Czech continued to evolve and gain in regional importance for hundreds of years, and has been a literary language in the Slovak lands since the early fifteenth century. A biblical translation, the Kralice Bible, was published during the late sixteenth century (around the time of the King James and Luther versions) which was more linguistically conservative than either. The publication of the Kralice Bible spawned widespread nationalism, and in 1615 the government of Bohemia ruled that only Czech-speaking residents would be allowed to become full citizens or inherit goods or land. This, and the conversion of the Czech upper classes from the Habsburg Empire's Catholicism to Protestantism, angered the Habsburgs and helped trigger the Thirty Years' War (where the Czechs were defeated at the Battle of White Mountain). The Czechs became serfs; Bohemia's printing industry (and its linguistic and political rights) were dismembered, removing official regulation and support from its language. German quickly became the dominant language in Bohemia.

How many years as Czech continued to evolve and gain in regional importance?