After a long period of oppression, the Czech nationhood had been preserved only in language and culture, especially in the countryside. There was still a long way to go toward emancipation from being a German-dependent state to a Czech national state.

A demanding task faced the national revivalists at the start of the 19th century: to revive the Czech language, which until then was losing out when it came to competing with German. It was necessary to create a scientific nomenclature and an intellectual class to support Czech culture, sciences, art and industry.

Slavic solidarity, primarily with Russia, was a buttress of support for the revivalists, as was historicism – the commemoration of great moments in Czech history. Gradually, promoting the cultural needs of the Czech nation switched to its political demands. For example, this included things such as making the status of Czech equal to that of German, constitutional recognition and consolidating the unity of the lands of the Bohemian Crown, or introducing local autonomy.

The ossified system of the Holy Alliance, which rejected any reforms and ignored demands for the liberalization and democratization of society, ended in 1848 with the outbreak of revolutions all over Europe. In one year, Palermo, Naples, Paris, Milan, Prague, Vienna and all of Hungary revolted. In Germany, a provisional parliament convened with a demand for the unification of Germany. It decided between two concepts of unification – that of a lesser Germany or a greater Germany, which also concerned the interests of the Czech nation.

In 1848, Chancellor Metternich had to resign in Austria. A month later, the first Austrian constitution was proclaimed, which was known as the so-called April Constitution. Austria was engulfed by an insurrection – in Vienna, in the Hungarian lands, and in the Austrian parts of Italy. The monarchy was eventually saved by the army and its generals – Radetzky in Italy, Windischgrätz in Prague, and Jelacic in Hungary.

A parliament elected on the basis of an electoral census met in Vienna and then transferred to the Moravian town of Kremsier (Kroměříž) because of the Viennese revolution. Deputies representing the Slavic nations resisted the demands of the German liberals, who called for the incorporation of Austria into Germany within the concept of a Greater Germany.

The Czech deputies František Palacký and František Ladislav Rieger advocated a policy of Austroslavism and of a strong and independent Austria which, in terms of its nations, was equitably organized and federalized. They feared that in the event of Austria being incorporated into a unified Germany the Czech nation would dissolve in a “German sea.”

On December 2, 1848, after the biggest wave of revolutions had subsided, Ferdinand I (known in Bohemia as Ferdinand Dobrotivý – “Ferdinand the Benign”) abdicated. The feeble-minded emperor was succeeded by Franz Joseph I, who was not encumbered by the “inappropriate” promises made at the time of the revolutions. The new sovereign had his forces disperse the imperial parliament in Kromeriz along with the prepared constitution. In December 1851, a decision by the emperor suspended the constitution. All that remained recognized from the revolution of 1848 was the equality of people before the law, the abolition of the corvée, religious freedom and local autonomy to a limited extent.

The 1850s are known as the years of Bach’s Absolutism, after the minister Alexander Bach, the main exponent of absolutist government. This brought a restriction of political rights, the centralization of polity and a shift toward the Catholic Church through the conclusion of an international concordat with the Vatican in 1855. On the other hand, the state strove to support and develop industry and trade.

The regime was forced to make reforms by a military debacle in northern Italy. It lost because it did not have enough military might to prevent the gradual unification of Italy. Defeats at Magenta and Solferino as well as the catastrophic state of the regime’s finances forced the representatives of state power to invite representatives of the bourgeoisie into the decision-making process. Austria finally switched from an absolutist monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. However, the February constitution was proclaimed in the same way as both previous octroi constitutions, i.e. it was not adopted by elected members of parliament. This brought about a renewal of political life in Austria.

An imperial council of two chambers was established – an upper lords’ chamber and a lower chamber of deputies. The nations of the monarchy got the chance to promote their own interests. The Czech national program was to attain national equality and civil rights, as well as to gain extensive autonomy.

Austria continually endeavored to promote a greater German solution through German unification, which led to rivalry with Prussia and logically resulted in both countries going to war with each other, culminating in the Battle of Sadova near Koniggratz (Hradec Kralové) in 1866, which was won by the Prussians. Besides its international impact, such as Austria’s withdrawal from Italy and Germany, losing the war also had internal political repercussions.

The so-called Austro-Hungarian settlement was reached, resulting in the country being divided into the Austrian Cisleithania and the Hungarian Transleithania, with the Germans having the decisive say in one part and the Hungarians having it in the other. Both parts were united under the figure of the sovereign with military, foreign policy and financial matters being a common sphere of concern.

The December constitution of 1867 preserved the strong status of the monarch – sacrosanct, inviolable and answerable to no one, with the right to issue provisional decrees when the imperial council was not in session. At first, there was no universal or equal right to vote. Universal male suffrage was only applied for the first time in elections to the chamber of deputies in 1907.

The Austro-Hungarian settlement ignored Czech demands. The reaction to this involved huge gatherings of people at significant sites in Czech history – Říp, Vítkov and Blaník.

Czech representatives agreed on the so-called Fundamental Articles with the Austrian government in 1871. This project involved a Czech-Austrian settlement, but one which had stronger ties than those that existed between Hungary and Austria. It increased the authority of the Czech estates assembly. A state government was supposed to have been established and the kingdom divided into Czech and German parts. The plan provoked resistance among Germans and discontent among Hungarians. The governing cabinet fell and the Czech-Austrian settlement went with it. The failure of negotiations led to Czech opposition parties continuing in passive opposition, because they refused to participate in the work of the state assembly and the imperial council.

The passive policy ended in 1878, when the parties recognized that they would gain more through participation in decision-making than through mere passivity. A new approach of moderate concessions from the state was derogatorily called the “breadcrumb policy.” The unfortunate statement had been made by František Ladislav Rieger, who had wanted to highlight the benefit and gains of an active policy from Czech parties. For example, the Prague University was divided into the Czech Charles University and the German Ferdinand University. A language decree was issued, which allowed the use of Czech when communicating with the authorities, among other things.

The originally unified Czech political representation divided into two strands – the more conservative Old Czechs and the more radical Young Czechs. The Old Czechs tried to push through the last attempt at a Czech-Austrian settlement, the so-called “Punctation” (punktace), in 1890. This was not successful due to furious resistance from the Young Czechs and a lack of interest from the public.

The relationship between the Czechs and Germans deteriorated over time. The Germans comprised around one-third of the population in Bohemia and Moravia. In certain areas, primarily in the border regions (the so-called Sudetenland), they even formed a homogeneous majority. Czechs wanted to retain the indivisibility of the country and establish the use of the Czech language, both in dealings between citizens and authorities, and also among the administrative authorities themselves.

Germans, on the other hand, strove for the creation of an enclosed German territory in Bohemia and the division of all state bodies into Czech and German parts while retaining German as the official language. Conflicts arose out of the mutually incompatible demands of both parties. After Bohemian Germans boycotted work in the estates assembly, which exacerbated the country’s financial difficulties, its self-administration was suspended by the imperial St. Anne’s Patents in 1913. The running of the country was taken over by a caretaker administrative commission, which was created by unconstitutional means.

Tags: Czech history, Czech National Revival