History of the Czech republic

The first historical tribes on nowadays CR area were the Celtic tribes in the 4th century. According to one of the oldest Czech legends the Primal Father Czech came with his group to Bohemia, climbed up the hill Říp, observe the country and gave order to settle in this fertile and  picturesque country.
The first Slavs came to Bohemia form the north during the 5th century and they settled in the region of nowadays central Bohemia.First state in this territory was Samoa’s Empire.
 
The most glorious period of the old history of this country is the time of the Grate Moravian Empire in the 9th century. At this time Bohemia was a loyal ally of Moravia. The Moravian sovereign Rastislav requested from the Byzantium the Christian mission led by brothers Constantine and Methodius, originally the Greeks from Salonica. They arrived in Moravia in 863 and promoted the Slavonic liturgy. For it’s propose Constantine formed the Old Slavonic language and separate script. Methodius baptized the Czech duke Bořivoj - the first historical documented member of Přemyslid dynasty - and his wife Ludmila in 874. At the first years of the 10th century the Great Moravian Empire was destroyed by Magyar invasion from its southern part.
 
When the Přemyslid dynasty died out by the sword, the Czech throne went by way of a dynastic wedding to the Luxembourg. Under Charles IV the Czech Kingdom became the centre of the Holy Roman Empire and the city of Prague was the capital town. Charles IV built the second oldest stone bridge in our republic in Prague, established an archbishop there and founded Charles University, the oldest one in middle Europe
 
The first part of the 15th century was marked by the Hussite Movement. It is named after John Huss, rector of Charles University a preacher and sharp critic of the growing riches of the Catholic Church, who tried to reform the Catholic Church. He was burnt at the stake as a heretic.
The Jagiellonian dynasty reigned only for a short time and the throne was passed to Habsburg dynasty. Czech king Rudolf II, who is the world-known sovereign because of his extravagance but also because of famous art collections, created the Bohemian Kingdom as the centre of his empire and the centre of whole Europe and Prague became the capitol of the monarchy. But unfortunately, after the Battle of the Bílá Hora in 1620 and during the Thirty Year’s War, which took place throughout Europe, the centre of culture and politics moved from Prague to Vienna and we became a part of the big Austria Empire.
 
Another important sovereigns of Habsburg dynasty were Queen Maria Teresia and her son, Roman Emperor Joseph II, who prefer the rule of ‘the Enlightenment’. In this time the country was strongly germanised. During the 2nd half of the 19th century the Czech language became important again and the modern Czech nation grew up.
 
At the end of the WW I, the Australian-Hungarian Empire fell and in October 28, 1918 the Czechoslovakia Republic was established under the leadership of the first Czech President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. New chapter in the history of our country began. Our republic was a democratic capitalistic state and one of the strongest economic power in the world. Unfortunately, Hitler’s fascism and WW II put the end to this promising development.
 
The Munich Treaty in 1938 attributed the border of Bohemian territory to Germany and in March 1939 the rest of our state was occupied by the Germans. The Czechoslovakia was liberated by the Russian Red and US Armies in May 1945.
 
The new post-war period in Europe, which was one of the results of the WW II, was also unfavourable for Czechoslovakia. In February 1948 the Communist Party sized the power and together with other states of central and eastern Europe, Czechoslovakia became a satellite of the USSR. The 1950s are known as the period of ‘red terror’ with many political trials and the „Personality Cult“. On August 21, 1968 the whole country was occupied by the Warsaw Pact Troops in order to stop democratic reforms in our country. The 1970s are known as the period of ‘normalisation’ when many non-conformists had to leave the country.
 
After 40 years of totalitarian depression, on November 17, 1989 “the Velvet Revolution” started in Prague and huge demonstrations of hundreds thousand Praguers woke up the whole nation. For several years now, the Czech nation have had their freedom again. The Czechs can take part in private business, they can go as tourist abroad to the West, they are no longer slaves of a foreign power. The Czech Republic was established on January 1, 1993 as the following state of the Czechoslovakia. Our president was Václav Havel.