"},"parts":[{"template":{"target":{"wt":"NoteTag","href":"./Template:NoteTag"},"params":{"1":{"wt":"According to the official Czech list of country names: \"Česko is a standardized one-word name of the state, which is officially named Česká republika according to its constitution\"."}},"i":0}}]}"> [note 1] During the 1990s, "Česko" was rarely used and viewed as controversial. Some Czech politicians and public figures (e.g. media magnate Vladimír Železný) expressed concern about the non-use of Česko and Czechia.[ citation needed ] Václav Havel claimed that "Slugs crawl on me a little whenever I read or hear the word [Česko]." In 1997, the Civic Initiative Czechia was formed by linguists and geographers in Brno to promote the use of Czechia. [23] The following year, a conference of professionals aimed at encouraging the use of the name was held at Charles University in Prague. The Czech Senate held a session on the issue in 2004. [24] [25]
The historical English name of the country is Bohemia, derived ultimately from Germanic Boi-haima, meaning "home of the Boii", a Celtic tribe who inhabited the area from the 4th century BC. The name survived all the later migrations affecting the area, including the arrival of the Slavs and the creation of the Czech state. In the 9th century, the country became officially known as the Duchy of Bohemia, changing to the Kingdom of Bohemia in the 11th century, and the Crown of Bohemia in the 14th century. The Bohemian state included the three historical lands: Bohemia proper (Čechy), Moravia (Morava) and Silesia (Slezsko). From the 14th century until 1635 it also included Upper and Lower Lusatia. The higher hierarchical status of the Bohemian region led to that name being used for the larger country (a linguistic device called pars pro toto ), and the people and language of that country were referred to as Bohemian in English until the early 20th century. A number of other names for the country have been used, including Lands of the Bohemian Crown, Czech/Bohemian lands, Bohemian Crown, the lands of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas and others. [26] [27]
The first known usage of the word Czechia in English comes from a book of 1841 by Henry and Thomas Rose, A New General Biographical Dictionary Projected and Partly Arranged. [28] [26]
Shortly before the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian empire, there were proposals to use the traditional name Bohemia for the newly formed state. [29] However, out of consideration for Slovak national aspirations, the name "Czecho-Slovakia" (later "Czechoslovakia") was adopted instead.
After the establishment of Czechoslovakia, the name Czechia appeared in English, alongside the official name, as a reference to all the Czech lands [30] and to differentiate between the Czech and Slovak parts of the state. It was used at least as early as 4 January 1925; appearing in the article "Literary History of the Czechs", published by The New York Times . [31] The name was used in the Anglophone press before the German occupation of the Czech lands in 1939. [32] [33] [34] [35]
The current English ethnonym "Czech" comes from the Czech ethnonym associated with the area spelled historically as "Cžech" until the reform of 1842, possibly influenced by Latin "Czechus", or the Polish spelling "Czech". [36] [37] [38] The words "Czechian", "Czechish", "Czechic" and later "Czech" (using antiquated Czech spelling) [26] have appeared in English-language texts since the 17th century. During the 19th-century national revival, the word "Czech" was also used to distinguish between the Czech- and German-speaking peoples living in the country. The term "Czechia" is attested as early as 1569 in Latin [26] and 1841 in English (Poselkynie starych Przjbiehuw Czeskych – Messenger of the old Fates of Czechia). [28] [26] There were other early mentions in 1856 [39] and in an 1866 report on the Austro-Prussian War. [40]
Cyprien Robert in Le monde gréco-slave (1843), writes, that between Slovakia and Czechia proper, or the Kingdom of Bohemia, lies the Duchy of Moravia, which, along with several Silesian districts, is also an integral part of the territory of the Czech Slavs. The name Czechia is obviously used to refer to Bohemia: Entre la Slovaquie et la Tchéquie proprement dite ou le royaume de Bohème, s'étend le duché de Moravie, qui, avec plusieurs districts de Silésie, fait également partie intégrante du territoire des Tchéquo-Slaves. [41]
Although in Latin the Bohemian lands (three historical regions of Bohemia (Čechy), Moravia (Morava), and Silesia (Slezsko) were referred to by the collective name Bohemia, based on the fact that they were part of the whole "Corona regni Bohemiae" (Bohemian Crown), in the first half of the 16th century Bohemia (proper) was referred to as Czechia, the first historically documented record of which can be found in the Chronicle of Bohemia (Kronyka Czeska) of Václav Hájek z Libočan in 1541. (Václav Hájek did not use the term in the Latin text, but in the Czech text; he used the then-existing digraph Cž, instead of the present letter Č, with i.e. Cžechya. [42]
In the second half of the 16th century the name Czechia began to be commonly used in Latin and in 1598 Czechia was listed in the Bohemian(Czech)-Latin-Greek-German dictionary published by Daniel Adam z Veleslavína. [43]
Furthermore, the designation Czechia is mentioned, for example, by Pavel Stránský ze Záp in his work Respublica Bojema from 1634, who mentions it already in his first chapter De situ qualitatibusque Bojemiae: "Europaei orbis ea regio, quam (quemadmodum Chorographis placet) inter longitudinis gradum trigesimum quartum et quintum aliquanto ultra trigesimum octavum, et inter latitudinis gradum quadragesimum octavum et nonum ad quinquagesimum primum, gens mea colit, usitato jam nomine Bojemia, seu Bohemia, et Boemia, itemque Czechia vocatur.". In Emanuel Tonner's translation, 1893: On the location and nature of the country of Bohemia : "That country in Europe, that part of the world, in which (as geographers teach) according to the longitude between the thirty-fourth and fifth degrees to the thirty-eighth, and according to the latitude between the forty-eighth and ninth degrees to the fifty-first, the Bohemians (Čechové, Czechs, i.e. Czech people) inhabit, my nation, by its usual name, is called Bohemia (Čechy, i.e. Czechia"). The description includes County of Kladsko, which belonged to Bohemia until 1742 (historical territory of Bohemia). Further east from Bohemia is Moravia. [44]
The Latin name was later adopted into English (as well as the common "Bohemia" in the past).
In accordance with Resolution No. 4 I. of the UN conference on the standardization of geographic names (Geneva 1967) and Resolution No. 2 III. of the UN conference on the standardization of geographic names (Athens 1977), the Terminological Committee of the Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping, and Cadaster in cooperation with the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs nationally standardized Czechia as the English translation of Česko in early 1993. [45] Other names suggested in the 1990s included Czechomoravia or Czechlands. [46]
In 2013, Czech president Miloš Zeman recommended the wider official use of Czechia in English sources, [47] and on 14 April 2016 Czech political leaders endorsed the short name Czechia in English. [48] The short name Czechia was approved by the Czech cabinet on 2 May 2016 and was internationally standardized by being published in the United Nations UNTERM and UNGEGN country name databases on 5 July 2016. [1] [7] [49] [50] [51]
In September 2016, the British Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) recommended the use of Czechia and added it as the sole form of the country name to their list of country names. [52] On 26 September 2016, the International Organization for Standardization included the short name Czechia in the official ISO 3166 country codes list. [53] [54] In November 2016 the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs presented recommendations on how to use the short name Czechia in international contexts. [55] On 1 June 2017, the geography department of the Faculty of Sciences of Charles University in Prague organized a special conference to assess the progress of the name's proliferation. [56]
In 2018, the European Union updated its official guidelines and replaced "Czech Republic" with "Czechia" as the short name of the country. The same was done by the Council of Europe. [57]
Multinational technology companies that have adopted the name Czechia include Google, [58] Apple, [59] and Microsoft. [60] [61] The business network LinkedIn updated its locations to Czechia in October 2020. [62]
In 2021, the government of the United States started using the form Czechia instead of Czech Republic as the short name for the country. [63]
The International Ice Hockey Federation updated to Czechia in December 2021. [64] On 28 April 2022, a conference of all sports associations was held under the patronage of the Foreign Ministry at the Czernin Palace. Following basketball, ice hockey, baseball, rugby, and association football, which started to use the short name, all remaining sports agreed to transition to the short name Czechia shortly. [65] The Czech Football Association announced the adoption of the names Česko and Czechia on 24 May 2022. [66]
AP Stylebook updated on 1 July 2022 online entry with the following statement: "Czechia, the Czech Republic. Both are acceptable. The shorter name Czechia is preferred by the Czech government. If using Czechia, clarify in the story that the country is more widely known in English as the Czech Republic." [67]
In August 2022, the exception of keeping the long form of the name on the country plates at the United Nations was dropped and Czechia is since then used on name plates at the United Nations. [68]
In September 2022, the UEFA website was updated to Czechia. [69] NATO, the World Bank, FIFA, ISU and the Universal Postal Union switched to Czechia in October 2022. [70] [71] [72] [73] [74]
On 1 November 2022, the Czech Olympic Committee requested the International Olympic Committee and European Olympic Committees to enter the name Czechia into their databases of countries for sports competitions. These were both adjusted. [75] [76] [77]
In January 2023, The Czech Ministry of Tourism updated the website VisitCzechRepublic.com to VisitCzechia.com. [78]
On 10 February 2023, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the organisers of the Eurovision Song Contest, began to refer to the country as Czechia with the name being changed on the Eurovision website. This was announced with the release of the Czech entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, upon which the EBU confirmed that the country would be referred to as Czechia at the contest going forward. [79]
The government of Canada adopted the short name Czechia in 2023. [80] [81] [82] Lonely Planet tour guides began using the name in June 2023. [83] OECD and OSCE adopted Czechia in October 2023. [84] [85]
Bohemia is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohemian kings, including Moravia and Czech Silesia, in which case the smaller region is referred to as Bohemia proper as a means of distinction.
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The Czech Republic has a hilly landscape that covers an area of 78,871 square kilometers (30,452 sq mi) with a mostly temperate continental and oceanic climate. The capital and largest city is Prague; other major cities and urban areas include Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň and Liberec.
Moravia is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia.
The Czechs, or the Czech people, are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, culture, history, and the Czech language.
Moravians are a West Slavic ethnic group from the Moravia region of the Czech Republic, who speak the Moravian dialects of Czech or Common Czech or a mixed form of both. Along with the Silesians of the Czech Republic, a part of the population to identify ethnically as Moravian has registered in Czech censuses since 1991. The figure has fluctuated and in the 2011 census, 6.01% of the Czech population declared Moravian as their ethnicity. Smaller pockets of people declaring Moravian ethnicity are also native to neighboring Slovakia.
The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia is a communist party in the Czech Republic. As of 2022, KSČM has a membership of 20,450. Sources variously describe the party as either left-wing or far-left on the political spectrum. It is one of the few former ruling parties in post-Communist Central Eastern Europe to have not dropped the Communist title from its name, although it has changed its party program to adhere to laws adopted after 1989. It was previously a member party of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL in the European Parliament, and an observer member of the European Left Party, but is now unaffiliated.
The Czech lands or the Bohemian lands is a historical-geographical term which, in a historical and cultural context, denotes the three historical regions of Bohemia, Moravia, and Czech Silesia out of which Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic, were formed. Together the three have formed the Czech part of Czechoslovakia since 1918, and the Czech Republic since 1 January 1993.
Bretislav I, known as the "Bohemian Achilles", of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 1034 until his death in 1055.
Czech Crown is a Czech monarchist political party that strives for the restoration of Czech monarchy with the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. The party was founded in 1990 and its current leader is Vojtěch Círus. In the 2017 Czech legislative election, Koruna Česká ran in a coalition with TOP 09 and received 5.35% of the vote. In the 2019 European Parliament election, it ran together with the KDU-ČSL and received 7.24% of the vote.
The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were the states in Central Europe during the medieval and early modern periods with feudal obligations to the Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted of the Kingdom of Bohemia, an electorate of the Holy Roman Empire according to the Golden Bull of 1356, the Margraviate of Moravia, the Duchies of Silesia, and the two Lusatias, known as the Margraviate of Upper Lusatia and the Margraviate of Lower Lusatia, as well as other territories throughout its history. This agglomeration of states nominally under the rule of the Bohemian kings was referred to simply as Bohemia. They are now sometimes referred to in scholarship as the Czech lands, a direct translation of the Czech abbreviated name.
The Kingdom of Bohemia, sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the predecessor state of the modern Czech Republic.
This article deals with historic administrative divisions of Czechoslovakia up to 1992, when the country was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The coat of arms of Czechoslovakia were changed many times during Czechoslovakia’s history, some alongside each other. This reflects the turbulent history of the country and a wish to use appropriate territorial coats of arms.
The Province of German Bohemia was a province in Bohemia, now the Czech Republic, established for a short period of time after the First World War, as part of the Republic of German-Austria.
Koněprusy Caves, also Zlatý kůň, is a cave system in the heart of the limestone region known as Bohemian Karst in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It is located in the municipality of Koněprusy, about 25 kilometres (16 mi) southwest of Prague, 6 km (3.7 mi) south of Beroun. With the length of 2 km (1.2 mi) and vertical range of 70 m (230 ft), it is the largest cave system in Bohemia.
Poland and the Czech Republic are both members of the European Union and of NATO. Both joined the EU simultaneously on 1 May 2004. They also both joined NATO on 12 March 1999. Both countries, together with Slovakia and Hungary, form the Visegrád Group, which is an important regional group in Central Europe. Both countries are also members of the Bucharest Nine, Three Seas Initiative, OECD, OSCE, Council of Europe and the World Trade Organization.
An official version of the flag of Moravia, unlike the provincial Moravian coat of arms, does not exist, because such a flag has never been granted to Moravia. However, there are several documented variants of Moravian flags used in the past. The first recorded version dates from the mid-13th century.
Česká spořitelna is a Czech bank, headquartered in Prague. Despite being organized as a joint-stock bank, it is the heir to a long history of savings banks in the Czech Republic, going back to the establishment of Böhmische Sparkasse in 1825. Since the early 21st century, it has been part of the Vienna-headquartered Erste Group.
The origin of the ethnonym Čech (Česi or Čechové in plural) is not entirely clear.
As Spal has observed, the origin of Čech (Bohemian) is far from clear, but amongst the more plausible explanations is that it has the root čel, as in čeleď (family), and also člověk (person).
This essay about the name Čech has been written in response to the explanation of this ethnonym in the latest Czech etymological dictionary by J. Rejzek. This author offers several possible explanations, but none of them seems to be convincing. The only one that might be correct is the derivation from a full name Česlav from Proto-Slavic *Čьstьslavъ, where the initial open syllable Če- was supplemented by the hypocoristic suffix -ch.
Origin Polish spelling of Czech Čech.