Czech Republic Essay, Research Paper

The Czech Republic

Czechoslovakia was split into two different independent countries on January 1, 1993 (J. Clements). These two countries took the names Czech Republic and Slovakia. Earlier that decade a new constitution was formed, preparing these two countries for a new type of government. A bicameral Parliament formed and became the dominant branch of government.

The Parliament of the Czech Republic consists of a two-hundred member Chamber of Deputies, just like the House of Representatives in the United States, and a Senate consisting of only 81 members (J. Clements). Being in the Chamber of Deputies you have to at least be of the age twenty-one, and in the Senate a minimum age of forty years. Deputies usually serve a term of four years and Senate has a term set at six years. Both of these houses have members elected from a secret ballot. Also, there is an executive position occupied by a President. Once the President is appointed to office he selects a Prime Minister(Encarta98). With the advisory of the Prime Minister the President will appoint seventeen to his cabinet. As the Senate and the House of Deputies serve four and six years the President splits the two and serve five years terms(J. Clements). Before the President can even think of becoming President ten members of the Parliament have to nominate him and no less. In the January of 1993, Vaclav Havel received the newly formed position of President (PPG: Monday, Mar 18, 1991).

The Newly Formed office of Pres. Occupied by Vaclav Havel, seen in picture above.

The people of the Czech Republic date back to the sixth century (SAHS Vert. File). The land now called the Czech Republic was occupied by some Slovak settlers. The area was landlocked and surrounded by the empires of Moravia and Bohemia (J. Clements). During the ninth century an empire formed, given the name the Great Moravian Empire, and the first common state of the Czech and Slovak Republic came into existence (SAHS Vert. File). In less then century on ruling the land the Great Moravian Empire came to an end (J. Clements). This fall led the way for the Premyslid Dynasty to come to power. The Premyslid Dynasty lasted six centuries and was finally dissolved because of Religious Disagreement, Ethnic differences, and international difficulties. A group of wars swept through the region of the Czech Republic and set up the Habsburg conquest oh the Czech thrown in 1526. This led the Austro-Hungarian Empire to easily take rule of the little country. After World War I, the Czech State would re-emerge on the world scene and would be named Czechoslovakia in 1918 (map on page 7)(SAHS Vert. File). The country would be represent by the joining of many different races; manly the Czech and Slovak people and run the country together.

Today the Czech Republic is a small European country that has a population of around ten million according to a count that took place in July of 1995 (www.open.cz/project/environ/geogr.nun). The people of the Czech republic are considered a Czech, to use a slang term, but the Czech Republic houses many different nationalities and cultures. Also a large number of languages are spoken in the area (SAHS Vert. File). The main two are the Czechoslovakian and Slovakian, both uncommon in our part of the world. In the western region of the country the capital of the Czech Republic sits, which is Prague. The Czech land is divided into regions. Which are Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. All three of these regions total up to cover over thirty square miles (map on page 8). The area is also considered to be landlocked, because of being surrounded on all sides of there county by land that is not apart of there own. The Czech Republic has a great cultural background that is very respectable and easy to adore. It is made up of forty historical towns and each has original urban structures. The area holds 40,000 different sights, twenty-five hundred of which are castles and manor houses. Sights in the Czech Republic are not only for enjoyment, but are of historical and archaeological importance as well. Even though you don?t hear much of the Czech Republic the people are of a very social society that converses with each other as much as the people in the U.S. talk. The environment of the Czech Republic is virtually untouched and has had little or no contact with the human civilization (SAHS Vert. File).

Picture of a Czech city that shows the historical and architectural greatness of the Czech Republic

On January 21, 1997, the disputes of the past began to be forgotten when the German-Czech Reconciliation. Following quote from the Clements? International Report dated May of 1997 (J. Clements, May ?97).

Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany traveled to Prague, to help heal the wounds left by the injustices that the Germans and the Czechs had inflicted on one another nearly fifty years earlier. ?We want to ask for forgiveness,? Kohl said, ?and we want to forgive.?

For two years negotiation were taking place to form the document given the name ?The German-Czech Reconciliation? (J. Clements). Those negotiations ended in 1996 giving both a hail of relief from both governments allowing them to renew their friendship and to get along with each other. But, since the past will always be there, old emotion will come up and cause new ones in the future, for now this will allow the Germans and the Czechs to coexist on the European continent (J. Clements).

Twenty years after Czechoslovakia formed to become an independent country, Germany, under the authority of Adolph Hitler started causing a trouble with the newly formed country, threatening to take that freedom back that was just received (Pitt. Press, Tues., Mar. 26, ?91). In 1938, people were starting to be forcibly removed from the Czech bordering areas. In September of the same year in Munich, Germany, British, French, Italian, and German leaders came together and signed a document that would allow the Germans to receive the land around Czechoslovakia, renamed Sudeterland (PPG Wed., Jan 22, ?97). Despite the new borders and agreements not to take any other land, Czechoslovakia still ended up taken by the Germans (J. Clements). Since the German were defeated in World War II the Czech and Slovak people reorganized to take what was rightfully theirs to begin with. The Czech Republic totally reformed in 1945. The new government quickly turned to pain that Germany enforced onto them, and started to deprive the Germans, that were once citizens, the rights once owned. During the Versailles Peace Conference borders of the previous Czechoslovakia were now reformed. The Czechs adopted a socialist form of government that was formed by the socialist party. In the years 1968 and 1969 two socialist group formed bring the later split of Czechoslovakia to form the Czech Republic and Slovakia (J. Clements).

The Czech Republic has been through many obstacles giving it the right to be a part of this world and the right to become an independent country. I feel it is also a noble country for sorting out it problems that cause a lot of grief and anguish to them from other countries that slowed the process of them entering society. If a small country like the Czech Republic can find ways to solve problems, then It must be as easy to solve the problems that plagues the society of the United States, and if we can?t then we should find a way.

Bibliography

Czech, Germans end WWII conflict, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Wednesday, January 22, 1997.

Czech, Slovaks head for an accepted partings of ways, Pittsburgh Press; Tuesday, March 26,1991.

Clements International Reports, ?German-Czech Reconciliation Regional Perspective; John Clements, May 1997.

World Today, ?Czech Republic, Pages 116-117.

Czechoslovakia in Brief, ?Czechoslovakia?, SAHS Vertical File, 1986.

Czechoslovakia, By: Daniel Marsula, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Monday, March 18, 1991.

Czechoslovakia, ?A Young Republic?, SAHS Vertical File, 1986.

http//www.open.cz/project/enviroment/geogr.htm