An Overview of the Basic Social Changes

Abstract

The Czechoslovak state emerged from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy following the defeat in the First World War of that dysfunctional state formation. Its birth was a result of the clearly expressed political will of the Czech nation and of the representatives of the Slovak nation, on the one hand, and of the governments of the victorious powers on the other. Under the leadership of a group of enlightened and experienced politicians, the road to successful democratic development seemed clear ahead. Indeed, once the democratic government had steered clear of joining the Soviet-type revolution and the post-war recession had been overcome, the Czechoslovakia of the second half of the 1920s became an economically and culturally flourishing democratic European country enjoying international respect. Nobody at that time could have imagined how complicated its destiny was to be.