Bohemia (pronounced boh-HEE-mee-ah; in Czech, Čechy; in German, Böhmen) is the largest and westernmost historical region of the Czech Republic. It can also refer to a larger area that included the lands ruled by Bohemian kings, such as Moravia and Czech Silesia. This larger area represents the historical cultural and political space of the Czech people, while the smaller region is called Bohemia proper to distinguish it.
The Bohemian principality was once part of Great Moravia, then became an independent Duchy of Bohemia. It later became a kingdom within the Holy Roman Empire. Afterward, it was part of the Habsburg monarchy and the Austrian Empire. Following World War I, when the Czechoslovak Republic was created, Bohemia became part of this new country. This decision ignored claims by German-speaking people in some regions who wanted those areas to join the Republic of German-Austria. Between 1938 and 1945, parts of Bohemia were taken over by Nazi Germany as the Sudetenland.
After World War II, the rest of Czech territory became the Second Czechoslovak Republic. This area was later controlled by Nazi Germany as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia until the end of the war. After the war, Bohemia became part of the restored Czechoslovakia. In 1968, the Czech lands, including Bohemia, were invaded by Soviet-led Warsaw Pact troops. These forces remained in the region until the Velvet Revolution in 1989. In 1990, the country’s name was changed to the Czech Republic, which became an independent nation in 1993 after Czechoslovakia split into two separate countries.
Before 1948, Bohemia was an administrative unit in Czechoslovakia, one of its "lands" (země). Later, administrative changes replaced these self-governing lands with a system of "regions" (kraje). These regions do not match the borders of historical Czech lands or those from earlier reforms. However, the three historical lands—Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia—are mentioned in the preamble of the Czech Republic’s Constitution: "We, citizens of the Czech Republic in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia…"
Bohemia covers an area of 52,065 square kilometers (20,102 square miles) and is home to about 6.9 million people, out of the Czech Republic’s total population of 10.9 million. Historically, Bohemia was bordered by Upper and Lower Austria (in Austria) to the south, Bavaria (in Germany) to the west, Saxony and Lusatia (in Germany and Poland) to the north, Silesia (in Poland) to the northeast, and Moravia (also in the Czech Republic) to the east. Many of Bohemia’s borders were formed by mountain ranges, such as the Bohemian Forest, the Ore Mountains, and the Giant Mountains. The border between Bohemia and Moravia roughly follows the Elbe-Danube watershed.
Etymology
In the second century BC, the Romans fought to be the most powerful group in northern Italy, competing with people like the Gauls and the Celtic tribe called the Boii. The Romans won battles against the Boii at Placentia in 194 BC and Mutina in 193 BC. After these battles, many Boii moved north over the Alps. Later, Roman writers mentioned the area the Boii once lived in as Boiohaemum. The first record of this name appears in Tacitus’s Germania 28, written at the end of the first century AD. Other writers, like Strabo and Velleius Paterculus, also used the same name. The name seems to combine the tribal name "Boio-" with the Proto-Germanic word haimaz, meaning "home" (related to words like Gothic haims, German Heim, and English home). This suggests the name was Bajahaimaz* in Proto-Germanic.
Boiohaemum was likely limited to the area where King Marobod’s kingdom was located, inside the Hercynian forest. Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII, in his 10th-century work De Administrando Imperio, also referred to the region as Boiki, which is linked to an area called White Serbia.
The Czech name "Čechy" comes from the Slavic group known as the Czechs, who settled in the region during the sixth or seventh century AD.
History
Bohemia, like nearby Bavaria, is named after the Boii, a large Celtic group known to the Romans for moving and settling in northern Italy and other areas. Some members of this group moved west with the Helvetii into southern France, an event that led to Julius Caesar's military actions in Gaul in 58 BC. The movement of the Helvetii and Boii left southern Germany and Bohemia sparsely populated, creating an area that Suebic groups later settled. These groups spoke Germanic languages and became dominant over remaining Celtic communities. To the south, across the Danube River, the Romans expanded their empire. In present-day Hungary, the Dacian people lived.
In the area of modern Bohemia, the Marcomanni and other Suebic groups were led by their king, Marobodus, after being defeated by Roman forces in Germany. He used the natural protection of mountains and forests to build a strong alliance with neighboring tribes, including the Lugii, Quadi, Hermunduri, Semnones, and Buri. These alliances sometimes involved cooperation with the Roman Empire and sometimes conflict, such as when they fought against Marcus Aurelius in the second century.
In late classical times and the early Middle Ages, two new Suebic groups formed in southern Germany west of Bohemia: the Alemanni (in the Helvetian desert) and the Bavarians (Baiuvarii). Many Suebic tribes from Bohemia moved westward, settling as far as Spain and Portugal. Other groups, like the Vandals and Alans, also moved from the east.
Some groups moved south toward Pannonia. The last known mention of the Marcomanni Kingdom, involving a queen named Fritigil, is from the fourth century. She was believed to have lived in or near Pannonia. The Suebian Langobardi, who moved over many generations from the Baltic Sea through the Elbe and Pannonia to Italy, recorded a time spent in "Bainaib."
After the Migration Period, Bohemia was repopulated around the sixth century. Slavic tribes arrived from the east, and their language gradually replaced older Germanic, Celtic, and Sarmatian languages. These groups are ancestors of today's Czechs, though the exact number and timing of their arrival remain debated. The end of the old "Slavonic" confederation, led by Samo, marked the second attempt to unite Slavic groups after Carantania in Carinthia.
The 9th century was important for Bohemia’s future. The manorial system declined, as it did in Bavaria. The central Fraganeo-Czechs gained influence due to a religious center in their region. They spoke Slavic languages and helped shape neighboring populations into a new nation with a shared Slavic identity. Christianity first appeared in the early 9th century but became widespread only in the 10th or 11th century.
Bohemia became part of the early Slavic state of Great Moravia under Svatopluk I (r. 870–894). After Svatopluk’s death, Great Moravia weakened due to internal conflicts and wars. It eventually collapsed because of attacks by the Magyars, a nomadic group. Bohemia’s inclusion in the Moravian Empire led to widespread Christianization. A native monarchy emerged, and Bohemia came under the rule of the Přemyslid dynasty, which governed the Czech lands for centuries.
The Přemyslids secured their borders after the fall of the Moravian state by forming a relationship of partial loyalty with Frankish rulers. This alliance was supported by Bohemia’s adoption of Christianity in the 9th century. Close ties were also maintained with the East Frankish Kingdom, which later became the Holy Roman Empire.
After the Holy Roman Empire and Bohemia defeated the invading Magyars at the 955 Battle of Lechfeld, Boleslaus I of Bohemia was granted Moravia by Emperor Otto the Great. Bohemia remained largely independent under the Holy Roman Empire for several decades. The empire’s authority was fully reasserted when Jaromír of Bohemia was given the fief of the Kingdom of Bohemia by Emperor Henry II of the Holy Roman Empire. This happened after Jaromír retook Prague with a German army in 1004, ending the rule of Bolesław I of Poland.
The first Bohemian rulers to use the title "King of Bohemia" were the Přemyslid dukes Vratislav II (1085) and Vladislaus II (1158). Their heirs later returned to the title of duke. The title of king became hereditary under Ottokar I (1198). His grandson, Ottokar II (r. 1253–1278), briefly controlled modern Austria and Slovenia. German immigration increased in the mid-13th century after the Mongol invasion of 1241. Germans settled mainly along Bohemia’s northern, western, and southern borders, though many lived in towns across the kingdom.
The House of Luxembourg accepted the Bohemian throne through the marriage of Elizabeth, a Přemyslid heiress, and the crowning of John I of Bohemia (known as Jan Lucemburský in the Czech Republic) in 1310. His son, Charles IV, became King of Bohemia in 1346. He founded Charles University in Prague, the first university in Central Europe, two years later.
During his reign, Bohemia reached its political and territorial peak. Charles IV was the first Bohemian king elected as Holy Roman Emperor. His rule included control over regions such as Moravia, Silesia, Upper and Lower Lusatia, Brandenburg (called New Bohemia), Luxembourg, and several towns in Germany.
From the 13th century, German settlements grew across Bohemia, making it a bilingual region. Germans introduced mining technology in the Sudetes mountain area. In the mining town of Sankt Jo
Former parts
Zittau (Czech: Žitava) and Ostritz (Czech: Ostřice) in modern south-eastern Saxony were part of Bohemia during the Middle Ages. They were briefly part of Lower Silesia from 1319 to 1346. Žitava was a Bohemian royal city, granted city rights by King Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1255. In 1346, it joined the Lusatian League with five other major cities in Upper Lusatia, which were also under Bohemian rule. These cities had strong economic ties with each other. Žitava was not formally taken over from Bohemia to Upper Lusatia, but it shared the history of Upper Lusatia. It was taken over by the Electorate of Saxony from the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1635. The coat of arms of Zittau includes symbols of its past connections to Bohemia and Lower Silesia: the Bohemian lion and the Lower Silesian Piast Eagle.
In 1945, about 4,000 Czechs lived in Zittau and formed a Czech National Committee. They tried to bring the city back into Bohemia and Czechoslovakia, but these efforts were rejected in 1948.
The area around Kłodzko (Czech: Kladsko; Latin: Glacio) in south-western Poland was historically part of Bohemia. It was also part of Lower Silesia under the Polish Piast dynasty from 1278 to 1290 and again from 1327 to 1341. Kłodzko Land became part of Lower Silesia again after being taken over by the Kingdom of Prussia in 1763. The Kłodzko Valley region, near the Nysa Kłodzka River, was called "Little Prague" and became a focus of disputes between Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Czechoslovakia tried to take over the area in May 1945. The Czechs argued that the small Czech minority in the western part of the Kłodzko Valley, known as the "Czech Corner," meant the area should belong to Czechoslovakia instead of Poland, since no significant Polish minority lived there. Pressure from the Soviet Union ended military actions, and the Czech minority was sent to Germany and Czechoslovakia. According to Roman Catholic Church rules, the area remained part of the Archdiocese of Prague until 1972.
Because of interest in the Kladsko area among Czech people, a special tourist area in the Náchod District was created called the Kladsko Borderland Tourist Area (Czech: turistická oblast Kladské pomezí). This area, now entirely within the Czech Republic, was previously known as Jirásek’s Region (Czech: Jiráskův kraj) and the Adršpach rocks (Czech: Adršpašské skály).