1.
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
2.
Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
3.
Austrian Empire
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The Austrian Empire was an empire in Central Europe created out of the realms of the Habsburgs by proclamation in 1804. It was an empire and one of Europes great powers. Geographically it was the second largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire and it was also the third most populous after Russia and France, as well as the largest and strongest country in the German Confederation. Proclaimed in response to the First French Empire, it overlapped with the Holy Roman Empire until the dissolution in 1806. The Ausgleich of 1867 elevated Hungarys status and it became a separate entity from the Empire entirely, joining with it in the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Changes shaping the nature of the Holy Roman Empire took place during conferences in Rastatt, on 24 March 1803, the Imperial Recess was declared, which reduced the number of ecclesiastical states from 81 to only 3 and the free imperial cities from 51 to 6. This measure was aimed at replacing the old constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, taking this significant change into consideration, the German Emperor Francis II created the title Emperor of Austria, for himself and his successors. In 1804 the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, who was ruler of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, founded the Empire of Austria. In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the Habsburg Monarchy, to safeguard his dynastys imperial status he adopted the additional hereditary title of Emperor of Austria. Hungarys affairs remained administered by its own institutions as they had been beforehand, thus under the new arrangements no Imperial institutions were involved in its internal government. The fall and dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire was accelerated by French intervention in the Empire in September 1805, on 20 October 1805, an Austrian army led by general Karl Mack von Leiberich was defeated by French armies near the town of Ulm. The French victory resulted in the capture of 20,000 Austrian soldiers, Napoleons army won another victory at Austerlitz on 2 December 1805. Francis was forced into negotiations with the French from 4 to 6 December 1805, the French victories encouraged rulers of certain imperial territories to assert their formal independence from the Empire. On 10 December 1805, the prince-elector Duke of Bavaria proclaimed himself King, finally, on 12 December, the Margrave of Baden was given the title of Grand Duke. In addition, each of these new countries signed a treaty with France, the Treaty of Pressburg between France and Austria, signed in Pressburg on 26 December, enlarged the territory of Napoleons German allies at the expense of defeated Austria. Certain Austrian holdings in Germany were passed to French allies—the King of Bavaria, the King of Württemberg, Austrian claims on those German states were renounced without exception. On 12 July 1806, the Confederation of the Rhine was established, comprising 16 sovereigns and this confederation, under French influence, put an end to the Holy Roman Empire. On 6 August 1806, even Francis recognized the new state of things and proclaimed the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, as he did not want Napoleon to succeed him
4.
Czechoslovakia
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From 1939 to 1945, following its forced division and partial incorporation into Nazi Germany, the state did not de facto exist but its government-in-exile continued to operate. From 1948 to 1990, Czechoslovakia was part of the Soviet bloc with a command economy and its economic status was formalized in membership of Comecon from 1949, and its defense status in the Warsaw Pact of May 1955. A period of liberalization in 1968, known as the Prague Spring, was forcibly ended when the Soviet Union, assisted by several other Warsaw Pact countries. In 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the two states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Form of state 1918–1938, A democratic republic, 1938–1939, After annexation of Sudetenland by Nazi Germany in 1938, the region gradually turned into a state with loosened connections among the Czech, Slovak, and Ruthenian parts. A large strip of southern Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine was annexed by Hungary, 1939–1945, The region was split into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the Slovak Republic. A government-in-exile continued to exist in London, supported by the United Kingdom, United States and its Allies, after the German invasion of Russia, Czechoslovakia adhered to the Declaration by United Nations and was a founding member of the United Nations. 1946–1948, The country was governed by a government with communist ministers, including the prime minister. Carpathian Ruthenia was ceded to the Soviet Union, 1948–1989, The country became a socialist state under Soviet domination with a centrally planned economy. In 1960, the country became a socialist republic, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It was a state of the Soviet Union. 1989–1990, The federal republic consisted of the Czech Socialist Republic, 1990–1992, Following the Velvet Revolution, the state was renamed the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, consisting of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. Neighbours Austria 1918–1938, 1945–1992 Germany Hungary Poland Romania 1918–1938 Soviet Union 1945–1991 Ukraine 1991–1992 Topography The country was of irregular terrain. The western area was part of the north-central European uplands, the eastern region was composed of the northern reaches of the Carpathian Mountains and lands of the Danube River basin. Climate The weather is mild winters and mild summers, influenced by the Atlantic Ocean from the west, Baltic Sea from the north, and Mediterranean Sea from the south. The area was long a part of the Austro Hungarian Empire until the Empire collapsed at the end of World War I, the new state was founded by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who served as its first president from 14 November 1918 to 14 December 1935. He was succeeded by his ally, Edvard Beneš. The roots of Czech nationalism go back to the 19th century, nationalism became a mass movement in the last half of the 19th century
5.
Geography
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Geography is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, the features, the inhabitants, and the phenomena of Earth. The first person to use the word γεωγραφία was Eratosthenes, Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of the Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be. It is often defined in terms of the two branches of geography and physical geography. Geography has been called the world discipline and the bridge between the human and the physical sciences, Geography is a systematic study of the Earth and its features. Traditionally, geography has been associated with cartography and place names, although many geographers are trained in toponymy and cartology, this is not their main preoccupation. Geographers study the space and the temporal database distribution of phenomena, processes, because space and place affect a variety of topics, such as economics, health, climate, plants and animals, geography is highly interdisciplinary. The interdisciplinary nature of the approach depends on an attentiveness to the relationship between physical and human phenomena and its spatial patterns. Names of places. are not geography. know by heart a whole gazetteer full of them would not, in itself and this is a description of the world—that is Geography. In a word Geography is a Science—a thing not of mere names but of argument and reason, of cause, just as all phenomena exist in time and thus have a history, they also exist in space and have a geography. Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main fields, human geography and physical geography. The former largely focuses on the environment and how humans create, view, manage. The latter examines the environment, and how organisms, climate, soil, water. The difference between these led to a third field, environmental geography, which combines physical and human geography. Physical geography focuses on geography as an Earth science and it aims to understand the physical problems and the issues of lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere, and global flora and fauna patterns. Physical geography can be divided into broad categories, including, Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns. It encompasses the human, political, cultural, social, and it requires an understanding of the traditional aspects of physical and human geography, as well as the ways that human societies conceptualize the environment. Integrated geography has emerged as a bridge between the human and the geography, as a result of the increasing specialisation of the two sub-fields. Examples of areas of research in the environmental geography include, emergency management, environmental management, sustainability, geomatics is concerned with the application of computers to the traditional spatial techniques used in cartography and topography
6.
Voivodeship
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A voivodeship /ˈvɔɪˌvoʊdˌʃɪp/ is the area administered by a voivode in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times in Poland, Wallachia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, the administrative level of area of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in western medieval states, much as the title of voivode was equivalent to that of a duke. Other roughly equivalent titles and areas in medieval Eastern Europe included ban, in a modern context, the word normally refers to one of the provinces of Poland. Poland as of 2015 has 16 voivodeships, a voivod was originally a military commander who stood, in a states structure, next to the ruler. Later the word came to denote an administrative official, some of these words, or variants of them, may also be used in English. Named for the word for voivodeship is the autonomous Serbian province of Vojvodina, depending on context, historic voivodeships may also be referred to as duchies, palatinates, administrative districts or regions. Historical voivodeships in the territory of modern Serbia include the Voivodeship of Salan, Voivodeship of Sermon, a voivodeship called Serbian Vojvodina was established in 1848–1849, this was transformed into the Voivodeship of Serbia and Temes Banat, a land within the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1849 to 1860. This is the origin of the name of the present-day Serbian autonomous province of Vojvodina, historical voivodeships in the territory of modern Romania and Serbia include the Voivodeship of Glad and the Voivodeship of Ahtum. For more information about the divisions of Polish lands in particular periods, see Administrative divisions of Poland
7.
Dissolution of Czechoslovakia
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Czechoslovakia was created with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary at the end of World War I. Soon after, the philosophy of Edvard Beneš pushed for greater unity, some Slovaks were not in favour of this change, and in March 1939, with pressure from Adolf Hitler, the First Slovak Republic was created. Occupation by the Soviet Union after World War II oversaw their reunification into the third Czechoslovak republic, in 1968, the Constitutional Law of Federation reinstated an official federal structure, but during the Normalization period in the 1970s, Gustáv Husák returned most of the control to Prague. This approach encouraged a regrowth of separatism after the fall of communism, by 1991, the Czech Republics GDP per capita was some 20% higher than Slovakias, but its long-run GDP growth was lower. Transfer payments from the Czech budget to Slovakia, which had been the rule in the past, were stopped in January 1991, many Czechs and Slovaks desired the continued existence of a federal Czechoslovakia. Some major Slovak parties, however, advocated a form of co-existence. In the next years, political parties re-emerged, but Czech parties had little or no presence in Slovakia, in order to have a functional state, the government demanded continued control from Prague, while Slovaks continued to ask for decentralization. In 1992, the Czech Republic elected Václav Klaus and others who demanded either an even tighter federation or two independent states, Vladimír Mečiar and other leading Slovak politicians of the day wanted a kind of confederation. The two sides opened frequent and intense negotiations in June, on 17 July, the Slovak parliament adopted the Declaration of independence of the Slovak nation. Six days later, Klaus and Mečiar agreed to dissolve Czechoslovakia at a meeting in Bratislava, Czechoslovak president Václav Havel resigned rather than oversee the dissolution which he had opposed, in a September 1992 poll, only 37% of Slovaks and 36% of Czechs favoured dissolution. The goal of negotiations switched to achieving a peaceful division, on 13 November, the Federal Assembly passed Constitution Act 541 which settled the division of property between the Czech lands and Slovakia. With Constitution Act 542, passed on 25 November, they agreed to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia as of 31 December 1992, in contrast, other post-communist break-ups involved violent conflict. That is why, Czechoslovakia is known as the only former socialist state to have a peaceful breakup. Those who argue from the inevitability stance tend to point to the stereotypes between the two nations, which date back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and other issues, disputes occurred only with respect to the Czechoslovak national flag. From 1990 to 1992, the red and white Flag of Bohemia officially served as the flag of the Czech Republic, the national territory was divided along the existing internal borders. Nevertheless, the border was not clearly defined at points and, in some areas. Most federal assets were divided in a ratio of 2 to 1, including equipment, rail. Some minor disputes lasted for a few years after dissolution, initially the old Czechoslovak currency, the Czechoslovak koruna, was still used in both countries. Fears of economic loss on the Czech side caused the two states to two national currencies as early as 8 February 1993
8.
Counties of the Kingdom of Hungary
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A county is the name of a type of administrative units in the Kingdom of Hungary and in Hungary from the 10th century until the present day. This article deals only the period before the Treaty of Trianon of 1920. For lists of the counties, see Administrative divisions of the Kingdom of Hungary. For counties of Hungary since 1950, see Counties of Hungary, the Hungarians settled in the Carpathian Basin in 895. The first counties were probably the counties situated in present-day northern Pannonia - they arose before 1000 or around 1000. The exact time of the creation of other counties is disputed, many of them, however. Initially there were several small frontier counties established for military purposes only. Initially, there were some small special castle districts, which ceased in the 13th century. Each county was the responsibility of a county head, whose seat was a castle - a quasi-capital of the county, the county head was the representative of the king, the judge, and the supreme law observance supervisor on his respective territory. He collected the fees and payments in kind made by the subjects for the king and his castle had special fortification and was able to withstand even long-term besieges. The sources mention deputy county heads in the 12th century for the first time, the royal county consisted of castle districts. In the late 13th century, the royal counties turned into noble counties. The reasons for development were, The arrival of new hospites considerably restricted the real powers of the county heads. At the end of the 12th century, and even more so in the early 13th century under King Andrew II, as a result, by royal decrees of 1267,1290, and 1298, the king could only confirm that the royal counties turned into noble ones. Nobles became quasi-rulers in the counties, the change from a royal to a noble county, however, was accomplished at different times in the particular counties. In the 15th century, the borders of the counties stabilised, between the early 16th century and the late 17th century, however, most of the counties ceased to exist, because they became part of the Ottoman Empire or of Transylvania. After the final defeat of the Turks in 1718, the three southern counties Temesiensis, Torontaliensis and Krassoviensis created the administrative district Banatus Temesiensis. This district was dissolved again in 1779, but its southernmost part remained part of the Military Frontier till the late 19th century, the counties as noble institutions were abolished only in the course of the Revolution of 1848 by legal articles III - V and XVI/1848
9.
Khutor
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A khutor or khutir is a type of rural locality in some countries of Eastern Europe, in the past the term mostly referred to a single-homestead settlement. The term can be translated as hamlet, in some Cossack communities in Russia, these types of settlements were referred to as posyólok. In Russia the term выселки was also used, khutor remains the official designation of many Russian villages in these regions. A less radical concept was that of an otrub, a section of formerly obshchina land, whose owner has left the obshchina but still continued to live in the village and to commute to his land. By 1910 the share of khutors and otrubs among all households in the European part of Russia was estimated at 10. 5%. These were practically eliminated during the collectivisation in the USSR, nikolai Gogols first major work is called Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, where farm is a translation of khutor
10.
Obshchina
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Obshchina or Mir or Selskoye obshestvo (Russian, Cельское общество were peasant village communities, as opposed to individual farmsteads, or khutors, in Imperial Russia. The term derives from the word о́бщий, obshchiy, the vast majority of Russian peasants held their land in communal ownership within a mir community, which acted as a village government and a cooperative. Arable land was divided in sections based on quality and distance from the village. Each household had the right to one or more strips from each section depending on the number of adults in the household. The purpose of this allocation was not so much social as it was practical, strips were periodically re-allocated on the basis of a census, to ensure equitable share of the land. This was enforced by the state, which had an interest in the ability of households to pay their taxes, a detailed statistical description of the Russian village commune was provided by Alexander Ivanovich Chuprov. Communal land ownership of the Mir predated serfdom, surviving emancipation, until the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the mir could either contain serfs or free peasants. In the first case lands reserved for use were assigned to the mir for allocation by the proprietor. Even after the emancipation of the serfs in 1861, a peasant in his everyday work normally had little independence from obshchina, among its duties were control and redistribution of the common land and forest, levying recruits for military service, and imposing punishments for minor crimes. Obshchina was also responsible for taxes underpaid by members. This type of shared responsibility was known as krugovaya poruka, although the meaning of this expression has changed over time. In 1905, repartitional tenure didnt exist in the Baltic provinces but was used by a quarter of western and southwestern peasants, the institution was effectively destroyed by the Stolypin agrarian reforms, the implementation of which would lead to the Russian Revolution and subsequent collectivization of the USSR. The organization of the peasant mode of production is the cause for the type of social structure found in the Obshchina. In the Obshchina alliances were formed primarily through marriage and common descent of kin, usually the eldest members of the household made up the Mir to govern the redistribution of land. The families came together to form a community that depended on making more equitable. In addition the system had residual communal rights, sharing exchanges during shortages as well as certain distributive exchanges. Furthermore the structure defined by these alliances and risk-sharing measures were regulated by scheduling, howe writes, the traditional calendar of the Russian peasants was a guide for day-to-day living. Peasants formed a class apart, largely excepted from the incidence of the ordinary law, the assembly of the mir consists of all the peasant householders of the village
11.
Pogost
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Pogost is a historical term with several meanings in the Russian language. It has also borrowed into Latgalian, Finnish and Latvian. The original usage applies to the inn for princes and ecclesiastics with the word being similar to modern Russian gost, guest. It is assumed that originally pogosts were rural communities on the periphery of the ancient Russian state, in the end of the 10th century pogosts transformed into administrative and territorial districts. Pogosts varied in size, ranging from tens to hundreds of villages in 11th—14th centuries, as Christianity spread in Russia, churches were built in pogosts. In 1775 the last pogosts that served as administrative districts were destroyed, since then they became known as city pogosts, functioning as parish centers. In the central uyezds of 15th-16th centuries pogosts were small settlements with a church, in modern Russian, pogosts usually designate a combination of a rural church and a graveyard, situated at some distant place. The central village of the Finnish kunta of Ilomantsi is usually called the pogosta of Ilomantsi, the local dialect of Finnish shows strong Russian influence, and there is a strong presence of Orthodox Christians in the municipality. Even the name of the newspaper is Pogostan Sanomat. In modern Finnish language, pogosta is also used in references to historical places, pagasts is the name for a basic unit of local self-government in the Republic of Latvia. The word pagasts is a commonly used Latvian word equivalent to parish, rural municipality or small rural district. There are 432 rural municipalities or pagasti in Latvia
