Independent Bohemia: An Account of the Czecho-Slovak Struggle for LibertyNosek, Vladimir
History
Independent Bohemia: An Account of the Czecho-Slovak Struggle for Liberty
Nosek, Vladimir
Czechoslovakia -- History; World War, 1914-1918 -- Czech Republic -- Bohemia
From the international point of view, Bohemia will form the very centre of
the anti-German barrier, and with the assistance of a new Poland in the
north, and Italy, Yugoslavia and Rumania in the south, she will
successfully prevent German penetration to the East, Near East and
the Adriatic.
Austria and Hungary, reduced to their proper racial boundaries, will be
states of about eight million each. The Magyars, being situated in the
Lowlands, which are mainly agricultural, hemmed in between Bohemia, Rumania
and Yugoslavia, will be in a hopeless strategic and economic position. They
will be unable to attack any of their neighbours, and they will be wholly
dependent on them for industrial products. Hungary will thus be forced to
come to an understanding with her neighbours. Austria will be in a similar
position: deprived of her richest provinces, she will no longer be of any
great economic or military value to Germany.
Let us now examine the probable future relations between Bohemia and her
neighbours.
1. The formation of a strong _Polish-Czech block_ is the only means of
arresting the German expansion towards the East. To-day, when Russia has
collapsed, the liberation of the non-Germans of Central Europe can alone
save Europe from the hegemony of the German Herrenvolk. The creation of a
strong and united Poland with access to the sea at Gdansk (Dantzig) and an
independent Czecho-Slovak State has become a necessity for Europe.
The understanding between the Poles and Czechs is of vital interest to both
peoples concerned, and to Europe as a whole. It is by no means
hypothetical, considering that geographically the Poles and Czechs are
neighbours, that they speak almost the same language, and that their
national spirit, history and traditions bear a close resemblance. The
history of Poland offers many strange parallels to that of Bohemia. It is
specially interesting to note that in the fifteenth century, as to-day, the
Poles and Czechs together resisted the German "Drang nach Osten." The Czech
with their famous leader Zizka participated in the splendid Polish victory
over the Teutonic knights at Gruenwald in 1410, while on the other hand,
there were many Poles in the Hussite regiments who so gloriously defended
the Czech religious and national liberties in the fifteenth century. Poland
and Bohemia were also united several times under a common dynasty.
After Bohemia lost her independence at the battle of the White Mountain in
1620, she became the prey of Austrian barbarity. The Habsburgs have done
their best to extirpate the Czech heretics and abolish and destroy the
Bohemian Constitution. With Bohemia's loss of independence her contact with
Poland also ceased. And Poland herself became the prey of Prussia, Russia
and Austria some 170 years later, notwithstanding the constitution of May 3
and the heroic resistance of Kosciuszko.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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