CZECHIA

The first Slavs on the territory of today's Czechia established the Great Moravia state in the 9th century. Only from that country in 890 came up the Czechs, who soon absorbed Moravians and organized a strong state through a policy of the Přemyslid dynasty. The first Czech king was Vratislav II in 1085, however, independence from the Holy Roman Empire became a reality only in 1212. The dynasties of Přemyslid, and later the House of Luxembourg have built a modern Kingdom of Bohemia, which became almost entirely Protestant. Only the Habsburgs after 1620 stopped the development of the country by re-introducing Catholicism and joining the Czechs to the Austrian Empire. The struggle to preserve Czech language and national identity was crowned after World War I, when Czechoslovakia emerged from northern territories of the defeated Austro-Hungary. This state of Czechs and Slovaks lasted until 1 January 1993, when in a result of the peaceful disintegration the Czech Republic and Slovakia were created. A while later, in 1999, Czechia became a member of NATO and the European Union in 2004.