Archaeological evidence of prehistoric human settlements have been found in many areas of the Czech Republic. After various and sundry prehistoric fish, neanderthals, and Celtic and Germanic tribes had lived in the area on and off, it was definitely settled by Slavic tribes around the end of the 5th century.
The Great Moravian Empire was the first real state on Czech territory, and after its fall in the tenth century, Prague became the center of a new independent state - just as the prophetess Libuse had said it would o, so many long years before.
During the reign of the Przemyslid dynasty, the Czech state gradually grew in strength and succeeded in preserving its sovereignty despite formal vassal ties to the Holy Roman Empire.
The kingdom of Bohemia reached the height of its power and prestige during reign of the Luxembourg Dynasty, which succeeded the Przemyslid Dynasty in the 14th century. The end of this period, however, brought economic and political strife to the area as protestant Hussites battled it out with the Catholic Church in the 15th century.
George of Podebrady, a Czech noble, was elected King of Bohemia in 15th century, a few years after an agreement between Hussite Bohemia and the Catholic Church was finally reached.
During the reign of the Polish Jagellon Dynasty, the power of the nobility (the Estates) grew, while royal power diminished. The Habsburgs of Austria succeeded to the throne of Bohemia in the 16thcentury when the Jagellon line died out. The Habsburgs included the Lands of the Bohemian Crown in their monarchy, and that is where they stayed until the Treaty of Versailles made temporary order out of the chaos of World War I around 1918. (But we are getting ahead of ourselves.)
Habsburg rule of the Czech lands, especially after the Battle of the White Mountain of 1620, was repressive and harsh. The Czech language and Czech culture were suppressed, and the country experienced a deep economic decline.
This general situation had to change, and change it did with the Enlightenment reforms of Maria Theresa and her son, the "Good Emperor" Josef II at the end of 18th century. It wasn't long, however, before the Czechs (and most of the other nationalities in the collosal Habsburg Empire) started making noises and longing for self-determination. Although the Czech National Revival movement aspired at first only to a reintroduction of the use of the Czech language and the revival of Czech culture, it soon began to strive for political emancipation as well.
In the years during World War I, Czech politics became more radical. With the defeat of Austria-Hungary imminent, an independent state of Czechs and Slovaks was declared in Prague on October 28, 1918.
The First Republic, as the inter-war period is known in the Czech Republic, was a silly and hectic time. It was also quite prosperous: the arts, literature, industry and business flowered, and the Czech Republic was member of an exclusive club - it was one of the ten richest nations in the world. Unfortunately, this bliss was not to last.
The Munich conference and the subsequent Nazi German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia were disastrous for the Czech lands.
After World War II, the restored republic became a part of Soviet sphere of influence. A grassroots attempt to reform and humanize the Communist system, known as the Prague Spring, failed miserably when Warsaw Pact forces invaded Czechoslovakia in August 1968. The government that was installed after the invasion was one of the most hard-line in all the region, and the period of "normalization" that followed the invasion in the 1970's and 1980's was very hard on the people of Czechoslovakia.
Mass protests and demonstrations by the Czechoslovak people known as the "Velvet Revolution" led to the bloodless overthrow of the Communist regime in November, 1989. The dissident and playwright, Vaclav Havel, was elected president.
Six months after the country's first regular nationwide elections in more than 40 years - on January 1 1993 - the Czechoslovak state was peacefully divided into independent Czech and Slovak Republics due to "irreconcilable differences."
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