Czechia

Czechia, also called the Czech Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe bordered by Germany, Poland, Slovakia and Austria. Prague is the capital. The constitution names no official language, but Czech, a West Slavic language close to Slovak, is the mother tongue of almost everyone.

Bohemia took shape as a duchy under the Přemyslid dynasty in the late 9th century, joined the Holy Roman Empire as an imperial estate in 1002 and became a kingdom in 1198. Emperor Charles IV founded Charles University in Prague in 1348, the first in Central Europe. Followers of the reformer Jan Hus beat off five crusades in the Hussite Wars of 1419 to 1434. The Defenestration of Prague in 1618 set off the Thirty Years' War, and after the defeat at White Mountain in 1620 the Habsburgs made their rule firm.

Czechoslovakia was founded in 1918 and stayed a democracy between the wars, until the Munich Agreement of 1938 opened the way to Nazi occupation. Communist rule began in 1948, and the Prague Spring of 1968 brought a brief period of reform. The Velvet Revolution of November 1989 restored democracy, and at the end of 1992 the federation split peacefully into two states. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. A parliamentary republic, it has a 200-seat Chamber of Deputies and an 81-seat Senate, and its president has been chosen by direct vote since 2013.

Carmaking is the largest manufacturing sector, with Škoda Auto at Mladá Boleslav and Hyundai and Toyota plants, while Škoda Transportation builds trains and trams. The currency is the koruna. Pilsner Urquell, the first blond lager, comes from Plzeň, and mouth-blown Bohemian glass is a traditional craft. Smetana wrote The Bartered Bride and Dvořák the New World Symphony, Franz Kafka, who wrote in German, is the author of The Trial, and Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. gave the world the word robot. Sněžka, at 1,603 m (5,259 ft), is the highest peak, and Český Krumlov and Karlštejn Castle are among its historic sites.