History of the Czech lands

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History of the Czech lands
REGNUM BOHEMIA, ANNEXAE PROVINCIAE, UT DUCATUS SILESIA, Marchionatus MORAVIA, et LUSATIA- quae sunt TERRAE HAEREDITARIAE IMPERATORIS
Early history
Middle Ages
Early modern period
Czechoslovakia
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The history of the Czech lands – an area roughly corresponding to the present-day

Únětice Culture, leaving traces for about five centuries from the end of the Stone Age to the start of the Bronze Age. Celts – who came during the 5th century BCE – are the first people known by name. One of the Celtic tribes were the Boii (plural), who gave the Czech lands their first name Boiohaemum – Latin for the Land of Boii. Before the beginning of the Common Era the Celts were mostly pushed out by Germanic tribes. The most notable of those tribes were the Marcomanni and traces of their wars with the Roman Empire were left in south Moravia.[2]

After the turbulent times of the Migration Period, the Czech lands were ultimately settled by the Slavic tribes. The year of 623 marks the formation of the first known state in the Czech lands,[3] when Samo united the local Slavic tribes, defended their lands from the Avars to the east and – few years later – won the battle of Wogastisburg against the Franks invading the Czech lands from the west.[4] The next state appearing in the Czech lands after the dissolution of the Samo's state was probably the Great Moravia. The center of its power lay in the area of Moravia and present-day western Slovakia. In 863, Cyril and Methodius, two scholars from Greece, brought Christianity to the Great Moravia and established the first Slavic script – Glagolitsa.[5] The Great Moravia fell during the Magyar invasion at the start of the 10th century.

A new state formed around the tribe of

Jagiellon dynasty ascended the Czech throne in 1471. They ruled for half a century before the king Louis Jagiellon died in the Battle of Mohács and the empty throne was given to the House of Habsburg
.

After the death of the Emperor

Thirty Years War. Many of the Czech nobles supported the Protestant side and were stripped of their properties as a result. Germanization and recatholicisation of the Czech lands followed. The spread of Romanticism during the late 18th century went hand in hand with the movement of the Czech National Revival
. After 1848, the leading representatives of the Czech National Revival increased their political efforts to gain more autonomy for the Czech lands within the Habsburg Monarchy.

The start of World War I opened the possibility of gaining full independence and formation of a sovereign state. In the Cleveland Agreement of 1915, the Czech and Slovak representatives declared their goal of creating a common state, based on the right of a people to self-determination. After the capitulation of Austria-Hungary three years later, the Czechoslovak Republic became a reality. The so-called First Republic lasted for 20 years, cut short by the advent of the World War II. Following the end of World War II, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took power in 1948, and Czechoslovakia became a member of the Eastern Bloc. In August 1968, armies of the Warsaw Pact invaded Czechoslovakia to prevent further attempts at the reformation of the Communist system. In November 1989, the Velvet Revolution replaced the Communist regime with a democratic Czech and Slovak Federative Republic. Three years later, Czech and Slovak representatives agreed to the Dissolution of Czechoslovakia and the formation of separate states. In 1999, the Czech Republic joined Nato and in 2004, became a member of the European Union.

Ancient times

Stone Age

Venus of Dolní Věstonice, the oldest ceramic article in the world

A simple chopper – left by the ancestors of the present-day Homo Sapiens – dated to 800,000 BCE was uncovered in Red Hill in Brno. First evidence of human camps was found in Přezletice near Prague and in Stránská skála near Brno which dates to about 200,000 years after that.[1] Stone tools were found in the Kůlna Cave in central Moravia, with the estimated age of 120,000 years. More stone tools and the skeletal remains of a Neanderthal man were found at the same site in a 50,000-year-old layer.[6]

Human remains from 45,000 years ago were found in

Zlatý kůň at Beroun District.[7] Human remains from 30,000 years BCE were found in Mladeč caves[8] mammoth tusks with complex engravings (again around 30,000 BCE) were found both in Pavlov and Předmostí at Přerov,[9]
making south Moravia one of the most important archeological areas in Europe.

The archeological site in Předmostí at Přerov represents the largest accumulation of human remains of the Gravettian culture,[10] known for creating so-called

Venus figurines. One of such figurines is the famous Venus of Dolní Věstonice (29,000–25,000 BCE) found in Dolní Věstonice in south Moravia along with many other artifacts from that time. Another Venus figurine is the Venus of Petřkovice, found in what is today Ostrava. Remains of mammoth hunters from 22,000 BCE were also found in the aforementioned Kůlna Cave along with the remains of reindeer hunters and horse hunters, dated to about 10,000 years later.[6] Approximately between 5500 and 4500 BCE, people of the Linear Pottery culture resided in Czech lands. Their settlement was discovered in Bylany near Kutná hora. Their culture was succeeded by the Lengyel culture, Funnelbeaker culture and Stroke-ornamented ware culture
, which coexisted in the Czech Lands during the end of the Stone Age.

Copper Age and Bronze Age

Bronze sword, Urnfield culture, c. 1200 BC

Corded Ware culture in the north and Baden culture in the south were the predominant cultures in the Czech Lands throughout the Copper Age. The Bell Beaker culture represented the transition from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age. With the start of the Bronze Age, Únětice culture appeared. This culture got its name from a village near Prague, where the first discovery was made in the 1870s. Many of their burial mounds were uncovered, mostly in central Bohemia. It was followed by the Middle Bronze Age Tumulus culture from around 1600 BC. The Urnfield culture is blanket term for various Late Bronze Age cultures dating from c. 1300-800 BC who cremated their dead and buried the urns with their ashes. The Hallstatt culture was the last culture of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. The key archeological site of the Hallstatt culture in the Czech Lands is the Býčí skála Cave, where a rare bronze statue of a bull was found. Many of these archeological sites were occupied by multiple cultures throughout the ancient times.

Iron Age

Stone sculpture of a Celtic man, found in Mšecké Žehrovice
Dacian Influence over Bohemia

The area was settled by the Celtic tribes at the start of the Iron Age. The most prominent tribe in Bohemia were the Boii (plural), who gave the area the name of Boiohaemia (Latin for the land of Boii), which later turned into Bohemia. Before the start of the 1st century CE, they were pushed out by various Germanic tribes (Marcomanni, Quadi, Lombards). Around 60 to 50 BC, the Dacian king Burebista established an empire that extended its reach into the lands of the Boii. The Dacian occupation primarily affected modern-day Slovakia but also held sway over regions of present-day Czech Republic and Pannonia. Following Burebista's demise in 44 BC, his empire crumbled, liberating the lands of the Boii from Dacian rule.[11] Traces of Roman army camps were found in south Moravia, most notably near Mušov. The winter camp in Mušov was built to house approximately 20,000 soldiers.[12] The Romans were repeatedly at war with the Marcomanni tribe during the first two centuries CE. Germanic towns are described on the Map of Ptolemaios from the 2nd century, e.g. Coridorgis for Jihlava.

Arrival of the Slavs

The following centuries of what is known as the

Avars – Turko-Tartar nomads – who seized the Pannonia and frequently raided the Slavic lands and even the Frankish Empire.[13]

Samo's realm

Further information: Samo

In 623 – according to the Chronicle of Fredegar – the Slavic tribes revolted against the oppression of the Avars. During this time, the Frankish merchant Samo allegedly came to the Czech lands with his entourage and joined with the Slavs to defeat the Avars. Thus the Slavs adopted Samo as their ruler. Later Samo and the Slavs came into conflict with the Frankish empire whose ruler Dagobert I wanted to extend his rule to the east. That led to the Battle of Wogastisburg in 631, in which the newly established Realm of Samo successfully defended its autonomy. The realm disintegrated after Samo's death.

Medieval times

Great Moravia

Svatopluk I
Further information: Great Moravia

The realm of Great Moravia probably was established in the area of today's Moravia and western Slovakia in the 830s. It saw the rise of the first ever Slavic literary culture in the

Svatopluk I's diplomacy was oriented more towards Rome. Great Moravia was taken under the protection of the Holy See in 880 and six years after, he expelled the disciples of Methodius after their teacher's death. During his reign, Great Moravia's sphere of influence reached its peak. After his death, the realm was split among his sons and soon after fell to ruin due to infighting and constant Magyar
raids during the start of the 10th century.

Duchy of Bohemia

Further information: Duchy of Bohemia
Duchy of Bohemia, around 1029
Saint Wenceslas, Czech prince

Bořivoj from Levý Hradec was the first known member of the

Archbishopric of Mainz
.

Mount Říp

In 1002, during the reign of the duke

Vladislaus
) who were awarded lifetime titles of kings by the Holy Roman Emperors for their services.

Kingdom of Bohemia

Territories ruled by Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1273
Further information:
History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages

Late Přemyslids

Přemyslids
, c. 1301
Czech kings Ottokar II, Wenceslas II and Wenceslas III from the Přemyslid dynasty

In 1212

Rudolf of Habsburg, the first in a line of Habsburg emperors. Rudolf of Habsburg demanded that Ottokar II returns all of the lands he had acquired south of Bohemia. Ottokar refused and waged two wars against the emperor which ended with his death at the battlefield of Marchfeld
in 1278.

The crown was passed to his 6-year-old son Wenceslaus II.

Władysław the Elbow-high challenged Wenceslaus III's rule in Poland and conquered Krakow in 1306. Before Wenceslaus III could start his retaliation campaign, he was murdered in Olomouc
by unknown assassins.

House of Luxembourg

Wenceslaus III was the last male member of the main branch of Přemyslids. The Holy Roman Emperor

Philip VI of France in the Hundred Years' War and died in 1346 in the Battle of Crécy. His eldest son, Charles IV
succeeded him on the Bohemian throne.

Emperor and King Charles IV. Luxembourg

Earlier in 1346, the

King of Romans in November 1346 in Bonn. Charles had been in charge of the administration of Czech Lands since 1333, due to his father's absence and health indisposition. Soon after his coronation as the King of Bohemia and the King of Romans, he settled in Prague and laid the foundations of the New Town expanding the capitol. In 1348 he founded the University of Prague, the first university north of Alps and east of Paris.[20] He also legally established the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (Corona regni Bohemiae in Latin), meaning the core territories no longer belonged to a king or a dynasty but to the Bohemian monarchy (crown) itself.

St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague Castle, John of Luxembourg laid the foundation stone in 1344

In 1355, Charles IV travelled to Rome where he was crowned the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He ruled as the Holy Roman Emperor for over 20 years and managed to secure the title of the King of Romans for his eldest son Wenceslaus IV

.

Monument to Master Jan Hus, a religious reformer and philosopher in Prague

Wenceslaus IV did not share the governance abilities of his father. In 1393, the torture and murder

Papal Schism. Two years later, Wenceslaus IV was briefly imprisoned again, this time by his brother Sigismund, who looted Moravia. After the death of Rupert – who had replaced Wenceslaus as the King of Romans – Wenceslaus IV competed with his brother Sigismund and his cousin Jobst of Moravia for the title of the King of Romans. He ultimately surrendered the title to Sigismund in exchange for keeping Bohemia. In 1414, Sigismund called the Council of Constance, which finally resolved the Papal Schism. It also condemned the teaching of Jan Hus, rector of the University of Prague and a popular church reformist. After Jan Hus refused to retract his teachings, he was burnt alive at stake, which prompted the Hussite Wars. The religious military conflicts stopped in 1434 with the battle Battle of Lipany, but the religious tensions continued on. Although Sigismund became the titular King of Bohemia after Wenceslaus IV's death in 1419, it was not until 1436 that he was recognized by the Czech Estates and he died a year after.[22]

House of Habsburg

After Sigismunds's death the title of the King of Bohemia went to his son-in-law Albert from the House of Habsburg, who died shortly after. The claim to the Lands of the Bohemian Crown was passed to his unborn son Ladislaus, who gained the nickname Posthumous. He was raised at the court of his distant relative Emperor Frederick III. Although he was crowned the King of Bohemia in 1453,[23] his regent George of Poděbrady continued to effectively rule Bohemia in his stead. Ladislaus died in Prague after fleeing a rebellion in Hungary, aged only seventeen. Many of his contemporaries suspected he was poisoned, but modern examinations of his skeleton proved he died of acute leukemia. With his death the Albertinian Line of the House of Habsburg ended.

King George of Podebrady, one of the first promoters of united Europe

House of Poděbrady

In 1458, the estates of Bohemia elected George of Poděbrady as the new King of Bohemia. He had a difficult role trying to maintain a fragile peace between the

Hussite side, for which he earned the nickname King of two peoples.[24] Despite his efforts, he ultimately did not succeed and in 1465, the catholic nobles formed the Unity of Green Mountain and challenged his rule.[23] A year after, he was excommunicated by the new Pope Paul II, which gave a justification for the Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus to invade the Czech Lands and start the Bohemian–Hungarian War
.

Vladislaus Hall at the Prague Castle, built from 1490 to 1502 by Benedikt Rejt

House of Jagiellon

After the king George's death, the war was continued by

Louis and daughter Anne. Vladislaus II's two children married two children of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I as a result of negotiations at the First Congress of Vienna
, tying the House of Jagiellon and the House of Habsburg together.

A year after that, in 1516, Vladislaus II died and his ten-year-old son Louis II became the king of both Hungary and Bohemia. In 1521 he refused to pay the agreed annual tribute to the new Ottoman sultan,

Süleyman I and executed his ambassadors. War ensued, Belgrade fell to Ottoman hands the same year. In 1526, Louis II led his forces against Suleiman I in the Battle of Mohács, which ended with a decisive defeat of the Hungarian army and Louis II drowned during his attempted retreat.[25] He left no heirs and so the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were inherited by Ferdinand I
from the House of Habsburg, as was agreed during the First Congress of Vienna.

Part of Habsburg Monarchy

Protestantism

Further information:
History of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (1526–1648)
The extent of the Protestant Reformation (1545–1620)

After the Battle of Mohács, the Ottomans were unsuccessful in their

Jesuit Order
to Prague in 1556.

Matthäus Merian
.

Bocskai Uprising after the Long Turkish War. The differences of opinions between the two brothers ultimately resulted in Rudolf's imprisonment at the Prague Castle
and all effective power was given into the hands of Matthias. After Rudolf II's death in 1612 the royal court moved back to Vienna. Matthias did not have any children – same as his brother Rudolf – and he died six years later, aged 62.

Beheading of 27 Bohemian nobles at the Old Town Square in Prague, 1621 (contemporary illustration)
John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), Czech philosopher and school reformer

He was succeeded by his cousin

Thirty Years War. The revolting Bohemian estates then chose Frederick V of Palatinate as their new king[27] and gathered an army in preparation of war. They were joined by Lutheran nobility in Austria. Ferdinand II asked his Spanish relative Philip III for help. Spanish army in the Netherlands made sure forces of Protestant Union could not join the revolt happening in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and in Austria. After dealing with the Austrian rebels, Ferdinand II decisively defeated Frederick V at the Battle of White Mountain, near Prague. Widespread confiscation of property followed, which was then sold to loyal nobles, often of foreign origin.[28] Ferdinand II also had the 27 leaders of the revolt publicly beheaded[29] and strengthened the royal power over the estates. The Lands of the Bohemian Crown and especially Silesia were some of the territories that were hit the hardest by the devastating Thirty Years War. The war continued even after Ferdinand II's death during the reign of Ferdinand III
.

Absolutism and National Revival

Further information:
History of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (1648–1867)

Late Habsburgs

Baroque St. Nicholas Church in Malá Strana, built between 1704 and 1755

In 1648, the Thirty Years War finally ended with the

fourth Austro-Turkish War in 1663 the Turkish army invaded Moravia before being stopped in the Battle of Saint Gotthard.[30] Leopold continued waging wars with Ottomans and France throughout his long rule. He increased corvée to three days a week which caused the Peasant Revolt of 1680.[31] The infamous Losiny Estate Witch Trials took place between 1678 and 1696 resulting in almost 100 dead.[32] More protests against the increased corvée occurred, but all in vain. In 1705, Leopold I's rule ended and his son Joseph I succeeded him. Joseph I planned to enact many administrative reforms, most of which he did not get the chance to finish, due to his premature death of smallpox. One year before his death he issued letters patent ordering that all Romani people in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown had one of their ears cut off. If they returned after being expelled, all Romani men were to be hanged without a trial. Similar letters patents were published in other territories under his rule and led to mass killings of Romani people.[33] After Joseph I's premature death in 1711, the Austrian throne went to his younger brother Charles VI
.

Library of Clementinum, a former Jesuit College, built in 1722
Empress Maria Theresa (reignet 1740–1780)

Charles VI had no male heirs and with the

Francis Stephen of Lorraine, all of her children were considered to be members of a new joint House of Habsburg-Lorraine
.

House of Habsburg–Lorraine

After the death of Maria Theresa's husband in 1765, her son

Mozart for the occasion. Leopold II was succeeded by Francis I
, the first-born of his 12 sons.

Europe after the Congress of Vienna in 1815
Writer Božena Němcová

In 1805, Napoleon's army attacked Austria and defeated the Austrian and Russian army in the decisive Battle of Austerlitz in south Moravia. In the Peace of Pressburg, Francis I lost many of his territories and soon after, the Holy Roman Empire dissolved, replaced by the Confederation of the Rhine. Following the end of Napoleonic Wars, the Congress of Vienna reinstated the Austrian Empire as one of the Great Powers of Europe in 1815. Francis I was a proponent of conservatism and his policies suppressed all of the emerging liberal and nationalist movements in his Empire.[36] He was the first of Austrian monarchs to widely utilize the secret police and he increased censorship. His son Ferdinand I became the Austrian Emperor after him. Because of his frequent seizures, he was not capable of ruling and the actual executive power was held by the Regent's Council. In 1836, one year after his succession, he was crowned the King of Bohemia under the name of Ferdinand V.

Emperor Francis Joseph I. (reigned 1848–1916)

Throughout the 19th century, the nationalist tendencies and movements in the Czech lands known as the Czech National Revival slowly grew, led by activists such as linguists Josef Dobrovský and Josef Jungmann, historian and politician František Palacký or writer Božena Němcová and journalist Karel Havlíček Borovský. The efforts of the Czech National Revival first peaked during the revolutions of 1848. Ferdinand I was forced to abdicate and his successor was his young nephew Francis Joseph I. When he – after losing the war with Italy in 1859 – also lost the war with Prussia in 1866, the Hungarian representatives forced Francis Joseph I to end his absolutist rule over Hungary in the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. The Czech representatives who hoped for a similar increase in autonomy were left out and the Czech lands remained firmly under the control of Austria.[37]

Austria-Hungary

Further information:
History of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown (1867–1918)
The National Theater from 1881

The newly formed

Entente Powers.[39] In the Cleveland Agreement of 1915, the Czech and Slovak representatives declared their goal of creating a common state, based on the right of a people to self-determination. When the World War I ended in 1918, the Kingdom of Bohemia officially ceased to exist and a new democratic republic of Czechoslovakia
took its place.

Modern times

Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, philosopher, Czechoslovak president in the years 1918-1935

Czechoslovakia

Further information: History of Czechoslovakia and History of Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)
The First Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938)

The republic of Czechoslovakia was declared in October 1918. It was a democratic presidential republic. In 1920, its defined territory was not inhabited only by Czechs and Slovaks, it contained significant populations of other nationalities: Germans (22.95%), Hungarians (5.47%) and

Munich Treaty, stripping the Czechoslovakia of its borderlands, leaving it indefensible.[41]

German protectorate

Further information:
Czech resistance to Nazi occupation
Monument to the village of Lidice murdered by the Nazis

After giving up

Czech resistance in 1942. After Germany's defeat in 1945, the vast majority of ethnic Germans were forcefully deported
from Czechoslovakia.

Rule of the Communist Party

Further information:
History of Czechoslovakia (1945–1948), Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, and History of Czechoslovakia (1989–1992)
Russian occupation in 1968
Václav Havel, playwright, dissident and president from 1989 to 2003

In February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia seized power in a coup d'état. Klement Gottwald became the first communist president. He nationalized the country's industry and collectivized its farms to form Sovkhozs inspired by the Soviet model. Czechoslovakia thus became a part of the Eastern Bloc. Attempts at a reformation of the political system during the Prague Spring of 1968 were ended by the invasion of armies of the Warsaw Pact.[42] The Czechoslovakia remained under the rule of the Communist Party until the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

Post-Cold War

Further information: Czech Republic

One of the leaders of the dissent, Václav Havel became the first president of the democratic Czechoslovakia. Slovakia's demands for sovereignty were fulfilled at the end of 1992, when the representatives of Czechs and Slovaks agreed to split the Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The official start of the current Czech Republic was set on 1 January 1993.[43] The Czech Republic became a member of NATO in 12 March 1999, and the European Union in 1 May 2004.[44]

See also

Lists:

References

  1. ^ a b Valoch, Karel (2011). "The oldest Palaeolithic industry in Europe" (PDF). Archeologické rozhledy. LXIII: 22. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  2. ISBN 80-901278-1-9
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  3. ISBN 80-85836-27-0
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  4. ^ Čornej 1992, pp. 4-5
  5. ^ Čornej 1992, pp. 6-7
  6. ^ a b "Archeology - The Kůlna Cave". visit.caves.cz. Cave Administration of the Czech Republic. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  7. ^ Kay Prüfer et al. A genome sequence from a modern human skull over 45,000 years old from Zlatý kůň in Czechia, 07 April 2021
  8. ISBN 978-3-211-23588-1
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  9. hdl:10810/37322
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  10. doi:10.4000/paleo.607
    . Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  11. ^ "Boii | people". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  12. ^ Tejral, Jaroslav (2 September 2000). "Opravte dějepis, Řím sahal až na Moravu". iDNES.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  13. ISBN 80-7106-138-7
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  14. ISBN 978-80-246-1645-2
    .
  15. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 85
  16. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 83-84
  17. ^ Pánek 2009, pp. 98-101
  18. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 107
  19. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 112
  20. ^ Pánek 2009, pp. 132-133
  21. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 143
  22. ^ Krejčíř 1996, p. 43
  23. ^ a b Krejčíř 1996, p. 45
  24. ^ Pánek 2009, pp. 164-165
  25. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 176
  26. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 200
  27. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 224
  28. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 234
  29. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 233
  30. ^ Krejčíř 1996, p. 59
  31. ^ Pánek 2009, pp. 244-245
  32. ^ Veselý (14 November 2004). "Hon na čarodějnice (Toulky Českou minulostí - Příspěvek)". Czech Radio (in Czech). Retrieved 15 August 2010.
  33. ISBN 0-312-08691-1
    p.XI p.36-37
  34. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 271
  35. ^ a b Krejčíř 1996, p. 73
  36. ^ Pánek 2009, pp. 284-285
  37. ^ Pánek 2009, pp. 336-337
  38. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 351
  39. ^ Pánek 2009, p. 380
  40. ^ Pánek 2009, pp. 420-421
  41. ISBN 978-80-87173-47-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  42. ^ Pánek 2009, pp. 552-554
  43. ^ Krejčíř 1996, p. 123
  44. ^ "EU, NATO, Schengen and Eurozone member states in Europe". October 13, 2018.

Further reading

See also: List of Slavic studies journals

External links

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