History of Prague
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The history of Prague spans over thousands of years, during which time the city grew from the Vyšehrad Castle to the multicultural capital of a modern European state, the Czech Republic.
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[edit] Ancient Prague
The area on which Prague was founded was settled in ancient times since the Paleolithic Age. Around 200 BCE the Celts had a settlement in the south, called Závist, but later they were replaced by Germanic tribes. The Slavs conquered the site from the 4th century CE onwards, though for a period were subdued by the Eurasian Avars.
According to a legend, Prague was founded by the Princess Libuše and her husband, Přemysl, founder of the dynasty with the same name. Whether this legend is true or not, Prague's first nucleus was founded in the latter part of the 9th century as a castle on a hill commanding the right bank of the Vltava: this is known as Vyšehrad ("high castle") to differentiate from another castle which was later erected on the opposite bank, the future Prague Castle. Soon the city became the seat of the kings of Bohemia. It was an important seat for trading where merchants coming from all Europe settled, including many Jews, as recalled in 965 by the Jewish merchant and traveler Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub. The city became a bishopric in 973.
King Vladislav II had a first bridge on the Vltava built in 1170, the Judith Bridge, which crumbled down in 1342. The Charles Bridge was later built on its foundations.
In 1257, under King Otakar II, Malá Strana ("Small Side") was founded in Prague in the future Hradčany area: it was the district of the German people. These had the right to administrate the law autonomously, pursuant to Magdeburg Rights. The new district was on the opposite bank of the Staré Mesto ("Old Town"), which had a borough status and was defended by a line of walls and fortifications.
[edit] The era of Charles IV
The city flourished during the 14th century reign of Charles IV of the new Luxembourg dynasty. He ordered the building of the New Town (Nové Mesto) adjacent to the Old Town. The Charles Bridge was erected to connect the new district to Malá Strana. Monuments by Charles include the Saint Vitus Cathedral, the oldest gothic cathedral in central Europe, which is actually inside the Castle, and the Charles University. The latter is the oldest university in central Europe. Prague was then the third-largest city in Europe. Under Charles Prague was, from 1355, the actual capital of the Holy Roman Empire, and its rank was elevated to that of archbishopric (1344). It had a mint, and German and Italian merchants, as well as bankers, were present in the city. The social order, however, became more turbulent due to the rising power of the craftsmen's guild (themselves often torn by internal fights), and the presence of increasing number of poor people.
Under King Wenceslas IV (1378-1419) Jan Hus, a theologian and lector at the University, held his preachers and sermons in Prague. Since 1402 he summoned his followers in the Bethlehem Chapel, speaking in Czech language in order to enlarge as much as possible the diffusion of his ideas about the renovation of the church. Having become too dangerous for the political and religious establishment, Hus was burned in Konstanz in 1415. Four years later Prague experienced its first defenestration, when the people rebelled under the command of the Prague priest Jan Želivský and threw the city's counselors from the New Town Hall. Hus' death had spurred the so-called Hussite Wars. In 1420 peasant rebels, led by the famous general Jan Žižka, along with Hussite troops from Prague, defeated the Bohemian King Sigismund, in the Battle of Vítkov Mountain.
In the following two centuries Prague strengthened its role as a merchant city. Many noteworthy Gothic buildings were erected, including the Vladislav Hall of the Prague Castle.
[edit] The Habsburg era
In 1526 the Kingdom of Bohemia was handed over to the Habsburg house: the fervent Catholicism of its members was to have grievous consequences in Bohemia, and then in Prague, where Protestant ideas were having instead increasing success. These problems were not preeminent under Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, elected King of Bohemia in 1576, who chose Prague as his home. He lived in the Prague Castle where he held his bizarre courts of astrologers, magicians, and other strange figures. Rudolf was an art lover too and Prague became the capital of European culture. This was a prosperous period for the city: famous people living there in that age include the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johann Kepler, the painter Arcimboldo and others.
In 1618 the famous Defenestration of Prague provoked the Thirty Years' War. Ferdinand II of Habsburg was deposed, and his place as King of Bohemia taken by Frederick V of Pfalz. But the Czech army was crushed in the Battle of the White Mountain (1620), not far from the city, and thenceforth Prague and Bohemia lived a harsh period in which religious tolerance was abolished and Catholic Counter-Reformation became dominant in every aspect of life. In 1621 there was an execution of 27 Czech lords (involved in battle of White Mountain) in the Old Town Square. The city suffered also under Saxon (1631) and Swedish (1648) occupation. Moreover, after the Peace of Westphalia of the latter year, Ferdinand moved the court to Vienna, and Prague began a steady decline which reduced the population from the 60,000 it had had in the years before the war to 20,000.
In 1689 a great burning devastated Prague, but this spurred a renovation and a rebuilding of the city. The economic rise continued through the following century, and the city in 1771 had 80,000 inhabitants. Many of these were rich merchants who, together with noblemen of German, Spanish and even Italian origin, enriched the city with a host of palaces, churches and gardens, creating a Baroque style renowned throughout the world. In 1784, under Joseph II, the four municipalities of Malá Strana, Nové Mesto, Staré Mesto and Hradcany were merged into a single entity. The Jewish district, called Josefov, was included only in 1850. The Industrial Revolution had a strong effect in Prague, as factories could take advantage of the coal mines and ironworks of the nearby region. A first suburb, Karlín, was created in 1817, and twenty years later population exceeded 100,000. The first railway connection was built in 1842.
The revolutions that shocked all Europe around 1848 touched Prague too, but they were fiercely suppressed. In the following years the Czech nationalist movement (opposed to another nationalist party, the German one) began its rise, until it gained the majority in the Town Council in 1861.
[edit] 20th century
At the beginning of the 20th century Czech lands were the most productive part of the Austo-Hungarian empire and some Czech politics began with attempts to separate it from Habsburg empire.
[edit] 1st Republic
- article about First Republic of Czechoslovakia
World War I ended with the defeat of the Austrian Empire and the creation of Czechoslovakia. Prague was chosen as its capital and Prague Castle as the seat of president (Tomáš Masaryk). At this time Prague was a true European capital with a very developed industry. In 1930 the population had risen to a startling 850,000.
[edit] Second World War
- article about the Occupation of Czechoslovakia
Hitler ordered Germany's army to enter Prague on 10 March 1939 and from Prague Castle proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate. For most of its history Prague had been a multiethnic city with important Czech, German, and (a mostly Yiddish- and/ or German-speaking) Jewish populations. From 1939, when the country was occupied by Nazi Germany, and during World War II, most Jews either fled the city or were killed in the Holocaust. The German population, which had formed the majority of the city's inhabitants until the 19th century, was expelled in the aftermath of the war. In 1942 Prague was a witness of the assassination of one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany - Reinhard Heydrich (during Operation Anthropoid). Hitler ordered bloody reprisals. At the end of the war Prague suffered a bombing raid by the U.S. Air Force by mistake (the target was Dresden, 83 miles away). Hundreds of people were killed and some important buildings and factories were destroyed. Prague had revolted against the Nazi occupants as early as 5 May 1945 (see Prague uprising). Four days later the Soviet army entered the city. After this fierce acts of revenge against the German minority of the city were perpetrated and many German civilians were killed by Czech militias until the government slowly put an end to these acts of revenge. The surviving Germans were deported from Prague to West Germany [1].
[edit] Prague in the Cold War
Prague was thenceforth a city in the territory of military and political control of Soviet Union (see Iron Curtain).
The always lively intellectual world of Prague, however, suffered under the totalitarian regime, in spite of the rather careful program of rebuilding and caring of the damaged monuments after World War II. In the 4th Czechoslovakian Writers' Congress held in the city in 1967 they took a strong position against the regime. This spurred the new secretary of Communist Party, Alexander Dubček to proclaim a new deal in his city and country's life, starting the short-lived season of the "socialism with a human face". It was the Prague Spring, which aimed to the renovation of institutions in a democratic way. Soviet Union and its allies reacted with invasion of Czechoslovakia and the capital in August 1968 by 7,000 tanks, suppressing any attempt of renovation.
[edit] Era after Velvet Revolution
In 1989, after riot police beaten back peaceful student demonstration, the Velvet Revolution crowded the streets of Prague and Czech capital benefited deeply of the new mood. In 1993, after the split of Czechoslovakia, Prague became capital city of the new Czech Republic. In the late 90´s Prague became again important cultural center of Europe and was notable influenced with globalization). In 2000 anti-globalization Protests in Prague (some 15,000 protesters) turned violent during the IMF and World Bank summits. In 2002 Prague suffered from spread flooding.
[edit] Historical population
| 1230 | 1370 | 1600 | 1804 | 1837 | 1850 | 1880 | 1900 | 1925 | 1950 | 1980 | 2004 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,000 | 40,000 | 60,000 | 76,000 | 105,500 | 118,000 | 162,000 | 201,600 | 718,300 | 931,500 | 1,182,800 | 1,170,571 |
- The record of 1230 includes Staré Město only
- The records of 1370 and 1600 includes Staré město, Nové město, Malá Strana and Hradčany quarters
- Numbers beside other years denote the population of Prague within the administrative border of the city at that time (and population including present suburbs in parentheses).
