From approximately the 4th century BCE, the area of the present-day
Czech Republic was inhabited by Celtic tribes. The Celtic Boii tribe
gave the country its Latin name, Boiohaemum (Bohemia). The Celts
were driven out by Germanic tribes sometime before the Common Era.
During the 5th-6th centuries CE, the present-day Czech lands were
settled by Slavic tribes. The 9th century witnessed the rise and
fall of the Great Moravian Empire. In 863, the Byzantine Christian
missionaries Konstantin and Methodius came to Moravia and introduced
the Slavic liturgy. However, the Church of Rome gained influence,
and would prove to be a decisive force in the history of Bohemia
and Moravia.
Premysl dynasty-The
First Czech Kings
During the reign of the Premysl dynasty (9th century?1306), the
Czech lands gradually grew in strength and prominence within the
Holy Roman Empire. In 1212, Premysl Otakar I received the Golden
Bull of Sicily, a decree proclaiming Bohemia a kingdom and Bohemian
princes hereditary kings; it also declared the indivisibility of
the kingdom of Bohemia and regulated the relationship of the realm
to the Holy Roman Empire. Bohemia then became one of the most important
states within the framework of the Empire. The reign of Premysl
Otakar II (1253-1278) was characterized by a policy of expansion
of power. This expansionist tendency was continued by the following
Premysl kings. In 1306, with the murder of Wenceslas III, the Premysl
dynasty died out.
Charles IV and the
Luxembourg dynasty
The Luxembourg Dynasty (1310-1437) began with the election in 1310
of John of Luxembourg as King of Bohemia. The kingdom of Bohemia
reached its height of power and prestige during the reign of Charles
IV (1346-1378), the second Luxembourg on the throne of Bohemia.
During the reign of Charles IV, Prague underwent large-scale development
(what is known as the New Town). In 1344, the Prague Archbishopric
was founded, and in 1348 Charles IV established Charles University,
the first university founded north of the Alps. Charles IV was crowned
Holy Roman Emperor in Rome in 1355.
Hussite revolt and
reform movement
Several conditions led to the Hussite revolt and reform movement
(1419-1436). Chief among these was the economic and political crisis
that ensued during the reign of Wenceslas IV (1378-1419), the successor
to Charles IV. The crisis was exacerbated by the problems in Europe,
in particular the Great Schism and the growing criticism of and
dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church. The Hussite movement was
inspired by the teachings of Jan Hus, a preacher, reformer, and
precursor to Martin Luther. Hus openly criticized certain practices
of the Church and was burnt at the stake in 1415 at Constance for
his beliefs. The Hussite movement gained strength and followers
and became a political revolt against the Catholic Church and Holy
Roman Empire. Led by Jan Zizka, a skillful military strategist,
the Hussite armies (comprised mainly of peasant farmers) defeated
repeated attacks against them between the years 1420-1431. In 1436
the Hussite denomination gained legitimacy in an agreement with
the Holy Roman Empire. This marked the first instance of official
religious dualism in Europe and prefigured the events of the Reformation
in the 16th century. As the Church declined in power in Bohemia,
Czech nobles and towns began to prosper, and the Czech nation and
Czech culture came to the forefront. In 1458, George of Podebrady,
a skillful diplomat, was elected King of Bohemia. His reign was
characterized by his diplomatic efforts to establish a peace federation
among European sovereigns.
Jagellon dynasty
The Jagellon dynasty (1471-1526) began when Vladislav Jagellon,
a son of King Kazimir of Poland, was elected King of Bohemia. During
the reign of Vladislav and his son Louis, the power of the noble
Estates grew at the expense of royal power. Various conflicts were
underway in the Czech lands: between the royal towns and the nobles;
and between the Hussite Church and the minority Catholic Church,
which hoped to regain its former power.
The Habsburgs
The Habsburgs of Austria succeeded to the throne of Bohemia when
the Jagellon line died out. Habsburg rule over the Czech lands (1526-1918)
is one of the most dominant aspects of Czech history. Habsburg rule
brought the reintroduction of the Roman Catholic faith as the official
and majority religion, bureaucratic centralization, and the construction
of a multinational empire. During the reign of Rudolf II (1576-1611),
Prague became an important centre of European culture and scientific
discovery, after Turkish threats on Vienna caused Rudolf to move
his court and the seat of the Holy Roman Empire to Prague. The Czech
Estates, which had been increasingly consolidating power, capitalized
on the relative openness and tolerance of Rudolf II's reign and
forced him to issue a decree proclaiming the freedom of religious
confession. Rudolf's successors, Matthias and Ferdinand, tried to
limit this freedom, and their efforts sparked a civil war between
the Estates and the Catholic Emperor. The Estates were defeated
in 1620 at the Battle of the White Mountain. The following period
of the Thirty Years' War brought political disorder and economic
devastation to Bohemia, and this had far-reaching consequences on
the future development of the country. The people of Bohemia were
forced to accept the Catholic faith or to emigrate. The throne of
Bohemia was made hereditary in the Habsburg dynasty and the most
important offices were transferred permanently to Vienna. After
the end of the Thirty Years' War, high Baroque culture became deeply
rooted in Bohemia, influencing the architecture of Czech towns and
villages for several centuries. In the second half of the 18th century,
Enlightenment reforms were introduced by Maria Theresa and Joseph
II; these had various liberalizing effects on Czech society, but
also contributed to the increased centralization of power and to
the increased Germanization of the Czech lands.
Czech national revival
Although the Czech national revival movement aspired at first only
to a revival of the Czech language and culture, it soon began to
strive for political emancipation. In the revolutionary year 1848,
Czech politicians made the first coherent political propositions
aimed at rebuilding the empire into a federalist state. The desire
for national emancipation was supported by the rapid industrialization
of Bohemia, which made the country the most developed part of Habsburg
monarchy in the second half of the 19th century. The national revival
movement was led by a cadre of artists and intellectuals and grew
in strength until the outset of the First World War.
Birth of an independent
state
During World War I, Czech politics took a turn towards radicalism
as a result of the activities abroad of Tomas G. Masaryk and Eduard
Benes, who saw the war as the best chance for the birth of an independent
state. The defeat of Austria-Hungary cleared the way for the foundation
of an independent state of Czechs and Slovaks, which took place
on 28 October 1918, with the direct support of US President Woodrow
Wilson and the League of Nations. The Czechoslovak Republic at its
founding was one of the ten most developed countries of the world.
Masaryk served as the country's first president, until his death
in 1935. Eduard Benes succeeded him as president.
WWII
Twenty years of democracy and prosperity (the First Republic) came
to an end with the Munich Agreement and subsequent occupation by
Hitler's Germany in March 1939. During the war, Czechoslovakia was
dismembered, with Slovakia becoming an independent puppet state
and the Czech lands incorporated into a protectorate of the Third
Reich. The war years saw the almost complete destruction of Jewish
life in the Czech lands.
Communism & 1989
In elections held in 1946, the Communist Party gained the most
votes of any other party (36%) and formed a coalition government.
In February 1948, the Communists essentially seized power, and with
this Czechoslovakia fell firmly under the Soviet sphere. Private
property was expropriated and political and human rights were suppressed.
In 1968, the Prague Spring reform movement's attempt to change and
humanize communism and to weaken ties to the Soviet Union failed
when the Soviet Army invaded the country on August 21st. This ushered
in the period known as "normalization," a period of renewed repression
and enforced conformity. Many Czechs and Slovaks, particularly members
of the intelligentsia, emigrated to the West in the following years.
Resistance to communism centreed around a small group of dissidents
led by the playwright and essayist Vaclav Havel. The gradual decay
of the Communist regime and the Soviet empire, brought about by
Mikhail Gorbachov's reform policies, eventually inspired mass protests
against the Czechoslovak Communist regime in November 1989. These
demonstrations, known as the Velvet Revolution, led to the election
of Vaclav Havel as president of Czechoslovakia in 1990.
Velvet divorce
On January 1, 1993, the Czechoslovak state was peacefully divided and independent Czech and Slovak Republics were founded. The Czech Republic joined NATO in March 1999 and the European Union on 1 May 2004. Slovakia has also been a member of NATO since March 2004 and joined the EU on the same day as the Czech Republic (1 May 2004).
