The Czech Republic (/ˈtʃɛk -/ (About this soundlisten) CHEK-;[13] Czech: Česká republika [ˈtʃɛskaː ˈrɛpublɪka] (About this soundlisten)),[14] also known by its short-form name, Czechia[15] (/ˈtʃɛkiə/ (About this soundlisten); Czech: Česko [ˈtʃɛsko] (About this soundlisten)), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the east.[16] The Czech Republic has a hilly landscape that covers an area of 78,866 square kilometers (30,450 sq mi) with a mostly temperate continental climate and oceanic climate. It is a unitary parliamentary republic.
The Duchy of Bohemia under Great Moravia in 1002 was formally recognized as an Imperial State of the Holy Roman Empire and became a kingdom in 1198.[17][18] Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy. The Protestant Bohemian Revolt led to the Thirty Years’ War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule. With the dissolution of the Holy Empire in 1806, the Crown lands became part of the Austrian Empire.
In the 19th century, the Czech lands became more industrialized, and in 1918 most of it became part of the First Czechoslovak Republic following the collapse of Austria-Hungary after World War I.[19] After the Munich Agreement in 1938, Nazi Germany systematically took control over the Czech lands. Czechoslovakia was restored in 1945 and became an Eastern Bloc communist state following a coup d’état in 1948. In November 1989, the Velvet Revolution ended communist rule in the country, and on 1 January 1993 Czechoslovakia dissolved with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Czech Republic is a developed country with an advanced, high income social market economy. It is a welfare state with a European social model, universal health care and tuition-free university education. It ranks 12th in the UN inequality-adjusted human development and 14th in the World Bank Human Capital Index ahead of countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and France. It ranks as the 11th safest and most peaceful country and 31st in democratic governance. The Czech Republic is a member of NATO, the EU, OECD, OSCE and the CoE.
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