The Austrian Hapsburg’s seized a vacant throne in 1526 and began to systematically weaken the authority of the regional nobility and towns. In the early 16th century the Swedes ravaged the country as part of the 30 year war but after their retreat, the Austrian Hapsburgs again took control of the lands, holding power till the end of the ‘Great War’ in 1919, almost 400 years after first seizing power.

During the Industrial Revolution, the first factories in the Austrian Empire were built in the mountainous border regions of the Czech lands where there was no shortage of water power from rushing streams and rivers to run them. While it did not take long for steam power to be harnessed, the industrial boundaries had been drawn, and these regions remain predominantly centres of heavy industry to this day. Do not be surprised to come across a heavy engineering plant at the head of many scenic gorges throughout the Czech Republic, even today.

Also during the industrial revolution, the feudal system was abolished, leading to waves of emigration, much of it to the New World - particularly to the United States. In June 1848, a Pan-Slavic Congress convened in Prague to consider possible ways of convincing the Hapsburgs to transform their empire into a federative state of equal nations. Scared by both the French Revolution and the 1848 summer rebellion in Prague, Austria introduced something akin to martial law in the whole of their Empire to discourage Republican efforts at independence. Autonomy movements throughout the Austrian Empire were vigorously suppressed.

The Austrian Empire of the time was massive, and contained the territories of many modern-day countries. Most of these nationalities were clamouring for autonomy. In the 1860s, continued pressure for autonomy led the Hapsburgs to transform the Austrian Empire into the dualist Austro-Hungarian Constitutional Monarchy. This was appreciated by the Hungarians, but was not exactly valued by most of the other ethnic nations within what was now the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Czechs were united in their opposition to the new dual system, but they were divided among themselves as to what they wanted to do about it. These divisions grew deeper as the 19th century progressed.