BOHEMIA. —
I. Geographers
A region of central Europe, corresponding to the upper basin of the Elba (Labe, in Czech), namely a quadrilateral entirely enclosed by mountain ranges (the Erzgebirge, or Krušné Hory, to the northwest; the Giant Mountains or Krkonoše and the Sudetes to the northeast; the Moravian-Bohemian highlands to the south; and the Bohemian Forest or Šumava to the west), which thus isolate it from the neighboring regions of Bavaria, Saxony, Prussia, Moravia, and Austria. Despite its modest extent (52,062 sq. km., about three times that of Lazio), Bohemia is a land of varied appearance, resources, and character.Of the peripheral mountain sectors, only the western one has preserved its original forest cover, upon which the local economy is largely based. Both the Krušné Hory and the Sudetes, however, have long since been transformed into industrial districts, thanks to the abundance of mineral resources (lignite, copper, tin, bismuth, manganese, uranium, etc.) in the former, and hydroelectric power in the latter; while along the Moravian border, the low, monotonous hills correspond to a typical rural area.
The climate, distinctly continental, with cold winters (–3°) and hot summers (20°) in the lowland zones, has abundant rainfall well distributed for agriculture. The marginal regions, wetter and colder, remain under forest cover (40 to 60% of the territory).
The population, which did not reach one million at the mid-17th century, numbered 6,300,000 at the beginning of the present century and 6,800,000 in 1910, dropping to 6,700,000 in 1921 (a consequence of the First World War and heavy emigration). The 1930 census recorded 7,109,376 inhabitants (137 per sq. km., roughly the density of Liguria), of whom one-third were German. After Germany’s defeat and the reconstruction of the Czechoslovak state, the majority of these Germans were transferred to the American and Soviet occupation zones in Germany, and by 1947 the population of Bohemia had fallen to 5,626,566 (108 per sq. km.).
In the thus depopulated marginal areas, Bohemian nuclei will be resettled from within Czechoslovakia and abroad. It is not yet possible to foresee what repercussions these events will have on the economic structure of Bohemia. Before the recent conflict, more than two-fifths of its population was engaged in industry, and less than one-third in agriculture and forestry; both activities are facilitated by active internal (Moravia, Slovakia, Subcarpathian Ruthenia—now part of the U.S.S.R.) and international trade.
Among the inhabited centers, Prague, the traditional capital, now approaches one million inhabitants (921,000 in 1947); another, Plzeň, exceeds 100,000 (118,000 at the same date), and about a dozen others surpass 20,000 (Ústí nad Labem, Liberec, Hradec Králové, Kladno, České Budějovice, Karlovy Vary, etc.).
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BOHEMIA. —
II. Ecclesiastical history
The first Christian missionaries arrived in Bohemia from Moravia under the guidance of SS. CYRIL and METHODIUS (863), who preached the Gospel in the Slavic tongue. Their work was continued by their disciples, especially by the bishop of Nitra, WICHING, who, however, soon fell into error and was replaced by the German bishop of Passau, ERMENRICH (874). The first native martyr was ST. WENCESLAS (VÁCLAV), duke of Bohemia, who fell victim to a reaction led by his brother Boleslaus and was venerated as the nation’s patron saint; the impulse he gave did not cease.Under Boleslaus II, the diocese of Prague was erected (973), its territory detached from the diocese of Regensburg and subjected to the metropolitan see of Mainz; the first bishop was a Saxon, soon followed by the Czech St. ADALBERT, who founded the first monastery at Břevnov near Prague with Benedictine monks sent from Rome. Bohemia united its political and religious destiny with that of neighboring Germany, seeking to expand its borders. The Přemyslid OTTOCAR I (d. 1230) obtained from Philip of Swabia, king of Germany, the hereditary royal crown (1198) as a fief of the empire; a merely formal dependency that nonetheless carried the right to participate in the election of the emperor with the other princes. Ottokar II (d. 1278) aspired to succeed the extinct Babenbergs in the duchies of Austria and Carinthia, Styria, and Carniola, but found himself opposed by the king of Hungary and King Rudolph of Habsburg, by whom he was defeated. His son Wenceslaus IV also received the kingdom of Bohemia in 1300 (cf. Dante, *Purg.*, VII, 97 ff.), but with his death in 1305 the dynasty came to an end, to be succeeded by that of Luxembourg. Under this house, alongside the expansion of German colonization and without impairing national independence, a new current of civilization developed in Bohemia, in keeping with that embracing all of western Europe. It was especially under Charles I (later Emperor Charles IV) that this current reached its greatest splendor in the arts, letters, and sciences; the University of Prague was founded, monumental buildings were erected, and the diocese of Prague was elevated to an archbishopric.
Yet a reforming current and an anti-German tendency also began to take shape, bursting forth violently under Wenceslaus IV and the emperor-king Sigismund, first through the efforts of Jan Hus and his disciples, then assuming a markedly national and political character through the agency of Jan Žižka. The wars grew more bitter under the reign of Sigismund, brother of Wenceslaus, king of Hungary and emperor, and kept not only Bohemia, which was ruined by them, but also the neighboring countries in turmoil.
In 1526 Bohemia passed under the rule of Ferdinand of Habsburg, later emperor, and followed the fortunes of this dynasty, undergoing a steady process of Germanization that in the 18th century threatened to absorb completely what remained of Czech nationality. It was only with 1848 that a stronger patriotic spirit began to emerge, together with the demand for independence and the rise of national literature and language, while drawing on the tradition of Hus and Žižka and opposing the Habsburgs, anti-Roman religious prejudices also took root. Sharp struggles flared in the Vienna Parliament over this issue, ceasing only when, at the end of the world war in 1918, Bohemia became part of the independent Czechoslovak Republic.
For further ecclesiastical information, literature, art, and the educational system, V. CZECHOSLOVAKIA.