Czech Republic
Updated: Sep 18, 2022
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Country Name
The Czech Republic, also called by its short-form name, Czechia.
Location
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe, also known as Czechia. It is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the north, and Slovakia to the east.
Capital
Prague.
Reason for Naming
The traditional English name "Bohemia" derives from the Latin word "Boiohaemum", which means "home of the Boii" (Gallic tribe). The current English name comes from the Polish ethnonym associated with the area, which ultimately comes from the Czech word Čech. The name comes from the Slavic tribe (Czech: Češi, Čechové) and, according to legend, their leader Čech, who brought them to Bohemia, to settle on Říp Mountain. The etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root "čel-", meaning "member of the people; kinsman", thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk (a person). The country has been traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia (Čechy) in the west, Moravia (Morava) in the east, and Czech Silesia (Slezsko; the smaller, south-eastern part of historical Silesia, most of which is located within modern Poland) in the northeast. Known as the lands of the Bohemian Crown since the 14th century, several other names for the country have been used, including Czech/Bohemian lands, Bohemian Crown, Czechia, and the lands of the Crown of Saint Wenceslas. When the country regained its independence after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire in 1918, the new name Czechoslovakia was coined to reflect the union of the Czech and Slovak nations within one country.