Editing Czechs (section)

== History ==
[[File:Duchy of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire in 11th century.svg|thumb|[[Duchy of Bohemia]], the early form of the Czech state pictured in the 11th century within the [[Holy Roman Empire]]]]

The population of the Czech Republic descends from diverse peoples of [[Slavs|Slavic]], [[Celts|Celtic]] and [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] origin.<ref name="Research shows only one third of Czechs have Slavic roots – press">{{cite news |title=Research shows only one third of Czechs have Slavic roots |url=https://brnodaily.com/2017/10/27/breaking-news/research-shows-only-one-third-of-czechs-have-slavic-roots-press/ |access-date=27 May 2020 |agency=Czech News Agency (ČTK) |website=Brno Daily |date=27 October 2017 |archive-date=27 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127063141/https://www.brnodaily.com/2017/10/27/breaking-news/research-shows-only-one-third-of-czechs-have-slavic-roots-press/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Historical Dictionary of the Czech State" /><ref name="RadioPrague2007" /><ref>Bohemia and Poland. Chapter 20.pp 512-513. [in:] Timothy Reuter. The New Cambridge Medieval History: c. 900 – c. 1024. 2000</ref> Presence of West Slavs in the 6th century during the [[Migration Period]] has been documented on the Czech territory.<ref name="Historical Dictionary of the Czech State" /> Slavs [[Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps|settled]] in [[Bohemia]], [[Moravia]] and [[Austria]] sometime during the 6th or 7th centuries,<ref>The exact dating of Slavic settlement is a matter of dispute amongst scholars. See e.g. Curta ("The Slavs in Bohemia: A Response to my critics; 2009") who favours a 7th-century settlement versus Nada Profantova, who argues a 6th-century settlement</ref> and "assimilated the remaining [[Celts|Celtic]] and [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] populations".<ref name="Historical Dictionary of the Czech State" /><ref>Jaroslav Jirik "Bohemian Barbarians. Bohemia in late Antiquity", in ''Neglected Barbarians'' Brepols 2010{{page needed|date=February 2017}}</ref> According to a popular [[mythology|myth]], the Slavs came with [[Forefather Čech]] who settled at the [[Říp]] Mountain.

During the 7th century, the Frankish merchant [[Samo]], supporting the Slavs fighting against nearby settled [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]], became the ruler of the first known Slav state in Central Europe, [[Samo's Empire]]. The principality [[Great Moravia]], controlled by the [[House of Mojmir|Moymir dynasty]], arose in the 8th century and reached its zenith in the 9th (during the reign of [[Svatopluk I of Moravia]]) when it held off the influence of the Franks. Great Moravia was Christianized, the crucial role played [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] mission of [[Cyril and Methodius]]. The [[Duchy of Bohemia]] emerged in the late 9th century. In 880, [[Prague Castle]] was constructed by [[Borivoj I, Duke of Bohemia|Prince Bořivoj]], founder of the [[Přemyslid dynasty]] and the city of [[Prague]] was established. [[Vratislaus II of Bohemia|Vratislav II]] was the first Czech king in 1085 and the duchy was raised to a hereditary [[Monarchy|kingdom]] under [[Ottokar I of Bohemia|Ottokar I]] in 1198.

The second half of the 13th century was a period of advancing [[German diaspora|German immigration]] into the [[Czech lands]]. The number of Czechs who have at least partly German ancestry today probably runs into hundreds of thousands.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.radio.cz/en/article/27184|title=Ethnic German Minorities in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia|website=Radio.cz|date=23 April 2002|access-date=14 November 2014|archive-date=26 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126093018/http://www.radio.cz/en/article/27184|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Habsburg]] Monarchy focused much of its power on religious wars against the Protestants. While these religious wars were taking place, the Czech estates revolted against Habsburg from 1546 to 1547 but were ultimately defeated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.czech.cz/en/czech-republic/history/all-about-czech-history/the-habsburg-monarchy-and-rudolph-ii/|title=The Habsburg Monarchy and Rudolph II|website=Czech.cz|access-date=14 November 2014|archive-date=10 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131010121551/http://www.czech.cz/en/czech-republic/history/all-about-czech-history/the-habsburg-monarchy-and-rudolph-ii/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{Czechs}}
[[File:Ottův slovník naučný - 17 České kroje - 2.jpg|thumb|Czech traditional costumes]]
[[Defenestrations of Prague]] in 1618, signaled an open revolt by the Bohemian estates against the Habsburgs and started the [[Thirty Years' War]]. After the [[Battle of White Mountain]] in 1620, all Czech lands were declared hereditary property of the Habsburg family. The German language was made equal to the Czech language.

Czech patriotic authors tend to call the following period, from 1620 to 1648 until the late 18th century, the "Dark Age". It is characterized by devastation by foreign troops; [[Germanization]]; and economic and political decline. It is estimated that the population of the [[Czech lands]] declined by a third.{{sfn|Agnew|2004|p=72}}

The 18th and 19th century is characterized by the [[Czech National Revival]], focusing to revive Czech culture and national identity.

Since the turn of the 20th century, Chicago is the city with the third largest Czech population, after [[Prague]] and [[Vienna]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|first=Alicia|last=Cozine|url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/153.html|title=Czechs and Bohemians|encyclopedia=The Electronic Encyclopedia of Chicago|date=2005|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053804/https://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/153.html|archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref><ref>[http://www.wieninternational.at/en/node/3586 Czech and Slovak roots in Vienna] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140512221406/http://www.wieninternational.at/en/node/3586 |date=12 May 2014 }}, wieninternational.at</ref>

During World War I, [[Czechoslovak Legions]] fought in France, Italy and Russia against the [[Central Powers]]. In 1918 the independent state of [[Czechoslovakia]] was proclaimed. Czechs formed the leading class in the new state emerging from the remnants of the [[Austria-Hungary|Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy]].

After 1933, Czechoslovakia remained the only democracy in central and eastern Europe. However, in 1938 the [[Munich Agreement]] severed the [[Sudetenland]], with a considerable Czech minority, from Czechoslovakia, and in 1939 the [[Nazi Germany|German Nazi regime]] established the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] for ''[[Second Czechoslovak Republic|Resttschechei]]'' (the rump Czech state<ref>Gruner, Wolf. 2015. Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In: Wolf Grüner & Jörg Osterloh (eds.), ''The Greater German Reich and the Jews: Nazi Persecution Policies in the Annexed Territories 1935–1945'', pp. 99–135. Transl. Bernard Heise. New York: Berghahn, p. 103.</ref><ref>Ramsden, John. 2002. ''The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century British Politics''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 450.</ref><ref>Rothschild, Joseph. 1974. ''East Central Europe between the Two World Wars.'' Seattle: University of Washington Press, p. 366.</ref>). [[Emil Hácha]] became president of the protectorate under Nazi domination, which only allowed pro-Nazi Czech associations and tended to stress ties of the Czechs with the Bohemian [[Germans]] and other parts of the German people, in order to facilitate assimilation by [[Germanization]]. In [[Lidice]], [[Ležáky]] and [[Luká|Javoříčko]] the Nazi authorities committed [[war crime]]s against the local Czech population. On 2 May 1945, the [[Prague Uprising]] reached its peak, supported by the [[Russian Liberation Army]]. The post-war [[expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia]] and the immediate reprisals against Germans and Nazi collaborators by [[Czech resistance]] and the Czechoslovak state authorities, made Czechs—especially in the early 1950s—settle alongside Slovaks and [[Romani people]] in the former lands of the [[Sudeten Germans]], who had been deported to [[East Germany]], [[West Germany]] and [[Austria]] according to the [[Potsdam Conference]] and [[Yalta Conference]].

The [[Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia]] in 1968 was followed by a wave of emigration, unseen before and stopped shortly after in 1969 (estimate: 70,000 immediately, 300,000 in total),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.britskelisty.cz/9808/19980821h.html|title="Day when tanks destroyed Czech dreams of Prague Spring" (''Den, kdy tanky zlikvidovaly české sny Pražského jara'') at Britské Listy (British Letters)|website=Britskelisty.cz|access-date=14 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928050554/http://www.britskelisty.cz/9808/19980821h.html|archive-date=28 September 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref> typically of highly qualified people.

Tens of thousands of Czechs had repatriated from [[Volhynia]] and [[Banat]] after World War II. Since the 1990s, the Czech Republic has been working to repatriate [[Romania]] and [[Kazakhstan]]'s ethnic Czechs.<ref>[http://www.radio.cz/en/article/61781 The Czech ethnic minority in Romania] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219224422/http://www.radio.cz/en/article/61781 |date=19 December 2008 }}, 29 December 2004 – Radio Prague</ref><ref>[http://www.praguepost.com/articles/2007/10/31/home-stretch.php Government completes 13-year program to integrate Kazakh Czechs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220116195934/https://www.praguepost.com/articles/2007/10/31/home-stretch.php |date=16 January 2022 }}, The Prague Post, 31 October 2007</ref>