Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/25



, now a part of the great Habsburg Empire, has a history which is a record of much past greatness. It is situated in the centre of the European continent, and divided by high chains of mountains from the neighbouring German countries—Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, and Austria. Only in the direction of the sister-land, Moravia, is there no such mountainous frontier. Bohemia is inhabited by a population the largest part of which, except in the earliest times, has always been of the Slavonic race; but all the surrounding countries, except Moravia, which is also mainly Slavonic, are inhabited by Germans. Moravia has almost always been under the same domination as Bohemia, and the two countries were together known as the lands of the Bohemian crown; though during the days of Bohemia's greatness parts of Northern Germany and of the Slavonic lands joining Bohemia were also governed from Prague. The geographical position of Bohemia supplies to a great extent the key to the history of that country. The great chains of mountains which divide it from the neighbouring German lands give Bohemia a separate and isolated position. The country therefore forms a continent within the continent of Europe, as Göthe has well expressed it. This is, no doubt, one of the causes why the Slavonic race has to a great extent retained its hold over Bohemia, whilst the adjoining territories of Northern Germany, the population of which was formerly Slavonic, have long since been Germanized. Attempts were, however, always made by the German princes and people to attain a similar result in Bohemia also, and this struggle between rival races is the leading feature in Bohemian history. Modern research has proved that this idea dominates the many religious conflicts