The History of the Czech Republic and Slovakia (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations) PDF
Preview The History of the Czech Republic and Slovakia (The Greenwood Histories of the Modern Nations)
THE HISTORY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA ADVISORY BOARD JohnT.Alexander Professorof Historyand Russianand EuropeanStudies, UniversityofKansas RobertA.Divine George W.LittlefieldProfessor in AmericanHistoryEmeritus, UniversityofTexas at Austin JohnV.Lombardi Professorof History, UniversityofFlorida THE HISTORY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND SLOVAKIA William M. Mahoney TheGreenwoodHistoriesoftheModernNations FrankW.ThackerayandJohnE.Findling,SeriesEditors Copyright2011byWilliamM.Mahoney Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedinaretrieval system,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,electronic,mechanical, photocopying,recording,orotherwise,exceptfortheinclusionofbriefquotationsina review,withoutpriorpermissioninwritingfromthepublisher. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Mahoney,WilliamM. ThehistoryoftheCzechRepublicandSlovakia/WilliamM.Mahoney. p. cm.— (TheGreenwoodhistoriesofthemodernnations) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978–0–313–36305–4(hardcopy:acid-freepaper) —ISBN978–0–313–36306–1 (ebook) 1. CzechRepublic—History.2. Slovakia—History.3. Czechoslovakia—History. I.Title. DB2063.M34 2011 943.7—dc22 2010051686 ISBN:978–0–313–36305–4 EISBN:978–0–313–36306–1 15 14 13 12 11 1 2 3 4 5 ThisbookisalsoavailableontheWorldWideWebasaneBook. Visitwww.abc-clio.comfordetails. Greenwood AnImprintofABC-CLIO,LLC ABC-CLIO,LLC 130CremonaDrive,P.O.Box1911 SantaBarbara,California93116-1911 Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper ManufacturedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Contents SeriesForeword vii Acknowledgments xi TimelineofHistoricalEvents xiii 1 TheCzechRepublicandSlovakiaToday 1 2 OriginsandMedievalLegacies 19 3 TheLateMiddleAges 41 4 ReligiousControversiesandMilitaryConflicts (1400s–1700s) 63 5 IntotheModernEra:Reform,Revolution,andNational Awakening(1740–1914) 93 6 WorldWarIandtheFirstCzechoslovakRepublic (1914–1938) 129 vi Contents 7 TheMunichAgreementandWorldWarII (1938–1945) 163 8 ThePostwarEraandtheCommunistRegime (1945–1989) 193 9 TheVelvetRevolution,the“VelvetDivorce,”and theTwoRepublics(1989–2009) 231 NotablePeopleintheHistoryoftheCzechRepublic andSlovakia 265 Bibliography 273 Index 279 Series Foreword TheGreenwoodHistoriesoftheModernNationsseriesisintendedtopro- vide students and interested laypeople with up-to-date,concise,and analyticalhistoriesofmanyofthenationsofthecontemporaryworld. Not since the 1960s has there been a systematic attempt to publish a seriesofnationalhistories,andasseriesadvisors,webelievethatthis series will prove to be a valuable contribution to our understanding ofothercountriesinourincreasinglyinterdependentworld. Some 40 years ago, at the end of the 1960s, the Cold War was an accepted reality of global politics.The process of decolonization was still in progress, the idea of a unified Europe with a single currency was unheard of, the United States was mired in a war in Vietnam, and the economic boom in Asia was still years in thefuture. Richard NixonwaspresidentoftheUnitedStates,MaoTse-tung(notyetMao Zedong)ruledChina,Leonid BrezhnevguidedtheSovietUnion,and Harold Wilson was prime ministerof the United Kingdom. Authori- tariandictatorsstillcontrolledmostofLatinAmerica,theMiddleEast was reeling in the wake of the Six-Day War, and Shah Mohammad RezaPahlaviwasattheheightofhispowerinIran. Sincethen,theColdWarhasended,theSovietUnionhasvanished, leaving 16 independent republics in its wake, the advent of the viii Series Foreword computer age has radically transformed global communications, the rising demand for oil makes the Middle East still a dangerous flash- point, and the rise of new economic powers such as the People’s Republic of China and India threatens to bring about a new world order. All of these developments have had a dramatic impact on the recenthistoryofeverynationoftheworld. Forthisseries,whichwaslaunchedin1998,wefirstselectednations whose political, economic, and sociocultural affairs marked them as among the mostimportantofourtime.Foreachnation, we found an authorwhowasrecognizedasaspecialistinthehistoryofthatnation. These authors worked cooperatively with us and with Greenwood Press to produce volumes that reflected current research on their nations and that are interesting and informative to their readers. In the first decade of the series, more than 40 volumes were published, andasof2008,somearemovingintosecondeditions. Thesuccessoftheserieshasencouragedustobroadenourscopeto includeadditionalnations,whosehistorieshavehadsignificanteffects on their regions, if not on the entire world. In addition, geopolitical changes have elevated other nations into positions of greater impor- tanceinworldaffairs,and so we havechosen to include them inthis seriesaswell.Theimportanceofaseriessuchasthiscannotbeunder- estimated.Asasuperpowerwhoseinfluenceisfeltallovertheworld, theUnitedStatescanclaima“special”relationshipwithalmostevery othernation.YetmanyAmericansknowverylittleaboutthehistories ofnationswithwhichtheUnitedStatesrelates.Howdidtheygettobe thewaytheyare?Whatkindofpoliticalsystemshaveevolvedthere? Whatkind of influence do they haveon theirownregions? What are the dominant political, religious, and cultural forces that move their leaders?Theseandmanyotherquestionsareansweredinthevolumes ofthisseries. Theauthorswho contributetothis serieswritecomprehensivehis- tories of their nations, dating back, in some instances, to prehistoric times.Eachofthem,however,hasdevotedasignificantportionoftheir book to events of the past 40 years because the modern era has contributed the most to contemporary issues that have an impact on U.S. policy.Authors makeevery effort to be as up to dateas possible so that readers can benefit from discussion and analysis of recent events. In addition to the historical narrative, each volume contains an introductory chaptergivinganoverviewofthatcountry’sgeography, politicalinstitutions,economicstructure,andculturalattributes.This is meant to give readers a snapshot of the nation as it exists in the Series Foreword ix contemporary world. Each history also includes supplementary informationfollowingthenarrative,whichmayincludeatimelinethat represents a succinct chronology of the nation’s historical evolution, biographicalsketchesofthenation’smostimportanthistoricalfigures, andaglossaryofimportanttermsorconceptsthatareusuallyexpressed in a foreign language. Finally, each author prepares a comprehensive bibliographyforreaderswhowishtopursuethesubjectfurther. Readers of these volumes will find them fascinating and well written. More importantly, they will come away with a better understanding of the contemporary world and the nations that compriseit.Asseriesadvisors,wehopethatthisserieswillcontribute toaheightenedsenseofglobalunderstandingaswemovethroughthe earlyyearsofthe21stcentury. FrankW.ThackerayandJohnE.Findling IndianaUniversitySoutheast
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