The Czech republic

Geography:
Czech republic is situated in the middle of Europe, we can say, that our republic lies in the heart of Europe. Our republic has borders with Germany in the west, with Poland in the north, with Slovakia in the east and with Austria in the south.
Czech republicwasunitedwith Slovakia in thestateofCzechoslovakiauntilthe 1st January 1993.
The country resistsofthreehistoricalparts : Bohemia – the western part, homeof most ofpeople and industry, Moravia – theeastern part, more sparselypopulated and agricultural, exceptaroundthe city ofOstrava. Althoughusuallyincluded in Moravia, the area around Ostrava is a part ofSilesia.

Almostallthemainmountainregions are situatedalongthenation’sborders. These mountains are named (beginning in thesouth and movingclockwise : the Šumava, the Krušné Mountains, the Jizerské Mountains, theGiantMountainswithourhighestmountain Sněžka 1602 m abovesealevel, the Orlické Mountains, the Jeseníky and the Beskydy. There are alsosomehillyregionswithinthe country, such as theCzechmoravianhighland and thesandstoneregion ofthe Český ráj (Bohemian Paradise). Wecanfindlowlandsalongtherivers. Thebiggestofthemis Polabská lowland. There are goodconditionsforagriculturethere.

The Czech Republic has many rivers. Riversbelong to theNorthSea, to theBalticSea and tothe Black Sea. Bohemia has thelargestrivers, the Vltava (thelongestone – 433 km in CR) and the Labe.
In Moravia there are thefollowingrivers: the Morava in theeast, alongtheborderwith Slovakia, and the Dyje in thesouthneartheAustrianborder.Northern Moravia has tworivers, the Odra and the Opava whichflowthroughPolandintotheBalticSea.
Thereisalso a large and well-knownfishing area in southern Bohemia, aroundthetownsof Třeboň and Jindřichův Hradec. In the Czech Republic there are about 21 000 ponds, thelargestofthemisRožmberk.Thelargest natural lakeisthe Black Lake (Černé jezero) in the Šumava.

Despitetheindustrialisation, the Czech Republic isoneofthe most heavilyforestedcountries in Europe. Aroundone-thirdofthetotal area ofthe country isforested, mostly by coniferoustrees. Unfortunately these trees are sensitive to acid rains. Thisfactisespeciallyobvious in thedevastatedforests in northern Bohemia.

Climate:
Our republic lies in temperate zone, we have 4 seasons of years. The warmest places are in southern Moravia and the coldest are in the Giant Mountains. Southern Moravia is thanks to own climate the most fertile part of the Czech republic, there are fertile lowlands along river Dyje.

Population:
Czech republic is home for 10,2 mil. inhabitants. Most of them are Czech origin, so we can say, that Czech republic is one nation state. But there live one big national minority Slovaks. The biggest city is Prague (1,2 mil inh.), it is the capital city too and seat of government and president. It is most seightseeing city. Next two big towns are in Moravia, Brno (500 thousands) – the center of Moravia and Ostrava – new town, which was built during second half of 20th century is called Steel heart of Czech republic. Plzen in west Bohemia is the fourth largest town in our country, it is center of engineering and world famous for beer production. Ceske Budejovice – center of south Bohemia is historical town, world famous for beer production too.
Our anthem is called Kdedomovmuj (Where is my home) created by J.K.Tyl and Frantisek Skroup. Our flag is created by three colours, blue gore, and red below strike and white strike.

Politicalsystem:
Systemofgovernment has threemainparts: legislative – parliament, theexecutive – by president and government, and judical – by courts, supremecourts. Czech parliamentisdividedintotwoparts – chamberofdeputies – 200 members, are votedfor 4 years and TheSenate – 81 members, who are votedfor 2, 4 or 6 years. Every 2 yearsisrenewedone-thirdofSenate. Headofourrepublicis president. He iselectedeveryfiveyear by parliament and he canbevotedtwo-time.

Economy:
Economy in Czech republic is been changing for 13 years. We had to change basic economic system. We transformed from heavy industry to engineering and electronics production, important position has chemical industry – petrol and oil products. Czech republic had large resources of coal especially Ostrava coal minds and coal minds around Most, Sokolov, Kladno dominated for big coal production. But after economic changes these areas were not important, so many of them were closed and a plenty of people lost their job. In this time are most important industry branches car building – Skoda automobile in MladaBoleslav, and chemical industry in Litvinov, KralupynadVltavou, Neratovice. Engineering industry is in Plzen, Brno, Liberec. Textile industry: Pisek, Prostejov glass industry with long tradition in Jablonec.

Natural resources: Czech republic has quite rich resources coal, black coal, lignit, iron, caolin and metals.

Agriculture: Agriculture in our republic has long tradition and ground is intensive cultivated. We produce wheat, sugar wheat, corn, barley, hop, grapes and cattle-breeding, pig-breeding.


History:
First type of state on our area was The Samo’s empire from 7th century. Samo was a French merchant.
Second state was Big-Moravian imperium in 9th century and after that can we find first mention about Premyslic king dynasty, who ruled to 14th century.
Next dynasty was Lucemburks with the most famous king Charles IV. During his reign Czech countries became rich and strong monarchy. It was time of progress, which ended in 15th century, when in our country ran religions conflicts. John Hus demonstrated against church and he was burnt in 1415 in Konstanz.
From 16th to 20th century were Czech countries part of Austrian empire, we have Austrian kings, Austrian legislatives and German was an official language.
After first world war Czech became independent, it was established new democratic state Czechoslovakia with own president Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and own government on 28th October 1918.
 In 1938 Czechoslovakia was occupied by Nazi´s German. After WWII.democracy ended, in our republic was established communist system. In 1968 soviet army occupied our state.In1989, when whole nation revolted against political system and democratic government was restored. In 1993 Czechoslovakia separated in two independent and democratic states Czech republic and Slovakia.


Placesofinterests:
Bohemia and Moravia are quiterich in natural springs, so wehave a lot of spas. Well-known are Karlovy Vary – thereisheldfamous film festival everyyear, FrantiskovyLazne, MarianskeLazne, Jachymov, Podebrady, Luhacovice, Jeseniky and so on.
Nextattractiveplacesfortourists are Czech paradise, TheDecinswalls, Czech Switzerlandwithremarkablesandstones, Moraviankarst and Macocha abyss, PrachovRocks.
Someareas in Czech republic are protected: TheBoubinVirginForest, nationalparks in Sumavarange. Very populartouristattractions are Czech castlesorruins and: Karlstejn, Konopiste, Zvikov, Hluboka nad Vltavou and so on.