Bohemia - History

Historic province of W Czech Republic, bounded E by Moravia, W and S by Germany and Austria, and N by Germany and Poland; a plateau enclosed by mountains; natural boundaries include the Erzgebirge (N), Bohemian Forest (SW), and Sudetes Mts (NE); chief rivers include the Elbe (Labe), Vltava (Moldau), Ohre (Eger), Jihlava, and Jizera; major towns include Prague, ?eské Bud?jovice, Plze?, Ústí nad Labem; highly industrialized area; coal, iron ore, uranium; mineral springs; part of Moravian Empire, 9th-c; at its peak in early Middle Ages, especially in 14th-c under Charles I; Hussite religious dissension; Habsburg rule from early 16th-c; became a province of Czechoslovakia, 1918; part of Czech Socialist Republic of W Czechoslovakia, 1968; part of Czech Republic, 1993.

For other uses, see Bohemia (disambiguation).

Bohemia (Czech: Čechy;

Bohemia is bordered by Germany to the southwest, west, and northwest, Poland to the north-east, the Czech historical region of Moravia to the east, and Austria to the south. Bohemia's borders are marked with mountain ranges such as the Šumava, the Ore Mountains, and the Giant Mountains within the Sudeten mountains.

Note: In the Czech language there is no distinction between adjectives referring to Bohemia and the Czech Republic, i.e. Historically the majority of the inhabitants of Bohemia have been Czechs, with a significant German minority, which dominated the border regions as well as some major cities.

History

Ancient Bohemia

Roman authors provide the first clear reference to this area as Boiohaemum, Germanic for "the home of the Boii," a Celtic people.

Přemyslid dynasty

After freeing themselves from the rule of the Avars in the 7th century, Bohemia's Slavic inhabitants came (in the 9th century) under the rule of the Přemyslid dynasty, which continued until 1306. With Bohemia's conversion to Christianity in the 9th century, close relations were forged with the East Frankish kingdom, then part of the so-called Carolingian empire, later the nucleus of the Holy Roman Empire of which Bohemia was an autonomous part from the 10th century.

The first to use the title of "King of Bohemia" was Boleslav I after 940, but his heirs again used the title of duke. The Germans settled primarily along the northern, western, and southern borders of Bohemia, although many lived in towns throughout the kingdom.

Luxembourg dynasty

The House of Luxembourg came to the Bohemian throne with the crowning of John I of Bohemia in 1310. Charles IV became King of Bohemia in 1346 and founded Charles University in Prague, central Europe's first university, two years later. His reign brought Bohemia to its peak both politically and in total area, resulting in his being the first King of Bohemia to be elected as Holy Roman Emperor. Under his rule the Bohemian crown controlled such diverse lands as Moravia, Silesia, Upper Lusatia and Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg, an area around Nuremberg called New Bohemia, Luxembourg, and several small towns scattered around Germany.

Hussite Bohemia

During the ecunemical Council of Constance in 1415, Jan Hus, the rector of Charles University and a prominent reformer and religious thinker, was sentenced to be burnt at the stake as a heretic.

The largely peasant uprising against imperial forces was led by a former mercenary, Jan Žižka of Trocnov.

After Žižka's death, Prokop the Great took over the command for the army, and under his lead the Hussites were victorious for another ten years, to the sheer terror of Europe.

Despite the victory, the Bohemian Utraquists were still in the position to negotiate freedom of religion in 1436.

In 1458, George of Podebrady was elected to ascend to the Bohemian throne.

Habsburg Monarchy

After the death of King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia in the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria became King of Bohemia and the country became a constituent state of the Habsburg Monarchy.

Bohemia enjoyed religious freedom between 1436 and 1620, and became one of the most liberal countries of the Christian world during that period of time.

After King Ferdinand II began oppressing the rights of Protestants in Bohemia, the resulting Czech rebellion resulted in the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618.

Until the so-called "renewed constitution" of 1627, the German language was established as a second official language in the Czech lands.

The formal independence of Bohemia was further jeopardized when the Bohemian Diet approved administrative reform in 1749.

At the end of the 18th century, the Czech national revivalist movement, in cooperation with part of the Bohemian aristocracy, started a campaign for restoration of the kingdom's historic rights, whereby the Czech language was to replace German as the language of administration. During the Revolution of 1848, many Czech nationalists called for autonomy for Bohemia from Habsburg Austria, but the revolutionaries were defeated. The old Bohemian Diet, one of the last remnants of the independence, was dissolved, although the Czech language experienced a rebirth as romantic nationalism developed among the Czechs.

In 1861, the a new elected Bohemian Diet was established. The renewal of the old Bohemian Crown (Kingdom of Bohemia, Margraviate of Moravia, and Duchy of Silesia) became the official political program of both Czech liberal politicians and the majority of Bohemian aristocracy ("state rights program"), while parties representing the German minority and small part of the aristocracy proclaimed their loyalty to the centralistic Constitution (so-called "Verfassungstreue").

20th century

After World War I, Bohemia became the core of the newly-formed country of Czechoslovakia, which combined Bohemia, Moravia, Austrian Silesia, and the Northern parts (Highlands) of Hungary into one state.

Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, the border regions of Bohemia inhabited predominantly by ethnic Germans (the Sudetenland) were annexed to Nazi Germany; The remnants of Bohemia and Moravia were then annexed by Germany in 1939, while the Slovak lands became Slovakia. From 1939–1945 Bohemia (without the Sudetenland) formed with Moravia the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (Reichsprotektorat Böhmen und Mähren).

Beginning in 1949, Bohemia ceased to be an administrative unit of Czechoslovakia, as the country was divided into kraje. In 1989 Agnes of Bohemia became the first saint from a Central European country to be canonized by Pope John Paul II before the "Velvet Revolution" later that year. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993 (the "Velvet Divorce"), the territory of Bohemia became part of the new Czech Republic.

The Czech constitution from 1992 refers to the "citizens of the Czech Republic in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia" and proclaims continuity with the statehood of the Bohemian Crown. Bohemia is not currently an administrative unit of the Czech Republic.