The History of the Czech Republic Timeline
The Czech Republic, one of the most modern states in the world, was born on 01.01.1993. It consists of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, traditionally historical countries of the Czech Crown. The territory, with 78.8 thousand km2 of extension, is surrounded by border mountain systems on all sides and is located in the very heart of Europe. The inner part of the territory consists fundamentally of the plateaus and rolling plains of the Bohemian massif and by the depressions and plains of the Bohemian plane. River currents drain into the North Sea, Baltico and Black. The longest rivers are the Vltava and the Elbe. Mixed and coniferous forests cover 1/3 of the total area.
HISTORY ON CZECH REPUBLIC
Total Area of Czech Republic: 78,867.00 km 2,
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Land Area: 77,247.00 km 2
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Water Area: 1,620.00 km 2
Capital of Czech Republic: Prague
Currency of Czech Republic: Czech koruna (CZK)
LANGUAGE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
The official language is Czech, but Slovak is also widely spoken. English and German are also very common.
Religion Ratio In The Czech Republic
| Rank | Religion | Population Adhering (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Undeclared | 44.7 |
| 2 | No religion | 34.5 |
| 3 | Catholic Church | 10.5 |
| 4 | Believers who do not identify with any religion | 6.8 |
| 5 | Other Christian Churches | 1.1 |
| 6 | Protestantism | 1.0 |
| 7 | Other | 0.7 |
Prehistory of Czech Republic
Archaeologists have found evidence of prehistoric human settlements in the area, dating back to the Paleolithic era. The Venus of Dolní Věstonice, dated between 29,000 and 25,000 BC. C., along with some others from nearby places, is the oldest known ceramic artifact in the world.
In the classical era, as a result of the Celtic migrations of the third century BC, Bohemia became associated with the Boii. The Boii founded a city on the site of modern Prague; Some of its ancient ruins are now a tourist attraction. According to a 2000 study by Semino, 35.6% of Czech males have a Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b, which is common among Celts but rare among Slavs. Some modern Czechs claim that the people are as descended from the Boii as they are from the later Slavic invaders (as well as from the historical Germanic peoples of the Czech lands).
Later, in the first century, the Germanic tribes of the Marcomanni and the Quadi settled there. Its king Maroboduus is the first documented ruler of Bohemia. During the migration period around the fifth century, many Germanic tribes moved west and south out of Central Europe. Most of the names of Czech rivers are Celtic or of Old Germanic origin, dating from usage in those years.
Slavs from the Black Sea-Carpathian region settled in the area (their migration was pushed by an invasion of peoples from Siberia and Eastern Europe to their area: Huns, Avars, Bulgarians and Magyars). In the sixth century, they moved westward to Bohemia, Moravia and some of present-day Austria and Germany.
THE FIRST CZECHS
From 400 BC, the current Czech Republic was inhabited by a Celtic race. The Romans called them the Boii and gave their name to Bohemia. Around 100 AD a Germanic people called the Marcomanni conquered the area. The Romans traded with the Marcomanni and sometimes fought with them, but they never conquered this part of the world.
In the sixth century a Slavic people entered what is now the Czech Republic. According to legend, a man named Cech guided them. However, for centuries they were only a collection of tribes, not a single united people.
However, in the ninth century a people called the Moravians on the border of the Czech Republic and Slovakia created an empire in Central Europe. It was called the Great Moravian Empire and included what is now the Czech Republic, Slovakia and parts of Germany and Poland.
German missionaries began to convert the people of the empire to Christianity. Then the ruler Ratislav (846-870) asked the Byzantine emperor to send missionaries. He sent St. Methodius and St. Cyril.
Wenceslaus inherited the throne of Bohemia (Czech Republic) in 921 when he was 14 years old. When he came of age he tried to convert his people to Christianity. However, the people led by his brother Boleslav opposed him. In 929 Wenceslaus was assassinated.
He was later canonized (declared a saint). Moreover, the march of Christianity could not be stopped and soon all of Bohemia was converted. The Moravian Empire reached its apogee under the Svatopluk (871-894). However, in 896 a fierce people from the east called Magyars invaded the country. They conquered Slovakia, but the Czechs remained independent.
CZECHS IN THE MIDDLE AGES
In addition, the different tribes of the present-day Czech Republic gradually united under the dynasty of the Premyslids. However, the Germans eclipsed them. In 950 Bohemia became part of the Holy Roman Empire. What was this empire? The Christian writer Augustine claimed that God created the Roman Empire for the good of mankind.
He said there should be an empire led by an emperor, just as there was a church headed by the Pope. In the early ninth century, a man named Charlemagne conquered most of western and central Europe. He claimed to be the successor of the ancient Roman emperors (although his empire did not include Rome).
After his death, his empire was divided into three parts. The eastern part eventually became Germany. However, the ruler of the Eastern past kept the title of emperor. Over time, his kingdom became known as the Holy Roman Empire. However, it soon became a patchwork of states and the emperor had little power.
The Czechs resisted any interference by the emperors in their internal affairs. In the thirteenth century prospered Bohemia (Czech Republic). Silver and gold were discovered and mining became an important industry. German settlers, artisans, farmers and miners were encouraged to come and live in Bohemia. Peoples and commerce flourished.
The Premyslid dynasty ended in 1306 when Vaclav III was assassinated. Eventually the Czech nobles offered the throne to John of Luxembourg, husband of Vaclav’s sister. The fourteenth century was a golden age for the Czechs. John, who ruled until 1346, spent most of his time abroad, but his son Charles or Karel IV was a great ruler.
Under him, Bohemia became rich and powerful. In 1355 he was elected Holy Roman Emperor. In 1356 he issued a golden bull confirming that the Holy Roman Empire was a community of sovereign states and not a single empire. Charles introduced more efficient farming methods from France.
This, along with its gold and silver mines, made Bohemia prosperous. Charles built many new public buildings and under his direction the arts flourished. In addition, in 1348 Charles founded a university in Prague – the first in Central Europe.
LUXEMBOURGS ON THE CZECH THRONE
After the death of the last Přemyslid king Wenceslas III, the Czech nobility decided for several years who to choose as the Czech king. The Czech lands found themselves in the midst of chaos. The shock of the king’s murder was accompanied by the arrogance of the powerful lords, the decline of the country and its impoverishment. Perhaps the chance loomed with the person of Rudolf of Habsburg. The Czech crown was legitimately claimed by Anna’s husband, The sister of Wenceslas III, Henry of Carinthia. But he was weak and incompetent. Already a month after his election, the Habsburg army stood in front of Prague.
Henry quickly disappeared from the country and Rudolf of Habsburg ascended the throne. He married a young queen, the widow Eliška Rejčka. In the first six months of his reign, he was very sensible. He was cold, decisive and energetic. Thrift and economy reigned in the yard. Among the Czechs, he earned the derisive nickname King Kaše. In the spring of 1307 he went to battle against the rebellious West Bohemian nobility. At Horažďovice he fell ill with dysentery and died. Henry of Carinthia returned to Bohemia and with him confusion.
In 1310 she elected To the Czech throne Duke John of Luxembourg, son of the Roman-German king Henry VII. In the same year, Jan married the sister of the last Přemyslid, Eliška. However, the Kingdom of Bohemia was completely foreign to John of Luxembourg. He did not know domestic manners, nor did he understand the needs of the country.
Eliška and Jan had a son Wenceslas – the future King Charles IV. We can boldly say about him that he was the most important Czech ruler. His reign is one of the most glorious in our history. He ensured peace for the country, deserved many important buildings, founded a university. By generously building the New Town of Prague, he made Prague one of the largest cities in Europe at that time. After the death of Charles IV, his son Wenceslas IV ascended the throne. His name is associated with the birth of the Hussite revolution.
HUSSITE WARS
During the reign of Wenceslas IV, our country experienced decline. The nobility fights with the king and among themselves. The king got into a dispute with his brother Sigismund. The plague struck the country, the life of the poor worsened, the powerful oppressed the weak. The Church became immensely rich and controlled people’s daily lives. Many priests lived in luxury and did not fulfill their duties. The master of the University of Prague, Jan Hus, in his fiery sermons, admonished the lords and the common people to live according to God’s commandments.
He also sharply criticized priests, bishops and other “servants of God.” At that time, a church council was convened in the city of Constance, to which Jan Hus was invited to defend that his teaching was not directed against the Church, that he was not a heretic.
Jan Hus refused to retract his views here, so he was burned at the stake on the banks of the Rhine on 6 July 1415. His death aroused great indignation in Bohemia. Hus’s supporters came out against their opponents with arms in hand. The Utraquists became ruthless and long invincible warriors, before whom the whole of Europe literally trembled. The Hussites, led by Žižka and Prokop Holý, won over their enemies, but the Hussite wars ravaged our country. The Kalisniks also destroyed many cities, churches and valuable monuments.
CZECH LANDS – PART OF AUSTRIA
Even in the 18th century, social relations prevailed, which were based on the domination of the nobility and the church. Gradually, the bourgeoisie began to assert itself more and more. Craftsmanship and trade developed, new scientific discoveries were made. New inventions were introduced into agriculture and handicrafts.
Maria Theresa began to push for changes in her state after many lost wars. Her son Joseph II continued the sensible Enlightenment government. The Enlightenment period did not bring complete freedom and freedom, but its contribution made serfs free citizens. But the reforms were only gradually reflected in the life of the common people in the countryside.
At the end of the 18th century and in the first half of the 19th century, a national revival took place. Patriots performed in defense of the Czech homeland, began to publish Czech books, play plays in Czech. Museums also played a big role. Ordinary people increasingly participated in the national revival – they founded amateur theatres, reading societies and patriotic circles.
CZECH REPUBLIC IN WORLD WAR I
Czech Republic in first world war: The expansion of the Czech nation also continued at the beginning of the 20th century. The Czechs sought to extend their rights, although they had not yet demanded independence and the creation of their own state. However, the situation changed after the outbreak of the 1st World War in 1914. The Czech public accepted the war with reluctance – the Czechs did not want to go fight for the emperor. The resistance was compounded by the fact that Czech soldiers were deployed on the Eastern Front against the Russians, to whom they were bound by the old Slavic tradition. That is why many Czech soldiers preferred to go into Russian captivity.
Life during the war deteriorated greatly. Many Czech newspapers and magazines ceased to be published. School textbooks did not avoid interventions either. The activity of Sokol was banned. Many Czech politicians were imprisoned. A rationing system was introduced for food and certain types of consumer goods. Throughout the war, food prices rose because there was not enough of it. War brought with it hunger and misery.
Our politicians abroad spoke out against the continued stay of the Czech lands in Austria-Hungary. The foreign resistance bet on an armed struggle against Austria. Czechoslovak legions were formed abroad, joined by Czechs and Slovaks who were in captivity here. The legions, together with the Entente powers, fought against Austria-Hungary and Germany.
With the end of the war, Austria-Hungary began to disintegrate. The Western Allies, together with the United States of America, agreed to the disintegration and thus allowed the establishment of an independent Czechoslovakia.
CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC
History of Czech Republic and Slovakia: The Czechoslovak Republic consisted of four countries: Bohemia (the capital city of Prague), Moravia and Silesia (Brno), Slovakia (Bratislava) and Carpathian Ruthenia (Uzhhorod). It had a democratic order, headed by a president. Elected representatives of the citizens participated in the government. All privileges of the nobility were abolished. The basis of the state became a new constitution, which introduced the equality of all citizens regardless of property, religion and nationality. In addition to Czechs and Slovaks, many Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Ruthenians and Ukrainians lived in the new republic. Women also achieved full equality with men.
The individual countries of the Czechoslovak Republic were not equally economically advanced. The czech lands were the most industrially developed, Slovakia was less so and Carpathian Ruthenia was the poorest. Under the Made in Czechoslovakia brand, machines, weapons, glass, textiles, shoemaking goods and other products were exported from Czechoslovakia over the years. Czechoslovakia soon became one of the most advanced industrial states in Europe.
Agriculture has also taken a big step forward. Most of the estates, formerly in the hands of the nobility and the church, were distributed to small peasants. Agricultural products have become known in the world for Czech sugar, beer and hops.
CZECK REPUBLIC WORLD WAR II
For Czechoslovakia, World War II began and ended with the West leaving them. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Hitler’s Germany, the Germans fell into the lap of great armament and a highly developed economy capable of producing additional weapons.
In September 1939, the German army invaded the territory of Poland. Gradually, it attacked other states, attacked England by air. After the first successes, Germany was joined by Italy, Japan and several smaller European states. The invaders’ attempts to dominate other states were opposed by a group of great powers led by the US, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. The most terrible war in the history of mankind has begun.
In the Protectorate, the German occupiers imposed terror. They ordered the hanging of flags with a swastika on public buildings. Renamed street names. Everything that resembled the Czechoslovak Republic had to be removed, whether it was the national emblem or the statue of T. G. Masaryk. Listening to foreign radio was punishable by harsh punishments, even the death penalty. According to Germany, the streets began to drive on the right (until then it was driven on the left). Any expression of disapproval of the occupiers was severely punished. People lived in fear. The Germans even planned to displace Czech residents on islands in the Arctic Ocean.
A particularly cruel fate befell the Jews. The Germans persecuted them and wanted to exterminate them. They were concentrated in concentration camps, where most of them were martyred. A similar fate befell the Czech Gypsies.
Velvet Revolution and the European Union
What is different between Czechoslovakia and Czeck Republic? In November 1989, Czechoslovakia returned to a liberal democracy through the peaceful “Velvet Revolution” (led by Václav Havel and his Civic Forum). However, Slovak national aspirations were strengthened (Hyphen War) and on 1 January 1993, the country was peacefully divided into the independent countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both countries went through economic reforms and privatizations, with the intention of creating a market economy. This process was largely successful; in 2006, the World Bank recognized the Czech Republic as a “developed country”, and in 2009 the Human Development Index classified it as a “Very High Human Development” nation.
THE CZECH REPUBLIC HISTORY TIMELINE
Why Czechoslovakia split? The Velvet Revolution was followed by the Velvet Divorce. Czechs and Slovaks were two very different people with different histories. In June 1992, the Movement for a Democratic Slovakia won the elections and pushed for Slovakia’s independence.
The Czechs and Slovaks quickly reached an agreement and on 1 January 1993 Czechoslovakia seceded into two states, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The first President of the Czech Republic was Vaclav Havel. In 1999 the Czech Republic joined NATO. In 2004 it joined the EU.
CHRONOLOGU OF CZECH REPUBLIC COUNTRY
Czech History 1918–2013
- 10. 1918
- Independent Czechoslovak Republic proclaimed.
- Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937) and his closest collaborators Edvard Beneš (1884–1948) and Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880–1919) were credited with the establishment of the independent Czechoslovak state.
- T. G. Masaryk was elected the first president.
1929–1933
- World Economic Crisis
1933
- Adolf Hitler established a fascist dictatorship.
1935
- Resignation of President Masaryk; E. Beneš was elected as the second president.
1938
- Munich Agreement of the Four Great Powers between Hitler and representatives of England (Chamberlain), France (Daladier) and Italy (Mussolini) – Czechoslovakia was forced to cede the border territory of the Sudetenland to Germany.
- 3. 1939
- The occupation of Czechoslovakia by the German army began (1939–1945), and the autonomous Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed in the occupied territory.
September 1939–1945
- World War II; foreign and domestic resistance
May 1942
- The assassination of the Reich Protector in Prague, Reinhard Heydrich, was committed – a period of terror followed, the so-called Heydrichiad; Lidice and Ležáky were razed to the ground, many people were executed.
5.–9. 5. 1945
- The Prague Uprising broke out.
- 5. 1945
- Signing of the unconditional surrender of Germany in Berlin.
- 5. 1945
- Liberation of Prague by the Red Army
- During the war, Czechoslovakia lost 360,000 inhabitants, i.e. 25 citizens out of 1,000
- In terms of the size of the losses per capita, it was among the five most affected in Europe
August 1945
- Potsdam Conference – the decision of the three great powers (Russia, the USA and Great Britain) to transfer the German population from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary to Germany
February 1948
- Victorious February – a government crisis broke out and a communist coup took place: President E. Beneš appointed a new government headed by the communist Klement Gottwald, then the president refused to sign an undemocratic constitution and resigned and Klement Gottwald was elected as the new president.
1950
- Political trials (General Heliodor Píka, Milada Horáková and others)
1967
- Alexander Dubček was elected the new Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia – he became a symbol of the so-called Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Prague Spring
- 8. 1968
- The occupation of Czechoslovakia by the troops of five Warsaw Pact states as a reaction to the revival process of the Prague Spring – reform and democratic development was stopped, A. Dubček was replaced by Gustáv Husák and a period of so-called normalization (renewal of the pro-Soviet regime) followed.
1977
- Declaration of Charter 77, an opposition civic movement
- 11. 1989
- Protest demonstrations against the regime, the so-called Velvet Revolution
December 1989
- Václav Havel elected President of the Republic
1991
- In May, the departure of the occupying troops from Czechoslovakia; CSFR admitted to the Council of Europe
- 1. 1993
- Establishment of an independent Czech Republic (by dividing Czechoslovakia). Václav Havel was elected president and won again in the 1997 elections.
January 19, 1993
- Admission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations
- 3. 1999
- The Czech Republic has been admitted to NATO.
- Its army has participated in NATO operations in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, for example.
2003
- Václav Klaus elected President of the Czech Republic.
- He was elected for the second time in 2008.
- 5. 2004
- Accession of the Czech Republic to the European Union
2013
- Miloš Zeman elected President of the Czech Republic
REFERENCES
🇨🇿 History of the Czech Republic ▷ Brief summary history of the Czechs (quehistoria.com)
History of the Czech Republic (chequia.cz)
History, language and culture of the Czech Republic – Plan your trip (planificatuviaje.es)
Czech Republic – History (preguntaz.com)
Czech Republic – History (estranky.cz)
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