Joseph II was an enlightened emperor, and though his mother was anti-Semitic, he was not. Upon his mother’s death in 1780, this mindset was proven in part by one of his first actions as emperor wherein he reversed her three-year mandate that all Jews be exiled from the Austrian Empire. In 1850 the Jewish Quarter in Prague, Josefov, was named after the emperor to honor him and commemorate his support for the Jewish people. It is with great irony then that this fortress town of Terezin, built by a rare open-minded emperor, would be used two centuries later by the greatest anti-Semites of all, the Nazis…

Emperor Joseph II

Over the period of time from Josef II’s reign to WWI, the dual monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was established and claimed control of the Czechoslovak lands. Due to simple geography, the Czechs were more influenced by the Austrians and the Slovaks by the Hungarians. Though their historical backgrounds were similar, the Czechs and Slovaks were two distinct peoples with slightly different languages and customs. The separate influences of Austria and Hungary helped further these differences. By the turn of the twentieth century, however, the Czech and Slovaks were tiring of their roles as properties of empires, and began entertaining the idea of declaring their own independent states.

Map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire circa 1918

This idea, in the form of joint sovereignty, became reality after WWI and the Treaty of Versailles, through which the Austro-Hungarian Empire was broken apart into new countries.  Established as a sovereign state, the Czechs and Slovaks were finally able to institute their own government free of outside rulers. However, the new Czechoslovak Republic initially lacked firm territorial boundaries and a defined voting population, as it was comprised of a number of different ethnic regions and groups. Inhabitants not only included Czechs from the Moravian, Bohemian, and Silesian regions and the Slovaks, but also Hungarians, Poles, and Germans, many of whom were settled in the Sudeten mountain region.