History:
First state in this territory, inhabited by Slavonic tribes was Samoa’s Empire. Then the Great Moravian Empire followed. It was very famous and the capital was probably situated in southern Moravia near the village of Mikulčice. Even when the Great Moravian Empire still existed, another state formed in the region of Bohemia. It was called the Czech Crown Kingdom. In the 9th century 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 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 Hussite Movement marked the first part of the 15th century. It is named after John Huss, rector of Charles University and a preacher, who tried to reform the 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, the 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 politics moved from Prague to Vienna and we became a part of the big Austria Empire. They oppressed the Czech nation for almost 400 years. They tried to re-catholic and germanise; they also tried to liquidate Czech literature. Then WWI began. Austria lost this war and it was split into five states. One of them was newly 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 power was taken over by the communists directed by the Soviet Union. In 1968 Czechoslovakia was oppressed by the invasion of the Soviet army and the “normalisation” lasted about another 20 years till the “velvet revolution” in 1989. That resulted in the splitting of the republic and in 1993 two new states appeared – the Czech republic and the Slovak Republic. Our president is Václav Havel.

Geography:
The Czech Republic is situated in the centre of Europe and sometimes it is called the heart of Europe. It has a population of 10 million people and covers an area of about 80,000 sq. km.