Historical flag of Moravia
(; ; ; ) is a
historical region in central Europe in the east of the
Czech Republic, one of the former
Czech lands. It takes its name from the
Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region.
Geography
Moravia-Silesia within Czechoslovakia between 1928–1938.
Moravia occupies most of the eastern third of the Czech Republic including the
South Moravian Region and the
Zlín Region, as well as parts of the
Moravian-Silesian,
Olomouc,
Pardubice,
Vysočina and
South Bohemian regions.
In the north, Moravia borders
Poland and
Czech Silesia; in the east,
Slovakia; in the south,
Lower Austria; and in the west,
Bohemia. Its northern boundary is formed by the
Sudetes mountains which become the
Carpathians in the east. The meandering
Dyje flows through the border country with
Austria and there is a
protected area on both sides of the border in the area around
Hardegg.
At the heart of the country lie the
sedimentary basins of the Morava and the Dyje at a height of 180 to 250 m. In the west, the
Bohemian-Moravian Heights rise to over 800 m although the highest mountain is in the north-west, the
Praděd in the Sudetes at 1490 m. Further south lie the
Jeseníky highlands (400 to 600 m) which fall to 310 m at the upper reaches of the River
Oder (the
Moravian Gate) near
Hranice and then rise again as the
Beskids to the 1322 m high
Lysá hora. These three mountain ranges plus the "gate" between the latter two form part of the
European Watershed. Moravia's eastern boundary is formed by the
White Carpathians and
Javorníky.
Between 1782–1850, Moravia (also thus known as
Moravia-Silesia) also included a small portion of the former province of
Silesia – the so-called
Austrian Silesia (when Frederick the Great annexed most of ancient Silesia (the land of upper and middle Oder river) to Prussia, Silesia's southernmost part remained with the
Habsburgs).
Economy
In the south around
Hodonín and
Břeclav the land is part of the
Viennese Basin and
petroleum and
lignite are drilled for in its deeper sediments. In the area around Ostrava there was intensive
coal mining until around 1995. Iron, chemicals, leather and building materials are the main industrial goods. The main economic centres are
Brno,
Olomouc,
Zlín and
Ostrava. As well as other agriculture, Moravia is noted for its
viticulture; it contains 94% of the Czech Republic's vineyards and is at the centre of the
country's wine industry.
History
Map of
Great Moravia at its possible greatest territorial extent during the reign of Svatopluk I (871-894), superimposed on the modern borders of European states.
Note that some of the borders of Great Moravia are under debate.
Coat of Arms of Moravia
Ancient Moravia
Around 60 BC the
Celtic
Boii people withdrew from the region and were succeeded in turn by the
Germanic Quadi and in the sixth century the
Slavic tribes. At the end of the eighth century the Moravian Principality came into being in present-day south-eastern Moravia,
Záhorie in south-western Slovakia and parts of Lower Austria. In 833 A.D. this became the state of
Great Moravia with the conquest of the
Principality of Nitra (present-day Slovakia; from 10th century into 1918 part of the
Kingdom of Hungary). Their first king was
Mojmír I (ruled 830-846). Louis the German invaded Moravia and replaced Mojmír I with his nephew Rastiz who became St. Rastislav. St. Rastislav (846-870) tried to emancipate his land from the Carolingian influence, so he sent envoys to Rome to get missionaries to come. When Rome refused he turned to Constantinople to the Byzantine emperor Michal. The result was the mission of
SS Cyril and Methodius who translated
liturgical books into
Slavonic, which had lately been elevated by the Pope to the same level as Latin and Greek. Methodius became the first Moravian archbishop, but after his death the German influence again prevailed and the disciples of Methodius were forced to flee. So the unique situation which anticipated the II. Vatican Council by several centuries was destroyed. Great Moravia reached its greatest territorial extent in the 890s under
Svatopluk I. At this time, the empire encompassed the territory of the present-day
Czech Republic and
Slovakia, the western part of present
Hungary (
Pannonia), as well as
Lusatia in present-day
Germany and
Silesia and the upper
Vistula basin in southern
Poland. After Svatopluk's death in 895, the Bohemian princes defected to become vassals of the East Frankish ruler
Arnulf of Carinthia, and the Moravian state ceased to exist after being overrun by invading
Magyars in 906/7.
Union with Bohemia
Following the defeat of the Magyars by Emperor
Otto I at the
Battle of Lechfeld in 955, Otto's ally
Boleslaus I, the
Přemyslid ruler of
Bohemia, received Moravia.
Boleslaus I of Poland annexed Moravia in 999, and ruled it until 1019, when the Přemyslid prince
Bretislaus recaptured it. Upon his father's death in 1035, Bretislaus also became the ruler of Bohemia. In 1054, Bretislaus decreed that the Bohemian and Moravians lands would be inherited together by
primogeniture, although he also provided that his younger sons should govern parts of Moravia as vassals to his oldest son.
Throughout the Přemyslid era, junior princes often ruled all or part of Moravia from
Olomouc,
Brno, or
Znojmo, with varying degrees of autonomy from the ruler of Bohemia. Moravia reached its height of autonomy in 1182, when Emperor
Frederick I elevated Moravia to the status of a
margraviate (or
mark), immediately subject to the emperor, independent of Bohemia. This status was short-lived: in 1197,
Vladislaus III of Bohemia resolved the succession dispute between him and his brother
Ottokar by abdicating from the Bohemian throne and accepting the margraviate of Moravia as a vassal of Bohemia.
Since then, Moravia has shared its history with Bohemia. The
Přemyslid dynasty became extinct in 1306, and in 1310
John of Luxembourg became king of Bohemia. Moravia and Bohemia remained within the
Luxembourg dynasty of Holy Roman kings and emperors (except during the
Hussite wars), until inherited by
Albert II of Habsburg in 1437.
After his death followed the
interregnum till 1453; land (as the rest of lands of the Bohemian Crown) was administered by the
landfriedens (
landfrýdy). The rule of young
Ladislaus the Posthumous subsisted only less than five years and subsequently (1458) the Hussite
George of Poděbrady was elected as the king. He again reunited all Czech lands (then Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Upper & Lower Lusatia) into one-man ruled state. In 1466,
Pope Paul II excommunicated George and forbade all Catholics (i.e. circa 15 % of population) from continuing to serve him. The Hungarian
crusade followed and in 1469
Matthias Corvinus conquered Moravia and proclaimed himself (with assistance of rebelling
Czech nobility) as the king of Bohemia.
The subsequent 21-year period of a divided kingdom was decisive for the rising awareness of a specific Moravian identity, distinct from that of Bohemia. Although Moravia was reunited with Bohemia in 1490 when
Vladislaus Jagiellon, king of Bohemia, also became king of Hungary, some attachment to Moravian freedom and resistance to government by Prague continued until the end of independence in 1620. In 1526, Vladislaus' son
Louis died in battle and the Habsburg
Ferdinand I was elected as his successor.
Under the Habsburgs
The epoch 1526–1620 was marked by increasing animosity between Catholic Habsburg kings (emperors) and rather Protestant Moravian (and other Crowns') estates. Moravia, like Bohemia, remained as a Habsburg possession until the end of
World War I. Until 1641 Moravia's capital was the centrally-located
Olomouc, but after its capture by the Swedes it moved to the larger city of
Brno which resisted the invaders successfully. The Margraviate of Moravia had its own parliament –
zemský sněm (
Landtag in
German), whose deputies were elected (from 1905 onward) in ethnically separate German and Czech constituencies.
Twentieth century
Following the break-up of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Moravia became part of
Czechoslovakia (and was part of the
Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during the German
occupation of Czechoslovakia in
World War II). In 1945 the ethnic German minority of Moravia were expelled. (See
Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II). With the break up of Czechoslovakia, Moravia became a part of the Czech Republic in 1993.
Cities
Regional capitals
Other
People
Male and female Moravian Slovak costumes worn during the Jízda králů Festival held annually in the village of Vlčnov in southeastern Moravia.
The
Moravians are a Slavic ethnic group who speak various dialects of
Czech. Some Moravians regard themselves as an ethnically distinct group; others consider themselves to be ethnically Czech. In the
census of 1991, 1,362,000 (13.2%) of the Czech population described themselves as being of Moravian nationality. In the census of 2001, this number had decreased to 380,000 (3.7% of the population).
Moravia historically had a minority of
ethnic Germans, although they were largely
expelled after World War II.
Notable people from Moravia include:
- Tomáš Masaryk (1850–1937), philosopher and politician, first president of Czechoslovakia
- Rochus Schüch (1788–1844), mathematician, scientist, mineralogist
Sources
- Róna-Tas, András (1999) Hungarians & Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History translated by Nicholas Bodoczky, Central European University Press, Budapest, ISBN 963-9116-48-3 ;
- Kirschbaum, Stanislav J. (1996) A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival St. Martin's Press, New York, ISBN 0-312-16125-5 ;
- Constantine Porphyrogenitus De Administrando Imperio edited by Gy. Moravcsik, translated by R.J.H. Jenkins, Dumbarton Oaks Edition, Washington D.C. (1993) p. 181
See also
