Rental Cars Czech Republic - History of Czech Republic
The arrival of the Slavs in the 6th C marked the beginning of the Czech Republics' history adopting Christianity as their religion. Around the 9th C the independent state of Bohemia was formed. In the 14th and 15th centuries the Czech Republic witnessed an influential Church reform. The Hussite Revolution was led by Jan Zizka. Combined Hussite forces successfully defended Prague against anti-Hussite movement.
In 1526 the Czech kingdom again came under control of the mighty Hapsburg empire (Austro-Hungarian), but on 23 May 1618, two Hapsburg councillors were famously tossed out from an upper window of Prague Castle, sparking the thirty year war. Ultimately the locals were pacified, lost their land, much of their national identity and were forced into Catholicism for the next three centuries.
Finally by the 19th century, Bohemia and Moravia were swept by nationalistic sentiments and the dream of an independent state began to be realised during WWI, with the Czechs and Slovaks agreeing to form a single federal state of two equal republics. Despite a good start the two halves became unequal, but before they irreversibly fell out, Hitler came along, with devious promises of a united Germanic people, gaining the Sudetenland in the process. Soon they were completely overrun by the Nazis, resulting in catastrophic casualties, particularly Jewish and the intelligentsia. On the 8th of May 1945 Prague was liberated just days before the Soviet army arrived.
Czechoslovakia was re-established as an independent state, and in the 1946 elections, the Communists became the largest party resulting in a period of near bankruptcy and democratic curbs. When Alexander Dubcek was appointed president, he championed 'socialism with a human face', but the brief 'Prague Spring' revolution of 1968 was brutally crushed and Soviet tanks rolled into the city permanently. Dubcek was exiled and democracy died.
The next two decades Czechoslovakia barely deviated the Soviet line. After years of no change the Husak government aligned itself with East Germany, who opposed such actions. Civic reform then became the main political force in the country. It's most celebrated member, playwright Vaclav Havel, was appointed president. Havel was elected that December as president of the republic. After many splits in the government in 1991, Klaus emerged as the most powerful figure within the federal government. With firm opposition from President Havel, nationalists were endorsed by the people in June of 1992. Klaus then won the substantial majority vote in the Czech party. In 1993 the country was divided into two independent states, the Czech republic and Slovakia.
Abroad the Czech Republic’s policies remain securing membership of the EU, and to go with its recently acquired membership into NATO. Prague remains concerned with maintaining good relations with Russia. It also has joined Poland and Hungary in the Vise grad group whose goals are to promote regional economic security.
