Moravia

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Moravia is today a region of the Czech Republic. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region. Originally Celts (the Quandi peoples) lived in this region along with other tribes until the 6th century when Slav tribes began to migrate from the north-east and "drove them out". Christianity was introduced in the 9th century.[1]

In 908, Moravia was partly subdivided between the Germans, Poles and Hungarians. In 1086 it was declared a Margravate by the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and subject to the King of Bohemia. In the 15th century many of the populance espoused the false doctrine of John Huss. The Emperor Ferdinand II re-established the Roman Catholic Church's dominance but some Protestants remained.[2]

Between 1782–1850, Moravia had also included a small portion of the former province of Austrian Silesia. When Frederick the Great annexed most of Silesia to Prussia, Silesia's southernmost part remained with Moravia and the Habsburgs.

Until the end of 1918 Moravia formed part of the Crown Lands of Austria-Hungary. Under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles the plutocratic Liberal Western Allies included Moravia in the new artificial state[3][4][5] of Czechoslovakia. It was recovered by Greater Germany (includes Austria) 1939-45.

The principal city and capital of Moravia is Brünn, which pre-dates the 9th century. Until the atrocities, murders and expulsions 1945-46 it had a majority ethnic German population. In the towns of Iglau and Trebitz are manufactured cloth, paper, gunpowder, etc. By 1815 the University of Olmutz had been placed on a better footing, and a riding academy, with a learned society, had been established there.[6]

Geography

Moravia today 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.

It borders Bohemia in the west, Germany and in the east Slovakia. 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 Javorniky.

Other

See also

Sources

  1. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Edinburgh, 1815, vol.xiv, p.403-4.
  2. Britannica, 1815, p.404.
  3. The Tragedy of Trianon by Sir Robert Donald, G.B.E., LL.B., London, 1928, pps: 25-6, 57-8.
  4. Czecho-Slovakia Within by Count Bertram de Colonna, London, 1938, p.9.
  5. The Origins of the Second World War by A. J. P. Taylor, London, 1961, p.201.
  6. Britannica, 1815, p.404.