The Czech Republic, offilicially: Česká republika (the Czech Republic) is a landlocked country in modern Eastern Europe (and the historical entity of Central Europe). The capital and largest city is Prague (Czech: Praha) and the official language is Czech. The country has been settled from Neolithic times, with the Celtic tribe of the Boii settling there in the 3rd century BCE, subsequently followed by the Germanic tribes of Marcomanni and Quadi during the first century BCE. During the 5th century CE, successive waves of Germanic and Slavic poeples invaded the region During the 7th century the Frankish merchant Samo, supporting the Slavs fighting their Avar rulers, became the ruler of the first known Slav state in Central Europe. The Moravian principality arose in the 8th century. The Bohemian or Czech state emerged in the late 9th century when it was unified by the Přemyslid dynasty. The kingdom of Bohemia was a significant regional power during the Middle Ages and formed a part of the Holy Roman Empire during the entire existence of this confederation. Despite many centuries of native rule, from the 16th century, Bohemia came increasingly under Habsburg control as the Habsburgs became first the elected and then hereditary rulers of Bohemia. Ottoman Turks and Tatars invaded Moravia in 1663, taking 12,000 slaves. After the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia became part of Austrian Empire and later of Austria-Hungary. Following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I, the independent republic of Czechoslovakia was created in 1918. This new country incorporated regions of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia (known as Subcarpathian Rus at the time). However, it did not grant its minorities any territorial political autonomy. The failure to do this resulted in discontent and strong support among some of the minorities for a break from Czechoslovakia. Adolf Hitler took advantage of this opportunity and, supported by Konrad Henlein's Sudeten German National Socialist Party, gained the largely German speaking Sudetenland through the 1938 Munich Agreement. Poland annexed Polish inhabited areas around Český Těšín. Hungary gained parts of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus as a result of the First Vienna Award in November 1938.

After Nazi Germany threatened to annex part of Slovakia and to allow the remaining regions to be partitioned by Hungary and Poland, Slovakia chose to maintain its national and territorial integrity, seceding from Czecho-Slovakia in March 1939 and allying itself, as demanded by Germany, with Hitler's coalition. The remaining Czech territory was occupied by Germany, which transformed it into the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. The Protectorate was proclaimed part of the Third Reich, and President and Prime Minister were subordinate to the Nazi Reichsprotektor. The occupation ended on 9 May 1945 with the arrival of Soviet and American armies and the Prague uprising. Czechoslovakia uneasily tried to play the role of a "bridge" between the West and East. However the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia rapidly increased in popularity, with a general disillusionment with the West (due to the pre-war Munich Agreement) and a favourable popular attitude towards the Soviet Union (due to the Soviets' role in liberating Czechoslovakia from German rule). For the subsequent 41 years Czechoslovakia was a Communist state within the eastern bloc. The political climate was highly repressive during the 1950s (including numerous show trials) but became more open and tolerant in the 1960s, culminating in Alexander Dubček's leadership in the 1968 Prague Spring that tried to create "socialism with a human face" and perhaps even introduce political pluralism. This was forcibly ended by the 21 August 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion. In November 1989, Czechoslovakia returned to liberal democracy through a peaceful "Velvet Revolution". However Slovak national aspirations strengthened, until on January 1, 1993 the country peacefully split into the independent Czech Republic and Slovakia. Both countries went through economic reforms and privatisations, with the intention of creating a capitalist economy.

From 1991 the Czech Republic (originally as part of Czechoslovakia, and now in its own right) has been a member of the Visegrad Group and from 1995 of the OECD. The Czech Republic joined NATO on March 12, 1999 and the European Union on May 1, 2004.

Czech cuisine is very heavily meat-based, with pork being the prime meat. Czech cuisine has also both influenced and been influenced by the cuisines of surrounding countries. Indeed, many of the fine cakes and pastries that are popular in Central Europe originated in the Czech lands. Fish is rare, with the occasional exception of fresh trout, and carp, which is served at Christmas. Beer culture is also a large part of Czech life and many popular Czech dishes and cheeses are usually eaten as pub fare.