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Czechoslovakia THE CZECHOSLOVAK REPUBLIC, 1918-39
Features of the New State
The independence of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed on October
28, 1918, by the Czechoslovak National Council in Prague. Only
several years before, an independent Czechoslovakia had been a
dream of a small number of intellectuals. The transformation of
the dream into reality was a formidable task. While the creation
of Czechoslovakia was based on certain historical precedents, it
was, nevertheless, a new country carved out of disparate parts of
the old Hapsburg Empire. Several ethnic groups and territories
with different historical, political, and economic traditions had
to be blended into a new state structure. In the face of such
obstacles, the creation of Czechoslovak democracy was indeed a
triumph. But the Czechoslovak Republic (which also came to be
known as the First Republic) suffered internal constrictions,
which, when coupled with foreign aggression, destroyed it.
Initial authority within Czechoslovakia was assumed by the
newly created National Assembly on November 14, 1918. Because
territorial demarcations were uncertain and elections impossible,
the provisional National Assembly was constituted on the basis of
the 1911 elections to the Austrian parliament with the addition
of fifty-four representatives from Slovakia. National minorities
were not represented; Sudeten Germans harbored secessionist
aspirations, and Hungarians remained loyal to Hungary. The
National Assembly elected Masaryk as its first president, chose a
provisional government headed by Karel Kramar, and drafted a
provisional constitution.
The Paris Peace Conference convened in January 1919. The
Czech delegation was led by Kramar and Benes, premier and foreign
minister respectively, of the Czechoslovak provisional
government. The conference approved the establishment of the
Czechoslovak Republic, to encompass the historic Bohemian Kingdom
(including Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia), Slovakia, and
Ruthenia. The Czechs requested the inclusion of Ruthenia to
provide a common frontier with Romania. Tesin, an industrial area
also claimed by Poland, was divided between Czechoslovakia (Cesky
Tesin) and Poland (Cieszyn). The Czech claim to Lusatia, which
had been part of the Bohemian Kingdom until the Thirty Years'
War, was rejected. On September 10, 1919, Czechoslovakia signed a
"minorities" treaty, placing its ethnic minorities under the
protection of the League of Nations
(see
fig. 7).
The new nation had a population of over 13.5 million. It had
inherited 70 to 80 percent of all the industry of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, including the china and glass industries
and thesugar refineries; more than 40 percent of all its
distilleries and breweries; the Skoda works of Plzen (Pilsen),
which produced armaments, locomotives, automobiles, and
machinery; and the chemical industry of northern Bohemia. The 17
percent of all Hungarian industry that had developed in Slovakia
during the late nineteenth century also fell to the republic.
Czechoslovakia was one of the world's ten most industrialized
states.
The Czech lands were far more industrialized than Slovakia.
In Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, 39 percent of the population
was employed in industry and 31 percent in agriculture and
forestry. Most light and heavy industry was located in the
Sudetenland and was owned by Germans and controlled by
German-owned banks. Czechs controlled only 20 to 30 percent of
all industry. In Slovakia 17.1 percent of the population was
employed in industry, and 60.4 percent worked in agriculture and
forestry. Only 5 percent of all industry in Slovakia was in
Slovak hands. Subcarpathian Ruthenia was essentially without
industry.
In the agricultural sector, a program of reform introduced
soon after the establishment of the republic was intended to
rectify the unequal distribution of land. One-third of all
agricultural land and forests belonged to a few aristocratic
landowners--mostly Germans and Hungarians--and the Roman Catholic
Church. Half of all holdings were under two hectares. The Land
Control Act of April 1919 called for the expropriation of all
estates exceeding 150 hectares of arable land or 250 hectares of
land in general (500 hectares to be the absolute maximum).
Redistribution was to proceed on a gradual basis; owners would
continue in possession in the interim, and compensation was
offered.
Data as of August 1987
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