Czech lands
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Böhmen_Mähren_Österreich_Schlesien.jpg
The Czech lands (in Czech: české země) is an auxiliary term used mainly for Bohemia + Moravia + Czech Silesia, today identical with the Czech Republic.
As an auxiliary term, it is not clearly defined. According to some sources it covers the whole territory of the former Kingdom of Bohemia (Lands of the Bohemian/Czech Crown, see List of rulers of Bohemia), which also included some adjacent territories (Lusatia, Silesia, Brandenburg and other territories) during part of its existence. This is also how the term is used in most (Czech) historical texts referring to the Middle Ages. According to other sources, it is restricted to the "Czech" core of the Land of the Bohemian crown, i.e. Bohemia + Moravia + Czech Silesia. For many topics, a distinction between the two definitions is not necessary, because since the 18th century, the territory of the Lands of the Bohemian crown has been approximately identical with that of present-day Czech Republic.
The term "Czech lands" is used especially for the period till 1969 (when the entity and term Czech Socialist Republic arose), but also afterwards.
The non-auxiliary (i.e. official geographical) term for the "Czech" part (i.e. Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Silesia) of the Czech lands is Czechia (in Czech: Česko). Today, it is also the official short form for the "Czech Republic". (The name Czechia is very controversial, and hasn't caught on in common usage at all. For more detail see the main Czech Republic article)
Czech lands was used especially in the past (before 1992), when the (almost) alternative term Czechia was used rarely (in Czech it was codified in 1777, but was rarely used both in the Czech and in the English language), so that it was impossible to describe the main and secondary Czech territory by one word. The use of the term Czechia was officially endorsed by the Czech Republic at the time of its establishment around 1993 (see Czech Republic) and there has been a special meeting of the Czech Senate (Upper Chamber of the Parliament) in the summer of 2004 where experts advocated the use of the short form even in English. Also, Czech authorities increasingly use the form "Czechia" in their official English-language documents (not always however).
The Czech equivalent for Czechia / Česko, after a slow start, is used more and more often by Czech speakers, newspapers, etc. Although in informal conversation, the Czech equivalent for Bohemia / Čechy is probably more common. However, Moravians would strongly object to Bohemia being "more" than another part of Czechia. Next, the Silesians certainly want to be treated as another part of Czechia, and not "included in" Moravia and/or Bohemia.