Bohemia's case for independence/The Struggle of the Czecho-Slovaks against the Germans
II
THE STRUGGLE OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS AGAINST THE GERMANS
The Czechs originally came and established themselves in the lands they now hold towards the end of the sixth, or in the seventh century a.d. From the beginning they were obliged to defend themselves against the attacks of the Germanic tribes, and history tells us of their struggles against Charlemagne.
The first of our national heroes, St Venceslas, had to fight the Teutonic people and was forced to pay them tribute. All his successors without exception found themselves in more or less violent conflict with the Germans. The Bohemian lands were continually threatened, especially by the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. Our national kings (Boleslav, Soběslav, Přemysl, Ottakar) were obliged to wage continuous war against the Teutons.
Until the fourteenth century the history of Bohemia is the history of wars against the Germans, while the history of the Southern Slavs records their struggles against the Turks. With the Czechs, the rôle of hereditary enemy was played by the Austro-Germans. Our earliest historical and literary documents, legends, customs, and traditions bear unmistakable traces of these struggles. Indeed, they colour our entire civilisation.
It was when the last king of the first autochtonous dynasty of the Premyslides died, and the kingdom of Bohemia passed to the House of Luxembourg, that Bohemia's most brilliant and glorious period commenced: it was her king, Charles IV., who, having been crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, continued to hold his Court at Prague, and contributed largely towards making Bohemia one of the intellectual centres of Europe. Not only did he promote the economical prosperity of his country, enlarge his territories, and embellish his capital of Prague with monuments of great artistic value, but he also founded the University of Prague, and thus gave birth to the great intellectual, moral, and religious movement from which arose John Hus, and with him the splendid period of the Hussite wars.
Without entering into details of these stirring times, we may state that the Czechs consider this period as one of the most glorious of their history. They gave Europe the man who began the fight for the freedom of individual conscience, John Hus. He was not only a religious reformer, he was the initiator of that great philosophical movement which resulted in the French Revolution, and in the establishment of modern philosophical and political individualism. It is through John Hus that Bohemia is connected with the religious reformation in England, and with Wyckliff, as well as with the great thinkers of France.
It is common knowledge that he was burnt alive at Constance, and that the entire Czech nation rose up to avenge his death. The struggle, which contended above all things for liberty of conscience and religion, soon transformed itself into a fight against the Germans. On several occasions the latter invaded Bohemia with the object of exterminating the Czech heretics, but each time they were put to flight. Then the Czechs began to fight the German settlers who had penetrated into the interior of their country, and ended by almost freeing Bohemia of their presence. Thus the Hussite wars assumed a national character.
Since the fifteenth century these struggles of the Czechs against Germans have never ceased, only sometimes their character has been hidden or modified in appearance owing to Czech antagonism towards the Habsburg dynasty. At bottom, the struggle was Catholic against Protestant, but since the Germans were Catholics and the Czechs persisted in remaining heretics, the contest naturally assumed a racial character. Shortly after the Hussite wars, we see these struggles renewed under George of Poděbrad (1458–71), who during his entire reign defended Bohemia, like a true hero, against the invasions of the neighbouring German States.