Czechia

Czechia (Czech: Česko), officaly the Czech Republic (Czech: Česká republika), is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, north and south and Hungary-Croatia to the east. The Czechia covers an area of 46.166 square kilometres (17.825‬ sq mi) with mostly temperate continental climate and oceanic climate. It is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 6.18 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic contains most of the the historical territories of Bohemia and Moravia.

The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire. After the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Besides Bohemia itself, the king of Bohemia ruled the lands of the Bohemian Crown, he had a vote in the election of the Holy Roman Emperor, and Prague was the imperial seat in periods between the 14th and 17th century. In the Hussite wars of the 15th century driven by the Bohemian Reformation, the kingdom faced economic embargoes and defeated five consecutive crusades proclaimed by the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church.

Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Protestant Bohemian Revolt (1618–20) against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years' War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, and adopted a policy of gradual Germanization. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Bohemian Kingdom became part of the Austrian Empire and the Czech language experienced a revival as a consequence of widespread romantic nationalism. In the 19th century, the Czech lands became the industrial powerhouse of the monarchy and were subsequently the core of the Czech Republic which was set up following the Austro-Hungarian Civil War. It alo joined the Reichsbund in 1930. Czechia fought alongside the Central Powers in World War II and was part of the European Bloc in the Cold War. It is now part of the European Union.