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FlagCoat of arms

Motto
Pravda vit?zi / Pravda zvi?azi
"Truth prevails"
Anthem
Kde domov m?j? Nad Tatrou sa blyska
"Where is my home? Lightning over the Tatras"
The Czechoslovak Republic in 1938.
CapitalPrague
LanguagesCzech, Slovaka
GovernmentParliamentary Republic
President
 - 1918?1935Toma? Masaryk
 - 1935?1938Edvard Bene?
Prime Minister
 - 1918?1919Karel Krama? (first)
 - 1935?1938Milan Hod?a (last)
LegislatureNational Assembly
 - Upper houseSenate
 - Lower houseChamber of Deputies
Historical eraInterwar period
 - Independence declared28 October 1918
 - Constitution adopted29 February 1920
 - Munich Agreement30 September 1938
Area
 - 1938140,800 km2 (54,363 sq mi)
Population
 - 1938 est.14,800,000 
     Density105.1 /km2  (272.2 /sq mi)
CurrencyCzechoslovak koruna
a. German, Hungarian, Polish, Romani, Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian and Yiddish had regional status.

The Czechoslovak Republic (Czech / Slovak: ?eskoslovenska republika), refers to the Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938. The state was commonly called Czechoslovakia (?eskoslovensko). It was composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia.

After 1933, Czechoslovakia remained the only functioning democracy in central and eastern Europe. Under pressure from its Sudeten German minority, supported by neighboring Nazi Germany, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede its Sudetenland region to Germany on October 1, 1938 as part of the Munich Agreement. It also ceded southern parts of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia to Hungary and the Zaolzie region in Silesia to Poland. This, in effect, ended the First Czechoslovak Republic. It was replaced by Second Czechoslovak Republic, which lasted less than half a year before Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.
Contents

1 History

2 Politics

2.1 Foreign policy


3 Economy

4 Ethnic groups

5 See also

6 References

7 Bibliography


History Main article: History of Czechoslovakia (1918?1938)

The independence of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed on October 28, 1918, by the Czechoslovak National Council in Prague. Several ethnic groups and territories with different historical, political, and economic traditions had to be blended into a new state structure. The origin of the First Republic lies in Point 10 of Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points: "The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded the freest opportunity to autonomous development."

The full boundaries of the country and the organization of its government was finally established in the Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920. Toma? Garrigue Masaryk had been recognized by World War I Allies as the leader of the Provisional Czechoslovak Government, and in 1920 he was elected the country's first president. He was re-elected in 1925 and 1929, serving as President until December 14, 1935 when he resigned due to poor health. He was succeeded by Edvard Bene?.

Following the Anschluss of Nazi Germany and Austria in March 1938, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's next target for annexation was Czechoslovakia. His pretext was the privations suffered by ethnic German populations living in Czechoslovakia's northern and western border regions, known collectively as the Sudetenland. Their incorporation into Nazi Germany would leave the rest of Czechoslovakia powerless to resist subsequent occupation.[1]
Politics

To a large extent, Czechoslovak democracy was held together by the country's first president, Toma? Masaryk. As the principal founding father of the republic, Masaryk was regarded similar to the way George Washington is regarded in the United States.