My sources for this section include:
The Golden Maze: A biography of Prague, by Richard Fidler
A short outline would mention the little country of the Czech people, fighting to preserve their independence against a series of external more powerful forces.
The Map of Europe (animation). Starting around 1200.
Jan Hus (1370 – 1415). In 1409, the archbishop of the Catholic Church burned the books of John Wyclif which Jan Hus had brought into Prague. Attacks on Hus by the Pope, the local Catholic church and King Wenceslas IV provoked a rebellion known as Hussite. Hus was burned at the stake in 1415.
The Hussite rebellion continued until 1526. It can be thought of as a Czech equivalent to the Protestant Lutheran movement in Germany (the Holy Roman Empire) and other parts of Europe. (Martin Luther lived 1483 –1546).
The Habsburg Empire. In 1526, the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria became King of Bohemia. The Habsburg family, who were Catholic, essentially ruled Bohemia until the end of WWI. Much of Czech nationalism was directed towards independence from the Habsburgs.
Tension between the Protestant Bohemian barons and the Catholic Habsburgs took a turn in 1619, when the Habsburg Arch-Duke Ferdinand of Styria was deposed by Protestant Bohemian nobles, and replaced by a glamorous young couple; Frederick from the Palatinate of the Rhine and his Scottish wife Elizabeth, daughter of King James 1st of England. They became King and Queen of Bohemia.
However Ferdinand of Styria had meanwhile become Holy Roman Emperor, and he assembled a coalition of Catholic countries to attack Bohemia. This led in turn to the Thirty Years War, the worst war in Europe until WWI.
The Protestant forces suffered a major defeat at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620. The War continued until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
The Ottoman Empire at the time of the Battle of Vienna
Europe after the Battle of Vienna
Europe in 1812 before Napoleon invaded Russia.
Empress Elisabeth of Austria ('Sisi') and Emperor Franz Joseph.
Franz Joseph and Sisi had three daughters and one son, Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria. He was the heir apparent, but committed suicide in 1889 in a pact with his mistress. Described in the novel 'A Nervous Splendor: Vienna 1888-1889'.
This novel describes the decades following 1850 as 'Gründerzeit', the Time of the Founders. The Ringstrasse was built, and many industrial and other businesses were started. Ambitious civic buildings, including the Opera House, Town Hall, and Parliament, were also built.
The status of Bohemia within the Habsburg Empire remained ambiguous and unsatisfactory (to the Czechs) throughout Franz Joseph's reign.
On 28 June 1914 Franz Joseph's nephew and heir-presumptive Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, a Yugoslav nationalist of Serbian ethnicity, during a visit to Sarajevo. This precipitated the First World War.
Military alliances in 1914
The state of Czechoslovakia was created in 1918 at the end of the First World War. It functioned as a democratic republic led by Tomáš Masaryk. In 1938, German Nazis occupied the edge of it which contained a number of German speakers.
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The native German-speaking regions in 1930, within the borders of the current Czech Republic, which in the interwar period were referred to as the Sudetenland. The Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia is described in the novel 'The Glass Room', by Simon Mawer. Austria was annexed by Hitler in the Anschluss of 1938. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was brutally suppressed by the Soviets. Communist coup At the end of WWII, the Soviet army occupied Czechoslovakia and imposed a communist dictatorship in a coup in 1948. In 1968, when the reformer Alexander Dubček was appointed to the key post of First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, there was a brief period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring. This was suppressed by the invasion of several Soviet states. It is discussed in the novel 'Prague Spring' by Simon Mawer. The Photos that Captured the First Day of the Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia Exhibiting a series of images from only one day effectively gives viewers a sense of this historical moment.  Vladimír Lammer. Occupying forces crossed the Czechoslovakian border shortly before midnight; all larger cities were occupied by the morning. Wenceslas Square, Prague (caption provided by Czech Center New York, all images courtesy Czech Center, New York)  Vladimír Lammer, “Monument of Saint Wenceslas ‘We are a free nation’”  Miloň Novotný, “Old Town Square – Prague ‘Go Home’”  Josef Hník. The most dramatic moments of August 21 occurred in the morning outside the Czechoslovak Radio building in Prague. People tried to prevent the occupation of Radio by using their bodies, buses, and trucks to create barricades. Cars, houses, and tanks burned, and a tram was demolished. In total 20 people were either killed or died of injuries.  Bohumil Dobrovolský. The most dramatic moments of August 21 occurred in the morning outside the Czechoslovak Radio building in Prague. People tried to prevent the occupation of Radio by using their bodies, buses, and trucks to create barricades. Cars, houses, and tanks burned, and a tram was demolished. In total 20 people were either killed or died of injuries.  Libuše Kyndrová. The most dramatic moments of August 21 occurred in the morning outside the Czechoslovak Radio building in Prague. People tried to prevent the occupation of Radio by using their bodies, buses, and trucks to create barricades. Cars, houses, and tanks burned, and a tram was demolished. In total 20 people were either killed or died of injuries.  |
