Czech Republic Katie Cynkar and Cece Garner

General Information Located next to Poland, Slovakia, Germany, and Austria Was democratic before World War II Czechoslovakia was formed after World War I because of the collapse of the Hapsburg monarchy. During World War II, Czechoslovakia became part of Nazi Germany during the annexation of the Sudetenland

Czech Republic used to be part of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia peacefully split into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic on January 1 st After World War II, Czechoslovakia became part of the Soviet Union. In 1989, democracy was restored. But the word “socialist” stayed in the country’s name until 1990 when it was replaced with “federal”.

Beginning of the Cold War May 9, 1945, the Soviet and US armies liberated Czechoslovakia from German rule through the Prague Uprising , 3 million Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia They were imprisoned or used as forced labor Turned to Communism because of the unpopularity of the West The Munich Agreement took away its democratic government and put them in the hands of a totalitarian dictator The Soviets helped liberate Czechoslovakia

1948 Czechoslovak coup d’état The Soviet Ambassador set up a militia and police to take over Prague, purging all anti-Communists The Czechoslovakian Communist Party leader Klement Gottwald threatened Edvard Benes, the President of Czechoslovakia, to agree to a Communist-dominated government Benes gave in to the leadership of Gottwald and resigned May 9, 1948, a new constitution was created, making the entire government of Czechoslovakia Communist During the 1950s, the economy grew due to the new command economy and controlled production

During the “Thaw” reformer Alexander Dubcek was appointed First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party There was a brief period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring. Soviet tanks came on August 20 and ended the period of liberalization. Leonid Brezhnev thought this was vital to the preservation of the Soviet Union The Czechoslovak Communist Party stopped their liberal policies

Present Day The Czech Republic has one of the most stable economies of the post- Communist states. They have a multi-party parliamentary democracy with a prime minister. They are a member of the European Union. In 2011, Prague was the 6 th most visited city in Europe. They have one of the least religious populations in the world, 34.2% of the population say they have no religion and 45.2% did not answer about their religion.