Czech Republic

As one of the most industrialized countries in Central Europe, the Czech lands have long been [Page 444]heavily involved in war throughout the last 200 years, especially in the manufacture of weapons. The Romans never conquered the Czech lands, but the territory became the kingdom of Bohemia, an important part of the Holy Roman Empire in the middle ages, and then a part of the dominions of the Habsburgs.

The Czechs were influenced by religious ideas leading to the emergence of John Hus and the subsequent Hussite Wars (1419 to 1434 or 1436) and later by Protestantism, which eventually led to the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648). In both conflicts, the Czechs maintained a weaker military, but they were able to defeat much larger opponents with the ...