Czechs ( , , archaic ) are a western
Slavic people of Central Europe,
living predominantly in the Czech Republic
. Small populations of Czechs also live in
Slovakia
, Austria
, U.S.
, Brazil
, Argentina
, Canada
, Germany
, Russia
and other
countries. They speak the
Czech
language, which is closely related to the
Slovak and
Upper Sorbian language.
Among the ancestors of the Czechs are ancient
Slavic tribes who inhabited the regions of
Bohemia,
Moravia, and
Upper Silesia from the 6th century
onwards.
History
The Czechs are descended from ancient
Slavic tribes, with significant
Celtic and
Germanic
admixtures. The Slavic tribes have inhabited the regions of
Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia since the 6th century.
According to a popular
myth, the Czechs come from a certain
Forefather Čech who settled at
Říp
Mountain
. In 880, Prague Castle
was constructed by Prince Bořivoj and the city of
Prague
was established. Vratislav II was the first Czech
king in 1085.
The second half of the 13th century was a period of large-scale
German immigration into
Czech lands. The number of Czechs who have at
least partly German ancestry probably runs into hundreds of
thousands. The
Habsburg Monarchy focused
much of its power on religious wars against the Protestants. While
these religious wars were taking place, the Czech estates revolted
against Habsburg from 1546 to 1547 but were ultimately defeated by
the Duke of Saxony. The wars between the Catholics and the
Protestants finally ended in 1555 with the legalization of the
Protestant faith which exists to this day in small numbers.
Czech patriotic authors tend to call the following period, from
1620 to 1648 until the late 18th century, the "Dark Age". It is
characterized by devastation by foreign troops;
Germanization; and economic and political
decline. It is estimated that the population of the
Czech lands declined by a third due to the
Thirty Years' War and the
expulsion of Protestants.
At the
turn of the 20th century, Chicago
was the city
with the third largest Czech population, after Prague
and Vienna
.
In 1918,
independent Czechoslovakia
was proclaimed, and Czechs formed the leading class
in the new state from the remnants of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy.
In
1938 the
Munich
Agreement severed the
Sudetenland,
with a considerable Czech minority, from Czechoslovakia, and in
1939 the
German Nazi regime established
the
Protectorate of
Bohemia and Moravia for the so-calling "remaining Czechia"
(
Rest-Tschechei).
Emil
Hácha became president of the protectorate under Nazi
domination, which only allowed pro-Nazi Czech associations and
tended to stress ties of the Czechs with the Bohemian
Germans and other parts of the German people, in
order to facilitate assimilation by
Germanization.
In Lidice
the Nazi
authorities committed a war crime against
the local Czech population. On
May 2,
1945 the
Prague
Uprising reached its peak, supported by the
Russian Liberation Army.
The
post-war expulsion of Germans
from Czechoslovakia and the immediate reprisals against Germans
and Nazi collaborators by Czech
resistance and the Czechoslovak state authorities, made Czechs
- especially in the early 1950s - settle
alongside Slovaks and Roma
people in the former lands of the Sudeten Germans, who had been deported to
West
Germany
and Austria
according to
the Potsdam Conference and
Yalta
Conference
.
Tens of thousands of Czechs had repatriated from
Volhynia and
Banat after World
War II.
Since 1990s, the Czech Republic has been
working to repatriate Romania
and Kazakhstan
's ethnic Czechs.
The
Warsaw Pact
invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 was followed by a wave of
emigration, unseen before and stopped shortly after (estimate:
70,000 immediately, 300,000 in total), typically of highly
qualified people.
Following Czech Republic's entry into the
European Union in May 2004, Czechs gained the
right to work in some other EU countries.
Many young Czechs
have come to work in UK
since
then.
Notable figures
Historical figures
The most successful and influential of all Czech kings was
Charles IV , who also became
the
Holy Roman Emperor. The
Luxembourg dynasty represents the
heights of Czech (Bohemian) statehood territorial and influence as
well as advancement in many areas of human endeavors.
Many people are considered national heroes and cultural icons, many
national stories concern their lives.
Jan
Hus was a religious reformist from the 1400s. The
teacher
of nations Jan Amos Komenský
is also considered a notable figure in Czech history.
Josef Jungmann is often credited for
expanding the modern Czech language, and preventing its
extinction.
Mythology
There are also ancient folk stories about the Czech people, such as
the
Forefather Čech, who
according to legend brought the tribe of Czechs into its land, or
Přemysl, the Ploughman,
who started the dynasty that ruled for 400 years until 1306.
Modern politicians
One of
the most notable Velvet Revolution
figures is Václav Havel, who
became the first president of the
independent Czech
Republic
. The
current president (2nd) is
Václav
Klaus.
The Czech Republic has had multiple
prime
ministers the first of which was latter president Klaus, the
second under Havel was
Josef
Tošovský and the last prime minister under Havel was prominent
ČSSD member
Miloš Zeman. So far Klaus has had five
prime ministers, the current one being
Jan Fischer.
Sports
Sports have also been a contributor to famous Czechs especially
tennis,
soccer,
hockey and
athletics:
Tennis –
Ivan Lendl,
Martina Navrátilová
Football –
Pavel Nedvěd,
Antonín Panenka,
Petr Čech
Hockey –
Jaromír Jágr,
Dominik Hašek
Athletics –
Emil Zátopek,
Roman Šebrle,
Jan Železný
The arts
The Czechs are accomplished in the field of
literature,
painting and
music.
Poet Jaroslav Seifert was awarded the
Nobel Literature Prize.
Božena Němcová has become a
cultural icon and gained much fame for her book
Babička.
Writer Franz
Kafka (born in Prague) wrote most of his works in Prague
(although in
German).Mikoláš Aleš was a painter, known for redesigning the Prague
National Theatre
. Composers Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák have also been
praised and the latter continued his work in New York
, USA
.
Film director Miloš Forman, known best for his
movie,
One Flew over the
Cuckoo's Nest is of Czech origin and started his career in
Czechoslovakia.National performers such as
Karel Kryl,
Helena Vondráčková,
Karel Gott (singers),
Zdeněk Svěrák (director and
actor),
Vlastimil Brodský,
Vladimír Menšík
(actors) or
Ivan Mládek (comedian),
have also made a mark in modern Czech history.
Saints
Czech culture boasts many saints, most notably
St. Wenceslaus , patron of the
Czech nation,
St. John of Nepomuk ,
St. Adalbert ,
Saint Procopius or
St. Agnes of Bohemia .
Geography

Simple map of the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is compound from 3 historical lands:
Bohemia,
Moravia and
Czech Silesia; today the country is divided
into 14 regions. There is a slightly varying culture in each of the
lands. Each part speaks
Czech but
there are certain local dialects.
Czech language
The Czech
language is spoken by approximately 12 million people around the
world including most of the people in the Czech Republic
. It developed from the
Proto-Slavic language in the 10th
century and is mutually intelligible with the
Slovak language.
External links
See also
Further reading
- Berka, Petr and Palan, Ales and Stastny, Petr: Xenophobe's
Guide to the Czechs, Oval Books, London, 2008
- Holy, Ladislav: The Little and the Great Czech Nation,
Cambridge University, 1996
References
- Czech language, alphabet and pronunciation
- Ethnic German Minorities in the Czech Republic, Poland and
Slovakia
- The Habsburg Monarchy and Rudolph II
- Czechs and Bohemians
- Czech and Slovak roots in Vienna,
wieninternational.at
- The Czech ethnic minority in Romania, 29-12-2004 -
Radio Prague
- Government completes 13-year program to integrate
Kazakh Czechs, The Prague Post, October 31, 2007
- "Day when tanks destroyed Czech dreams of Prague
Spring" (Den, kdy tanky zlikvidovaly české sny Pražského
jara) at Britské Listy (British Letters)
- Czech politicians say restrictions on free movement of
workers within EU should be removed, Radio Prague
- Charles IV (Karel IV.) - Czech king and Holy Roman
Emperor
- Travel guide - Luxembourg dynasty (1310–1378) -
accommodation in hotels and apartments
- Jan Hus
- Jan Amos Comenius
- Josef Jungmann (1773–1847)
- The Polish Eagle
- [1]
- Václav Havel
- Václav Havel - Radio Prague
- Vláda České republiky | Jmenný rejstřík předsedů
vlád
- Milos Zeman - outgoing prime minister - 19-06-2002 - Radio
Prague
- Mirek Topolánek
- CzechSite: Famous Czechs
- Antonin Panenka - the footballer Pele described as "either
a genius or a madman" - 20-06-2007 10:19 UTC - Radio
Prague
- Karel Kryl
- The official website of Helena Vondráčková
- Vlastimil Brodsky - Czech Film - Worldpress.org
- *Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin
Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books,
1993. ISBN 0-140-51312-4.
- Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star - 757
years
- Political subdivision of Bohemia, Moravia and
Silesia
- Area size - Czech republic
- Czech regions - Czech republic
- Czech
- http://www.kortlandt.nl/publications/art066e.pdf
- czech-language.cz