Moravia

Coordinates: 49°30′N 17°00′E / 49.5°N 17°E / 49.5; 17
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Moravia
Morava
Lednice Castle
  • Olomouc
  • UTC+2 (CEST)
    Primary airportBrno–Tuřany Airport
    Highways

    Moravia[a] (Czech: Morava [ˈmorava] ; German: Mähren) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.

    The medieval and early modern

    imperial state of the Holy Roman Empire from 1004 to 1806, a crown land of the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1867, and a part of Austria-Hungary from 1867 to 1918. Moravia was one of the five lands of Czechoslovakia founded in 1918. In 1928 it was merged with Czech Silesia, and then dissolved in 1948 during the abolition of the land system following the communist coup d'état
    .

    Its area of 22,623.41 km2

    Archdiocese of Olomouc.[5] Until the expulsions after 1945, significant parts of Moravia were German speaking
    .

    Toponymy

    The region and former margraviate of Moravia, Morava in Czech, is named after its principal river Morava. It is theorized that the river's name is derived from Proto-Indo-European *mori: "waters", or indeed any word denoting water or a marsh.[13]

    The German name for Moravia is Mähren, from the river's German name March. This could have a different etymology, as march is a term used in the Medieval times for an outlying territory, a border or a frontier (cf. English march). In Latin, the name Moravia was used.

    Geography

    Moravia occupies most of the eastern part of the

    European continental divide) and partly in the east, where all the rivers rise
    .

    Moravia occupies an exceptional position in Central Europe. All the

    Outer Western Carpathians (gripping the meridian at a constant angle of 30°), provides a comfortable connection between the Danubian and Polish regions, and this area is thus of great importance in terms of the possible migration routes of large mammals[14] – both as regards periodically recurring seasonal migrations triggered by climatic oscillations in the prehistory, when permanent settlement
    started.

    Rolling hills of the Králický Sněžník massif, Horní Morava, near the border with Bohemia
    Šance Reservoir on the Ostravice River in the Moravian-Silesian Beskids; the river forms the border with Silesia.
    Steppe landscape near Mohelno

    Moravia borders

    Habsburgs
    ).

    Today Moravia includes the South Moravian and Zlín regions, vast majority of the Olomouc Region, southeastern half of the Vysočina Region and parts of the Moravian-Silesian, Pardubice and South Bohemian regions.

    Geologically, Moravia covers a transitive area[

    Javorníky (1072). The White Carpathians along the southeastern border rise up to 970 m at Velká Javořina. The spacious, but moderate Bohemian-Moravian Highlands on the west reach 837 m at Javořice
    .

    The fluvial system of Moravia is very cohesive, as the region border is similar to the watershed of the Morava river, and thus almost the entire area is drained exclusively by a single stream. Morava's far biggest tributaries are Thaya (Dyje) from the right (or west) and

    European Watershed. For centuries, there have been plans to build a waterway across Moravia to join the Danube and Oder river systems, using the natural route through the Moravian Gate.[15][16]

    History

    Pre-history

    Venus of Dolní Věstonice, the oldest surviving ceramic figurine in the world
    palaeolithic
    settlement

    Evidence of the presence of members of the human genus,

    paleontological area of Stránská skála.[14]

    Attracted by suitable living conditions, early modern humans settled in the region by the

    Roman era

    Around 60 BC, the

    Slovakia
    .

    In the 2nd century AD, a

    hypocaustum. The discovery of bricks with the stamp of the Legio X Gemina and coins from the period of the emperors Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus
    facilitated dating of the locality.

    Ancient Moravia

    Territory of Great Moravia in the 9th century: area ruled by Rastislav (846–870) map marks the greatest territorial extent during the reign of Svatopluk I (871–894), violet core is origin of Moravia.
    bishops of Olomouc since the 10th century and the current seat of the Archbishopric of Olomouc
    , the Metropolitan archdiocese of Moravia

    A variety of Germanic and major

    Svatopluk I. At this time, the empire encompassed the territory of the present-day Czech Republic and Slovakia, the western part of present Hungary (Pannonia), as well as Lusatia in present-day Germany and Silesia and the upper Vistula basin in southern Poland. After Svatopluk's death in 895, the Bohemian princes defected to become vassals of the East Frankish ruler Arnulf of Carinthia, and the Moravian state ceased to exist after being overrun by invading Magyars in 907.[28][29]

    Union with Bohemia

    Following the defeat of the Magyars by Emperor

    Bretislaus recaptured it. Upon his father's death in 1034, Bretislaus became the ruler of Bohemia. In 1055, he decreed that Bohemia and Moravia would be inherited together by primogeniture
    , although he also provided that his younger sons should govern parts (quarters) of Moravia as vassals to his oldest son.

    Throughout the Přemyslid era, junior princes often ruled all or part of Moravia from

    Margraviate, slightly administratively different from Bohemia. After the Battle of Legnica, the Mongols
    carried their raids into Moravia.

    The main line of the

    Albert II of Habsburg
    in 1437.

    After his death followed the

    Bohemian nobility
    ) as the king of Bohemia.

    The subsequent 21-year period of a divided kingdom was decisive for the rising awareness of a specific Moravian identity, distinct from that of Bohemia. Although Moravia was reunited with Bohemia in 1490 when

    Louis died in battle and the Habsburg Ferdinand I
    was elected as his successor.

    Habsburg rule (1526–1918)

    After the death of King

    University of Olomouc was established; this was the first university in Moravia. The establishment of a special papal seminary, Collegium Nordicum, made the University a centre of the Catholic Reformation and effort to revive Catholicism in Central and Northern Europe. The second largest group of students were from Scandinavia
    .

    Brno and Olomouc served as Moravia's capitals until 1641. As the only city to successfully resist the Swedish invasion, Brno become the sole capital following the capture of Olomouc. The Margraviate of Moravia had, from 1348 in Olomouc and Brno, its own Diet, or parliament, zemský sněm (Landtag in German), whose deputies from 1905 onward were elected separately from the ethnically separate German and Czech constituencies.

    The oldest surviving theatre building in Central Europe, the Reduta Theatre, was established in 17th-century Moravia. Ottoman Turks and Tatars invaded the region in 1663, taking 12,000 captives.[35] In 1740, Moravia was invaded by Prussian forces under Frederick the Great, and Olomouc was forced to surrender on 27 December 1741. A few months later the Prussians were repelled, mainly because of their unsuccessful siege of Brno in 1742. In 1758, Olomouc was besieged by Prussians again, but this time its defenders forced the Prussians to withdraw following the Battle of Domstadtl. In 1777, a new Moravian bishopric was established in Brno, and the Olomouc bishopric was elevated to an archbishopric.[36] In 1782, the Margraviate of Moravia was merged with Austrian Silesia into Moravia-Silesia, with Brno as its capital. Moravia became a separate crown land of Austria again in 1849,[37][38] and then became part of Cisleithanian Austria-Hungary after 1867. According to Austro-Hungarian census of 1910 the proportion of Czechs in the population of Moravia at the time (2.622.000) was 71.8%, while the proportion of Germans was 27.6%.[39]

    • Habsburg Empire Crown lands: growth of the Habsburg territories and Moravia's status
      Moravia's status
    • Administrative division of Moravia as crown land of Austria in 1893
      Administrative division of Moravia as crown land of Austria in 1893

    20th century

    Administrative map of Moravia and Silesia, 1906
    Administrative map of Moravia and Silesia, 1906

    Following the break-up of the

    occupation of Czechoslovakia (1939–1945), the remnant of Moravia was an administrative unit within the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
    .

    During World War II, the Germans operated multiple forced labour camps in the region, including several subcamps of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp for Allied POWs,[40] a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Brno for mostly Polish prisoners,[41] and a subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in Bílá Voda for Jewish women.[42] The occupiers also established several POW camps, including Heilag VIII-H, Oflag VIII-F and Oflag VIII-H, for French, British, Belgian and other Allied POWs in the region.[43]

    In 1945 after the Allied defeat of Germany and the end of World War II, the German minority was

    expelled to Germany and Austria in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. The Moravian-Silesian Land was restored with Moravia as part of it and towns and villages that were left by the former German inhabitants, were re-settled by Czechs, Slovaks and reemigrants.[44]
    In 1949 the territorial division of Czechoslovakia was radically changed, as the Moravian-Silesian Land was abolished and Lands were replaced by "kraje" (regions), whose borders substantially differ from the historical Bohemian-Moravian border, so Moravia politically ceased to exist after more than 1100 years (833–1949) of its history. Although another administrative reform in 1960 implemented (among others) the North Moravian and the South Moravian regions (Severomoravský and Jihomoravský kraj), with capitals in Ostrava and Brno respectively, their joint area was only roughly alike the historical state and, chiefly, there was no land or federal autonomy, unlike Slovakia.

    After the fall of the Soviet Union and the whole Eastern Bloc, the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly condemned the cancellation of Moravian-Silesian land and expressed "firm conviction that this injustice will be corrected" in 1990. However, after the breakup of Czechoslovakia into Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993, Moravian area remained integral to the Czech territory, and the latest administrative division of Czech Republic (introduced in 2000) is similar to the administrative division of 1949. Nevertheless, the federalist or separatist movement in Moravia is completely marginal.

    The centuries-lasting historical Bohemian-Moravian border has been preserved up to now only by the

    Czech Roman Catholic Administration
    , as the Ecclesiastical Province of Moravia corresponds with the former Moravian-Silesian Land. The popular perception of the Bohemian-Moravian border's location is distorted by the memory of the 1960 regions (whose boundaries are still partly in use).

    • Jan Černý, president of Moravia in 1922–1926, later also Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
      Jan Černý, president of Moravia in 1922–1926, later also Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia
    • A general map of Moravia in the 1920s
      A general map of Moravia in the 1920s
    • In 1928, Moravia was merged into Moravia-Silesia, one of four lands of Czechoslovakia, together with Bohemia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus.
      In 1928, Moravia was merged into Moravia-Silesia, one of four lands of Czechoslovakia, together with Bohemia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus.

    Economy

    An area in

    Viennese Basin. Petroleum and lignite are found there in abundance. The main economic centres of Moravia are Brno, Olomouc and Zlín, plus Ostrava lying directly on the Moravian–Silesian border. As well as agriculture in general, Moravia is noted for its viticulture; it contains 94% of the Czech Republic's vineyards and is at the centre of the country's wine industry. Wallachia have at least a 400-year-old tradition of slivovitz making.[45]

    The Czech automotive industry also had a large role in the industry of Moravia in the 20th century; the factories of Wikov in Prostějov and Tatra in Kopřivnice produced many automobiles.

    Moravia is also the centre of the Czech firearm industry, as the vast majority of Czech firearms manufacturers (e.g.

    ZVI Kevin (also known as the "Micro Desert Eagle
    ").

    The

    .

    Aircraft production in the region started in 1930s; after a period of low production post-1989, there are signs of recovery post-2010, and production is expected to grow from 2013 onwards.[46]

    Machinery industry

    The machinery industry has been the most important industrial sector in the region, especially in

    Otis Elevator Company
    ). A number of other, smaller machinery and machine parts factories, companies and workshops are spread over Moravia.

    Electrical industry

    The beginnings of the electrical industry in Moravia date back to 1918. The biggest centres of electrical production are Brno (VUES, ZPA Brno, EM Brno), Drásov, Frenštát pod Radhoštěm and Mohelnice (currently Siemens).

    Cities and towns

    Cities

    • Brno, c. 396,000 inhabitants, former land capital and nowadays capital of South Moravian Region; industrial, judicial, educational and research centre; railway and motorway junction
    • Moravská Ostrava, lies historically in Moravia, most of the outskirts are in Czech Silesia), capital of Moravian-Silesian Region
      , centre of heavy industry
    • Olomouc, c. 102,000 inh., capital of Olomouc Region, medieval land capital, seat of Roman Catholic archbishop, cultural centre of Hanakia and Central Moravia
    • Bata Shoes
      company
    • Frýdek-Místek, c. 54,000 inh., twin-city lying directly on the old Moravian-Silesian border (the western part, Místek, is Moravian), in the industrial area around Ostrava
    • Moravian Highlands
    • Prostějov, c. 44,000 inh., former centre of clothing and fashion industry, birthplace of Edmund Husserl
    • Přerov, c. 42,000 inh., important railway hub and archeological site (Předmostí)

    Towns

    People

    Moravian nationality, as declared by people in the 1991 census
    Moravian Slovak costumes (worn by men and women) during the Jízda králů ("Ride of the Kings") Festival held annually in the village of Vlčnov (southeastern Moravia)

    The Moravians are generally a Slavic ethnic group who speak various (generally more archaic) dialects of Czech. Before the expulsion of Germans from Moravia the Moravian German minority also referred to themselves as "Moravians" (Mährer). Those expelled and their descendants continue to identify as Moravian.

    Moravian is a language distinct from Czech; however, their position is not widely supported by academics and the public.[48][49][50][51] Some Moravians identify as an ethnically distinct group; the majority consider themselves to be ethnically Czech. In the census of 1991 (the first census in history in which respondents were allowed to claim Moravian nationality), 1,362,000 (13.2%) of the Czech population identified as being of Moravian nationality (or ethnicity). In some parts of Moravia (mostly in the centre and south), majority of the population identified as Moravians, rather than Czechs. In the census of 2001, the number of Moravians had decreased to 380,000 (3.7% of the country's population).[52] In the census of 2011, this number rose to 522,474 (4.9% of the Czech population).[53][54]

    Historical population
    YearPop.±%
    9th c.500,000—    
    13th c. 580,000+16.0%
    15th c. 650,000+12.1%
    17751,134,674+74.6%
    1800 1,656,397+46.0%
    1810 1,346,802−18.7%
    1820 1,443,804+7.2%
    1830 1,643,637+13.8%
    1840 1,703,995+3.7%
    1850 1,793,674+5.3%
    1878 2,103,847+17.3%
    1880 2,160,471+2.7%
    1890 2,285,321+5.8%
    1900 2,447,121+7.1%
    1910 2,693,027+10.0%
    1921 2,662,884−1.1%
    1930 2,827,648+6.2%
    1950 2,610,650−7.7%
    2014 3,125,000+19.7%
    Source: Růžková, J., Josef Škrabal, J.; et al. (2006). Historický lexikon obcí České republiky 1869–2005 [Historical lexicon of municipalities in the Czech Republic 1869–2005] (PDF) (in Czech). Vol. Díl I. Český statistický úřad. pp. 51–54.
    ISBN 978-80-250-1311-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )

    Moravia historically had a large minority of

    ethnic Germans, some of whom had arrived as early as the 13th century at the behest of the Přemyslid dynasty. Germans continued to come to Moravia in waves, culminating in the 18th century. They lived in the main city centres and in the countryside along the border with Austria (stretching up to Brno) and along the border with Silesia at Jeseníky, and also in two language islands, around Jihlava and around Moravská Třebová. After the World War II, the Czechoslovak government almost fully expelled them in retaliation for their support of Nazi Germany's invasion and dismemberment of Czechoslovakia (1938–1939) and subsequent German war crimes
    (1938–1945) towards the Czech, Moravian, and Jewish populations.

    Moravians

    • Comenius
      Comenius
    • Gregor Mendel
      Gregor Mendel
    • František Palacký
      František Palacký
    • Jaromír Mundy
      Jaromír Mundy
    • Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
      Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
    • Leoš Janáček
      Leoš Janáček
    • Sigmund Freud
      Sigmund Freud
    • Edmund Husserl
      Edmund Husserl
    • Alphonse Mucha
      Alphonse Mucha
    • Adolf Loos
      Adolf Loos
    • Tomáš Baťa
      Tomáš Baťa
    • Kurt Gödel
      Kurt Gödel
    • Emil Zátopek
      Emil Zátopek
    • Milan Kundera
      Milan Kundera
    • Ivan Lendl
      Ivan Lendl

    Notable people from Moravia include (in order of birth):

    Old ethnic division of Moravians according to an encyclopaedia of 1878

    Ethnographic regions

    Moravia can be divided on dialectal and lore basis into several ethnographic regions of comparable significance. In this sense, it is more heterogenous than Bohemia. Significant parts of Moravia, usually those formerly inhabited by the German speakers, are dialectally indifferent, as they have been resettled by people from various Czech (and Slovak) regions.

    The principal cultural regions of Moravia are:

    Places of interest

    Historic Centre of Telč
    Punkevní Cave in the Moravian Karst

    World Heritage Sites

    Other

    See also

    Notes

    References

    1. ^ a b "Population of Municipalities – 1 January 2023". Czech Statistical Office. 23 May 2023.
    2. ^ Royal Frankish Annals (year 822), pp. 111–112.
    3. ^ Morava, Iniciativa Naša. "Fakta o Moravě – Naša Morava".
    4. S2CID 161655879
      .
    5. ^ a b "Encyklopedie dějin města Brna". 2004.
    6. ^ "Moravia". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 22 March 2020.; "Moravia". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
    7. ^ a b "Moravia". Collins English Dictionary. HarperCollins. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
    8. ^ "Moravia". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
    9. ^ "Dodatek I. Přehled Moravy a Slezska podle žup". Statistický lexikon obcí v republice Československé. Morava a Slezsko (in Czech). Prague: Státní úřad statistický. 1924. p. 133.
    10. ^ "Dodatek IV. Moravské enklávy ve Slezsku". Statistický lexikon obcí v republice Československé. Morava a Slezsko (in Czech). Prague: Státní úřad statistický. 1924. p. 138.
    11. ^ a.s., Economia (18 February 2000). "Jsem Moravan?".
    12. ^ "Říkáte celé ČR Čechy? Pro Moraváky jste ignorant". 8 February 2010.
    13. ^ ŠRÁMEK, Rudolf, MAJTÁN, Milan, Lutterer, Ivan: Zeměpisná jména Československa, Mladá fronta (1982), Praha, p. 202.
    14. ^ .
    15. ^ Administrator. "About the multipurpose water corridor Danube-Oder-Elbe". Archived from the original on 17 May 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2016.
    16. .
    17. .
    18. ^ Viegas, Jennifer (7 October 2011). "Prehistoric dog found with mammoth bone in mouth". Discovery News. Archived from the original on 9 November 2012. Retrieved 11 October 2011.
    19. ^ Jonathan Jones: Carl Andre on notoriety and a 26,000-year-old portrait – the week in art. The Guardian 25 January 2013
    20. ^ "Dolni Vestonice and Pavlov sites".
    21. ^ Oldest homes were made of mammoth bone. The Times 29.8.2005
    22. ^ "Detašované pracoviště Dolní Dunajovice – Hradisko u Mušova".
    23. ^ "Opevnění – Detašované pracoviště Dolní Dunajovice, AÚ AV ČR Brno, v. v. i."
    24. – via Google Books.
    25. ^ "Lázeňská a obytná budova – Detašované pracoviště Dolní Dunajovice, AÚ AV ČR Brno, v. v. i."
    26. ^ Florin Kurta. The history and archaeology of Great Moravia: an introduction. in: "Early Medieval Europe", 2009 volume 17 (3)
    27. ^ Reuter, Timothy. (1991). Germany in the Early Middle Ages, London: Longman, page 82
    28. . Retrieved 27 August 2013.
    29. .
    30. ^ The exact dating of the conquest of Moravia by Bohemian dukes is uncertain. Czech and some Slovak historiographers suggest the year 1019, while Polish, German and other Slovak historians suggest 1029, during the rule of Boleslaus' son, Mieszko II Lambert.
    31. ^ There are no primary testimonies about creating a margraviate (march) as distinct political unit
    32. ^ Svoboda, Zbyšek; Fojtík, Pavel; Exner, Petr; Martykán, Jaroslav (2013). "Odborné vexilologické stanovisko k moravské vlajce" (PDF). Vexilologie. Zpravodaj České vexilologické společnosti, o.s. č. 169. Brno: Česká vexilologická společnost. pp. 3319, 3320.
    33. ^ Pícha, František (2013). "Znaky a prapory v kronice Ottokara Štýrského" (PDF). Vexilologie. Zpravodaj České vexilologické společnosti, o.s. č. 169. Brno: Česká vexilologická společnost. pp. 3320–3324.
    34. ^ Evan Rail (23 September 2011). The Castles of Moravia. NYT 23.9.2011
    35. ^ Lánové rejstříky (1656–1711) Archived 12 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine (in Czech)
    36. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Moravia".
    37. ^ Czechoslovakia: A Country Study. US Army. 1898. p. 27.
    38. ^ "Moravia | historical region, Europe | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
    39. , p. 109.
    40. ^ "Working Parties". Lamsdorf.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
    41. ^ "Brünn". Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
    42. ^ "Subcamps of KL Gross-Rosen". Gross-Rosen Museum in Rogoźnica. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
    43. .
    44. .
    45. ^ "Jelínek's 400-Year Tradition of Making Slivovitz Bears Fruit in the U.S." OU Kosher Certification. 5 October 2010.
    46. ISSN 1213-7693
      .
    47. ^ Bill Lehane: ČSÚ (Czech statistical office) plays down census disputes – Campaign want to include Moravian language in count (Moravian identity). The Prague Post 9.3.2011 20
    48. Mladá fronta DNES
      (in Czech). iDnes. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
    49. ^ Zemanová, Barbora (12 November 2008). "Moravané tvoří spisovnou moravštinu". Brněnský Deník (in Czech). denik.cz. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
    50. ^ O spisovné moravštině a jiných "malých" jazycích (Naše řeč 5, ročník 83/2000) (in Czech)
    51. ^ Kolínková, Eliška (30 December 2008). "Amatérský jazykovědec prosazuje moravštinu jako nový jazyk". Mladá fronta DNES (in Czech). iDnes. Retrieved 7 December 2011.
    52. .
    53. .
    54. .

    Further reading

    External links