Bohemia << boh HEE mee uh >> is a region in the western part of the Czech Republic . Bohemia covers about 20,000 square miles (52,000 square kilometers) and has about 6,500,000 people, or about 60 percent of the republic’s population.
Bohemia is a saucer-shaped plateau ringed by hills and mountains. The Sudeten Mountains form Bohemia’s northeastern boundary, and the Bohemian Mountains form the region’s western boundary. The Elbe River Valley in the north includes the most fertile farmland. Farmers there raise such crops as rye, sugar beets, and wheat. Bohemian farmers also produce barley, oats, and potatoes, and they raise cattle and hogs.
Most Bohemians belong to a Slavic group called Czechs. Industries employ about two-thirds of the workers. Manufactured products of the region include beer, Bohemian crystal and cut glass, chemicals, cloth, iron and steel, and machinery. Cultural life centers in Prague , the Czech Republic’s capital and largest city.
The first known inhabitants of Bohemia were the Boii, a Celtic tribe that lived in the region during the 300’s B.C. The name Bohemia comes from the word Boii. The Czech word for Bohemia, Cechy, refers to the Czechs, who had settled in the region by about A.D. 500. In 1158, Emperor Frederick I of the Holy Roman Empire gave the title of king to the Duke of Bohemia. Bohemia reached its political and cultural peak in the 1300’s, when Charles IV ruled as king and Holy Roman emperor.
A period of civil wars began in 1419, following the execution of John Hus. Hus was a Bohemian religious reformer (see Hus, John ). These wars were called the Hussite Wars. They were chiefly religious conflicts in which Hus’s followers fought loyal Roman Catholics. The two sides managed to reach a compromise in 1436. In time, most Bohemians became Protestants. Bohemia came under the rule of the Catholic Habsburg family in 1526. The Bohemian Protestants overthrew the Habsburgs in 1618, but the Habsburgs regained power in 1620. The Bohemian revolt began the Thirty Years’ War (see Thirty Years’ War (The Bohemian period) ).
The Habsburgs ruled Bohemia for almost 400 years. Bohemia lost most of its religious and political freedom under Habsburg rule. Beginning in the late 1700’s, Czech leaders in Bohemia worked for a rebirth of patriotism and culture. The Bohemian people unsuccessfully revolted in 1848. Bohemia became industrialized during the 1800’s.
The Habsburg empire of Austria-Hungary was one of the losing nations in World War I (1914-1918). In 1918, Bohemia became a province of the new independent republic of Czechoslovakia. The government of Czechoslovakia abolished the country’s provinces in 1949. In 1992, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist and the independent countries of the Czech Republic and Slovakia were created in its place. Bohemia became a region in the Czech Republic.
See also Moravia .
