Independent Bohemia

CONTENTS

I. WHAT is AUSTRIA-HUNGARY?
II. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND THE PRESENT WAR
III. CZECH POLITICAL PARTIES BEFORE AND DURING THE WAR
IV. TERRORISM IN BOHEMIA DURING THE WAR
_(a)_ Czech Deputies and Leaders imprisoned and sentenced to Death;
_(b)_ Monster Trials, Arbitrary Executions, Internment of Civilians,
etc.;
_(c)_ Persecution of the Press;
_(d)_ Reichsrat Interpellations.
V. HOW THE CZECHO SLOVAKS AT HOME ASSISTED THE ALLIES
VI. THE MILITARY AND POLITICAL ACTION OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS ABROAD
VII. THE CZECHS AT HOME BEGIN TO SPEAK
_(a)_ Czech Declaration of May 30, 1917;
_(b)_ Courageous Speeches delivered by Czech Deputies in the Reichsrat;
_(c)_ After the Amnesty;
_(d)_ During Peace Negotiations with Russia;
_(e)_ The Constituent Assembly of Prague on January 6, 1918;
_(f)_ The Oath of the Czecho Slovak Nation;
_(g)_ The Slovaks' Attitude;
_(h)_ The Czecho-Slovak National Council in Prague.
VIII. CZECHO-SLOVAK CO-OPERATION WITH OTHER NON-GERMAN NATIONS OF CENTRAL
EUROPE
_(a)_ The Congress of Rome;
_(b)_ The May Manifestations in Prague.
IX. BOHEMIA AS A BULWARK AGAINST PAN-GERMANISM

APPENDIX OF SOME RECENT DOCUMENTS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I

WHAT IS AUSTRIA-HUNGARY?

1. The Habsburg Empire is built upon centuries-old traditions of reaction
and violence. Its present power is chiefly based on the alliance which
Bohemia and Hungary concluded with Austria against the Turkish peril in
1526. The Czechs freely elected the Habsburgs to the throne of Bohemia
which remained a fully independent state, its alliance with Austria and
Hungary being purely dynastic. But soon the Habsburgs began to violate the
liberties of Bohemia which they were bound by oath to observe, and this led
finally to the fateful Czech revolution of 1618. At the battle of the White
Mountain in 1620 the Czechs suffered a defeat and were cruelly punished for
their rebellion. All their nobility were either executed or sent into
exile, and their property confiscated. The country was devastated by the
imperial hordes, and its population was reduced from 3,000,000 to 800,000
during the Thirty Years' War.

In 1627 Ferdinand II. greatly curtailed the administrative rights of
Bohemia, yet he did not dare to deprive her entirely of her independence.
In his "Renewed Ordinance of the Land" Ferdinand declared the Bohemian
crown to be hereditary in the House of Habsburg, and reserved legislative
power to the sovereign. But otherwise the historical rights of Bohemia
remained valid, notwithstanding all subsequent arbitrary centralising
measures taken by the Habsburgs. Bohemia's rights were repeatedly
recognised by each succeeding Habsburg. Legally Bohemia is an independent
state to-day.

The heavy persecutions inflicted upon Bohemia had a disastrous effect upon
her intellectual life and national development which were completely
paralysed until the end of the eighteenth century, when owing to the
humanitarian ideals of those times, and as a reaction against the
Germanising centralistic efforts of Joseph II., the Czechs again began to
recover their national consciousness. This revival marked the beginning of
the Czecho-Slovak struggle for the re-establishment of their independence.
The movement was at first literary, and only in the forties became
political. It was a continuous struggle against reaction and absolutism,
and if the Czecho-Slovaks to-day can boast of an advanced civilisation, it
is only owing to their perseverance and hard endeavours, and not because of
any good-will on the part of the Austrian Government which put every
possible obstacle in their way.

2. _The present Austria-Hungary_ is primarily a dynastic estate, for the
crown was always its supreme political driving force, although at present
the Habsburgs are mere slaves of their masters, the Hohenzollerns. It is
this characteristic which justifies us in concluding that Austria is an
autocratic state _par excellence_. If there were no other reason, this
should be sufficient to make every true democrat an enemy of Austria.
Furthermore, it is this characteristic which makes us comprehend why the
Habsburg monarchy is fighting side by side with German autocracy and
imperialism against the allied democracies of the world.

Notwithstanding the so-called constitution which is a mere cloak for
absolutism, the monarch in Austria is emperor by "Divine Right" alone, and
is the absolute master of his subject peoples in virtue of his privileged
position which confers on him an inexhaustible amount of power and
influence.

Independent Bohemia