Bohemia coat of arms
From the history of Bohemia [1](Czech Republic[2])
From the early Middle
Ages until 1918 Moravia and Bohemia were both Central European kingdoms. The
Slavs, ancestors of the present occupants, arrived in the late 8th century. The
Slavs had settled in Bohemia by the 6th century. By the mid-9th century the
Moravians had formed a kingdom, which eventually grew into Great
Bohemia
is a plateau surrounded by lofty mountain ranges, namely, the Bohemian Forest,
the Erzgebirge, the Bohemian-Moravian Heights, and the Riesengebirge. The main
rivers are the Elbe, known locally as the Labe, and its tributaries, the Vltava
and the Ohre.
Agriculture,
manufacturing, and mining are the main sources of economic wealth. The chief
crops are rye, hops, sugar beets, and wheat. The principal industries produce
iron and steel, cars, chemicals, foodstuffs, machinery, and textiles. The main
industrial centres are Prague, Plzen, and Liberec. Bohemia has large deposits
of coal; graphite, iron ore, silver, and uranium are also mined.
The
name Bohemia is derived from the Boii, a Celtic people who inhabited the area
around the 5th century BC. The
Marcomanni, a Germanic tribe, about the 1st century AD, expelled the Boii.
Between the 5th and 8th centuries, Slavic settlers, and later the Avars,
occupied Bohemia. During the 9th century Christianity was introduced to the
region, which was then part of the Moravian Kingdom. The first Bohemian (Czech)
dynasty, the Premysl family, came to power in the 10th century. In 950 Bohemia
was forced to recognize German supremacy and become part of the Holy Roman
Empire. From 1310 to 1437 kings of the house of Luxembourg ruled the country.
During the latter part of this period, 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. This led to foreign
intervention and a long period of warfare, known as the Hussite Wars. The
Bohemians were forced to accept a compromise agreement with the church in 1436.
Most of the fundamental political and religious issues involved in the struggle
remained unsolved, but the Hussite movement stimulated nationalist sentiments
among the Bohemians, checking an earlier trend towards Germanization.
A
line of Hungarian kings ruled Bohemia between 1471 and 1526. During this period
the religious situation was tense but quiet. In 1526 Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I of the Habsburg family was elected king of Hungary and Bohemia.
Under Habsburg rule, which lasted until 1918, the history of Bohemia was merged
with that of Austria. During the Reformation (1517-1648) the Catholic Habsburgs
were intolerant of the growing Protestant movement in Bohemia. An incident
known as the Defenestrating of Prague, when angry Czechs threw two
representatives of the Habsburgs out of 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. The reforms of Joseph II (reigned
1780-1790) brought about a revival of nationalism in Bohemia; after 1848, when
a nationalist rebellion was swiftly suppressed, the struggle continued for
Czech autonomy within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. With the collapse of that
empire after World War I and the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Bohemia
became a province of the new republic. On January 1, 1993, Bohemia became part
of the independent Czech Republic.