Made in Czech Republic -- Bohemia Crystal, Puma, and Royal Dux!

Category: File - :Burgkarlstein01.jpg|thumb|Karl?tejn Castle in the Central Bohemian Region, founded in 1348 by Charles IV.

Category: File - :Tabor CZ aerial old town from north B1.jpg|thumb|Tábor, a town in the South Bohemian Region, founded in 1420 by the Hussites.

[IV. (HRR).jpg|thumb|Charles IV, eleventh king of Bohemia. Charles IV was elected the Nejv?t?í ?ech (Greatest Czech) of all time.[http://www.radio.cz/en/article/67495 Emperor Charles IV elected Greatest Czech of all time, Radio Prague]]

The Czech Republic Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, Oxford University Press, 1989. (, , short form ?esko ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague (). The country is composed of the historic regions of Bohemia and Moravia, as well as parts of Silesia. The Czech Republic has been a member of NATO since 1999 and of the European Union since 2004. From 1 January 2009 to 1 July 2009, the Czech Republic held the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Czech lands fell under Habsburg rule, later becoming part of the Austrian Empire and Austria?Hungary. The independent Republic of Czechoslovakia was formed in 1918, following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire after World War I. After the Munich Agreement, German occupation of Czechoslovakia and the consequent disillusion with the Western response and gratitude for the liberation of the major portion of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army, the Communist party won plurality (38%)http://www.libri.cz/databaze/dejiny/text/t98.html (in Czech) in the 1946 elections. In a 1948 coup d'état, Czechoslovakia became a communist-ruled state. In 1968, the increasing dissatisfaction culminated in attempts to reform the communist regime. The events, known as the Prague Spring of 1968, ended with an invasion by the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries (with the exception of Romania); the troops remained in the country until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved into its constituent states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The Czech Republic is a pluralist multi-party parliamentary representative democracy. President Václav Klaus is the current head of state. The Prime Minister is the head of government (currently Jan Fischer). The Parliament has two chambers: the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. It is also a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group.

The Czech Republic made economic reforms such as fast privatizations and flat taxes. Annual gross domestic product growth has recently been around 6%. The country is the first former member of the Comecon to achieve the status of a developed country (2006), according to the World Bank. The Czech Republic also ranks top among the former Comecon countries in the Human Development Index.Statistics of the Human Development Report.

The Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the Little Belt. The Kattegat continues through Skagerrak into the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The Baltic Sea is artificially linked to the White Sea by the White Sea Canal and to the North Sea by the Kiel Canal. The Baltic is bordered on its northern edge by the Gulf of Bothnia, its northeastern edge by the Gulf of Finland, and on its eastern edge by the Gulf of Riga.

Prague (; , see also Category: Names of European cities in different languages - : M-P#P|other names) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic.

Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the political, cultural, and economic centre of the Czech state for more than 1100 years. The city proper is home to more than 1.2 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 1.9 million.

Since 1992, the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" (Praga mater urbium, or "Praha matka m?st" in Czech), "city of a hundred spires" and "the golden city".