| Name: | Czechia or Czech (in Czech: Cesko, C has a wedge, see more comments on the country name)
|
| Official name: | Czech Republic (in Czech: Ceská republika, C has a wedge)
|
| Location: | Central Europe; surrounded by Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Poland
|
| Language: | Czech; a Western Slavonic language, related to Polish and Slovak
|
| Population: | 10.2 M (2006)
|
| Size: | 79 000 km² (cca 30 450 mi²)
|
| Capital: | Praha (in English: Prague)
|
| President: | Václav Klaus;
Former president: Václav Havel
|
| Major cities: |
Brno,
Ostrava,
Plzen (Pilsen),
Hradec Kralové,
Ceské Budejovice (Budweis),
Olomouc
|
| - 9th century: | Great Moravia
|
| - Middle Ages:
| A quite powerfull kingdom (esp. during the reign of the emperor
Charles IV, who founded
Charles University in 1348 in Prague).
|
| - 1526 - 1918:
| Habsburg rule, a part of the Austrian Empire.
|
| - 1918:
| Becomes part of Czechoslovakia,
together with
Slovakia and
Ruthenia.
An economically successfull democracy ended by Nazi occupation.
|
| - 1945:
| Liberation, followed by a controversial expelling of 3 million of Germans.
|
| - 1948 - 1989:
| A communist country with a centrally planed economy and limited civil rights (including political prisoners).
|
| - 1968:
| A short period of relative freedom (Prague Spring), ended by a Russian invasion.
|
| - 1989 - :
| A standard parlamentary democracy, with the economy slowly recovering from the devastation caused by Communists.
|
| - 1993:
| Czechoslovakia splited into two countries - Czechia and Slovakia.
|
| - 2004:
| Czechia becomes part of the European Union.
|