Czechoslovakia In The 1930s Options

[Mr Jones-Nerzic]

This section to include the general overview of the period and events of particular significance

[Marek Rapant]

First Republic of Czechoslovakia

Timeline of Events:
1929 – Great Wall Street Crash
1933 – Hitler comes to power announcing his intention to expand east
1935 – Masaryk resigns due to bad health, Beneš succeeds him
1938 – Konrad Henlein’s political party begins to shout for Sudeten independence
1938 – Sudetenland disputes and the Munich Agreement


Great Wall Street Crash
The crash in American stock markets came on October 24th 1929 and lasted another month. It soon spread and affected the parts of the world which were trading with the United States. The Crash happened just before the Depression, a period of economical drawback of industrialized nations, and it is often argued that the Crash started the Depression. This affected the European economies, having a devastating affect on Germany. Along with the reparations that it still had to pay and other consequences of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was being crushed by inflation and devaluation. Inflation was reaching thousands of percent, and the paper that the money was printed on was worth more than the financial value of the note itself. The financial crisis helped dictators all around the world to get to power, but Czechoslovakia was still a democratic country in the 1930s, one of the few successor states that arised from the WWI defeated countries that did not turn to dictatorships. The crisis was one of the important factors that helped Hitler get to power in 1933.


Hitler comes to power
Hitler, a great speaker and at that time a rising star, used the economical crisis to get to power. His strongly nationalistic Nazi party blamed the Wall Street Crash on the Jews, and started to break the Treaty of Versailles bit by bit, from not paying reparations to rearmament. This led to the British and French Appeasement policy, which in the final resulted into the Munich Agreement and the Second World War.


Masaryk resigns
The first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, resigned due to poor health. To a large extent, the Czechoslovak democracy was held together by him. He was succeeded by Edvard Beneš, until then a foreign minister. He created a system of alliances, which were effectively holding Czechoslovakia’s democratic stance in an area dominated by aggressively expanding states until 1938. Beneš, a Western orientated politician, did not try to negotiate alliances within Central Europe; instead he relied heavily on the League of Nations as a protector of newly created states. However, he achieved the Little Entente – an alliance with Yugoslavia and Romania to counter the Hungarian revanchism, as the newly created Czechoslovakia posessed some territory of the former Austira-Hungary. He tried to negotiate further with Britain and France, but Britain remained faithful to its isolationist policy. Nevertheless, he achieved a separate alliance with France.


1938 - Sudetenland problems and the Munich Agreement
Henlein’s strongly pro Nazi party, funded and instructed by Germany, issued the Carlsbad Decrees, demanding autonomy for the Sudetenland and the freedom to profess Nazi ideology.
- 26th April – Czechoslovak government accepts Heinlein’s Home Rule demands
- 15th/16th September – Chamberlain meets with Hitler, reaching an agreement to persuade the French and British cabinets to accept plebiscite results on whether or not Sudetenland aligns itself with Germany, while Hitler agrees to take no military action
23rd September – newly elected government led by Jan Syrový ordered a general mobilization
24th September – French order a partial mobilization; Chamberlain calls for a four power conference
30th September – conference results into the Munich Agreement – Czechoslovakia looses Sudetenland, Devin and Petržalka, later also Cieszyn Silesia and Southern third of Slovakia
5th October – Beneš abdicates
7th October – Slovakia declares autonomy within Czechoslovakia
1939, 14th March – Slovakia declares independence


Munich Agreement
The agreement was signed in Munich by Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Édouard Daladier, without any diplomatic representatives of Czechoslovakia. As a part of British appeasement policy, it gave the Sudetenland to Germany. Hungary used the moment to take the southern third of Slovakia, and Poland occupied Cieszyn Silesia.
The French dishonored their alliance with Czechoslovakia, as they were militarily unprepared for any offensive military act, also making the USSR agreement useless, as it stated that the USSR would only send in help if the French go in first. This left Czechoslovakia to either submit to the Munich Agreement terms, or fight Germany alone. Czechoslovakia lost border fortifications, 70% of its iron/steel production, 70% of its electrical power, 3.5 million inhabitants, and the Škoda Works to Germany as a result of the settlement.


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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovaki..._and_government
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cz...8%E2%80%931938)

[Frantisek Butora]

Hi,
A couple of ideas for improvement.

fb

First Republic of Czechoslovakia

Timeline of Events:
1929 – Great Wall Street Crash
1933 – Hitler comes to power announcing his intention to expand east
1935 – Masaryk resigns due to bad health, Beneš succeeds him
1938 – Konrad Henlein Heinlein’s political party begins to shout for Sudeten independence
1938 – Sudetenland disputes and the Munich Agreement


Great Wall Street Crash
The crash in American stock markets came on October 24th 1929 and lasted another month. It soon spread and affected the parts of the world which were trading with the United States. The Crash happened just before the Depression, a period of economical drawback of industrialized nations, and it is often argued that the Crash started the Depression. This affected the European economies, having a devastating affect on Germany. Along with the reparations that it still had to pay and other consequences of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was being crushed by inflation and devaluation. Inflation was reaching thousands of percent, and the paper that the money was printed on was worth more than the financial value of the note itself. The financial crisis helped dictators all around the world to get to power, but Czechoslovakia was still a democratic country in the 1930s, one of the few successor states successor states of what? Austria-Hungary - needs to be mentioned that did not turn to dictatorships. The crisis was one of the important factors that helped Hitler get to power in 1933.


Hitler comes to power
Hitler, a great speaker and at that time a rising star, used the economical crisis to get to power. His strongly nationalistic Nazi party blamed the Wall Street Crash on the Jews, and started to break the Treaty of Versailles bit by bit, from not paying reparations to rearmament. This led to the British and French Appeasement policy, which in the final resulted into the Munich Agreement and the Second World War.


Masaryk resigns
The first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, resigned due to poor health. To a large extent, the Czechoslovak democracy was held together by him. How? Not necessarily. Czechoslovak republic was at that time probably more democratic than france: universal suffrage even for women, multi-party spectrum... He was succeeded by Edvard Beneš, until then a foreign minister. He created a system of alliances, which were effectively holding Czechoslovakia’s democratic stance in an area dominated by aggressively expanding states until 1938. Beneš, a Western orientated politician, did not try to negotiate alliances within Central Europe; instead he relied heavily on the League of Nations as a protector of newly created states. However, he achieved the Little Entente – an alliance with Yugoslavia and Romania, to counter the Hungarian revanchism what does this mean? i think that most people who will be reading this have no idea about what it means. either explain the term or leave out He tried to negotiate further with Britain and France, but Britain remained faithful to its isolationist policy. Nevertheless, he achieved a separate alliance with France.


1938 - Sudetenland problems and the Munich Agreement
Konrad Henlein's Heinlein’s strongly pro Nazi party, funded and instructed by Germany, issued the Carlsbad Decrees, demanding autonomy for the Sudetenland and the freedom to profess Nazi ideology.
- 26th April – Czechoslovak government accepts Henlein’s Home Rule demands
- 15th/16th September – Chamberlain meets with Hitler, reaching an agreement to persuade the French and British cabinets to accept plebiscite results on whether or not Sudetenland aligns itself with Germany, while Hitler agrees to take no military action
23rd September – newly elected government led by Jan Syrový ordered a general mobilization
24th September – French order a partial mobilization; Chamberlain calls for a four power conference
30th September – conference results into the Munich Agreement – Czechoslovakia looses Sudetenland, Devin and Petržalka, later also Cieszyn Silesia and Southern third of Slovakia
5th October – Beneš abdicates
7th October – Slovakia declares independence no, declares autonomy within Czechoslovak republic. big difference, independence was declared march 14, 1939.


Munich Agreement
The agreement was signed in Munich by Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Édouard Daladier, without any diplomatic representatives of Czechoslovakia. As a part of British appeasement policy, it gave the Sudetenland to Germany. Hungary used the moment to take the southern third of Slovakia, and Poland occupied Cieszyn Silesia.
The French dishonored their alliance with Czechoslovakia, as they were militarily unprepared for any offensive military act, also making the USSR agreement useless, as it stated that the USSR would only send in help if the French go in first. This left Czechoslovakia to either submit to the Munich Agreement terms, or fight Germany alone. Czechoslovakia lost border fortifications, 70% of its iron/steel production, 70% of its electrical power, 3.5 million inhabitants, and the Škoda Works to Germany as a result of the settlement.


 Partition_of_Czechoslovakia__281938_29.png ( 27.1k ) Number of downloads: 3

 28597_004_588192FD.jpg ( 18.33k ) Number of downloads: 4

 masaryk.jpg ( 24.87k ) Number of downloads: 3



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_Agreement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czechoslovaki..._and_government
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cz...8%E2%80%931938)

[Marek Rapant]

Masaryk resigns
The first Czechoslovak president, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, resigned due to poor health. To a large extent, the Czechoslovak democracy was held together by him. How? Not necessarily. Czechoslovak republic was at that time probably more democratic than france: universal suffrage even for women, multi-party spectrum...

Hi, thanks for noticing these things, I edited some of them. However, about the Czechoslovak democracy...It depends from the point of view. In some aspects Czechoslovakia might have been more democratic than some other countries of that time, but in some not. You can not just say that one country was more democratic than other. For example, considering the development of the press law and freedom of speach, the amendments to it going on in Czechoslovakia were turning away from democracy and going the state-controlled way. Although I would love to put all of that into my first post, the word limit was between 500 to 600 words, which I already slightly exceeded, so I can not explain everything. If there would be something else you do not understand, just feel free to ask, I will try and explain it under, but not in the initial post.

[Frantisek Butora]

Hi,

I guess you could say that as time went on and WWII approached, democracy in the Czechoslovak repubic was a bit on the decline. I still think it is too strong to say that the whole democracy was held together by him. Maybe in the last period before the Munich agreement. But it is definitely not true about the whole First Republic, and this must be clear.

Regarding the word limit - I think it is much more important for the report to be well explained and easily understandable than to have it adhere to the word limit. Using words like Hungarian revanchism, plebiscite results or "successor state" are not at all universally understood by the international community. I say leave out words and terms that are too complex if we cannot explain them due to lack of space

fb

[Mr Jones-Nerzic]

Regarding the word limit - I think it is much more important for the report to be well explained and easily understandable than to have it adhere to the word limit. Using words like Hungarian revanchism, plebiscite results or "successor state" are not at all universally understood by the international community. I say leave out words and terms that are too complex if we cannot explain them due to lack of space

Word limit is imporant in the overview sections, less so after. If something is worthy of detailed explanation we can add another page.

The point about language is important. We need to be able to appeal a target audience of 14-16 years olds and those that do not speak English as a first language.

[Marek Rapant]

Invasion of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany

1938 - March the 28th 1938 - Sudetenland crisis begins
April the 24th - SdP issued the Carlsbad Decrees
April the 26th - Czechoslovak government accepted Henlein’s Home Rule demands
May the 20th - Czechoslovak government in response to rumors of German troop movements had ordered its troops to the German border.
August - Chamberlain sends in lord Runciman to negotiate a settlement between the SdP and the Czechoslovak government (failed)
September the 29th/30th – Chamberlain appeases, Munich Agreement signed

Czechoslovakia had a modern army, border fortifications and alliances and agreements which could have countered Hitler, would have Chamberlain not appeased again. But as a result of the agreement, Czechoslovakia had lost its border fortifications, 70% of its iron/steel production, 70% of its electrical power, 3.5 million inhabitants, and the Škoda armament Works to Germany. On October the 5th, Benes resigned. The initial occupation of Czechoslovak territory commenced on the day the agreement was signed.

The First Vienna Award
Czechoslovakia began crumbling to pieces soon after. The First Vienna Award was a result of the Munich Agreement, which in early November of 1938 forced Czechoslovakia to cede a third of the Slovak territory (entire southern part) to Hungary. Germany and Italy were behind the pressure made on Czechoslovakia, and as a result of the award, Poland occupied some little territory after as well. It is interesting to note, that soon after the Munich Agreement 115,000 Czechs and 30,000 Germans fled to the remaining rump of Czechoslovakia.
On 5th October 1938, autonomous Slovak government led by a Christian priest Jozef Tiso was formed. On 8th October, Subcarpathian Ruthenia declared an autonomous government. The pro-Ukrainian faction, led by Avhustyn Voloshyn, gained control of the local government and Subcarpathian Ruthenia was renamed Carpatho-Ukraine. In November, Emil Hácha succeeded Beneš, and became the president of the federated Second Republic, renamed Czecho-Slovakia and consisting of three parts: Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia, and Carpatho-Ukraine. Without its natural frontier and having lost its costly system of border fortification, the new state was militarily defenseless, though it began building new forts along its new border. In January 1939, negotiations between Germany and Poland broke down. Hitler, wanting war with Poland, needed to eliminate Czechoslovakia first. German invasion of Bohemia and Moravia began on the morning of March 15. Hitler also negotiated with the Slovak People's Party and with Hungary to prepare the dismemberment of the republic before the invasion. On March 13, he invited Jozef Tiso to Berlin and on March 14, the Slovak Diet convened and unanimously declared Slovak independence. Carpatho-Ukraine also declared independence but Hungarian troops occupied it on March 15 and eastern Slovakia on March 23. Hitler summoned President Hácha to Berlin and during the early hours of March 15, informed him of the German invasion. Under the threat of a Luftwaffe attack on Prague, Hitler persuaded Hácha to order the capitulation of the Czechoslovak army. On the morning of March 15, German troops entered Bohemia and Moravia, meeting no resistance. The Hungarian invasion of Carpatho-Ukraine encountered some resistance, but the Hungarian army quickly crushed it. On March 16, Hitler went to Czechoslovakia and from Prague Castle proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia a German protectorate. Although the Czechoslovak army, supported by some new forts along the new border, was ready to fight, for the second time in its history, weakened by foreign aggression and internal tensions, Czechoslovakia gave up peacefully.
Consequences
When Mussolini saw how easily and without any resistance Hitler gained more territory, he decided to invade Albania. Also, Britain and France gave Poland guarantees of aid in case of invasion, and expanded their influence even further, making treaties with Greece and Romania.



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[Marek Rapant]

Edvard Beneš 1884 - 1948

Born into a peasant family in a small village 60 km west of Prague on 26th May 1884, Edvard Beneš spent much of his youth in Prague, attending a grammar school from 1896 to 1904. After his studies at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Charles University, he left for Paris and continued his studies at the Sorbonne and at the Independent School of Political and Social Studies. He completed his first degree in Dijon, where he received his Doctorate of Laws in 1908. Then he taught for three years at the Prague Academy of Commerce, and after his habilitation in the field of philosophy in 1912, he became a lecturer in sociology at Charles University.

First exile, 1915 – 1918
During World War I, Beneš was one of the leading organizers of an independent Czechoslovakia abroad. He organized "Maffia", a Czech pro-independence anti-Austrian secret resistance movement. In September 1915, he was exiled and in Paris he made strong diplomatic efforts to gain recognition from France and the United Kingdom for the Czechoslovak independence movement. From 1916–1918 he was a Secretary of the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris and Minister of the Interior and of Foreign Affairs within the Provisional Czechoslovak government.

Czechoslovakia, 1918 - 1938
In 1918, Beneš represented Czechoslovakia in talks of the Treaty of Versailles. From 1918–1935, he was the first and the longest serving Foreign Minister of Czechoslovakia and from 1920–1925 and 1929–1935 also a member of the Parliament. In 1921 he became a professor and in 1921–1922 Prime Minister. In years 1923–1927 he was a member of the League of Nations Council, serving as president of its committee from 1927–1928. He was a renowned and influential figure at international conferences, such as Genoa 1922, and a member of the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party, until 1925 known as Czechoslovak Socialist Party. Being a strong Czechoslovakist, he did not consider Slovaks and Czechs as separate ethnicities. In 1935, Beneš became President, succeeding Masaryk. He tried to oppose Germany's claim to the Sudetenland in 1938, but in October the crisis brought Europe on the brink of war. Although the Munich Agreement signed by Britain and France prevented war, it allowed for the immediate annexation and military occupation of the territory by Germany. On 5 October 1938, after the Munich Agreement, Beneš was forced to resign under German pressure and Emil Hácha became the new President. In March 1939, Hácha's government was forced to authorize the German occupation of the remaining Czech Republic. By then, Slovakia had declared independence.

Second exile, 1938 - 1945
For the second time, Beneš was exiled on 22nd October 1938, and went to Putney, London. In 1940 he organized the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile in London, making Jan Šrámek a Prime Minister and himself the President. In 1941 alongside with František Moravec he planned Operation Anthropoid, with the intent of assassinating Reinhard Heydrich. This was realized in 1942, and resulted into brutal German atrocities, such as the execution of thousands of Czechs and the villages of Lidice and Ležáky being wiped out. Although Beneš was not a Communist, he also kept friendly relations with Stalin. In 1943 he signed the entente between Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union in order to secure Czechoslovakia's political position, as well as his own.

Second presidency, 1945 - 1948
After World War II, Beneš returned home and returned to his former position as President. He was not elected President in 1945 but unanimously confirmed as the former president of the republic by the National Assembly on 28 October 1945. On 19th June 1946 he was formally elected to his second term as President. The Beneš decrees, officially referred to as Decrees of the President of the Republic, among other things, dispossessed citizens of German and Hungarian ethnicity, and created the base for the eventual deportation of the majority of Germans to Germany and Austria. The decrees remain valid to this day and are considered controversial, with the expellees demanding their repeal. The Czech government has repeatedly proposed that the decrees are no longer applied, and this view has been accepted by the European Commission and the European Parliament. Beneš presided over a coalition government involving Democrats as well as Communists, having the Communist leader Klement Gottwald as a prime minister. On 25th February 1948, the Communists assumed complete power in a coup d'état. Beneš resigned as President on 7th June 1948 and was succeeded by Gottwald.

Death, 1948
Edvard Beneš died peacefully of natural causes at his villa in Sezimovo Ústí, Czechoslovakia on 3rd September, 1948. He is interred along with his wife in the garden of his villa and his bust is part of the gravestone.



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[Mr Jones-Nerzic]

Thanks Marek. I will get these uploaded as soon as I can.

[Isha Chauhan]

Edvard Benes (née Eduard, but changed his name to its current form) was born on May 28th, 1884 in a village in West Bohemia, then still a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He is renowned for his participation in the Czechoslovak liberation movement, and for his role as the second President of the nation of Czechoslovakia.

He was the tenth child (and last) child of a relatively well off family of Matej Benes, a successful peasant. Edvard spent most of his childhood in Prague, attending a grammar school from 1896 to 1904. Albeit receiving good marks, Edvard was picked on and bullied by his classmates due to the fact that he was small for his age, and quite fat. Thus, Edvard learned to become a solitary child. In later years, however, Edvard developed a reputation for being argumentative and rebellious with decreasing grades, while still remaining an intellect (he translated Zola’s L’Assommoir while still at school). After school, in 1904, he enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy at Charles University to follow his ambitions to join politics as well as achieving a “certificate as a teacher of modern languages.” In 1905, Edvard left for France. He studied at the Sorbonne, a college in Paris, and at then at the Independent School of Political and Social Studies. He received his Doctorate of Laws degree in 1908 in Dijon. He then returned to Prague, where he taught at the Prague Academy of Commerce for three years, and in 1912 went on to teach sociology at Charles University.

During the First World War, Benes became one of the premier leaders that promoted the freedom of Czechoslovakia abroad. He was also a part of the anti-Austrian resistant movement, called the “Maffia.” In September 1915, he left for France in exile, and worked to increase diplomatic relations with France and Great Britain that would work for the advantage of a liberated Czechoslovakia. In 1916, he also played a crucial role in the creation of the Czechoslovak National Council, and was appointed General Secretary upon its foundation. With this Council, Benes and leaders such as Masaryk and M. R. Stefanik effectively created a representative government for the state of Czechoslovakia, which, with their diplomatic efforts, France, Great Britain, Italy, the USA and others recognized.

Edvard Benes became the first Foreign Minister of the newly independent state of Czechoslovakia in 1918. As Foreign Minister, he effectively negotiated the Slovak boundary, and officially announced the establishment of Czechoslovakia in Paris. In this, he had the support the American President, Woodrow Wilson’s Point of Self-Determination. Throughout his time in office as Foreign Minister, Benes also played a key role in various treaties: in 1920, the Little Alliance with Yugoslavia and Romania; in 1924, a “joint treaty” with France.

Along with Foreign Minister, Benes was also a member of Parliament and was the Prime Minister from 1921 to 1922. After Masaryk abdicated, Edvard Benes became President of Czechoslovakia on December 18, 1935.
As President, Benes had to face the growing threat of aggression against Czechoslovakia, put forth by Hitler’s Germany. When Hitler declared his demand for the annexation of the Sudetenland, Benes partially mobilized his troops to ready himself for a probable attack. He asked France and Britain to support Czechoslovakia in retaining the Sudetenland, and evidently felt betrayed when they handed the German-populated land to Hitler in the Munich Agreement, in accordance with their policy of appeasement in order to avoid war. Thus, Benes “lost faith” with the West, and looked upon the USSR as a better ally. Benes resigned on 5th October 1938, when Hitler launched a full-scale invasion of Czechoslovakia, and was succeeded by Emil Hacha. While in exile, he stayed with his family in London, until the 1940 London Blitz when he moved to Buckinghamshire. He helped found the Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile, and in 1941, planned Operation Anthropoid in order to assassinate the Chief of the Reich Security Main Office, Reinhard Heydrick. As this operation failed, German backlash was targeted towards the villages of Lidice and Ležaky. During his exile, he also wrote the Benes Decrees, which were laws concerning the Czechoslovak army and the organization of a “post-war government.” These decrees were ratified by the government on March 5th, 1946. A controversial aspect of this Decree was that it supported the confiscation of property of those that were in allegiance with the Nazis. These “traitors” being a majority of the German population, a large percentage of the Germans were forced to move to Germany after living in the Sudetenland for generations.

After the war, Benes returned and became the de facto president of Czechoslovakia, before being officially re-elected in 1946. This time, Benes showed full support to the USSR. He’d already signed a treaty in 1943 with the Communist nation, to clarify Czechoslovakia’s “political position.” During his term, he ruled with a coalition government – the Democrats and the Communists, with Communist Klement Gottwald as Prime Minister. Benes was again forced to resign his position in June, after the Communist coup on 25th February, 1948. He was succeeded by Gottwald.

Edvard Benes died of natural causes on September 3rd, 1948.


(German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939)