|RNature and climate:|N Two plateaus surrounded by the mountainchains Sudeten, the Carpats, Böhmerwald and Erzgebirge and separated by the Bohemian-Monravian heights.
Continental climate with an average temperature in January between -2 and -6°C and between 17 and 20°C in July.
Percipitation between 500 and 1000 mm.
|RPeople:|N 94% Czeks, 4% Slovaks and 2% Germans. More than three million Germans were expelled after World War II. The Czeck language is very closely related to the Slovak language.
|REconomy:|N The Czeck republic is one of the most industrialized countries in Eastern Europe. It was industrialized before World War I and was leading in many fields. It has rich deposits of coal, cokes, many different minerals, iron ore and uranium as well as vast forests, which was the base for industrialization.
Half the country is cultivated and agriculture is highly mechanized and effective. Most important crops are wheat, barley, sugarbeets, potatoes and foddercrops.
Stockraising is extensive as well as forestry.
Engineering industry, including transportation vehicles, is very extensive. The first steelworks were founded in Ostrava 1829 and the industry has been strongly developed since then.
Manufacturing of glass and ceramics is extensive and the Bohemian crystal is known worldwide.
There is also an extensive textile manufacturing.
|RHistory:|N There are several finds of prehistoric settlements in the area. There are also traces after some of the very first agricultural civilizations of Central Europe.
In the 6th century Slavic tribes immigrated. In the 9th century these tribes were united in one kingdom consisting of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia. In 907 to 908 this kingdom was attacked and conquered by Magyars. In the 11th century Bohemia and Moravia succeeded to found a separate kingdom within the Roman empire.
1526 it came under the Habsburgs and was first a part of Austria, later the Dual Monarchy Austria-Hungary, where also Slovakia was a part.
During the 19th century the national identities grew stronger and from the 1890:s national CZeck parties held majority in the local Bohemian parliament. In World War I a Czeck national council was formed in France that in many ways fought against the Axis-powers, Austria-Hungary and Germany.
In May 1918 Czecks and Slovaks agreed on founding a united country. The independence was proclaimed when the Axis-powers collapsed in October 1918. Then Czeckoslovakia was founded and became one of the most democratic countries in Central Europe between the two wars.
Internally there was severe tension between Czecks and Slovaks and the German minority in Monravia demanded internal self-rule. This demand developed towards a claim of unification with Germany and in the Munich Pact of September 1938 Czeckoslovakia ceded most of Bohemia to Germany.
Supported by Germany Slovakia proclaimed itself an independent country March 9, 1939 and less than a week later germany conquered the whole Bohemia and Moravia that was transformed to a German protectorate.
After the German collapse 1945 Czeckoslovakia was reestablished as one country, millions of Germans and Magyars were forced out of the country and the old government returned from London where it had been working all through the war.
This government was ousted in a communist coup 1948 and after that Czeckoslovakia became a part of Sovjet -dominated Eastern Europe.
In 1968 Alexander Dubcek was elected secretary of the communist party and he introduced a number of liberal reforms. This "Prague Spring" came to a sudden end in August the same year when troops from the Sovjet Union and the Warzaw Pact invaded and reestablished the communist order.
The discontent with the communist regime was not over. 1977 300 intellectuals signed a manifesto for human rights, The Charta 77.
In 1989 there were great progress for the democratic movement and many communistleaders voluntarily left their positions in government. In December the poet and dissident Vaclav Havel was elected president and the popular communistleader Alexander Dubcek was elected chairman of the parliament.
When democracy was reestablished the old tensions between Czecks and Slovaks became evident and present again and January 1, 1993 Czeckoslovakia was divided in the two republics Czeck Republic and Slovakia.
