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All about the Czech history
he Great Moravian Empire
The first genuine state structure on the territory of the
The Přemyslid Dynasty
After the glorious period of the Great Moravian Empire, the center of the state moved westward to
The Luxemburgs and King Charles IV
After the death of Wenceslas III, the last king of the Přemyslid Dynasty, several kings supplanted each other as the head of state, but none could consolidate their position. A portion of the nobility and the abbots, who were dissatisfied with the reign of Jindřich Korutanský, concocted a coup. They deposed the king with the agreement of Emperor Henry VII of Luxemburg. The emperor consented to the marriage of his son John to Elizabeth (Eliška), the as-yet-unmarried sister of the last Přemyslid king. Thus, John of Luxemburg became the king of
Hussitism and the heritage of Jan Hus
The Czech lands were affected by an economic depression under the reign of Wenceslas IV, the son of Charles IV. Highwaymen and plague epidemics racked the country, while private wars raged. The Church, which was supposed to supervise the observance of God’s commandments, focused on attaining positions of power and accumulating property. Clergymen had long been performing jobs in the royal administration and instead of money they received a church office as settlement. Criticism of the Church grew stronger due to its deviation from its original principles, not just in
The Habsburg Monarchy and Rudolph II
In this restless period, the Bohemian estates elected a new sovereign. Out of several candidates, they chose a member of a powerful family – the Habsburg Ferdinand I (1526–1564). Even he had to sign an electoral capitulation in which he undertook to uphold and respect the privileges of the estates. The Czech lands became part of a large combined state, which, besides them, principally comprised
The Theresian reforms
When the male line of the Habsburgs died out in 1740, Maria Theresa (1740–1780), the daughter of Charles VI, ascended the throne according to rules set by the Pragmatic Sanction. The recognition of the Sanction proved to be worthless though when the Prussian King Frederick II invaded
Ideas of the Czech national revival
After a long period of oppression, the Czech nationhood had been preserved only in language and culture, especially in the countryside. There was still a long way to go toward emancipation from being a German-dependent state to a Czech national state. read more...
The
The son of Emperor Francis Joseph I, the crown prince Rudolph, committed suicide with his lover, so the succession passed to the Emperor’s nephew, Francis Ferdinand d’Este (also often referred to as Franz Ferdinand in English). Nevertheless, because of the dynastic irregularity of his marriage to Sophie von Chotkova, who was only a countess, he had to relinquish the succession rights of his children. In 1914, he left with his wife for an Austro-Hungarian Army exercise in
The communist regime
At the end of the Second World War, the Communist Party shared in the work of the Czechoslovak government for the first time, which signalized a clear move to the left after the experience of Nazism. Competition among political parties was restricted by a ban on re-establishing pre-war right-wing parties, which had been accused of collaborating with the Germans. All the permitted parties were grouped into a National Front and were all governing parties. read more...
The Velvet revolution and its consequences
On November 17, 1989, the regime led by the Communist Party harshly intervened against demonstrations organized by students on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the closure of Czech schools by the Nazis. People came out on the streets in protest against the brutality of the intervention and organized demonstrations and strikes.
The communists relinquished political power during the Velvet Revolution. The regime had exhausted itself and didn’t have the strength to engage in a power struggle with the whole of society. Political parties were reinstated and the first free elections were held in 1990. Vaclav Havel, who had led the negotiations with the communist government, became president. Future political parties were established by people with the same opinions - the Czech Civic Forum (Občanské fórum) and Slovak Public Against Violence (Verejnosť proti násiliu).
The Czech and Slovak political representatives were unsuccessful in finding a suitable bilateral model for the coexistence of the Czech and Slovak nations. This resulted in the organized and orderly breakup of the joint state.
The
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An affiliation agreement between the
Currently, the