The history of the Czechs and the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia) is fascinating. A largely forgotten fact is that Bohemia was in fact a Czech / German kingdom in which there were predominantly Czech areas and predominantly German areas.

Even before the age of nationalism in the 19th century the history of the Bohemian kingdom was largely defined by ethnic relations. Prior to 1620 the status of Bohemia was that of a self - ruling autonomous kingdom in which the Czech majority held power. After 1620 the Austrian Habsburgs ruled Bohemia directly and dealt a huge blow to Czech political and cultural development. At that point German culture flourished and German speakers administered the state on behalf of Austria.

In the 19th century the Czechs made a cultural and political revival, which brought them into conflict with the Bohemian Germans. The growth of liberalism and nationalism greatly influenced the growth of conflicts. 

After 1918 Czech / German differences continued to hamper the development of independent Czechoslovakia. In that time new conflicts with Slovaks, Hungarians and Ruthenes emerged. The conflict with the Bohemian Germans came to a brutal conclusion in 1945 but the lesser conflicts with the Slovaks remained and came to the surface when communism fell in 1989.

In 1993 the birth of the Czech Republic gave the Czechs a nation state that was exclusively their own for the first time.

Course Details:

Lesson 1: Ethnic relations and the changing balance of power in the kingdom of Bohemia to 1848:

Lesson 2: 1848. The year of conflict and Revolution.

Lesson 3. The brief decline of the 1850's and Bohemian society in the 1860s.

Lesson 4. The role of history itself: Czech / German interpretations of history and its consequences.

Lesson 5: Polemics and violence: 1890 - 1918

Lesson 6: The Czechoslovak rationale: - The Great Moravian Empire, ethnic kinship and potential problems:

Lesson 7: The rise and decline of Czechoslovakia: 1918 - 1939

Lesson 8: The Czechoslovak Minority’s problem: 1918 - 1945

Lesson 9: Communist Czechoslovakia: 1948 - 1989

Lesson 10: The breakup of Czechoslovakia and the birth of the Czech Republic.