the nationality of all inhabitants of the czech provinces and ...

Chapter II
At that time it was not entirely clear
whether Austria would remain an
independent state, or whether the forces
calling for union within a Greater
Germany would triumph. The German
deputies had already set up their
National Assembly on October 21,
1918 and elected a committee as the
germ of a future Austro-German
government. At the first two meetings
of the Provisional National Assembly
they proclaimed a territorial secession
from the historical Bohemian state
amounting to 26,000 square kilometres
with a population of three million. By
virtue of a law of November 22, 1918,
the towns of Brno, Jihlava and
Olomouc were declared dependencies
of the Austrian Republic and other
adjustments were also planned (in
connection with Ostrava, for instance).
The rebellion of the secessionists on
the territory of Bohemia and Moravia-
Silesia had proved fairly easy to suppress
in 1918 by economic means and minor
military force – which indicates the lack
of support from the rank-and-file
Sudeten Germans. As a result, a
Czechoslovak state administration was
set up throughout the historical lands.
Czechoslovak constitutional order was
established in place of the Austrian one
and the Czechoslovak state imposed its
sovereignty. Attacks on Czechoslovak
state bodies and armed clashes occurred
not only in December 1918 (such as in
Teplice), but also at the time of the
inaugural session of the Austrian
parliament in March 1919, when over
fifty German demonstrators were shot
dead (particularly at Kadaň).
Acceptance of Czechoslovakia was
not unanimous in Slovakia either,
particularly among the Hungarians.
The main resistance came from the
Slovak Soviet Republic proclaimed in
Prešov on June 16, 1919 that was set up
and supported by the Hungarian
communist revolution. That rebellion,
supported by Hungarian troops, was put
down by the combined efforts of the
new Czechoslovak armed forces and
certain sections of the French and
Italian legions in July 1919. The
The Czechs and Germans and the Birth
of Czechoslovakia
56
imposition of sovereignty in Carpathian
Ruthenia was affected by the extremely
complex ethnic, religious and social
situation there.
The Carpathian Ruthenian
emigrants in the USA and the Central
Ruthenian National Council in
Užhorod had come out in favour of
annexation to Czechoslovakia, but
Czechoslovak statehood was established
there only in stages. Previous proposals
for the integration of Carpathian
Ruthenia into other states (Hungary,
the Ukraine, Poland) had been
influenced by the international situation
and been rejected by the Carpathian
Ruthenian political leadership.
On the other hand, as early as
October 28, 1918, representatives of
Jewish organisations met with
representatives of the National
Committee as the first step towards cooperating
in the creation of the
Czechoslovak state, in which the Jewish
minority and the Jewish national
movement, as well as members of
Jewish society, irrespective of their
religious or linguistic options, enjoyed
full equality with other citizens.
The “Czechoslovak” nation
and population
By virtue of Law No. 11/1918 Coll., the
“Czechoslovak nation” became de iure
the bearer of Czechoslovak state
sovereignty, although it did not exist de
facto. However, according to the
“Martin Declaration” of October 30,
1918, the representatives of all the
Slovak political parties organised
themselves within the Slovak National
Council into the Slovak branch of the
unitary “Czechoslovak” nation. Likewise
the “Washington Declaration” of
October 18, 1918, set out the principles
of the concept of a unified Czechoslovak
nation, whose state was to be a republic.
Even earlier, the “Czechoslovak” nation
had received international recognition as
a subject of international law. That laid
the basis for the international
recognition of the Czechoslovak state.
The content of the term
“Czechoslovak” was not unambiguously