The commerce of Bohemia is naturally very extensive, and is greatly facilitated by the nu merous financial institutions. as well as by the r•xoollent transportation faeil ies. In 1s95 hemia had a total railway mileage of about 3100, or about 17 miles of railroad per 100 square miles of territory. The IIIII•age is about 30 per cent. of the total f Br all Austria. The chief navigable river is the Ellie, and thew is also a considerable mileage of artificial water ways.
The Diet of Bohemia eonsists of 242 members, including- the Archbishop of Prague, the heads of the three secs of Leitmeritz, Ki;nigg.riitz, and Budweis, two rectors of universities. Ti) repre sentatives of the large landholders. $7 repre sentatives of towns and chambers of commerce and industries, and 79 representatives of the rural communities. The representatives of the landed aristocracy, as well as those of the towns and industrial centres. are elected directly on a property qualification, while the delegates from the rural communities are elected by a board of electors returned by voters paying a certain amount of taxes. Bohemia is represented in the Lower llouse of the monarchy by 11(1 members, of whom 23 represent the landed nobility, 32 the towns, 7 the chambers of commerce, 30 the rural communities, while 1S are elected by all quali fied voter:.
Public education in Bohemia is well advanced, the line of demarcation between the two elements of the population, Czech and German, being very sharply drawn. There are a German and a Czech university at Prague, the former of which was founded in 131S. several technological insti tutes, over 40 gymnasia, besides a considerable number of real gymnasia (i.e. gym1111,3111 with a scientific instead of a classical course), prepara tory schools, and trade and commercial schools. There are nearly 5500 elementary schools, of which 2315 are German. The schools are at tended by about 1,040,000 pupils, or 9S per cent. of the school population.
The population of Bohemia in 1900 was 6.31S. 097. or nearly 315 per square mile, making Bo hemia one of the best-populated crownlands of Austria-Hungary. The increase for the last de cade was S.10 per cent., against 5.1G per cent. for the period of 1880 90. in regard to nation ality, the population is 03 per cent. Czech (see division on History) and 37 German. The Catholic religion is professed by 96 per cent. of the population. while somewhat more than 2 per cent. belong to the different Protestant denomi nations and Lei per cent. profess the 'Jewish religion. The capital. Prague, had a population of 204,475 in 1900.
lits•onv. In the First Century B.C., the Celtic people. called Boii, who had settled in Bohemia and who gave it its name. were compelled by the advance of the Germans to emigrate from the country. Bohemia was then occupied by the warlike tribe of the Alarcomanni. At the time
of the great migration of nation, the :Ma r eomanni moved westward, and in the Sixth Century we find the region peopled by Slavic immigrants, who soon appear under the common name of Czeehs. 13v the close of the Ninth Cen tury the petty chiefs who ruled the Czechs had been el OlVert ed to ('h ri in the main was introduced by the :erman•, while the of the adjoining i\loravians was Un dertaken by the great missionaries of the (•:ast ern Church. For a brief period Bohemia formed part of the great Alo•avian realm of SvatopInk. which fell before the onslaught of the .Magyars at the beginning of the Tenth Century. From about this time Bohemia was united under the sway of a line of dukes of the llouse of Pfemysl, who acknowledged the overlordship of the kings of I t,rniztny. In the latter part of the Tenth Century the bishopric of Prague was constituted.
princes of the House of Pfemysl sought to elevate themselves to the rank of kings, and from the close of the Twelfth Century t.114-v were permanently recognized as such by the German sovereigns, their State forming part of the Holy Roman Empire of the Germans. Under Ottokar II. (1253-78) Bohemia was for a brief period one of the most powerful realms in Europe. His sway extended from the region of the Elbe to the shores of the Adriatic. Ottokar succumbed to the arms of the Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg, and his realm was dismembered. His son. Wen ceslas II. (127S-1305), who succeeded him in Bohemia and Moravia, was also King of Poland. Ottokar II. and Wenceslas II. did much for the civilization and economic development of Bohe mia by encouraging the immigration of German artisans and colonists. With the death of Wen eeslas III., in 1306, the dynasty of Piemysl be came extinct. From 1310 to 14:37 Bohemia was ruled by a line of kings of the House of Luxem burg—John ( 1310-46 ) , Charles ( 1346-78) , \Ven eeslas ( 1378-1419 ) Sigismund ( 1419-37 ) . The last three were emperors of Germany. Charles of Luxemburg, who was German Emperor as Charles IV., exerted himself in every way to pro mote the welfare and greatness of Bohemia. In 1348 he founded the University of Prague, the first established within the bounds of the old German Empire. The good work of Charles was to a great extent undone by the incompetence of his son. Weneeslas. His reign witnessed the great religious movement inaugurated by John Hoss and Jerome of Prague. This was one of the most significant anticipations of the Refor mation of the Sixteenth Century. The Hussite Wars broke out in the year in which Wenceslas died and lasted at most to the end of the reign of his successor, Sigismund, who, in ad dition to being German Emperor, was King of Hungary. The Bohemians heroically repulsed the crusading forces of the Catholic Church, and then engaged in a bloody internecine religious strife.