捷克共和国(Czech Republic)
捷克语作Ceská Republika。
以前与斯洛伐克合称捷克斯洛伐克共和国（Czechoslovakia Republic, 1918～1992）。
中欧共和国，面积78,866平方公里。人口约10,269,000（2001）。首都︰布拉格。捷克人占全国人口的9/10，斯洛伐克人是最大的少数民族。语言︰捷克语（官方语）。宗教：天主教和新教。货币︰捷克克朗（Kc）。内陆捷克共和国地形主要是波希米亚高地，海拔900公尺。群山环绕波希米亚高原。摩拉瓦河俗称摩拉维亚走廊，将波希米亚高地与喀尔巴阡山脉分开。林地为捷克地形特徵，全面大部地区为温和的海洋性气候。自共产主义瓦解後，经济已开始私有化，大部分以市场为导向。政府形式是多党制共和国，两院制。国家元首是总统，政府首脑为总理。
1918年以前，今捷克共和国的历史在很大程度上是波希米亚史。同年，通过波希米亚和摩拉维亚与斯洛伐克的联合，一个独立的捷克斯洛伐克共和国诞生了。第二次世界大战後，捷克斯洛伐克处於苏联的势力之下，自1948～1989年由共产党政府统治。1968年逐渐开放的政治情势被苏维埃入侵打压下来（参阅Prague Spring）。1989～1990年共产党统治垮台後，在斯洛伐克人中间出现了分裂主义情绪，於是捷克人与斯洛伐克人於1992年达成协议将其联邦国家解散。1993年1月1日捷克斯洛伐克和平地解体，由两个新的国家取代，即捷克共和国及斯洛伐克；摩拉维亚地区仍在捷克境内。1990年代末，捷克共和国成为欧洲联盟会员，1999年进入北大西洋公约组织。
English version：
Czech Republic
formerly (1918-92), with Slovakia,CzechoslovakiaRepublic, central Europe. Area: 30,450 sq mi (78,866 sq km). Population (1999 est.): 10,289,621. Capital: Prague. Czechs make up nine-tenths of the population; Slovaks are the largest minority. Language: Czech (official). Religion: Roman Catholicism, Protestantism. Currency: koruna. The landlocked Czech Republic is dominated by the Bohemian Massif, a ring of mountains rising to 3,000 ft (900 m) to encircle the Bohemian Plateau. The Morava River valley, known as the Moravian Corridor, separates the Bohemian Massif from the Carpathian Mountains. Woodlands are a characteristic feature of the Czech landscape; most regions have a moderate oceanic climate. The economy has been privatized since the collapse of communism and is now largely market-oriented. It is a multiparty republic with two legislative houses; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. Until 1918, the history of what is now the Czech Republic was largely that of Bohemia. In that year the independent republic of Czechoslovakia was born through the union of Bohemia and Moravia with Slovakia. Czechoslovakia came under the domination of the Soviet Union after World War II, and from 1948 to 1989 it was ruled by a communist government. Its growing political liberalization was suppressed by a Soviet invasion in 1968 (see Prague Spring). After communist rule collapsed in 1989-90, separatist sentiments emerged among the Slovaks, and in 1992 the Czechs and Slovaks agreed to break up their federated state. On January 1, 1993, the Czechoslovakian republic was peacefully dissolved and replaced by two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with the region of Moravia remaining in the former. In the late 1990s the Czech Republic started membership talks with the European Union, and in 1999 it entered NATO.
