|
Czechoslovakia Austria and the Czechs
In Austria, German liberals held political power in
parliament from 1867 to 1879. They were determined to maintain
German dominance in the Austrian part of the empire. The Czech
leaders, subsequently labeled Old Czechs, favored alliance with
the conservative and largely Germanized Bohemian nobility and
advocated the restoration of traditional Bohemian autonomy. In
essence, they wanted a reconstituted Bohemian Kingdom (including
Moravia and Silesia) with a constitutional arrangement similar to
Hungary's. In 1871 the Old Czechs seemed successful, for the
government agreed to the Fundamental Articles, which would have
reinstated the historic rights of the Bohemian Kingdom. Violent
protest from both German and Hungarian liberals ensued, however,
and the articles were never adopted.
Objecting to an increase of Slavs in the empire, the German
liberals opposed the 1878 Austrian occupation of BosniaHercegovina . The emperor, stung by the rejection of his foreign
policy, dismissed the liberal government and turned to Count
Eduard Taafe's conservative "Iron Ring" cabinet (1879-83). The
Taaffe government took the Slavic element into greater account
than the liberals had and, in turn, was supported by the Old
Czechs. Czechs made appreciable gains. A language decree
promulgated in 1880 put Czech on an equal footing with German in
Bohemian administration and law. In 1882 Charles-Ferdinand
University in Prague was divided into two separate institutions:
one Czech and the other German. These concessions, however,
seemed insufficient to a newly developing Czech commercial and
industrial bourgeoisie. Intense conflict ensued as Czechs and
Germans attempted to control administration and education. When
some of the Old Czechs attempted to work out a compromise with
the Bohemian Germans in 1890, they were denounced by a younger
and more radical intelligentsia. The next year the Old Czechs
were soundly defeated by the Young Czechs, ending a period of
attempted compromises.
While relations between Czechs and Germans worsened in
Bohemia, they remained relatively tranquil in Moravia. Although
the separate administrative status of Moravia had been abolished
in the eighteenth century, the area was reconstituted as a
separate crown land in 1849. In Moravia, unlike in Bohemia, a
compromise was reached, in 1905, between the Czech majority and
the German minority. Although the German language retained a
slight predominance, the preservation of Czech language and
culture was legally guaranteed. The compromise seemed to work
reasonably well until the end of Hapsburg rule in 1918.
During the final decade of the empire, obstructionism by both
Czechs and Germans rendered parliamentary politics ineffectual,
and governments rose and fell with great frequency. The
importance of the Young Czech Party waned as Czech politics
changed orientation. Political parties advocating democracy and
socialism emerged. In 1900 Tomas Masaryk, a university professor
and former Young Czech deputy who was to become president of the
Czechoslovak Republic, founded the Czech Progressive Party.
Basing its struggle for national autonomy on the principle of
popular sovereignty, the Czech Progressive Party supported
parliamentary politics, advocated universal suffrage, and
rejected radicalism.
Data as of August 1987
|
