Moravia
Moravia (
Czech and
Slovak:
Morava; ; ; ) is a historical region in the east of the
Czech Republic. It takes its name from the
Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region.
 |
Moravia in relation to the current kraje of the Czech Republic |
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Moravia-Silesia within Czechoslovakia in 1928 |
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,
Vysocina 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
Thaya 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 Thaya 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 (German:
Altvater) 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 na Moravě and then rise again as the
Beskids to the 1322 m high
Lysá hora (German:
Kahlberg). 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 which reach a maximum of 970 m at
Velká Javořina.
During the past few centuries, Moravia (also thus known as
Moravia-Silesia) has also included a small portion of the former province of
Silesia - the so-called
Moravian Silesia (When Frederick the Great annexed most of ancient Silesia (the land of upper and middle Oder/Odra river) to Prussia, Silesia's southernmost part remained with the
Habsburgs).
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 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.
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The Banner of Arms of the Margrave of Moravia |
Around
60 BC the
Celtic
Boii people withdrew from the region and were succeeded in turn by the
Germanic Quadi and in the
6th century the
Slavic tribes. At the end of the
8th 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 this became the state of
Great Moravia with the conquest of the
Principality of Nitra (present-day Slovakia and parts of northern
Hungary). Great Moravia went on to encompass neighbouring
Bohemia, present-day
Hungary,
Lusatia,
Silesia and the
Vistula Basin.
This empire however fell in the face of invading
Magyars around
907. Present-day Moravia was then independent for a period before possibly coming under the control of Bohemia in
955. Between
999 and
1019 the land was under the rule of
Boleslaus I of Poland before becoming part of Bohemia in 1019. It was raised to the status of a
margraviate (or
mark) in
1182 and has since then shared its history with Bohemia, coming under the rule of the
House of Luxembourg between
1349 and
1411 and then under
Habsburg rule.
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 Margaviate of Moravia had its own "zemský sněm" or
Landtag (diet) whose deputies were elected (in the years following
1905) in ethnically separate German and Czech constituencies.
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 after World War II). With the break up of Czechoslovakia, Moravia became a part of the Czech Republic in
1993.
The
Moravians today 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).
Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia (now
Příbor,
Czech Republic) on
May 6,
1856.
Moravia is also known for producing the World's thinnest cookie,
Moravian Spice Cookies.
There is a little competitiveness between Moravians and Bohemians, but very mild and more in the way of being a source of humour than animosity.
Much of the content of this article comes from the
equivalent German-language Wikipedia article as of
August 29 2005.
*
Moravian Wallachia*
Moravian Slovakia
