Die Entstehung der Tschechoslowakischen Republik
The Origin of the Czechoslovak Republic

Author(s): Emil Strauss
Subject(s): 19th Century, Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: CEEOL Digital Reproductions / Collections
Summary/Abstract: One of the most significant events of the last century, which exerted a decisive influence on the destiny of Central Europe, was the rise of the Czechoslovak nation. Like many other peoples—South Slavs, Bulgarians, Romanians, Greeks—the Czechs were for a long time a nation "without history." During the Thirty Years' War, they lost not only their state independence but also those social classes that had been the bearers of a distinctive national culture. The defeat at White Mountain (November 8, 1620) had catastrophic consequences for the Czech people. The leaders of the uprising were executed, the ruling nobility was politically disempowered and economically ruined. Through the "reconciliation" of 1627, Bohemia became the hereditary land of the House of Habsburg. The rights of the Diet were restricted, and taxes were soon levied without the consent of the estates. Only the king could make any changes to the provincial order. The estates of those nobles who had participated in the uprising were confiscated—in Bohemia alone, 491 out of 926 estates—and sold to the nobility who had remained Catholic, as well as to the foreign officers in the emperor's army. (PUBLIHED in 1934by ORBIS, PRAGUE)

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