Czech Republic
Czech Republic lies in central part of Europe. It’s not very big country, the area is about 80 000 sq km. It neighbours with Poland in the north, Germany in the west, Austria in the south and Slovakia in the east. The highest mountain is Sněžka in Giant mountains. The other mountain areas are the Ore mountains, the Eagle mountains or Šumava.. The longest river is Vltava. It springs in Šumava and flows into Labe which is the bigest river in the country. The other big rivers are Morava and Odra. The Czech Republic has a mild climate.
In Czech Republic live about 10 milion inhabitans. The major nationalities living here are Czech and Moravian. There are also many minorities: Silesians, Slovaks, Poles, Germans, Russians, Romains and member of other nationalities. Most of people live in cities. The biggest city is the capital Prague with about 1 milion inhabitans. The other big cities are Brno, Plzeň, Ostrava etc.
The Czech Republic is a parliamentary democracy with the president as the head of state. In this time it is Václav Klaus. The main low making body is parlament. It consist of two houses. The Chember of Deputies and the Senate. The main executive body is goverment. There are three main parts of the country – Bohemia in the west, Moravia i the east and small Silesia in the north part of Moravia. There are differents between these regions in dialects and folk traditions. Politically the Czech Republic is divided into 14 districts. The national flag consist of white and red stripe and a blue triangle. The Czech anthem is the song „Where my home is“ by J.K.Tyl. From year 2004 .
There are grown mainly grain ( oats, barley, wheat ), grapes, sugar beat, maize, top, potatoes, fruit, vegetable and sunflowers. In animal production are the most important cattle-breeding and pig-breeding. Fish-breeding, especially carp-breeding can be found in South Bohemia, in the region called Třeboňsko.Czech republic is quite rich in natural resources. Black coal and anthracite are to be found mainly in the Ostrava Coal Basin, but also in the area of Kladno and elsewhere. Brown coal can be found in the Nort Bohemia Coal Basin and in Western Bohemia in the Sokolov Basin. We also have minor supplies of iron ore, uranium and oil. Our rich deposits of kaolin and clay are important for the ceramics and glass industries.
There are many spots of great natural beauty in Czech Republic. The most beautiful natural places are Czech Paradise, “rock town” in Prachov rocks, the Děčín walls, Czech Switzerland, the Boubín virgin forests, Macocha abyss etc. There are also many National parks and places associated with our history. Among the most beautiful historic towns belong Prague, Kutná Hora, Tábor etc. Also many castles, ruins and chateaux can be found in our republic. To the most interesting ones belong the Prague castle, Karlštejn, Křivoklát and Bezděz.
First state in this territory, inhabited by Slavonic tribes was Samoa’s Empire. Than The Big Moravia Empire followed. It was very famous and the capital was probably situated in the southern Moravia near village Mikulčice. Even when the Great Moravia still existed, another state formed at the region of Bohemia. It was called Czech Crown Kingdom. In 9th century the power was taken by Přemyslid dynasty. 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 Prague was the capital town. Charles IV. built in Prague the second oldest stone bridge in our republic, establish an archbishop there and founded Charles University, the oldest one in the middle Europe. The first part of the 15th century is marked by the Hussite Movement. It is named after John Huss, rector of Charles University and preacher, who tried reform Catholic Church. He was burnt at the stake as a heretic. After the reign of Jiří of Poděbrady, who is known for his appeal to other European kings to make a treaty securing peace, Jagiellonian dynasty was established on the Czech throne. But they reigned only for a short time and the throne was passed to Habsburg dynasty. The centre of culture and politic moved from Prague to Vienna and we became a part of big Austria Empire. They oppressed Czech nation for almost 400 years. They tried to re-catholic and germanise; they also tried to liquidate Czech literature. Then the WWI began. Austria lost this war and it was split into five states. One of them was new established Czechoslovak Republic with our first president Tomáš Garigue Masaryk. This state was destroyed by the German occupation and it appeared again after WWII. But the power was taken over by the communists directed by the Soviet Union. In 1968 the Czechoslovakia was oppressed by the invasion of the Soviet army and the “normalisation” lasted about another 20 years till the “velvet revolution” in 1989. The following development led to the splitting of the republic and in 1993 two new states appeared – the Czech republic and the Slovak Republic. The first president of Czech republic was Václav Havel.