1.
Budweiser Budvar Brewery
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A dispute has been ongoing since 1907 with American brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev over the name Budweiser. In the United States, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Brazil and Peru, in other countries, it is sold as Budweiser Budvar. Budweiser Budvar is one of the highest selling beers in the Czech Republic in 2014 and it is the best selling imported beer in Germany and the best selling Czech beer in Austria and Great Britain. The history of brewing in České Budějovice, dates back to the 13th century Kingdom of Bohemia, the original Budweiser Bier or Budweiser Bürgerbräu, was founded here in 1785. The company began exporting to the United States in 1871, in the U. S. Anheuser-Busch started using the Budweiser brand in 1876 and registered it two years later. A second company was established in 1895 in same town by mainly Czech brewers and these exports into the US market led to the Budweiser trademark dispute. After the fall of communism, both local breweries tried to secure rights to traditional names, on 29 July 2010, Anheuser-Busch lost its last-instance appeal, which means that Anheuser-Busch may not register the name Budweiser as an EU-wide trademark for beer. On 6 April 2007, Czech Agriculture Minister Petr Gandalovič, whose ministry is in charge of the state-owned company, Gandalovič repeated the possible privatization process would depend on the outcome of the trademark dispute with Anheuser-Busch. The company did not later go through privatization, Budweiser Budvar Czech Premium Lager / Czechvar, The classic Budějovický Budvar lager. Budweiser Budvar Pale Beer, Marketed as a more accessible beer than the red label, Budweiser Budvar Premium Dark Lager, This beer is brewed in the same style as the red label, but is brewed from three different kinds of barley malts. Budweiser Budvar non-alcoholic beer, A non-alcohol version, contains a maximum of 0. 5% alcohol by volume. Bud Super Strong, This beer is marketed as the member of the Budvar family. Budweiser Budvar Yeast Lager, Unlike the other Budvar beers, Yeast Lager is served in kegs, Pardál, Budvar calls Pardál the perfect beer for sharp and full bitter flavoured beer lovers. For the start of the 2002–03 Scottish football season, Budweiser Budvar began sponsoring Scottish First Division side Falkirk F. C, in the 2002–2003, Falkirk won the First Division but were denied entry to the Scottish Premier League as the member clubs voted out their groundsharing proposals. Budweiser Budvar UK Ltd subsequently released a statement confirming their continued sponsorship of Falkirk in spite of this setback showing support for the club, as for domestic awards, it has been six times Beer of the Year in Beer courier magazine. King, Jeremy, Budweisers into Czechs and Germans,2002, has a few pages on the two breweries, archived from the original on 8 March 2008. Official Budvar Brewery Website Website about the original Budweiser Budvar lager Official Czechvar Website
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
St. Louis
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St. Louis is an independent city and major U. S. port in the state of Missouri, built along the western bank of the Mississippi River, on the border with Illinois. Prior to European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture. The city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, in 1764, following Frances defeat in the Seven Years War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase, during the 19th century, St. Louis developed as a major port on the Mississippi River. In the 1870 Census, St. Louis was ranked as the 4th-largest city in the United States and it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and the Summer Olympics, the economy of metro St. Louis relies on service, manufacturing, trade, transportation of goods, and tourism. This city has become known for its growing medical, pharmaceutical. St. Louis has 2 professional sports teams, the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball, the city is commonly identified with the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis. The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture and their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 AD to 1500 AD. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the Mound City and these mounds were mostly demolished during the citys development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years later, La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane. The earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia, Kaskaskia, migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years War, Pierre Laclède, the early French families built the citys economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe, French colonists used African slaves as domestic servants and workers in the city. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces, mostly Native American allies, the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River, before then, Laclede had been a very successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area
4.
Pale lager
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Pale lager is a very pale-to-golden-coloured lager beer with a well attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. This approach was picked up by brewers, most notably Josef Groll of Bavaria who produced Pilsner Urquell in the city of Pilsen in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The resulting Pilsner beers – pale-coloured, lean and stable beers – were very successful, Bavarian brewers in the sixteenth century were required by law to brew beer only during the cooler months of the year. In order to have beer available during the hot months, beers would be stored in caves and stone cellars. In the period 1820–1830, a brewer named Gabriel Sedlmayr II the Younger, whose family was running the Spaten Brewery in Bavaria, when he returned, he used what he had learned to get a more stable and consistent lager beer. The new recipe of the lager beer spread quickly over Europe. Pale lagers tend to be dry, lean, clean-tasting and crisp, flavours may be subtle, with no traditional beer ingredient dominating the others. Hop character ranges from negligible to a dry bitterness from noble hops, the main ingredients are water, Pilsner malt and noble hops, though some brewers use adjuncts such as rice or corn to lighten the body of the beer. There tends to be no butterscotch flavour from diacetyl, due to the slow, cold fermentation process. In 1842 Josef Groll of Pilsen, a city in western Bohemia in what is now the Czech Republic, used some of these methods to produce Pilsner Urquell and this beer proved so successful that other breweries followed the trend, using the name Pilsner. With the success of Pilsens golden beer, the town of Dortmund in Germany started brewing pale lager in 1873, as Dortmund was a major brewing centre, and the town breweries grouped together to export the beer beyond the town, the brand name Dortmunder Export became known. Today, breweries in Denmark, the Netherlands, and North America brew pale lagers labelled as Dortmunder Export, the earliest known brewing of pale lager in America was in the Old City section of Philadelphia by John Wagner in 1840 using yeast from his native Bavaria. Modern American lagers are usually made by large breweries such as Anheuser-Busch, lightness of body is a cardinal virtue, both by design and since it allows the use of a high percentage of rice or corn. Though all lagers are well attenuated, a fully fermented pale lager in Germany goes by the name Diät-Pils or Diätbier. Because the available sugars are fully fermented, dry beers often have an alcohol content. The first dry beer, Gablingers Diet Beer, was released in 1967, Owades developed an enzyme that could further break down starches, so that the finished product contained fewer residual carbohydrates and was lower in food energy. Since the 2012 revisions to the Diätverordnung, it is no longer permitted to label beer as Diät in Germany, but it may be advertised as suitable for diabetics. Prior to this change, a Diätbier could contain no more than 7.5 g of unfermented carbohydrates per liter, and this was followed by other dry beer brands such as Bud Dry, though the marketing concept was not considered a success
5.
Anheuser-Busch
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Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC /ˈænhaɪzər ˈbʊʃ/ is a brewing company founded and based in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev which also has its North American headquarters in St. Louis, the original Anheuser-Busch InBev was formed through successive mergers of three international brewing groups, Interbrew from Belgium, AmBev from Brazil and Anheuser-Busch. Hence, since 2008, Anheuser-Busch has been a division of Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, Anheuser-Busch InBev is the largest beer producer in the world. In 1852, German American brewer and saloon operator George Schneider opened the Bavarian Brewery on Carondelet Avenue between Dorcas and Lynch streets in South St. Louis. In 1860, the brewery was purchased on the brink of bankruptcy by William DOench, a local pharmacist, and Eberhard Anheuser, DOench was the silent partner in the business until 1869, when he sold his half-interest in the company. From 1860 to 1875, the brewery was known as E, Anheuser & Co. and from 1875 to 1879 as the E. Adolphus Busch, a wholesaler who had immigrated to St. Louis from Germany in 1857, married Eberhard Anheusers daughter, Lilly, following his service in the American Civil War, Busch began working as a salesman for the Anheuser brewery. Busch purchased DOenchs share of the company in 1869, and he assumed the role of secretary from that time until the death of his father-in-law. By 1877, the owned a fleet of 40 refrigerated railroad cars to transport beer. Expanding the companys distribution range led to increased demand for Anheuser products, the expansions led production to increase from 31,500 barrels in 1875 to more than 200,000 in 1881. To serve these cars and switch them in and out of their St. Louis brewery, the shortline operated until 2011 when Anheuser-Busch sought to shut down operations. In 1876, Busch introduced Budweiser, with the ambition of transcending regional tastes and his companys ability to transport bottled beer made Budweiser the first national beer brand in the United States, and it was marketed as a premium beer. The company was renamed Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association in 1879, in 1880, the Busch family fully controlled the company through the generations until Anheuser-Buschs sale to InBev in 2008. During the 1880s and 1890s, Busch introduced a series of advertisements and marketing giveaways for the company, including bottle openers, calendars, corkscrews, pocketknives, postcards, and prints. Among the most well-known of these giveaways was Custers Last Fight, as a marketing tactic, Busch distributed thousands of copies of the print to bars in 1896, the same year Anheuser-Busch introduced its new super-premium brand, Michelob. Eventually more than one million copies of the print were produced, at the turn of the 20th century, Anheuser-Busch continued to expand its production facilities to keep up with demand. In 1905, the built an new stockhouse in St. Louis. After the death of Adolphus Busch in 1913, control of the passed to his son, August Anheuser Busch
6.
Beer in the United States
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Beer in the United States is manufactured by more than 3,000 breweries, which range in size from industry giants to brew pubs and microbreweries. The United States produced 196 million barrels of beer in 2012, in 2011, the United States was ranked fifteenth in the world in per capita consumption, while total consumption was second only to China. After the repeal of Prohibition, the industry consolidated into a number of large-scale breweries. The most common style of beer produced by the big breweries is American lager, Beer styles indigenous in the United States include amber ale, cream ale, and California common. More recent craft styles include American Pale Ale, American IPA, India Pale Lager, Black IPA, native American tribes brewed beer in the lands of the United States prior to European arrival, but didnt use barley. One recipe was composed of maize, birch sap and water, on February 5,1663 Nicholas Varlett obtained from Peter Stuyvesant a patent for a brewery on Castle Point in Hoboken, New Jersey. The brewing traditions of England and the Netherlands ensured that colonial drinking would be dominated by beer rather than wine, until the middle of the 19th century, British-style ales dominated American brewing. This changed when the longer shelf-life lager styles brought by German immigrants turned out to be profitable for large-scale manufacturing and shipping. The hops in lager had preservative qualities, while non-hopped local ales of the time quickly turned sour and were a risk to drink. Steam beer, the first uniquely American beer style, evolved in the San Francisco area during the 19th century and it was born out of the desire to produce lager beer without the use of refrigeration. After prohibition ended, the Anchor Brewing Company was left as the producer of steam beer. The company was near closure in 1965, whereupon Fritz Maytag, great-grandson of the Maytag Corporation founder, rescued the brewery, Anchor has since trademarked the term Steam Beer and all subsequent renditions of the style are now termed California common. Headquartered in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, it is currently the largest American-owned brewery, one of the earliest large-scale brewers was Best Brewing, a Milwaukee brewery built by German immigrant Phillip Best in the 1840s. It began shipping its beer to Chicago and St. Louis the following decade, first by ferry and eventually by rail, the Weston Brewing Company was first established in 1842 by German immigrant John Georgian. Georgian brought the tradition of brewing with him when he settled in Weston. In creating the brewery, the Weston Brewing Company became one of the first lager breweries in the United States, in St. Louis, a prosperous German soap maker, Eberhard Anheuser, purchased a struggling brewery in 1860. His daughter married a brewery supplier, Adolphus Busch, who took over the company after his father-in-laws death, Busch soon toured Europe, discovering the success of Bohemian lager, and introduced Budweiser beer in 1876. Anheuser-Busch, and its Budweiser beer, would go on to be the largest brewery, the company innovated the use of refrigeration in rail cars to transport its beers, which helped make bottled Budweiser the first national beer brand in the United States
7.
Hops
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Hops are the flowers of the hop plant Humulus lupulus. The hop plant is a vigorous, climbing, herbaceous perennial, usually trained to grow up strings in a called a hopfield, hop garden. Many different varieties of hops are grown by farmers around the world, the first documented use of hops in beer is from the 9th century, though Hildegard of Bingen,300 years later, is often cited as the earliest documented source. Before this period, brewers used gruit, composed of a variety of bitter herbs and flowers, including dandelion, burdock root, marigold, horehound, ground ivy. Early documents include mention of a hop garden in the will of Charlemagnes father, historically, traditional herb combinations for beers were believed to have been abandoned when beers made with hops were noticed to be less prone to spoilage. The first documented hop cultivation was in 736, in the Hallertau region of present-day Germany, however, in a will of Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne,768 hop gardens were left to the Cloister of Saint-Denis. Not until the 13th century did hops begin to start threatening the use of gruit for flavoring, gruit was used when taxes were levied by the nobility on hops. Whichever was taxed made the then quickly switch to the other. In Britain, hopped beer was first imported from Holland around 1400, yet hops were condemned as late as 1519 as a wicked, in 1471, Norwich, England, banned use of the plant in the brewing of ale. In Germany, using hops was also a religious and political choice in the early 16th century, there was no tax on hops to be paid on the Catholic church, unlike on gruit, for which the Protestant preferred hopped beer. Therefore, in the hop industry there are words which originally were Dutch words. Hops were then grown as far north as Aberdeen, near breweries for infrastructure convenience, in England there were many complaints over the quality of imported hops, the sacks of which were often contaminated by stalks, sand or straw to increase their weight. Hop cultivation was begun in the present-day United States in 1629 by English, before national alcohol prohibition, cultivation was mainly centered around New York, California, Oregon, and Washington. Problems with powdery mildew and downy mildew devastated New Yorks production by the 1920s, Hops production is concentrated in moist temperate climates, with much of the worlds production occurring near the 48th parallel north. Historically, hops were not grown in Ireland, but were imported from England, in 1752 more than 500 tons of English hops were imported through Dublin alone. Important production centers today are the Hallertau in Germany, the Yakima and Willamette valleys, the principal production centers in the UK are in Kent which produces Kent Goldings hops, Herefordshire and Worcestershire. Essentially all of the hops are used in beer making. Although hops are grown in most of the continental United States and Canada, as hops are a climbing plant, they are trained to grow up trellises made from strings or wires that support the plants and allow them significantly greater growth with the same sunlight profile
8.
Barley
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Barley, a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago, Barley has been used as animal fodder, as a source of fermentable material for beer and certain distilled beverages, and as a component of various health foods. It is used in soups and stews, and in barley bread of various cultures, Barley grains are commonly made into malt in a traditional and ancient method of preparation. In 2014, barley was ranked fourth among grains in quantity produced behind corn, rice, the Old English word for barley was bære, which traces back to Proto-Indo-European and is cognate to the Latin word farina flour. The direct ancestor of modern English barley in Old English was the derived adjective bærlic, the first citation of the form bærlic in the Oxford English Dictionary dates to around 966 CE, in the compound word bærlic-croft. The underived word bære survives in the north of Scotland as bere, the word barn, which originally meant barley-house, is also rooted in these words. Barley is a member of the grass family and it is a self-pollinating, diploid species with 14 chromosomes. The wild ancestor of domesticated barley, Hordeum vulgare subsp, spontaneum, is abundant in grasslands and woodlands throughout the Fertile Crescent area of Western Asia and northeast Africa, and is abundant in disturbed habitats, roadsides and orchards. Outside this region, the barley is less common and is usually found in disturbed habitats. However, in a study of genome-wide diversity markers, Tibet was found to be a center of domestication of cultivated barley. Wild barley has a spike, upon maturity, the spikelets separate. Domesticated barley has nonshattering spikes, making it easier to harvest the mature ears. The nonshattering condition is caused by a mutation in one of two linked genes known as Bt1 and Bt2, many cultivars possess both mutations. The nonshattering condition is recessive, so varieties of barley that exhibit this condition are homozygous for the mutant allele, spikelets are arranged in triplets which alternate along the rachis. In wild barley, only the central spikelet is fertile, while the two are reduced. This condition is retained in certain cultivars known as two-row barleys, a pair of mutations result in fertile lateral spikelets to produce six-row barleys. Recent genetic studies have revealed that a mutation in one gene, two-row barley has a lower protein content than six-row barley, thus a more fermentable sugar content. High-protein barley is best suited for animal feed, Malting barley is usually lower protein which shows more uniform germination, needs shorter steeping, and has less protein in the extract that can make beer cloudy
9.
Malt
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Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as malting. The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air and it also develops other enzymes, such as proteases, which break down the proteins in the grain into forms that can be used by yeast. Depending on when the process is stopped one gets a preferred starch enzyme ratio. Malt also contains amounts of other sugars, such as sucrose and fructose. Further conversion to fermentable sugars is achieved during the mashing process, Malted grain that has been ground into a coarse meal is known as sweet meal. Various cereals are malted, though barley is the most common, a high-protein form of malted barley is often a label-listed ingredient in blended flours typically used in the manufacture of yeast breads and other baked goods. Malted grains have probably been used as an ingredient of beer since ancient times, for example in Egypt, Sumeria and China. In Persian countries a sweet paste made entirely from germinated wheat is called Samanū in Iran, Samanak, or Sümölök, a plate or bowl of Samanu is a traditional component of the Haft sin table symbolising affluence. Traditionally, women take a party for it during the night. In Tajikistan and Afghanistan they sing, Samanak dar Jūsh u mā Kafcha zanēm - Dīgarān dar Khwāb u mā Dafcha zanēm, in modern times, making samanu can be a family gathering. It originally comes from the Great Persian Empire, Mämmi, or Easter Porridge, is a traditional Finnish Lenten food. Cooked from rye malt and -flour, mämmi has a resemblance to Samanū. Today, this product is available in shops from February until Easter, a survey in 2013 showed that almost no one cooks mämmi at home in modern-day Finland. The cereal is spread out on the floor in a layer of 8 to 12 cm depth. The malting process starts with drying the grains to a content below 14%. When ready, the grain is immersed or steeped in water two or three times two or three days to allow the grain to absorb moisture and to start to sprout. When the grain has a content of around 46%, it is transferred to the malting or germination floor. The grain at this point is called green malt, the green malt is then dried and pre-toasted in an oven to the desired colour and specification
10.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
11.
Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, 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. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
12.
Ottokar II of Bohemia
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Ottokar II, the Iron and Golden King, was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty who reigned as King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He also held the titles of a Margrave of Moravia from 1247, Duke of Austria from 1251, Duke of Styria from 1260, as well as Duke of Carinthia, with Ottokars rule, the Přemyslids reached the peak of their power in the Holy Roman Empire. His expectations of imperial crown, however, were never fulfilled, Ottokar was the second son of King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia. He was possibly educated by the Bohemian chancellor Philip of Spanheim, when his brother Vladislaus died in 1247, Ottokar suddenly became the heir to the Bohemian throne. According to popular tradition, he was profoundly shocked by his brothers death and did not involve himself in politics. As new heir, his father appointed him Margrave of Moravia and Ottokar took his residence in Brno, in 1248 he was enticed by discontented nobles to lead a rebellion against his father King Wenceslaus. During this rebellion he was elected the younger King on 31 July 1248, Přemysl Ottokar II held the title of King of Bohemia until November 1249. However, he was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV, whereafter Wenceslaus finally managed to defeat the rebels, King Wenceslaus had initially attempted to acquire Austria by marrying his heir, Vladislav, to the last dukes niece Gertrude of Babenberg. That match had been cut short by Vladislavs death and Gertrudes remarriage to the Zähringen margrave Herman VI of Baden, the latter was rejected by the Austrian nobility and could not establish his rule. Wenceslaus used this as pretext to invade Austria when Herman died in 1250 — according to some sources, Wenceslaus released Přemysl Ottokar very soon and in 1251 again made him Margrave of Moravia and installed him, with the approval of the Austrian nobles, as governor of Austria. The same year Ottokar entered Austria, where the estates acclaimed him as Duke, to legitimize his position, Přemysl Ottokar married the late Duke Frederick IIs sister Margaret of Babenberg, who was his senior by 30 years and the widow of the Hohenstaufen king Henry of Germany. Their marriage took place on 11 February 1252 at Hainburg, in 1253, King Wenceslaus died and Přemysl Ottokar succeeded his father as King of Bohemia. After the death of the German King Konrad IV in 1254 while his son Conradin was still a minor, however, his election bid was unsuccessful and Count William II of Holland, the German anti-king since 1247, was generally recognised. Feeling threatened by Ottokars growing regional power beyond the Leitha River, the conflict was quelled through papal mediation, it was agreed that Ottokar was to yield large parts of Styria to Béla in exchange for recognition of his right to the remainder of Austria. During the following peace phase, King Ottokar II led two expeditions against the pagan Old Prussians. Königsberg, founded in 1255 by the Teutonic Order, was named in his honour, however, after a few years the conflict resumed and Ottokar defeated the Hungarians in July 1260 at the Battle of Kressenbrunn, ending years of disputes over Styria with Béla IV. Béla now ceded Styria back to Ottokar, and his claim to those territories was formally recognized by Richard of Cornwall, then king of Germany and this peace agreement was also sealed by a royal marriage. Ottokar ended his marriage to Margaret and married Bélas young granddaughter Kunigunda of Halych, the youngest of them became his only legitimate son, Wenceslaus II
