Eastern and Central Europe (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

228 CENTRAL EASTERN EUROPE

Engraving showing the reformer Jan

Hus being burnt at the stake

KEY DATES IN CZECH HISTORY

500 BC Celts settle in Bohemia and Moravia.

Joined by Germanic tribes in 1st century AD

AD 500–600 Slavs settle in the region

870 Přemyslids build Prague Castle

1333 Charles IV makes Prague his home,

marking the start of the city’s Golden Age

1415 Jan Hus executed for heresy; start of

the Hussite Wars

1526 Habsburg rule begins with Ferdinand I

1583 Accession of Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II

1618 Protestant revolt leads to the Thirty

Years’ War

1627 Beginning of Counter-Reformation

committee in Prague

1916 Czechoslovak National Council created

in Paris

1918 Foundation of Czechoslovakia

1948 Communist Party assumes power

1989 Year of the Velvet Revolution; Communist

regime finally overthrown

1993 Czechoslovakia ceases to exist; creation of

the new Czech Republic

2004 Czech Republic joins the EU

2007 New centre-right coalition forms

a government

The reign of Holy Roman Emperor

Charles IV in the 14th century

heralded a Golden Age for Bohemia.

Charles chose Prague as his imperial

residence and founded

many institutions there,

including Central

Europe’s first university.

In the early 15th

century, Central Europe

lived in fear of an

incred ible fighting

force – the Hussites,

fol lowers of the

reformer Jan Hus, who

attacked the corrupt

practices of the

Catholic church. Hus’s

exe cution in 1415 led

to the Hussite Wars.

At the start of the

16th century, the Austrian Habsburgs

took over the region and went on to

rule for almost 400 years. Religious

turmoil led, in 1618, to the Protestant

revolt and the Thirty Years’ War. The

19th century saw a period of Czech

national revival and the burgeoning

of civic pride. However, it was not

until 1918 and the col lapse of the

Habsburg Empire that the inde-

pendent republic of

Czechoslovakia was

declared. World War II

brought German occu-

pation, followed by

four dec ades of

Communism. In 1968,

a programme of liberal

reforms (the Prague

Spring) was intro duced,

but it was swiftly

quashed by Soviet

leaders. The over throw

of Communism did not

come until November

1989, when a pro test

rally against police

brutality led to the Velvet Revolution –

a series of mass demon strations and

strikes that resulted in the resignation

of the existing regime. In 1993, the

peaceful division of Czechoslovakia

resulted in the creation of two

independent states – Slovakia and

the Czech Republic.

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Under the Habsburgs, Czech identity

was largely suppressed and the Czech

language became little more than a dia-

lect. In the 19th century, however,

Austrian rule relaxed, and the Czechs

began rediscovering their own culture.

Czech was re-established as an official

language, thanks to the historian

František Palacký, who also wrote the

first history of the Czech nation.

Since the Golden Age of the 14th

century, Prague has prided itself on

its reputation as a flourishing cultural

centre. In the early 20th century, the

city hosted a Cubist move ment that

rivalled the one in Paris. The Czech

Republic has also produced writers,

artists and musicians of world renown.