Ethnicity/race: Czech 90.4%, Moravian 3.7%, Slovak 1.9%, other
4% (2001)
Religions: Roman Catholic 27%, Protestant 2%,
unaffiliated 59% (2001)
Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.)
Economic summary:GDP/PPP (2007
est.): $249 billion; per capita $24,400. Real growth rate:
5.7%. Inflation: 2.6%. Unemployment: 6.6%. Arable
land: 38.8%. Agriculture: wheat, potatoes, sugar beets,
hops, fruit; pigs, poultry. Labor force: 5.31 million;
agriculture 4.1%, industry 37.6%, services 58.3% (2003 est.).
Industries: metallurgy, machinery and equipment, motor vehicles,
glass, armaments. Natural resources: hard coal, soft coal,
kaolin, clay, graphite, timber. Exports: $113 billion f.o.b.
(2007 est.): machinery and transport equipment 52%, chemicals 5%,
raw materials and fuel 9% (2003). Imports: $109.8 billion
f.o.b. (2007 est.): machinery and transport equipment 46%, raw
materials and fuels 15%, chemicals 10% (2003). Major trading
partners: Germany, Slovakia, Austria, Poland, UK, France, Italy,
Netherlands, China, Russia (2004).
Communications: Telephones: main lines
in use: 3,217,300 (2005); mobile cellular: 12.15 million (2006).
Radio broadcast stations: AM 31, FM 304, shortwave 17 (2000).
Television broadcast stations: 150 (plus 1,434 repeaters)
(2000). Internet hosts: 1.7 million (2007). Internet
users: 3.5 million (2006).
Transportation: Railways: total: 9,597
km km (2006). Highways: total: 127,865 km; paved: 127,865 km
(including 633 km of expressways); unpaved: 0 km (2006).
Waterways: 664 km (on Elbe, Vltava, and Oder rivers) (2004).
Ports and harbors: Decin, Prague, Usti nad Labem.
Airports: 122 (2007).
International disputes: in 2006,
Austrian public protests for the Czech Republic to close the Temelin
nuclear power plant resulted in an Austrian parliamentary motion
threatening international legal action.
The Czech Republic's central European landscape is dominated by the
Bohemian Massif, which rises to heights of 3,000 ft (900 m) above sea
level. This ring of mountains encircles a large elevated basin, the
Bohemian Plateau. The principal rivers are the Elbe and the Vltava.
Government
Parliamentary democracy.
History
Probably about the 5th century A.D., Slavic
tribes from the Vistula basin settled in the region of Bohemia, Moravia,
and Silesia. The Czechs founded the kingdom of Bohemia and the Premyslide
dynasty, which ruled Bohemia and Moravia from the 10th to the 16th
century. One of the Bohemian kings, Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, made
Prague an imperial capital and a center of Latin scholarship. The Hussite
movement founded by Jan Hus (1369?–1415) linked the Slavs to the
Reformation and revived Czech nationalism, previously under German
domination. A Hapsburg, Ferdinand I, ascended the throne in 1526. The
Czechs rebelled in 1618, precipitating the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).
Defeated in 1620, they were ruled for the next 300 years as part of the
Austrian empire. Full independence from the Hapsburgs was not achieved
until the end of World War I, following the collapse of the
Austrian-Hungarian Empire.
A union of the Czech lands and Slovakia was proclaimed in Prague on
Nov. 14, 1918, and the Czech nation became one of the two component parts
of the newly formed Czechoslovakian state. In March 1939, German troops
occupied Czechoslovakia, and Czech Bohemia and Moravia became German
protectorates for the duration of World War II. The former government
returned in April 1945 when the war ended and the country's pre-1938
boundaries were restored. When elections were held in 1946, Communists
became the dominant political party and gained control of the
Czechoslovakian government in 1948. Thereafter, the former democracy was
turned into a Soviet-style state.
Nearly 42 years of Communist rule ended with the nearly bloodless
“velvet revolution” in 1989. Václav Havel, a leading playwright and
dissident, was elected president of Czechoslovakia in 1989. Havel,
imprisoned twice by the Communist regime and his plays banned, became an
international symbol for human rights, democracy, and peaceful dissent.
The return of democratic political reform saw a strong Slovak nationalist
movement emerge by the end of 1991, which sought independence for
Slovakia. When the general elections of June 1992 failed to resolve the
continuing coexistence of the two republics within the federation, Czech
and Slovak political leaders agreed to separate their states into two
fully independent nations. On Jan. 1, 1993, the Czechoslovakian federation
was dissolved and two separate independent countries were established—the
Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic joined NATO in March
1999.
In Aug. 2002, severe flooding caused 70,000 people in Prague and
200,000 nationwide to be evacuated.
President Václav Havel left office in Feb. 2003, after 13 years as
president. Over the years, Havel lost some of his immense popularity with
the Czechs, who became disenchanted with his failings as a political
leader. But internationally Havel has remained a towering figure of moral
authority and courage. In March, Václav Klaus became the Czech Republic's
second president. A conservative economist, he and Havel often clashed. In
May 2004, the Czech Republic joined the EU. After an inconclusive election
in June 2006, the political deadlock was broken in August, with rightist
Mirek Topolánek appointed prime minister. His government resigned in
October, after losing a no-confidence vote. He formed another government
in January 2007. A year later, Topolánek's government narrowly survived
another no-confidence vote.
In 2008, Parliament fails to elect a president when incumbent Václav Klaus wins in the Senate (47-32) while Jan Svejnar wins in the Chamber of Deputies (106-92). A victory in both houses is necessary to be elected in the first two rounds. The second round is also inconclusive, Klaus winning 48-31 in the Senate and Svejnar 104-94 in the lower house. A third round, with both houses voting together and an overall absolute majority being sufficient, is held on February 9. Klaus wins 139 votes (one short of the 140 required) and Svejnar 113. A new vote is scheduled for February 15. Again the first two rounds fail to produce a winner: in the first, Klaus wins the Senate 48-32, Svejnar the Chamber 104-93; in the second, Klaus again wins 48-32 in the Senate, while Svejnar wins the Chamber 94-93. In the third round, Klaus is elected by the whole parliament, defeating Svejnar 141-111.
