Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The Czech Republic is focused on the historic Bohemian Basin, the mountain-encircled national core area centered on the capital, Prague. This is another classic primate city, its cultural landscape highly reflective of Czech traditions. Prague is also an important industrial hub and collection center, surrounded by mountains that contain many valleys with small towns that specialize, Swiss-style, in fabricating high-quality manufactures. In the old eastern Europe, even during the communist period, the Czechs always were leaders in technology and engineering; their products could be found on markets in foreign countries near and far. Moreover, Bohemia always was cosmopolitan and Western in its exposure, outlook, development, and linkages; Prague lies in the upper basin of the Elbe River, its traditional outlet through northern Germany to the North Sea. Not long ago, the Czech Republic would have been considered part of “Central Europe,” but today it has shifted its gaze entirely to the west, with its solid economic development fully warranting inclusion in the European Core. [ Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts, 17th Edition, p. 175-6]