to their Slav consciousness. A nation, which towards the end of the eighteenth century had been practically extinct, became a power by the middle of the nineteenth century. With the stubbornness of peasants and the zeal of pioneers the apostles of the Czech nationality worked for the uplifting of their people. The fruit of their labours was a renaissance almost without parallel in the history of the world. Beginning with the midddle of the nineteenth century, they have held, as to wealth and education, the first place among the nationalities of Austria-Hungary.
In 1848 the Czecho-Slovak nation spoke out for the first time since 1618 on matters of international politics. In that fateful year the majority of the Czecho-Slovaks proved by no means hostile to the Hapsburgs. As in every part of Europe, there was, of course, also in Bohemia a revolutionary party. But earlier than anyone else in Europe the Czechs and Jugo-Slavs recognised the double-faced character of German-Magyar “liberalisms”—of liberalisms which claim rights for “master nations” (Herrenvölker) and forge chains for weaker nationalities. In opposition to the German and Magyar Imperialisms, the Czecho-Slovaks turned to the Hapsburgs, hoping that, as against the disruptive tendencies of the Pan-Germans and the Magyar separatists, the Hapsburgs would in their own interests rely on the support of the weaker Slav nations, which asked for nothing except justice and the possibility of a peaceful, unhampered national development. The Czechs hoped that the Hapsburgs would make themselves leaders in a rejuvenated Austria. Some writers on international
