James Baquet The Czech Republic — also known as Czechia — is a Central European country lying to the east of Germany. Poland is to its north and Austria to its south; to the east lies Slovakia with which, from 1918 to 1993, it formed the single country called Czechoslovakia. Each half of that entity was focused around an ethno-linguistic group: the Czechs spoke Czech, and the Slovaks spoke the closely-related Slovak. The separation into two countries was effected peacefully as Soviet influence over Czechoslovakia waned. Since dissolution, Czechia has emerged as a developed country with an economy based on services and manufacturing, as well as innovation. It is high-income and export-oriented. By some measures, its per-capita GDP is ranked at the 34th in the world (out of 181). As a welfare state following a European social model, it offers universal health care and tuition-free university education. In 2018 it is the world’s sixth-safest (or most peaceful) country in the world, after Iceland, New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, Denmark and Canada, according to the Global Peace Index. Like many a crossroads country, the Czech Republic has a complex history. Historically made up of Bohemia, Moravia and the Czech portion of Silesia, it was first defined in the late 9th century. Most of Silesia now lies in modern Poland. Then called the Duchy of Bohemia and part of the Great Moravian Empire, the country changed hands until becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia under the Holy Roman Empire in 1198. Its territory peaked in size in the 14th century, when Prague was intermittently the seat of the Holy Roman Emperor. After the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, Bohemia slowly became part of the Habsburg Monarchy, along with Austria and Hungary. A revolt of Bohemia’s Protestant Christians against the Roman Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), the 8-million death toll (by some estimates) of which put it among the top 20 deadliest conflicts in world history. The empire fell in 1806, and the emerging Czech nation became an industrial powerhouse. Vocabulary: Which word above means: 1. united by culture (or race) and language 2. creating new things 3. number of people who died 4. hit its high point 5. something very successful 6. available to everyone 7. went down, got smaller 8. from time to time 9. located, situated 10. coming apart, separation | 