The first Neolithic settlements on the territory of modern Czech Republic are dated back to the 3rd century BC. Starting from this century and later up to the 1st century AD first Celtic and then Germanic tribes settled in modern Bohemia. Later, around the 5th century AD during the so called Migration Period Germanic people moved to the West and South and Slavic tribes settled there.
In the 7th century Frankish merchant Samo who supported Slavs in their fight against Avar rulers became the king of the first known Slavic state in Central Europe. In 833 Duke Mojmír I united by force two two neighboring states - the Principality of Nitra and the Principality of Moravia and formed so called Great Moravia.
The Bohemian (Czech) state appeared by the end of the 9th century. It was united by the Přemyslid dynasty. The kingdom of Bohemia was an important and influential state in the region all through the Middle Ages. Hussite Wars in the 15th century and Thirty Years' War in the 17th century almost ruined the kingdom. Bohemia got under Habsburg control and became part of Austrian Empire and later of Austria-Hungary.
After the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I was created the independent republic of Czechoslovakia in 1918 which incorporated regions of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia (known as Subcarpathian Rus then). But according to the First Vienna Award in November 1938 Hungary gained parts of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus and Poland occupied Polish inhabited areas around ÄŒeský TÄ›šín.
In 1939 the remaining Czech territory was occupied by Germany and transformed into the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was proclaimed part of the Third Reich. The occupation ended on 9 May 1945 with the arrival of Soviet and American armies. After the War Communists gained popularity in Czechoslovakia. In February 1948 the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia came to power and Czechoslovakia became a Communist state within the eastern bloc for the next 40 years.
In November 1989 in the result of so called "Velvet Revolution" Czechoslovakia became a democratic state. And in January 1993 the country was rather painfully divided into two independent states - Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic joined NATO on March 12, 1999 and the European Union on May 1, 2004. In December 2007 it was admitted into Schengen Agreement.
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