Czech Republic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 02/2017
Czech Republic
Česká republika (Czech)
Motto: "Pravda vítězí" (Czech)
"Truth prevails"
Anthem:
Kde domov můj (Czech)
Where is my home?
Capital
and largest city
Prague
50°05′N 14°28′E
Official language
• Czech - Officially recognised
Ethnic groups (2014)
• 64% Czechs
• 26% unspecified
• 5% Moravians
• 1.4% Slovaks
• 0.4% Poles
Religion
• 88.5% non-religious or undeclared
• 10.4% Roman Catholic
• 1.1% other
Demonym
• Czech
Government
Unitary parliamentary
constitutional republic
• President
• Prime Minister
Legislature
Parliament
• Upper house
Senate
• Lower house
Chamber of Deputies
Formation
• Duchy of Bohemia
c. 870
• Kingdom of Bohemia
1198
• Czechoslovakia
28 October 1918
• Czech Socialist Republic
1 January 1969
• Czech Republic
1 January 1993
• Joined the European Union
1 May 2004
Area
• Total:78,866 km2 (30,450 sq mi) (116th)
• Water (%) 2
Population
• 2015 estimate
10,553,948 (84th)
• 2011 census
10,436,560
Density: 134/km2 (347.1/sq mi) (87th)
GDP (PPP) 2016 estimate
• Total: $343.931 billion (50th)
• Per capita: $32,622[6] (39th)
Currency
• Czech koruna (CZK)
Time zone
CET (UTC+1)• Summer (DST)
CEST (UTC+2)
Drives on the right
Calling code
+420b
Patron saint
St. Wenceslaus
ISO 3166 code
CZ
Internet TLD
.czc
The Czech Republic also known by the short name Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast.
The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres (30,450 sq mi) with mostly temperate continental climate and oceanic climate.
It is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents.
The Czech Republic includes the historical territories of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia.
The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire.
After the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty.
In 1004, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century.
Besides Bohemia itself, the king of Bohemia ruled the lands of the Bohemian Crown, he had a vote in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor, and Prague was the imperial seat in periods between the 14th and 17th century.
In the Hussite wars of the 15th century driven by the Bohemian Reformation, the kingdom faced economic embargoes and defeated five crusades proclaimed by the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.
Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary.
The Protestant Bohemian Revolt (1618-20) against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years' War, after which the monarchy consolidated its rule, reimposed Catholicism, and adopted a policy of gradual Germanization.
With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Bohemian Kingdom became part of the Austrian Empire and the Czech language experienced a revival as a consequence of widespread romantic nationalism.
In the 19th century, the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and were subsequently the core of the Republic of Czechoslovakia, which was formed in 1918 following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I.
The Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States.
The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war.
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections.
Following the 1948 coup d'état, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence.
In 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion.
Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed and a multiparty parliamentary republic was formed.
On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.
It is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.
It is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards.
The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development.
The Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union.
Historical affiliations
• Samo's Empire 631-658
• Great Moravia 830s-900s
• Duchy of Bohemia 880s-1198
• Kingdom and Crown of Bohemia 1198-1918
• part of the Holy Roman Empire 1002-1806
• part of the Austrian Empire 1804-1867
• part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867-1918
• Czechoslovakia 1918-1939
• Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (protectorate of Nazi Germany) 1939-1945
• Czechoslovakia 1945-1992
• Czech Republic 1993-present
Etymology
The traditional English name "Bohemia" derives from Latin "Boiohaemum", which means "home of the Boii".
The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled "Cžech" until the orthographic reform in 1842.
The name comes from the Slavic tribe (Czechs, Czech: Češi, Čechové) and, according to legend, their leader Čech, who brought them to Bohemia, to settle on Říp Mountain.
The etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning "member of the people; kinsman", thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk (a person).
The country has been traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia (Čechy) in the west, Moravia (Morava) in the southeast, and Czech Silesia (Slezsko; the smaller, south-eastern part of historical Silesia, most of which is located within modern Poland) in the northeast.
Known as the lands of the Bohemian Crown since the 14th century, a number of other names for the country have been used, including Czech/Bohemian lands, Bohemian Crown, and the lands of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas.
When the country regained its independence after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918, the new name of Czechoslovakia was coined to reflect the union of the Czech and Slovak nations within the one country.
Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English.
The name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (minister Josef Zieleniec).
In a memorandum to all Czech embassies and diplomatic missions in 1993, the full name "Czech Republic" was recommended for use only in official documents and titles of official institutions.
The geographical name still has not reached general recognition, but its usage is increasing. Czech president Miloš Zeman uses the name Czechia in his official speeches.
Czechia was approved by the Czech government on 2 May 2016 as the Czech Republic's official short name and was published in the United Nations UNTERM and UNGEGN country name databases on 5 July 2016.
Czechia appears on some U.S. government web pages alongside Czech Republic, and Czechia is included in the ISO 3166 country codes list.
In languages such as German (Tschechien), Danish (Tjekkiet) and Swedish (Tjeckien), the short-name has been in common use for many years.
In January 2017 Czechia replaced Czech Republic on Google Maps.