Czech Republic
Did you know that the western part of the Czech republic (approximately up to the Jihlava-Svitavy line on the above map) is called Bohemia (after the name of a Celtic tribe that used to live there in the Roman times), and the eastern part Moravia? Everybody speaks about the same, Czech, language in both parts, thus the whole is called the Czech Lands (Czechlands, Czechia) though there is still no generally accepted short name for the Czech Republic. I was always wondering whether the other meaning of the words Bohemia, Bohemian denoting a certain, let's say, unconventional lifestyle had its origin in the way of life of the old Czechs or of their predecessors, the Kelts. Apparently, neither one nor the other: actually it may reflect the wandering lifestyle of the Gypsies who were migrating into Europe in the 15th century. They came from the East through Greece, were officially reported on the territory of Bohemia for the first time in 1416 (though some sources suggest that they got there as early as in 1260) and then continued on to the West Europe. It was the "golden age of Gypsies in Europe", they were being received by aristocrats and being given letters of protection and other privileges.
And so they first arrived to France with a letter of protection issued on April 17th, 1423 by the Holy Roman Emperor and Czech King, Zikmund. Because it was issued in the Czech Lands (La Bohême) and by the Czech King (roi de Bohême), the French people named the newcomers after the land from where they came, les Bohémiens.
The territory of the Czech Republic is almost identical with that of the historical Czech Kingdom which had been for the last approximately 300 years of its legal existence, until 1918, a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From 1918 till 1992, Czech Lands together with Slovakia, which lies east of Moravia, constituted the Czechoslovak Republic.
