Precerpt from In with the East Wind: A Mary Poppins Kind of Life - Czechia (The Czech Republic)
My relationship with Czechia was episodic for many years and covered my time in the military, my time in graduate school, and my time working at the Defense Language Institute. I never made it to Czechia until the early 1990s, but when I did, I was ready. I had the language, a sense of the culture, and a pretty good knowledge of the history. The story of Czechia begins with the Bohemian Crown lands — Bohemia, Moravia, and parts of Silesia — which entered the Habsburg monarchy in 1526 after the death of King Louis II. Under Habsburg rule, the Czech lands became a central part of a vast dynastic empire, shaped by religious conflict, noble resistance, and the long shadow of the Battle of White Mountain (1620), which ushered in centuries of tighter imperial control and re‑Catholicization. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the region was one of the most industrialized parts of the monarchy, and a vibrant Czech National Revival emerged — scholars, writers, and political thinkers reclaimi...