At the time of the 1991 census, the total population of the Czech Republic was 10,302,215 the 2003 e

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At the time of the 1991 census, the total
population of the Czech Republic was 10,302,215
the 2003 estimate was 10,249,216.
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Bohemian-Moravian Highlands The Bohemian-Moravian
Highlands, pictured here, cover much of the
central part of the Czech Republic. The region
comprises elevated plains, plateaus, and low
hills and is bordered by several mountain ranges.
A significant proportion of the countrys
agriculture takes place here.
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Czech History

• Czechs before 1815
• 5th century Slavic migration from across
  Carpathians, Western Slavs
  
• 9th century, brief, shadowy Great Moravian
  Empire, including Slovakia
  
• Beginning 10th century, kingdom of
  Bohemia-Moravia
  
• First Bohemian (Czech) dynasty, the Premysl
  family
  
• Notable King Wenceslas (Vaclav), 10th century
  nobleman
  
• In 950 Bohemia was forced to recognize German
  supremacy and become part of the Holy Roman
  Empire. Issued in a number of imported
  dynasties Luxemburgs, Jagellonians, Habsburgs
• From 1310 to 1437 the country was ruled by kings
  of the house of Luxembourg.
  
• The Hussites, a Bohemian religious group that in
  many ways prefigured the Protestants of the 16th
  century, rebelled against the authority of the
  Roman Catholic church, seen as German. This led
  to foreign intervention and a long period of
  warfare (see Hussite Wars). The Bohemians were
  forced to accept a compromise agreement with the
  church in 1436. Hussite Czechs gain sense of
  ethnic-linguistic uniqueness
• A line of Hungarian kings ruled Bohemia between
  1471 and 1526. Conquest of Hungary by Ottoman
  Turks forced Bohemian nobles to seek protection
  from Habsburg rulers.

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Hradcany, Prague Dominating Pragues skyline, Hra
dcany (Prague Castle) sits above the part of the
city known as the Lesser Quarter, which lies on
the western side of the Vltava River. Once the
residence of the kings of Bohemia, the castle now
houses the offices and official residence of the
president of the Czech Republic.
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Prague, Czech Republic Prague is the capital, lar
gest city, and commercial and cultural center of
the independent Czech Republic. It has been a
cultural and economic center since the 13th
century, when its old town was built. Its new
town was constructed a century later, making
Prague the second largest European city, after
Paris, during the 14th century. Though the city
suffered damage from German occupation during
World War II and Soviet occupation in the late
1960s, many historical and cultural institutions
were spared. As a result, Prague remains one of
the most beautiful and historic European cities.
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Street Scene in Prague One of the loveliest citie
s in Europe, Prague has become a popular tourist
destination. Because it escaped being bombed in
World War II (1939-1945), the picturesque
architecture was preserved. Here, an artist
attempts to capture the spirit of a Prague street.
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• Habsburg Rule, 1526-1918
• 16th and 17th century Reformation and
  Counter-Reformation. Czechs moving toward
  Protestantism rebel against counter-reformation
  of Habsburg rulers in 1618. Rebellion symbolized
  by the event Defenestration of Prague, when
  angry Czechs threw two representatives of the
  Habsburgs out a window, was the immediate cause
  of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). The Battle
  of the White Mountain (1620) restored the
  Habsburgs and was followed by the merciless
  extirpation of Protestantism, the suppression of
  all national privileges, and the enforced use of
  German as the national language.
• Habsburg embarked on rigorously
  re-Catholicization and the Czech language and
  culture marginalized, Czech noble lands
  redistributed to German nobles.
• Native resistence, i.e. beginnings of a Czech
  cultural nationalism, begins in late 18th
  century. Czech National Awakening.
  
• Bohemian nobility, mostly of foreign origin
  cultivated a territorial patriotism Czech
  linguistical and historical scholars cultivate
  Czech cultural formsDobrovsky, a philologist
  SafarikSlavic ethnology Moravian historian,
  Palacky. Bring Czechness to masses. Palacky,
  History of the Czech Nation in Bohemia and
  Moravia
• 1848. Beginnings of Czech political nationalism,
  greater autonomy or independence in Empire
  
• 1867. Ausgleich or Compromise. Reconfigured
  Habsburg monarchy into Dual Monarchy. Czechs
  fear marginalization in Austria-Hungary
  
• Economic, Social and Cultural Spheres
• Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia important to
  industrialization process in Dual Monarchy. Coal
  and Iron industries Sugar, flour and beer
  glass, porcelain, and textiles. Urbanization
  accelarating, free and compulsory system of
  primary education. On eve of WWI, ascendant
  middle class
• Charles University(14th century) one of first
  universities to accept women. Strongest feminist
  movement in Europe. Tomas Masaryk, first
  president of Czechoslovakia, advocate for womens
  suffrage.
• Cultural sphere. Music Smetana and Dvorak

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• 1914-1938
• During World War I (1914-1918) Tomá Garrigue
  Masaryk and other Czech leaders began to advocate
  the idea of an independent state for Czechs and
  Slovaks, and worked to increase support for their
  cause among Czechs and Slovaks living abroad. In
  1918 the war ended, the empire of Austria-Hungary
  collapsed, and the independent state of
  Czechoslovakia was created, bringing Czechs and
  Slovaks together in a common state for the first
  time in modern history. The new republic included
  Bohemia and Moravia, part of Silesia, and
  Slovakia the eastern region of Ruthenia became
  part of Czechoslovakia the following year.
• Czechoslovakia becomes democratic republic,
  universal suffrage. Masaryk served as president
  of the republic from its founding until 1935,
  when he was succeeded by Edvard Bene.
• 1920s and early 1930s Czechoslovakia was
  remarkably stable, strong industrial base in
  Czech lands. Slovakia predominately agricultural
  and rural. Domestic problem, the national
  question. Disaffection among the countrys
  other national groups, the Slovaks and the
  Sudeten Germans. Poverty, unemployment, and
  frustration over the predominant role played by
  Czechs in the countrys political and economic
  life led many Slovaks to emigrate from
  Czechoslovakia or join nationalist Slovak
  movements.
• Resentment was even stronger among the countrys
  German population, most of whom lived in the
  Sudetenland on Czechoslovakias western border.
  Unhappy with their loss of status following the
  collapse of Austria-Hungary and the impact of
  Czechoslovak laws on their economic situation,
  many Sudeten Germans came to support extreme
  nationalist parties and the policies of Nazi
  Germany

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• WWII
• In September 1938, Munich Conference. Nazi
  Germany, Fascist Italy, France and Great Britain
  agree to dismemberment of CZ. Appeasement of
  Germany. Czechoslovak leaders relied on their
  French and British allies to resist Hitlers
  pressure. The French and British decided to
  appease Hitler. Faced with desertion by his
  allies, President Bene agreed to German demands.
  Later that year, Hungary and Poland claimed other
  parts of Czechoslovakia.
• March 1939. Faced with the threat of being
  divided by Germany, Poland, and Hungary, Slovak
  leaders decided to withdraw from the republic and
  declare independence. The Slovak state created in
  March 1939 copied the policies of Germany and had
  little real independence. Meanwhile, German
  forces invaded and occupied Bohemia and Moravia,
  claiming the entire region as a protectorate.
  World War II broke out several months later. In
  July 1940 Bene, who had resigned as president in
  1938, established a government in exile in
  London.
• Occupation and Resistance. Although the Czech
  people suffered greatly under German occupation,
  loss of life among Czechs during World War II was
  relatively minor compared to that of other
  nations. Resistance broke with German atrocity at
  Lidice.
• The Jewish population of the Czech lands was
  virtually annihilated, however. More than 70,000
  Czech Jews were killed by the Nazis between 1939
  and 1945.
• May 1945 USSR liberates most of Czechoslovakia.
  From 1945 until February 1948, Czechoslovakia
  enjoyed a form of limited political pluralism.
  While leaders of the Communist Party held many
  important government positions, other political
  parties were also represented. During this
  period, the government nationalized a number of
  major industries and expelled large numbers of
  Germans and Hungarians from their homes.

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• Communist Czechoslovakia
• 1948. In the 1946 elections, the Communist
  Party won 38 percent of the vote, a higher
  percentage than any other party. In February 1948
  the Communists provoked a crisis that led to the
  resignation of non-Communist government ministers
  and the formation of a new Communist-dominated
  government. President Bene resigned soon
  afterward, and was replaced by Communist Party
  leader Klement Gottwald.
• Stalinization. Political parties were outlawed
  or subordinated to the Communist Party. Single
  party rule and fusion of party and
  stateparty-state. The secret police became
  increasingly powerful. Economic decision-making
  was centralized, and almost all economic assets
  became state property. Farmers were forced to
  enter collective farms. And government censorship
  of the press and various forms of artistic
  expression became widespread. National Communism
  suppressed. In 1957, Antonin Novotný assumes the
  presidency in 1957.
• The Prague Spring . During the 1960s the
  country experienced a decline in economic
  performance. In 1968 a Slovak named Alexander
  Dubcek became the head of the Communist Party.
  Dubcek introduced a program of liberal reforms
  known as the Prague Spring or socialism with a
  human face in an attempt to find a form of
  socialism better suited to Czechoslovakia. The
  press was given greater freedom, citizens were
  granted opportunities to participate in politics,
  and steps were taken to decentralize the economy.
  The USSR feared that the reforms would weaken
  Communist control of Czechoslovakia, and on
  August 20 of that year, the Soviet Army, assisted
  by troops from other Warsaw Pact nations, invaded
  Czechoslovakia and halted the liberalization
  process. In April 1969 Gustav Husák replaced
  Dubcek as head of the Communist Party. Many
  intellectuals and party leaders who had supported
  liberalization lost their positions as well.
  Húsak reestablished tight party control and
  censorship of the press, and the Communist Party
  came to dominate political life once again.
  Brezhnev Doctrine

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Tanks in Prague, 1968 In early 1968 liberalizing
political and cultural reforms known as the
Prague Spring took place in Czechoslovakia.
Leaders of the Soviet Union were threatened by
the reforms, and in August they sent Warsaw Pact
troops to occupy the country. In Prague,
residents stoically resisted, but the occupation
eventually managed to reestablish a tightly
controlled Communist state loyal to the Soviet
Union.
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• Normalization and Velvet Revolution
• During the 1970s the Communist leadership of
  Czechoslovakia attempted to gain popular support
  and preserve political stability by raising the
  standard of living. They also used force and
  coercion against people who opposed the regime.
  Between 1969-1971, the Communist Party, now under
  the leadership of Gustáv Husák, embarked upon a
  series of purges that resulted in the removal of
  500,000 party members from its ranks of 1.5
  million. In addition between 250,000 and 750,000
  people lost their jobs. No one was spared
  because of privilege or political connections.In
  these conditions, most people withdrew from
  public life.
• A small but important group of dissidents
  (political protesters) openly opposed the regime.
  Charter 77 and the Committee to Defend the
  Unjustly Persecuted (known by its Czech acronym,
  VONS) became the most important dissident
  organizations. Charter 77 was a simple text
  asserting that the Czechoslovak government had
  signed the International Covenant on Civil and
  Political Rights at Helsinki in 1975 and that
  this covenant, known as the Helsinki Accords,
  bound the regime to respect the rights of
  Czechoslovak citizens. The Charter listed the
  regime's many infringements of basic human
  rights. Most famous Czech dissident, Vaclav
  Havel.
• During the mid-1980s, winds of change were
  blowing in from the Soviet Union. Mikhail
  Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet
  Communist Party and began to speak about
  restructuring the Soviet economy(perestroika) and
  openly discussing the problems facing the Soviet
  state and its allies(glasnost). The signals from
  Moscow were that leaders in the Soviet Bloc
  countries should embark on their own policies for
  reform. Some countries, like Poland and Hungary,
  welcomed these calls for reform of state
  socialism and moved in this direction as quickly
  as possible. Husák and the top leadership of the
  Czechoslovak Communist party shunned glasnost and
  perestroika, making the case that they had tried
  reform in 1968 and it had led to chaos.
• November 1989. Revolution came to Czechoslovakia
  in November 1989 when the resistance of and
  dissidence from the East Germans, Poles and
  Hungarians finally proved contagious to Czechs
  and Slovaks. Responding to the events of their
  neighbors, students, dissidents, and city
  dwellers took to the streets of Prague in
  mid-November and refused to retreat, even under
  brutal police repression. It was finally time
  for the fragmented opposition to come together
  and create an umbrella organization to coordinate
  their activities. On November 19, 1989, Civic
  Forum was formed and Havel emerged as its leader
  Momentum was in favor of the opposition and on
  November 25, 1989, 750,000 people attended a
  rally in Prague. In a matter of weeks, Husák
  resigned as the country's president and Havel was
  swept into office on the basis of a unanimous
  vote by the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly on
  December 29, 1989.

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• The Breakup of Czechoslovakia
• June 1990. The first free elections since 1946.
  Havels Civic Forum wins majority of seats. in
  Slovakia, a Vladimír Meciar led coalition wins.
  The parliament reelected Havel as president in
  July. Freedom of the press and other political
  freedoms were restored and laws were passed to
  remove the legacy of Communism from the legal
  system.
• Economic Reforms. Market economic reforms. In
  the early 1990s a mass privatization program went
  into effect with the goal of shifting large
  numbers of state-owned companies into private
  hands. Citizen voucher privatization plan trade
  for shares of stock in companies.
• Reorientation. Established good relations with
  the United States and Czechoslovakias Western
  European neighbors and eventually joined
  international organizations such as the European
  Community (now the European Union or EU) and the
  North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
• The Velvet Divorce. Tensions developed between
  Czech and Slovak leaders. Economic reform
  produced greater hardship in Slovakia. than it
  was in the more economically developed Czech
  lands. Disagreed about how power should be
  divided between the federal and republican
  governments. These differences complicated the
  reform process and prevented the adoption of a
  new constitution. Disagreements between the two
  republics came to a head in the June 1992
  parliamentary elections. The right-of-center
  Civic Democratic Party, led by Václav Klaus, won
  the elections in the Czech lands, while Vladimír
  Meciars left-of-center Movement for a Democratic
  Slovakia won the largest share of the votes in
  Slovakia. Disagreements between the republics
  intensified, and In 1992, Slovakia declared its
  sovereigntyIn January 1993 the Czechoslovak
  federation was replaced by two new independent
  states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

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• The Czech Republic after Independence
• Václav Havel was elected president of the new
  Czech Republic and Václav Klaus, prime minister.
  By the end of 1994, an estimated 70 percent of
  industry had been privatized. By mid-1990s, the
  inflation level dropped, unemployment remained
  low, and the country attracted sizable amounts of
  foreign investment.
• Some of the policies of Klauss government,
  including its reform of the social welfare system
  unpopular and in mid-1990s a bit of parliamentary
  instability but Klaus prevails until financial
  scandal in 1997. President Havel was reelected in
  January 1998 to a second five-year term. Havel,
  who had earned enemies with his public criticism
  of Klaus, won by a narrow margin in parliament.
• Since 1998, Social Democrats have fronted the
  government. In February 2003 Klaus was elected
  president of the Czech Republic by the national
  parliament. Klaus succeeded Havel, who was barred
  by the constitution from seeking a third term in
  office.