CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDEPENDENT CZECHOSLOVAK STATE … Belgian, or British Prince could have become the Czech King, too). Masaryk proclaimed the idea that the goal of the war must be “the revival of Europe” on the basis of the “modern principle of nations”. Thus, thanks to Masaryk’s ideas, the Czech question gradually became an international question. Other Czech and Slovak politicians, such as Edvard Beneš and M. R. Štefánik, co-operated with Masaryk. The young Czech politician Edvard Beneš proved particularly competent in diplomacy and in garnering support for Masaryk’s opinions at the international level from the Allied Powers. He also symbolised the connection with the Czech secret political organisation known as “ Maffie ”. Štefánik was a competent negotiator and organizer, mainly in military matters. In France and Great Britain, however, the Czech (Czechoslovak) issue was always looked at from a wider perspective of similar efforts of other Slav nations and in the context of Austria-Hungary as a whole. 11 The key moment for a change in the approach of the Allied Powers to the idea of an independent Czechoslovak state arrived in the last year of the war in 1918. It was more and more evident that Austria-Hungary would not be able to survive or would, at the very least, need a significant overhaul of its government. The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and its recuperations, the U.S. joining World War I, and the application of Wilson’s Fourteen Points and his appeal to the Allied Powers to formulate their war goals influenced this change in approach. The opportunity for Czech (Czechoslovak) independence appeared, although the possibility of wider rights for individual countries within a federated Austria was still being considered. 12 It was important for the establishment of an independent state that the diplomatic efforts of the Czech representation abroad (in exile) should be supported by evidence of the Czech and Slovak nations’ will to live in an independent state. Arguments in favour of the union of the Czech Lands and Slovakia were also vital. Clearly, arguments emphasising the claims of the oppressed nations in Austria-Hungary for self-determination prevailed, but, as we will see, a combination of this approach and the original ideas of the Czech state law were also conceivable. A larger part of the “domestic” Czech political scene chose either an expectant or even a loyalist approach to Austria-Hungary during the second half of 1917. The Manifesto of Czech Writers of May 1917 played an important role in this respect; it appealed to Czech deputies in the Reichsrat to support the “Czech political programme” which reflected the development of world events. But “the Czechoslovak nation” was mentioned, too, anticipating the union with Slovakia. The union of Czechs and Slovaks within the reformed Austria-Hungary was also foreseen in the proclamation of the so-called Czech Union (the representation of Czech deputies in Austrian Parliament) which František Staněk, the deputy of the Agrarian Party, read at the opening of the reinstated Reichsrat in Vienna on 30 May 1917. The so-called General Assembly of Czech Deputies of the House of Deputies of the Reichsrat and of the Czech, Moravian, and Silesian Diets (i.e. officially elected Czech political representation) and the adoption of the declaration known as the Three Kings Declaration 13 became the 11 See HANAK, H.: The Government, the Foreign Office and Austria-Hungary 1914–1918. The Slavonic and East European Review , 1969, Vol. XLVII, No. 108, p. 161 and following. 12 PERMAN, D.: The Shaping of the Czechoslovak State: Diplomatic History of the Boundaries of Czechoslovakia, 1914–1920 . Brill 1962, in particular pp. 28-30. 13 KLIMEK, A. et al. (eds.): Vznik Československa 1918 [ Creation of Czechoslovakia 1918 ]. Dokumenty českoslo- venské zahraniční Politiky, Praha: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů 1994, doc. No. 1 and 2.

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