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Czech
Republic
is a landlocked country in
Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the
west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital
and largest city is Prague (Czech: Praha). The country is composed of the
historic regions of Bohemia and Moravia, as well as parts of Silesia. The
Czech Republic has been a member of NATO since 1999 and of the European Union
since 2004. From 1 January 2009 to 1 July 2009, the Czech Republic held the
Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Following the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, the Czech lands fell under Habsburg
rule, later becoming part of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary. The
independent Republic of Czechoslovakia was formed in 1918, following the
collapse of the Austria-Hungarian empire after World War I. After the Munich
Agreement, German occupation of Czechoslovakia and the consequent disillusion
with the Western response and gratitude for the liberation of the major
portion of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army, the Communist party won plurality
(38%) in the 1946 elections. In a 1948 coup d'etat, Czechoslovakia became a
communist-ruled state. In 1968, the increasing dissatisfaction culminated in
attempts to reform the communist regime. The events, known as the Prague
Spring of 1968, ended with an invasion by the armies of the Warsaw Pact
countries (with the exception of Romania); the troops remained in the country
until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed. On 1
January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved into its constituent states,
the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
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