History of Czechoslovakia (1918–1938)
The First Czechoslovak Republic emerged from the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in October 1918. The new state consisted mostly of territories inhabited by Czechs and Slovaks, but also included areas containing majority populations of other nationalities, particularly Germans (22.95 %), who accounted for more citizens than the state's second state nation of the Slovaks,[1] Hungarians (5.47 %) and Ruthenians (3.39 %). The new state comprised the total of Bohemia whose borders did not coincide with the language border between German and Czech. Despite initially developing effective representative institutions alongside a successful economy, the deteriorating international economic situation in the 1930s gave rise to growing ethnic tensions. The dispute between the Czech and German populations, fanned by the rise of Nazism in neighbouring Germany, resulted in the loss of territory under the terms of the Munich Agreement and subsequent events in the autumn of 1938, bringing about the end of the First Republic.
Following the Pittsburgh Agreement of May 1918, the Czechoslovak declaration of independence, created in Washington,[2] was published by the Czechoslovak National Council, signed by Masaryk, Štefánik and Beneš on 18 October 1918 in Paris, and proclaimed on 28th October in Prague.
Initial authority within Czechoslovakia was assumed by the newly created National Assembly on 14 November 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 54 representatives from Slovakia. National minorities were not represented. Hungarians remained loyal to Hungary.
On 12 November 1918, a Republic of German Austria was declared, with the intent of unifying with Germany, relying on President Wilson's principle of self-determination. The state claimed all the German-speaking areas of the former Cisleithania, including those in Czechoslovakia.
The National Assembly of Czechoslovakia elected Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk as its first president, chose a provisional government headed by Karel Kramář, and drafted a provisional constitution.
The Paris Peace Conference convened in January 1919. The Czech delegation was led by Kramář and Beneš, 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, Moravia and Silesia, as well as Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia. The inclusion of Ruthenia provided a common frontier with Romania, an important ally against Hungary. To address concerns of the British delegation that the incorporation of exclusively German-settled areas violates the principle of self-determination, the Czech delegation had presented to the conference a memorandum containing misrepresentations of the German-settled area. In particular, the number of Czechs in the German-settled areas was overblown by a factor of ten and lands of German majority between Komotau and Teplitz was shown as Czech-majority, while the Germans of Moravia were neglected completely. No German or Austrian delegation was present the conference.[3]
In a subcommittee for the German-Czech border, the American delegation proposed border correction such that Eger, Rumburg, Friedland, and Freiwaldau were to become part of Germany because of their half a million German-speaking inhabitants.[4] Also the British David Lloyd George initially called for a rectification of the German-Bohemian border, but surrendered to Clemenceau's intention to keep down the Germans.[5] The border was hence set without holding referenda, even though George himself had strongly called for referenda for determining the Polish-German border. [6]
In March 1919[7] there were reports that:
The dispute was over possession of the German-speaking parts of Bohemia and Moravia (later known as the Sudetenland); their German-speaking inhabitants had declared themselves to be part of Austria, and if that was prevented, demanded to be annexed by Saxony and the German Republics. Czechoslovakia wanted to hold onto this area because of its many valuable mines. Czechoslovakia sent Czech troops into the German area to stop disorders, and the Vienna press printed reports of Czech troops firing on and killing Germans in that area, including 15–20 in Kaaden, three in Eger, and two in Karlsbad. During this, on about 1 March, Josef Mayer, Austria's Minister of War (a native of Eger), went to go to Eger and was arrested at Gratzen after crossing the border, but was allowed to continue to Eger; two days later he went into Germany via Schärding, and by railway via Regensburg and Passau back to Vienna.
In January 1920 the Czechoslovak army, breaking prior agreements with Poland, crossed the demarcation line and by force of arms occupied the Trans-Olza region, where a 60% majority of the population was Polish, compared to 25% Czechs. After brief fights they made a truce on the power of which Czechoslovakia occupied areas to the west of Olza River. The Czech claim to Lusatia, which had been part of the Bohemian Kingdom until the Thirty Years' War, was rejected.
On 10 September 1919, Czechoslovakia signed the Minorities Treaty, placing its ethnic minorities under the protection of the League of Nations.