History History

The Celtic tribe of the Boians was the first organized people to settle in a large part of the territory of present-day Czechia. They gave their name to the region of Bohemia. As with most Celtic tribes, they did not build lasting cities and had no written culture, so very little trace of their passage remains before they were swept away by the Germanic tribe of Marcomans, settled in Moravia. During the following centuries, the life of the region is punctuated by tribal wars, far from the pax romanica, until the barbarian invasions.

An embryonic state appeared on the territory of present-day Czechia thanks to a Frankish warrior, Samo, who around 620 was responsible for the security of the convoys of goods circulating between the north of present-day France and Moravia. His reputation led the Slavic tribes to elect him as their warlord to protect them from constant barbarian raids. He won a crushing victory over the Avars in 621 and then created a kingdom extending over the present-day territories of Bohemia and Moravia. The Avars took advantage of his death, a little before 660, to take their revenge, but will henceforth rely on the structures established by Samo to assert their authority.

At the beginning of the 9th century, the Slavic prince Mojmir I asserted himself and extended his hold on Moravia, creating in 833 the kingdom of Great Moravia. Louis the German defeated him in 846 and installed his nephew, Ratislav, in power. He succeeded in doing this by seeking the help of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, who sent him the two missionaries Cyril and Methodius to spread Christianity with a view to creating a bishopric, which would give greater independence to Great Moravia. Despite this, Ludwig the German sent his son Carloman to defeat the Moravians in 868. Ratislav's nephew Svatopluk, who was in charge of a fief on the borders of Great Moravia, understood his interest: he recognized himself as a vassal of the Franks and handed over his uncle to Carloman. Svatopluk then saw his powers expanded with the confidence of the Franks. He annexed Bohemia and part of Slovakia.

Upon Svatopluk's death, Bohemia regained its independence with the Přemyslid dynasty whose third ruler, Wenceslas, used all his energy and Christian faith to spread his beliefs and consolidate his kingdom through Christianity and by favoring negotiation over war with his neighbors. His assassination in 935 made him the first Czech martyr and he is still considered by many to be the true founder of the Czech nation and became the patron saint of the country. After his burial in St. Vitus Cathedral, his reign was followed by a prosperous period for the Přemyslid dynasty: economic prosperity thanks to the discovery of the silver mines of Kutná Hora, but also the political influence of Wenceslas' successors, especially Wenceslas II, who extended his reign over the territories of the present-day states of Poland and Hungary. The assassination of Wenceslas III in 1306 in Olomouc marked the end of the dynasty.

Son of Emperor Henry VII, John I, in 1310, became Count of Luxembourg and, through his marriage to the daughter of Wenceslas II, acceded to the Bohemian throne. His son Charles IV, future emperor of the immense Holy Roman Empire, chose Bohemia as the showcase of his reign, which he wanted to be peaceful and prosperous. He proceeded to embellish Prague, developing the castle, building the Charles Bridge and St. Vitus Cathedral as well as the university. Prague was the third largest city in Christendom, after Rome and Constantinople. It doubled in size during the 14th century and spread throughout the world.

After the death of Charles IV, Prague and Bohemia faced a wave of popular protest. The discontent was directed towards the clergy, its pomp and corruption. In 1402, a professor of theology at the University of Prague, Jan Hus, was the spokesman for this protest, which eventually reached Wenceslas IV, son of Charles IV and heir to the throne. Arrested, Jan Hus was sentenced to the stake on July 6, 1415. His execution provoked a national uprising: the Hussites destroyed the convents. Sigismund, the successor of Wenceslas IV, did not succeed in bringing the country back to the Catholic faith and the Hussites, led by General Jan Žižka and later by Prokop Holý, resisted for more than twenty years. The Hussite revolution lasted until 1437 and left a deep mark on the history of the country. In 1458, a new king, Jiří z Poděbrad (George of Poděbrady), tried to reconcile the country with the Christians. The same will be true for the Jagellons, a Polish family that seizes the throne upon the death of the king. It was during their reign that the period of Czech humanism began. Once again, the country rose from the ashes and experienced a great artistic and cultural boom.

The Austrian Archduke Ferdinand I of Habsburg was elected sovereign of Bohemia in 1526. This was the beginning of a dynasty that would last until 1918. Ferdinand I contributed to the introduction of the Renaissance style in Prague and his successor, Rudolf II, made Prague a capital again in 1583. The Protestant Bohemian uprising against Austria in 1611 led to the famous Battle of White Mountain in 1620, in which the leaders of the rebellion were executed and their heads were skewered on the Charles Bridge. Thirty years of war followed, which led the country to ruin and from which Bohemia did not recover until the end of the 19th century and the period of "national revival". Czech plays were written and performed again, historians such as František Palacký (1798-1876) led a movement for the revival of Slavic culture, and architects glorified national figures in the decorations of the sumptuous buildings in Nové Město.

Nicknamed "the great empress", she acceded to the throne of the Holy Roman Empire in 1743 with the titles of Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Bohemia and Hungary. She remains in history the only queen that Bohemia has known. Coming out of a war against the Ottoman Empire, the economy of the Holy Roman Empire had to be rebuilt and historians agree today to describe Maria Theresa as a "Margaret Thatcher of her time", cold, determined and ruthless. Especially since, as soon as she came to power, she had to face a coalition of states opposed to the "pragmatic sanction", the edict of Charles VI who, not having had a son, wanted to ensure his succession by allowing a woman to inherit the throne. The Habsburgs lost some territories in the adventure, but Maria Theresa managed to maintain herself at the head of the Empire until her death in 1780. In the meantime, she gave birth to sixteen children, one of whose daughters, Marie Antoinette, was to be the future queen of France.

Succeeding his mother, Joseph II broke with the severity that had characterized the reign of his Maria Theresa. Protestant worship was once again allowed in the Empire and non-Catholics obtained civil rights. Throughout his reign, he tried to reduce the inequalities between his subjects, in particular by introducing the quota tax payable by all the owners, that is to say, especially the nobility and the clergy, in order to give himself the means to improve the living conditions of the more popular classes, which had the effect of making him popular among the little people, but of creating enemies within the people of power. Moreover, most of the reforms he introduced during his short reign were simply cancelled at his death in 1790. the "revolutionary emperor" nevertheless left his name to a whole neighborhood: the Jewish quarter of Prague, so named during its reconstruction in 1850, to remember the edict of tolerance promulgated by Joseph II towards the Jewish community in 1781.

The Czechoslovak Republic, considered the only good result of the Treaty of Versailles, became a democratic pillar in Central Europe. The political line was maintained mainly by the influence of its president Tomáš Masaryk, a democrat and philosopher. The country experienced exceptional economic conditions in the years 1925-1929, before it was hit by the world crisis. The only large-scale problem of the Czechoslovak Republic was its multinational structure, with minorities making up a third of the country's population, a situation that gave Adolf Hitler plenty of food for thought. In October 1938, in Munich, Great Britain and France agreed to Hitler's confiscation of the Sudetenland, a territory heavily populated by Germans. Beneš, who had succeeded his friend Masaryk in 1935, formed a government in exile in London, while the Czech communists sought protection in Moscow. During this period, Slovakia became a fascist and theocratic state under Hitler's protection.

When the war ended in May 1945, the Czechs enthusiastically welcomed the Red Army, composed of Slavs, as their liberator. The Communist Party won 38 percent of the voters and became the largest political party in the country. In February 1948, Klement Gottwald obtained the appointment of Communist ministers from Beneš and took power. A new constitution came into force and the nationalization of companies began. This was also the time of purges and major trials, a dark period that lasted until the early 1960s. In 1963, there was an attempt at a Czech national awakening, when Czechoslovak leaders tried to reform the economy and rehabilitate the victims of the 1950s trials. These years (1963 to 1968), also known as the five golden years, saw a liberalization of the media and a renaissance of cultural life in Prague. The idea of socialism with a human face gained many followers. First Party Secretary Alexander Dubček tried to bring this concept to life when he became First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, but the momentum was broken on August 21, 1968 by the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops. From then on, the Communists undertook "normalization", guided by Gustav Husák (a former victim of the Stalinist purges). It will immobilize the country for many years. Only a group of dissidents, led by Václav Havel, founded an opposition movement, called Charter 77.

The communist period was marked by several attempts of the Czech Republic to distance itself from its Russian big brother and to free itself from his tutelage. The most dramatic of these, which history has named the "Prague Spring". It took root in 1963 with the arrival of a new generation of leaders, led by Alexander Dubček, and an attempt to reform the economy and rehabilitate the victims of the great communist trials. Five years passed, during which hope for a better life was reborn, cultural life flourished and there was talk of "socialism with a human face. On August 21, 1968, judging that the farce had gone on long enough, Moscow brought Warsaw Pact tanks into Prague and 200,000 soldiers invaded the country. Dubček is forced to accept the "normalization" and the Czech Republic, despite the immolation of the student Jan Palach in protest, in January 1969, and must return to the fold. Despite the terrible repression, these years of "spring" will strongly influence future dissidents and then Czech leaders, including the poet Václav Havel.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a large student and popular movement gathered in a Civic Forum to overthrow the communist regime. The writer Václav Havel, who initiated this movement, was the man behind this revolution, which led to the resignation of the communist government on November 24, 1989. On December 30, Václav Havel was elected president of a country that would soon be divided. In June 1990, parliamentary elections were held to ratify the gains of the Velvet Revolution. The Civic Forum, a movement created by Václav Havel, and its Slovak counterpart, the Public Against Violence, together won 46% of the vote and obtained an absolute majority in both houses. On July 5, 1990, Václav Havel was re-elected President of the Republic for two years at the head of the Czechoslovak state. He committed his country to a policy of openness and dialogue: the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the country marked the definitive end of the Warsaw Pact and opened the country to democratic Europe.

In 1992, the winning political parties in the June elections in the two federal republics take divergent directions: the Slovak Nationalist Party, headed by Vladimír Mečiar, claims independence for its people. Inevitably, against Havel's wishes, the partition was officially decreed on January¹, 1993.

Despite a strong desire to join the European Union, the Czech Republic has struggled since 1996, when it first applied for membership, to meet the necessary criteria to join Europe

Following the deterioration of the economic situation and various financial scandals, Prime Minister Václav Klaus was forced to resign in 1997, which did not prevent him from being elected President of the Republic in 2003, but without the aura of his illustrious predecessor. Openly liberal, he advocated the massive privatization of companies. His power was marked by numerous government reshuffles. On May^1,2004, the Czech Republic officially joined the European Union. Many companies invested heavily in the Czech Republic and took advantage of the well-trained and cheap labor force. This is a new and beautiful challenge for this country, which has been able to adapt to the new economic situation after the fall of the Berlin Wall better than many others

Despite integration into the Schengen area in 1997, crises are multiplying on the national political scene. European and parliamentary elections are marked by an ever-increasing rate of absenteeism and the often catastrophic results of traditional parties. The corruption of the elites is reported in all the newspapers and further accentuates the population's lack of interest in politics while playing into the hands of the extremes. The parties in the Assembly make and unmake alliances, undermining the majority of governments overnight and causing great political instability. The crises are having an impact on the country's economy, which is still not in a position to adopt the euro and is postponing the transition year after year. So much so that the Czechs have grown increasingly distrustful of Europe, as evidenced by a 2013 poll that found three-quarters of the population opposed to joining the eurozone. Since 2013, Miloš Zeman, founder of the Civil Rights Party, has led the country as a social democrat with some populist overtones. During his two terms in office, he has not succeeded in eliminating corruption, and in 2021 his state of health raises questions about his ability to continue in office. His emergency hospitalization at the same time as his Prime Minister lost his majority in the Assembly, and against the backdrop of a pandemic in which the Czech Republic was among the worst affected countries, does not augur well for a political and economic recovery..