Zahradníček’s blog for English speaking students

Part two: Czechia, or Czech Republic? You have probably already mentioned one weird thing: the country you are studying in is probably the only one in the world where people do not know how both its own people and people from abroad should call it.

How this happens? Well, we have to start deeply in the history. Although people lived in today’s Bohemia and Moravia for long, only after the Migration Period (approx. 300–600 AD) Slavic people started to live here. Their first organized “state” has been the so called “Samo's Empire” in the 7th century; but there are only a few historic notes about it*. In the 9th century a new empire arose, so called Great Moravia. It existence is connected with the mission of St. Cyril and St. Methodius. Its centre has been probably in South-East Moravia, and it comprised not only today’s Czechia, but also parts of today’s Slovakia, Poland and Hungaria. Some Slovak nationalists say that Great Moravia has been Great Slovakia and the Slovaks are more historical nation than Czechs. In fact, during Great Moravia times, Czechs and Slovaks have been simply one nation; also the language has been the same.

Great Moravia has been replaced by Dutchy of Bohemia and its centre has been moved from Moravia to Prague; Moravia itself remained half-autonomous Margraviate of Moravia, but strongly connected with Bohemia. There were no special name for the complete land; nobody needed it. Also the borders were not the same as today; the most western part were missing, on the other hand, it contained some lands recently belonging to Poland or Germany (especially Lusatina, now in Saxony). Later the Dutchy became a kingdom (two times temporarily and in 1212 finally “forever” due to the “Golden Bull of Sicily”). It started to play a more important role in Europe especially in 1346, when the Czech king Charles IV. Became the emperor of so called Holy Roman Empire.

In 1526, Bohemian Kingdom, including Moravian Margraviate and a part of Silesia, became a part of Habsburg empire, and especially after 1620, when the centre of the empire has been moved to Vienna, the Czech speaking countries started to lose their importance. Habsburgs also lost a big part of Silesia and so the borders started to look approximately like today. After World War I, in 1918, new countries arose, and the politicians decided to renew the unity of Czechs and Slovaks, lost in the ninth century; of course, unlike 1000 years ago, Slovaks already have had their language, although very close to the Czech one. Well, the barrier between Czechs and Slovaks was not very big; in Austro-Hungarian empire, Czechs and Slovaks have been together. Nevertheless, Bohemia and Moravia have had their specific position in the Austrian part, while Slovakia as a country did not exist at all, it has been just “upper part of Hungary” or “Felvidék”. It has been important for Czechoslovakia in 1918 to exist as one country, as there have been ethnical minorities in all parts of the country and “united Czecho-Slovakian nation” was supposed to be stronger than Czechs separated and Slovaks separated. Nevertheless, some Slovaks wanted to be separated, and that is what has been used by Adolf Hitler that gave them a puppet “Slovakian state” in 1939, while Bohemia and Moravia lost the regions around the border (the Sudets) and the remaining part of the country has been “Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia”. After World war II, Czechoslovakia has been renewed; and although been under communist dictatorship in 1948–1989, it existed until 31st December 1992.

And now we are back at the original question. 1st January 1993 Czechoslovakia has been divided. It was easy for Slovaks to be “Slovakia”, the have used this term already for the long time. But although it would have been very logical to use a corresponding term “Czechia” for the other part of the separated country, many people hesitated (and still hesitate) to use it. They were not used to it, they did not feel happy with “Czechia” or “Česko”. Some people in Bohemia started to use the term “Čechy” (what exactly means Bohemia only) for the whole country, what made and still makes Moravians angry. But majority kept using the two-word term “Czech Republic” without having a good reason. Let’s hope, that new generations would finally start using the simple one-word term “Czechia”.

Ondřej Zahradníček, 26th February 2019

*The only exception is the battle of Wogastisburg; but even in this case, it is not clear if it happened in 631 or 632, and the archaeologists have no idea about where the Wogastisburg took place. What exactly happened later and in the 8th century, nobody knows.