1918-1929 1939-1945







Czechoslovakia 1929-1939


Administration . Tomas Garrigue Masaryk held the presidency from 1918 to 1935, succeeded by Edvard Benes (1935-1938), Jan Syrovy (Oct. to Nov. 1938) and Emil Hacha (1938-1939/1945). The office of PM was held by Frantisek Udrzal (1929-1932), Jan Malypetr (1932-1935), Milan Hodza (1935-1938), Jan Syrovy (Sept.-Dec. 1938), Rudolf Beran (1938-1939). General elections were held in 1929 and 1935.

Foreign Policy . In 1929 the Little Entente, an alliance with Yugoslavia and Romania, was renewed. In 1930 the Reparations Conference at Den Haag required Czechoslovakia to pay reparations, a decision which caused an outrage in Czechoslovakia (NIYB 1930 p.211).
In 1934 Czechoslovakia and the USSR established diplomatic relations. In 1934, Poland claimed territory in Czech Silesia (Teschen) and Slovakia (Zips). In 1936 Germany demanded that the Czech districts with a majority German-speaking population be formed into autonomous regions (AAnn 1937 p.188).

Political History . When Czechoslovakia was established in 1918, vague assurances of a federal constitution were made; the country consisted of 4 parts - Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia, Slovakia and Carpatho-Ruthenia. The Czechoslovak leadership (Masaryk, Benes etc.) instead promoted the vision of Czechoslovakia as a unitary state, and regarded Czechs and Slovaks as essentially being one nation. This unitary Czechoslovakia was widely supported among the Czechs in the Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia) and found some support among the Slovaks. The representatives of Czechoslovakia's ethnic German and Hungarian minorities, from early on, for the most part were in opposition.
The Czechoslovak state treated Dr. Tuka, an outspoken advocate of Slovak autonomy as a fifth column serving Hungary's claims on Slovakia or parts of it. In 1930 nationalist Czech (Czechoslovak) demonstrations turned xenophobic (NIYB 1930 p.214).
The Slovak politicians who were critical of unitary Czechoslovakia, and who demanded political autonomy, claimed that the Prague administration had not done enough to develop industries in Slovakia, a backward region if compared to the Czech lands. The Slovak political parties demanding autonomy for Slovakia, during the 1930es, grew in strength; in Nov.-Dec. 1938 the Slovak political parties, en bloc, demanded autonomy.
By 1929 the political landscape of Czechoslovakia and her ethnicities was fragmented; by the end of the 1930es a process of concentration had taken place. While the Great Depression had affected all Czechoslovaks, by 1938 the political organizations representing the ethnic German and Hungarian minorities were against the Czechoslovak state, the Slovaks against a centralist Czechoslovak state.
In 1933 the state of emergency was declared.

The Economy . During the first years of the world economic crisis (1929-1931) Czechoslovakia withstood the 'economic blizzard' with better than average success. But in 1932 and 1933 there was a marked slump in industrial production and the condition of agriculture became desperate, Foreign trade was lower than at any time in the republic's short history (NIYB 1933 p.205).
Czechoslovak state revenue was 11.3 million Korunas in 1929, 9.81 million in 1935, 10.0 million in 1937 (IHS p.817).
In 1929, Czechoslovakia had 42,000 unemployed, in 1933 738,000, in 1937 409,000 (IHS pp.159, 162)
In 1929, Czechoslovakia produced 1.44 million metric tons of wheat, in 1937 1.37 million (IHS p.262).
In 1930 foreign noble estate owners, under the threat of nationalization, gave up their property rights and the land in question was parcelled and redistributed (NIYB 1930 p.214). The land board, which had implemented the land reform since 1919, was dissolved in 1935 (NIYB 1935 p.182). In 1932 Carpatho-Ruthenia suffered famine (NIYB 1932 p.228).

Social History . In 1930, Czechoslovakia had 14.72 million inhabitants, Bohemia 7.1 million, Moravia 2.8 million, Silesia 0.73 million, Slovakia 3.33 million, Ruthenia 0.72 million (NIYB 1931 p.250). On Jan. 1st 1938 the population was estimated as 15.2 million (FWNSEYB 1938 p.147). The ascendance of the NSDAP to power in Germany in 1933 caused an influx of German refugees into Czechoslovakia; the annexation of Austria by Germany in March 1938 caused a further influx of refugees.

Cultural History . Czechoslovak athletes participated in the Summer Olympics of Los Angeles 1932 and Berlin 1936, taking one respectively 3 gold medals. At the FIFA World Cup in Italy 1934 the Czechoslovak football team took second place, defeated by Italy 1-2 in the final game.
Radio Prague, addressing an international audience, began broadcasting in 1936.
Czechoslovakia attracted refugees such as German novelist Heinrich Mann.

August 1938 - March 1939 . By 1938, the NSDAP was the strongest party in the Sudeten German areas of Czechoslovakia, a tool of Hitler's policy. The Sudeten Nazis under H. Henlein demanded the Sudetenland to be annexed to Germany; Hitler threatened to invade.
The Munich Conference was held in September 1938; Daladier (France) and Chamberlain (United Kingdom), as Czechoslovakia's protectors, agreed to Czechoslovakia ceding area with Sudeten German, Hungarian respectively Polish majority to the respective neighbouring countries. A war had, for the moment, been avoided. The Czechoslovak government, itself not represented in Munich, had no choice but to give in, feeling betrayed by its western allies who had failed to stand to their obligations.
Not only had the country ceded outlying minority areas; it had also lost its chain of defense fortifications. The Sudetenland would also soon gain importance as the German's main supply of uranium, the material for Germany's nuclear bomb project.

Hitler was not satisfied with just gaining the Sudetenland. In March 1939 he had the remainder of Bohemia (Czechia) and Moravia occupied. A pro-German Slovakian administration declared independence; the occupied Czech lands were called "Reich protectorate Bohemia and Moravia". Czechoslovakia had seized to exist, and again the western allies had not reacted.






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		Articles Emil Hacha, Jan Syrovy, Edvard Benes, Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, Frantisek Udrzal, Jan Malypetr, Milan Hodza, Rudolf Beran, Czechoslovakia at the 1932 Summer Olympics, Czechoslovakia at the 1936 Summer Olympics, 1938 FIFA World Cup, Radio Prague, from Wikipedia
History of Czechoslovakia, from Library of Congress, Country Studies
1918-1938 : The rise and fall of interwar Czechoslovakia, from Czech History
Gallery (ed.), Geschichte Verstehen, Die Entwicklung der Deutsch-Tschechischen Beziehungen in den Böhmischen Ländern 1848-1948, in German
Vladimir Bako, Two Concepts of Nation and two Forms of Nationalism, in : Tibor Pichler, Jana Gaparkova (ed.), Language, Values and the Slovak Nation, posted by CRVP
DOCUMENTS The Munich Pact (1938) and associated documents, from Avalon Project at Yale Law School; the Munich Pact 1938 from Britannia Historical Documents
Banknotes of Czechoslovakia, from Ron Wise's World Paper Money and from Currency Museum
REFERENCE IHS : B.R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics. Europe 1750-1988, NY : Stockton Press 1992 [G]
Chapter XXIX : Masaryk and Benes, pp.428-437 in : John Gunther, Inside Europe, 1940 war edition, NY : Harper & Bros. 1940 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : Statesman's Yearbook 1932 pp.776-786, 1937 pp.815-825 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : Americana Annual 1930 pp.232-234, 1931 pp.242-244, 1932 pp.203-206, 1933 pp.215-217, 1934 pp.184-186, 1935 pp.197-199, 1936 pp.198-200, 1937 pp.186-188, 1938 pp.196-198, 1939 pp.221-225 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : New International Year Book 1930 pp.212-214, 1931 pp.250-253, 1932 pp.227-229, 1933 pp.204-206, 1934 pp.179-182, 1935 pp.180-182, 1938 pp.192-202, 1939 pp.181-186 [G]
Article : Czechoslovakia, in : Funk & Wagnall's New Standard Encyclopedia Year Book 1932 pp.204-205, 1933 pp.153-153, 1934 pp.174-176, 1935 pp.163-165, 1936 pp.143-146, 1937 pp.154-153, 1938 pp.147-156, 1939 pp.134-140 [G]


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on August 24th 2007

Click here to go Home
Click here to go to Information about KMLA, WHKMLA, the author and webmaster
Click here to go to Statistics