In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Ray Mitchell) wrote: > > Who were the Czechs ? > > I'm trying to get a handle on who the Czechs were > BEFORE the Czech Republic or Czechoslovakia > existed. > > I see references like: "...the Czechs in the 11th. > century...", and then I find there was no > Czechoslovakia until the 20th century! > > Could anyone tell me, without adding to my > confusion, who the Czechs were historically? > Roughly speaking, they were Bohemians. The Czechs always existed as the majority ethnic group of Bohemia and Moravia (although the ones in Moravia were always somewhat distinct, and sometimes resent being called Czech). The state they formed was officially called Crown of Bohemia, and it included Bohemia, Moravia, and sometimes Silesia and other minor lands and temporary acquisitions. Bohemia itself was a kingdom, while the rest had various forms. The Crown of Bohemia was, loosely speaking, a confederation of lands with the King of Bohemia as its head. This made the Crown of Bohemia a kingdom as well. Bohemia was a constituent kingdom of the Holy Roman empire. This did not really interfere with the factual independence of the land: the obligations of Bohemian kings towards the empire were purely formal. However, due to this fact, historical atlasses often show Bohemia simply as a land of the Empire, or even as a mere region in Germany. In 1526, Habsburgs came to the Czech (Bohemian) throne. This did not mean any constitutional change, but historical atlasses usually show Bohemia simply as a part of Habsburg domains together with their other possessions. The Czech (Bohemian) lands suffered badly in the 30 years war. As a result of this the Hbsburgs were able to tie the land closer to their other lands starting from 1620. There was no clear constitutional change, but the Crown of Bohemia lost most attributes of an independent state in the following three centuries. In the end, it was just a province of the Austrian (of Austro-Hungarian) empire, and this is how it is shown on historical maps until 1918. There was always a significant German speaking minority in the Czech lands. The word Czech may also refer to them in the broad sense of the word, but this usage is controversial. Similarly, Czech also meant Czechoslovaks in the recent English usage, although this was incorrect. Radek -----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==----- http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading