ABOUT Czech Republic
Country Briefs: The beautiful nation, Czech Republic lies in the central Europe, to the southeast of Germany. Czech republic is a neighbor to Poland in the north, to Austria in south, Germany in northwest and west and Slovakia in the east.
Czech Republic is a densely populated state. At an area of not more than seventy-eight thousand it has a population of more than ten million.
One of the biggest attractions of Czech Republic is its capital city, Prague. Prague is the largest city of this nation. It alone nestles a population around 1.2 million people. Prague, also known as the Golden City is categorized among most beautiful cities of the world. Prague is also a paradigm evidence of the history of the Czech nation.
When we ponder over the history of Czech Republic we find that settlement commenced in this country in the Neolithic era. The Celts and Boiis came here in 3rd century BC and they were followed by the Germanic tribes of Marcomanni and Quadi in the 1st century.
Apart from breathtaking scenic splendor and worth visiting cities, Cyprus has a rich history too. According to historians the island was inhabited more than 10,000 years ago.
The Czech state or Bohemian state came up in the 9th century after its unification by the Premyslids. During the Middle Ages the Kingdom of Bohemia was an important local power in central Europe. It remained a part of the Holy Roman Empire for a long time.
Around 15th century Bohemia became the arena for many religious wars. Prominent among these were the Hussite Wars in 15th century and Thirty Years of War in 17th century. These wars lead to widespread destruction of both, lives and infrastructure. As a result of these conflicts Bohemia came under the Habsburg influence and became a part of Austria-Hungary.
But the Austrian-Hungary Empire buckled during the First World War due to which an independent republic of Czechoslovakia was created in 1918.
The population of Czechoslovakia comprised mainly of Germans, Hungarians and polish minorities yet the primary language of the country was German.
But peace did not prevail in Czechoslovakia. The centralistic states did not grant political autonomy too the minorities due to which they rebelled and asked to break Czechoslovakia into pieces.
The dictator Hitler sensed the wave of discontent in the Czechoslovakian population and thought to benefit out of it. He succeeded in his plans through the Munich Agreement that gave him the majority of the German speaking Sudentenland. Poland occupied the majority of Polish speaking areas. Slovakia acquired greater autonomy and was renamed to Czecho-Slovakia.
In 1939 Slovakia separated and Hitler occupied the rest of the Czech territory.
In 1948 Czechoslovakia came under Soviet influence. In 1989, Czechoslovakia managed to gain political freedom through the Velvet Revolution. This peaceful country bifurcated on 1st January 1993 into Czech and Slovak republics.
In the years that followed, The Czech Republic joined NATO and became a member of European Union in 2004.
Czech Republic Regions
- Region: Names are in adjectival form, and are normally followed by "kraj" (except Praha, which is a city, and Vysočina).
- HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes.
- ISO: Region codes from ISO 3166-2. For full identification in a global context, prefix "CZ-" to the code (ex: CZ-PR represents Praha).
- FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard.
- NUTS: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics.
- LP: License plate codes, since 2001.
- Population: 2001-03-01 census.
- Other Name: German name of chief town, except Gottwaldov, which was the name of Zlín under the Communist regime. German names were used under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and may be more familiar to some English speakers. Praha, of course, is Prague in Englis.