to which the Olmüts
and newly founded Litomyshl bishops were subordinated. Charles
founded the famous university in Prague (1348), the first in Central
and Eastern Europe. His concerns about safety and the improvement of
communications, its construction (Prague Castle, the majestic St.
Vitus Cathedral, Karlštejn Castle, the bridge in Prague, etc.),
efforts to spread winemaking, proper forestry and fisheries, the
founding of a “new city” in Prague , patronage of trade and industry
- all this contributed to an extraordinary rise in the economic
well-being of the country. Charles I significantly expanded the
possessions of the Czech crown (the acquisition of lands, estates
and cities in the Upper Palatinate, Thuringia and Saxony, the
consolidation of supreme power over the whole of Silesia, the
annexation of the Lower Luza and the Brandenburg Margrave). Setting
his main goal to strengthen the royal power in Bohemia, Charles
issued a law on the order of succession to the throne (1348): the
throne is always inherited by the king's eldest son; women inherit
only in the absence of male representatives of the genus; in the
event of the termination of the genus in the male and female lines,
the throne will be bequeathed by the election of the Diet. The
electoral right of the Diet was confirmed in the famous Golden Bull
of 1356.
Wenceslas IV (Wenceslas) (1378-1419), who was
crowned with the Czech crown (1363), and then the imperial crown
(1376) during his father's lifetime, received Bohemia, Silesia, part
of Luzia and small possessions of the Czech crown in Germany, and
the rest of the land were given to other members of the Luxembourg
family. The first years of the reign of Wenceslas (until 1393) were
a continuation of the happy time of Charles I.
Hussite
movement
The Renaissance atmosphere provoked the performance of
Jan Hus, which is often interpreted as pre-Reformation. One of the
distinguishing features of Hus's sermons was his appeal to the Czech
vernacular, which made him the leader of the Czech national revival
movement. On July 6, 1415, Huss was burned as a heretic, but after 4
years the Czech Republic was engulfed in the Hussite War, which
began with anti-German riots in Prague. On July 14, 1420, the Czech
Pan Jan ižka repulsed the German attack on Prague, and on December
8, 1422 he defeated the royal army of Sigismund. In 1427 the
Hussites raided deep into Germany, and in 1428 they laid siege to
Vienna. On April 14, 1433, the Hussites heard the church council in
Basel, but rejected their amendments. At the same time, the Hussites
were finally divided into Utraquists and Taborites. In 1434 the
Taborites suffered a crushing defeat, and in 1437 their last
fortress fell.
Later in the Czech Republic came the "rootless" (Interregna)
(1439-52). Real power was concentrated in the hands of the regional
hetmans, who represented the interests of the moderate Hussites -
the Utraquists. Jiří from Podebrady - one of the hetmans captured
Prague on September 3, 1448 and at the Diet in 1452 was unanimously
elected ruler of the entire country, and from 1458 - king. However,
the Catholic Church declared the new king a heretic, and transferred
the rights to the Czech throne to the Hungarian king Matthias
Corvinus, which triggered the Czech-Hungarian war, which led to the
actual division of the Bohemian kingdom.
After the death of
Jiri, his supporters summoned Vladislav Jagiellon to the Czech
throne, who later received the crown of Hungary. Catholic opposition
intensified, and the Utraquists began to gradually transform into
Lutherans. Thus, the Hussite movement joined the general European
movement of the Reformation. The success of Catholics in the Czech
Republic was facilitated by the Turkish factor, since after the
death of the last Czech Jagiellon King Louis in the Battle of
Mohacs, the crown of the Czech Republic passed into the possession
of the zealous Habsburg Catholics.
Counter-Reformation in the
Czech Republic (Rekatolizace)
The new emperor and king of
Bohemia, Ferdinand I of Habsburg, a staunch Catholic and supporter
of the centralization of royal power, decided to limit the powers of
the estate institutions in the lands of the Czech crown. This led to
an estate uprising in Prague in 1547, which was brutally suppressed.
To strengthen the Catholic party, Ferdinand I invited the Jesuit
order to Prague, founded the Collegium of St. Clement (1556) and
restored the Archbishopric of Prague.
The emperor and king of
Bohemia, Maximilian II (1564-1576), was distinguished by religious
tolerance, but still refused to recognize the Czech brothers in
recognition of their brotherhood. Repeatedly achieving, without
success, the introduction of the Augsburg confession in Bohemia, the
Lutherans, by agreement with the Czech brothers, presented to the
emperor at the Diet of 1575 the "Czech confession" and a project on
church administration: in their opinion, an independent Protestant
consistory should have been established, with an administrator at
the head , and to elect special defenders to defend the consistory
and their confession. Maximilian limited himself to an oral
statement that the Protestant masters and gentry were granted the
right to elect 15 defensors.
The emperor and king of Bohemia
Rudolph (1576-1611) lived in Prague, where at his court he kept
artists and scientists. Without persecuting the Protestants, he
responded with a refusal to their requests to extend the rights of
the "Czech confession" to cities. In 1602, a royal decree was issued
against the picards, as the Czech brothers were mockingly called. In
vain the Protestant party demanded the abolition of this decree at
the next year's Diet. Circumstances changed when the emperor's
brother, Matthew, began to strive to eliminate Rudolph and seize
power.
However, the Protestants presented their earlier
complaints in the form of a royal charter, gathered an army and
forced Emperor Rudolph to sign this "charter of majesty"
(Majestätsbrief) (July 9, 1609). Having seized the consistory and
the university, electing defensors, 10 from each of the three
estates, the Protestants formed a state within a state. With the
assistance of a mercenary army, Rudolph made an attempt to subdue
the Czech Protestants, but it ended with the deposition of Rudolph
and the election of Matthew (1611-1619) to the Czech throne.
The defenzors convened a congress in Prague and opened negotiations
with the governors of the king, which ended in the fact that on May
23, 1618, the leaders of the movement (his soul was Count Thurn)
burst into the hall of the Prague Castle, where the governors sat,
and, after a stormy explanation, two of them (Yaroslav from
Martinitz and Vilém Slavatu), as well as their secretary, Philip
Fabritius, were thrown out of the window into the castle moat about
30 meters deep (the so-called Second Prague Defenestration). A happy
accident, falling into a dung heap, saved all three from death (the
Catholics claimed that they were saved by angels). On May 24, a
provisional government of 30 directors was organized, and on May 25
it was decided to assemble an army, the command over which was
entrusted to Count Turnu. The Jesuits, the Archbishop and the Abbot
of Břevnov were expelled; the interim government struck up relations
with the Protestant princes of Germany. The sick King Matthew
hesitated and conducted useless negotiations with the leaders of the
uprising, but Ferdinand sent troops to the Czech Republic under the
command of Heinrich Dampier and Karl Bukua.
Thirty Years War
The rivalry between Czech Protestants and Catholics provoked the
Uprising of the Czech Estates and the Thirty Years' War. Czech
Protestants tried to overthrow King Ferdinand and summoned the
Calvinist Frederick Palatinate to their kingdom. Ferdinand was
supported by the Bavarians, Saxons and Poles, who united in the
Catholic League.
In the fall of 1620, the troops of the
Catholic League, under the command of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria and
Imperial Field Marshal Count Johann Cerklas von Tilly, united with
Bukua and entered Bohemia. A decisive battle took place on White
Mountain, near Prague. The Czech army, which was under the main
command of Prince Christian of Anhalt, was utterly defeated
(November 8, 1620), and Frederick Palatinate, mockingly nicknamed
the "winter king", hastened to flee from Bohemia. The fate of
Protestantism and the estate monarchy in Bohemia was decided by the
outcome of the Battle of White Mountain. The participants in the
uprising were subjected to repression. They were arrested, tried and
sentenced to either death (27 ringleaders) or exile. The estates of
all convicts were confiscated. On February 3, 1622, the so-called
general amnesty was promulgated, according to which, by the
appointed time, all participants in the uprising had to voluntarily
confess their guilt if they wanted to preserve their life and honor.
728 people of the two upper estates confessed their guilt, of which
the court commission sentenced 628 people to confiscation of their
estates.
During 1624, all churches were transferred to the
hands of the Catholic clergy; non-Catholics were deprived of civil
rights and were not allowed to engage in handicrafts and trades;
their marriages were not crowned, their dead were not allowed to be
buried in cemeteries; fines were imposed for disrespecting holidays,
non-observance of fasts and non-attendance at church. Finally, on
July 31, 1627, a royal order was issued, by virtue of which
Catholicism was declared the only legitimate religion in Bohemia.
The University of Prague was transferred to the Jesuits.
The
calamities of the Thirty Years' War completed the ruin of the Czech
Republic: thousands of settlements were destroyed and were never
rebuilt; of the 2.5 million inhabitants in 1618, about 700 thousand
remained by 1650.
Under the rule of the Habsburgs
In the
17th century, a new tide of German colonization began, which was
favored by the friendly relations of Czechs to the Protestants of
Germany and the spread of Lutheranism in Bohemia. The strengthening
of the German element was especially facilitated by the
circumstances and events that followed the Belogorsk catastrophe.
The confiscations of Ferdinand II led to the transfer of a huge
number of lands into the hands of foreigners, who willingly settled
their lands with immigrants from Germany and founded new German
colonies on their empty lands. The success of the German language
was also facilitated by the fact that knowledge of the German
language was necessary for communication with Vienna, where the
central authorities were located. Who among the Czechs wanted to be
successful in their career, he had to first of all speak German as
his own. The Czech nobility, in constant contact with the German
court in Vienna, set an example in this respect. Many Czech nobles
were so Germanized that they forgot their native language. Although
the Jesuits, who quickly spread in Bohemia (soon after 1620 they
already had 13 colleges, and a separate order province was formed
from the lands of the Czech crown), were not the principal enemies
of the Czech language, they indirectly, together with other
missionaries, contributed to its decline, extermination Czech books
and manuscripts, which they, partly out of ignorance, and partly out
of jealousy of faith, considered heretical. In 1784 German finally
became the language of instruction in gymnasiums and the University
of Prague, replacing Latin. In all government offices, the German
language was also introduced.
Since the time of Ferdinand II,
the autonomy of Bohemia is abolished and it is absorbed by Austria.
A further step towards the merger of the Habsburg lands into one
state whole was made by a pragmatic sanction on April 19, 1713,
which, in addition to determining the order of succession to the
throne, established that all the hereditary lands of the Habsburg
house must remain united under the rule of one sovereign until the
termination of this house and by no means can be divisible among its
members. The Czech Zemsky Sejm adopted this sanction in 1720.
In 1749, Empress Maria
Theresa ordered to unite the Czech and reorganized Austrian
Chancellery into one common state institution with the
administrative and financial department (diréctorium in
public-politicis et camerabilus), and the head of foreign relations
was given to the court and state chancellery, and for the management
of judicial and legal affairs established a higher legal department,
under which a special legislative commission was organized. In the
same year, the governorship was destroyed as a body of estate
administration, and in its place a new institution was founded to
manage the administrative, political and financial: the royal
representation and the chamber. The members of this institution,
renamed (1762-1763) into the zemstvo province, were no longer
zemstvo dignitaries and judges, who were appointed from among the
zemstvo higher and lower gentry, but government officials. The
destruction of the Czech court office was the triumph of Austrian
centralization, and the abolition of the governorship marked the
introduction of a bureaucracy. Emperor Joseph II in 1783 destroyed
the old zemstvo and other courts and introduced a new system of
judicial organization based on the principle of separation of
administrative and judicial powers.
Under Emperor Leopold II,
the old zemstvo order of government was restored to some extent in
the sense that zemstvo dignitaries were appointed heads of new
institutions: the highest burgrave - the chairman of the "province",
the highest komornik - its vice-president, the highest chamberlain -
the chairman of the court of appeal, etc. This order was maintained
until 1848. Relatively few changes took place in the organization of
the Diet since the time of Ferdinand II. In 1714, an eight-member
seim commission (vý bor zemský) was established, 2 members from each
of the four state estates, which constantly sat and was in charge of
seim affairs, and especially the collection of bern and a report on
its collection. Although, in addition to the right to vote taxes and
consent to the alienation of crown estates, the Sejm over time
acquired to some extent the right to initiate legislation, but the
estates lacked either unanimity, or consciousness of common land
needs, or the ability to defend them, and therefore the government
reckoned with the Sejm. and by his estates to the extent that he
pleased. The strengthening of centralization and the development of
bureaucracy was accompanied by the violation of the rights of the
crown of St. Vaclav.
The reforms of the 18th century
destroyed the connection between the lands of the Czech crown: in
1745 a special chamber or treasury was established for the financial
management of Moravia, and during the judicial reforms of 1783 a
special court of appeal was established for Moravia and Silesia. In
1743 Maria Theresa ordered the transfer of the Czech crown to
Vienna, and her son Joseph II did not find it necessary to be
crowned with the crown of St. Vaclav. Emperor Leopold II ordered the
return of the Czech crown to Prague, where it is hitherto kept in
the chapel of St. Wenceslas as a shrine of the Czech people and a
precious guarantee of the future. Leopold II himself and all his
successors, except for Franz Joseph, were crowned with the crown of
St. Vaclav.
A private circle of Czech patriots and
scientists, who had gathered since 1769 for meetings in Prague, in
the house of Count Nostitz (on Malá Storona), received official
recognition in 1784 under the name of the Royal Czech Society of
Sciences. This is how the oldest scientific society in Austria
arose, and to this day continues to work with dignity and success in
the field of natural-mathematical and historical-philological
sciences.
In 1792, Emperor Leopold II established the Chair
of the Czech Language at the University of Prague. In 1793, 33 Czech
patriots petitioned for the introduction of the Czech language
during the debates in the Sejm. In 1818, the Czech Museum Society
was founded, all kinds of scientific collections and library of
which, over time, reached remarkable completeness and richness. In
1831, the Czech Matica was founded at the Czech museum, with the aim
of developing language and literature, as well as publishing
scholarly works written in the Czech language. This national revival
became even stronger and bore rich fruits in the second half of the
19th century, when the peasants, who made up the bulk of the Czech
people, were freed from serfdom, and the entire social and state
organization after the fall of the old order was rebuilt on broader
and free foundations.
When the European revolutions of 1848
began, there was a time of political unrest in the Czech Republic.
Gatherings and conferences of representatives of all classes of
society in Prague, which began on March 11, 1848, did not lead to an
open uprising only because of the government's compliance and the
governor's moderate mode of action.
At the same time, a
people's militia and a special people's committee were organized. At
first, the Czechs and Germans acted unanimously, but soon
differences in their aspirations and policies became apparent. The
committee, which was engaged in Frankfurt on the development of a
constitution for the entire German Empire, which included the Czech
Republic, sought to create a single state. The Czech Germans
sympathized with this, but the Czechs looked at it differently.
When the Frankfurt committee invited the historian Palacky to
take part in the meetings as a member, the latter categorically
refused this, seeing in the committee's plans a danger not only for
the Czechs, but for the entire Austrian state. Nevertheless, the
Pillersdorf Ministry ordered the election of representatives to the
Frankfurt Sejm. The People's Committee protested against these
elections, but its German members did not join this protest: they
came out of the committee and formed a separate constitutional
union. The delegates who arrived from the Frankfurt Committee
behaved arrogantly, demanding that the Czechs send deputies and even
allowing themselves threats. This caused general indignation among
the Czechs: Czech students dispersed the German constitutional
union, and the people's committee sent an invitation to all the
Slavic tribes of the Austrian state to a congress in Prague to
discuss social needs and develop a general program of action.
Elections of deputies to the Frankfurt Sejm took place only in the
districts inhabited by the Germans.
Count Thun, the governor
of the Czech Republic, a Czech patriot, without waiting for
permission from Vienna from the ministry hostile to the Czechs,
Pillersdorf, appointed elections to the Czech Diet on May 17.
Meanwhile, riots broke out in Vienna, prompting the emperor to leave
Vienna for Innsbruck. An open uprising broke out in Hungary and
Lombardy. At this critical moment for the Habsburgs, only the Slavs
remained the mainstay of the throne. In Hungary, under the
leadership of Ban Jelacic, a movement of the Slavic peoples began,
directed against the Magyar harassment, dangerous for the Slavs. In
the Czech Republic, a special council of the governor was
established, consisting of seven main members of the people's
committee, and two of its members (Rieger and Nostitz) were sent to
Innsbruck to the emperor to ask for the approval of this measure and
the appointment of the day for the opening of the sessions of the
Czech Diet. In Prague, lively and fruitful work began to boil:
meetings of the Slavic Congress took place (from June 2), and the
People's Committee successfully worked on the development of a plan
for the future Zemstvo constitution and the completion of other
preparatory work for the Czech Diet. All these good undertakings
perished due to the fault of the representatives of extreme opinions
and the young people who were passionate about them, who carried out
an uprising in Prague from June 12 to June 16.
The
commander-in-chief, Prince Windischgretz, suppressed the uprising by
force of arms (the bombing of the city on June 16) and forced the
insurgents to surrender unconditionally (June 17). The Slavic
congress dispersed without ending its sessions, the convocation of
the constitutional Czech Sejm was canceled, the people's committee
was dissolved. Instead, a few days after the pacification of Prague,
elections to the imperial Diet were held, where the Czech deputies
formed the right wing and supported the government, guarding the
integrity and independence of the state against Frankfurt and Magyar
harassment, and the Czech Germans' deputies all joined the left.
When the October Revolution broke out in Vienna, the Czech
deputies secured the continuation of the meetings of the Imperial
Diet in the Moravian city of Kromeriz (Kremzir) at the court that
had moved to Olmütz. The meetings began on November 22. A few days
later, Emperor Ferdinand renounced the throne in favor of his
18-year-old nephew Franz Joseph I (December 2, 1848). The successful
military actions of Windischgrätz against the insurgent Magyars
strengthened the government in the idea of developing a
constitution on its own: on March 4, 1849, Franz Joseph published a
constitution common to the entire state and dissolved the Sejm. Soon
the government carried out the necessary reforms: followed by the
liberation of the peasants from serfdom; a new charter for urban and
rural administration was issued; universities were given a certain
share of autonomy, etc. Radetzky's victory in Lombardy and the
suppression of the Magyar uprising with the help of Russian troops
sent by Emperor Nicholas I, persuaded the government to restore the
old order of government: on December 31, 1851, Franz Joseph
abolished the 1849 constitution, which, however, it was not
introduced. There was a general reaction (Bach's ministry), and in
the Czech Republic - persecution of journalists (imprisonment of
Havlíčka for his political satire), patronage of the Germans and
oppression of the Czech popular movement. The financial crisis and
the unfavorable outcome of the 1859 war with Sardinia and France
forced the government to change its policy.
On October 20, 1860, a
diploma was issued, known under the name of October, which
recognized the historical rights of individual lands and the
equality of the Austrian peoples on the basis of self-government.
The patent issued in pursuance of this diploma on February 26, 1861,
defining the organization of the zemstvo administration and known
under the name of the February charter, was imbued, however, with a
centralistic spirit and far from meeting the expectations of the
Czechs, who dreamed of restoring the rights of the crown of St.
Vaclav. Nevertheless, they sent their deputies both to the Zemsky
Sejm (Landtag), convened in the spring of 1861, and to the Imperial
Seimas (Reichsrat), where their deputies joined the Poles and
opposed the constitutional centralization of the Schmerling
ministry. In particular, the Czechs were dissatisfied with the
organization of the elections favorable to the Germans. Having
failed to achieve the formation of a federal majority in the
Reichsrat, the Czech deputies, protesting, left the Chamber (1863)
and concentrated their activities in the Zemstvo Sejm, where they
belonged to the majority. They pinned great hopes on the fall of the
Schmerling government and on the new Belcredi government. Indeed,
the February charter was suspended and a law was issued on the
compulsory teaching in secondary educational institutions of both
zemstvo languages (January 18, 1866). The Czech Germans called
this law compulsory (Sprachenzwangsgesetz).
As part of
Austria-Hungary
With the decentralization of the Austrian Empire
to Austria-Hungary, the Czechs did not receive autonomy, since the
Czech Germans occupied key posts in local government. However,
separately taken Czechs moved up the career ladder up to ministers.
In 1882, the University of Prague was divided into Czech and German;
the procedure for elections to the chambers of commerce and industry
was changed, and so on. Since 1883, Czech deputies have achieved a
majority in the Zemsky Sejm. Then the Zemstvo Bank was founded, a
luxurious building for the Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia was
built, the publication of sources of Czech history was started with
funds allocated by the Seim. From that time on, a particularly
fierce struggle began between the Czechs and the Czech Germans, into
which all the Slavic peoples of Austria and the German population of
all Austrian lands were gradually drawn.
During the First
World War, Czech men were drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army and
sent to the eastern front. Of those who were captured in Russia, the
Czechoslovak units that played their role in the Russian Civil War
(Revolt of the Czechoslovak Corps) were completed.
Czechoslovakia (1918-1992)
After the defeat of the German bloc as
a result of the First World War, centrifugal tendencies developed
rapidly in Austria-Hungary. The peoples' actions for
self-determination are supported by the Entente powers. By the joint
efforts of diplomats and nationalist figures, for example Masaryk
and Beneš, in 1918 the independent republic of Czechoslovakia was
created, which includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia and
Subcarpathian Rus. The actions of the Germans living in these
territories are suppressed. Tomas Masaryk becomes the first
president of Czechoslovakia. In 1935, President Masaryk resigns and
is succeeded by Edvard Beneš, who was the second president until the
communists came to power in 1948.
A fairly large ethnic
German minority lived in the Czech Republic for a long time, which
was the reason for the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, when Germany
achieved the annexation of the territory of this minority
(Sudetenland) as a result of the Munich Agreement of 1938. The
remaining Czech state was occupied by Germany in 1939 (Protectorate
of Bohemia and Moravia); at the same time, Slovakia declared its
independence. During the occupation, President Benes was in exile
and led the Resistance Movement from there.
In May 1945, the
Prague Uprising took place in Prague. On the morning of May 6, the
advanced units of the 1st division of the Committee for the
Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR) under the command of
Major General of the Russian Liberation Army S. Bunyachenko entered
the first battles with the SS at Zbraslav and Radotin, and then the
entire division entered the city, occupying the southern ones,
southwestern and western parts of Prague. At 4 o'clock in the
morning on May 9, 1945, the advance units of the 3rd Guards and 4th
Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Prague.
After World War II, Czechoslovakia fell into the Soviet sphere
of influence. President Benes was forced to resign in 1948, the
leader of the communists, Clement Gottwald, who was a typical
Stalinist and repressed even party comrades, such as G. Husak,
became president. After the death of Gottwald, Antonin Novotny came
to the leadership of the country, who carried out an amnesty and
rehabilitation of illegally convicted communists, possibly following
the example of the USSR.
In 1968, the country's leaders, led by Communist Party Secretary
Dubcek and President Svoboda, attempted to liberalize party rule and
create "socialism with a human face" during the Prague Spring, which
was halted by the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops. The country was
headed by Gustav Husak, the former leader of the Slovak communists,
who was illegally repressed during the Gottwald era. Husak's rule is
known as the era of normalization: the reforms of Dubcek and his
associates were brought to naught, and a new wave of repressions
against dissidents began in Czechoslovakia.
Until now, the
unitary state was transformed into a federation of the two republics
on January 1, 1969. However, the member republics did not have their
own constitution, and although according to the Czechoslovak
constitution each republic was required to have its own
constitutional court, this provision was never enforced during the
communist regime.
In 1985, the Dukovany nuclear power plant
was put into operation.
In November 1989, the so-called
Velvet Revolution took place - a peaceful transition from a
communist regime to democracy. It is only now that federalization
has really begun to materialize and the member states of the
federation are gradually gaining in importance.
By mid-1991,
the phased withdrawal of Soviet troops (started in February 1990)
from the territory of Czechoslovakia was completed.
On
January 1, 1993, the Czechoslovak Federation ceased to exist by a
decision of the Federal Parliament, and the two current member
republics, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, founded in
1969, became independent states. In 1992, a constitutional law was
adopted, according to which a republic could leave the federation
only on the basis of a referendum, but in the end not a single
republic left the federation, and a referendum was not held.
Modern Czech Republic
In 1995, the Czech Republic was the first
among all former socialist countries to be admitted to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The Czech
Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, and is
part of the Schengen area.