The term "Czechoslovak" is of recent coinage, dating to 1918, when the united Czechs and Slovaks proclaimed their independence of Austria and their establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic.

The Czechs were more commonly known before as the Bohemians, after the generally used name of their home country. The name Czech (pronounced Chekh) is derived, according to an old tradition, from the chieftain of their main tribe who brought them, sometime before the dawn of history, to the heart of the land which the Romans, after another tribe they found there, the Alpine Boii, called Boio-hemia, or Bohemia.

As a matter of fact the Czechs were but one of a number of closely related Slavic tribes that, from well before the Christian era, were spreading from the mother-territory of all Slavs, the great Vistula watershed region, southwestward and southward, to the very center of Europe and below the Carpathians. These tribes spoke closely related dialects of the same language, and while differing more or less in habits, as would so many clans or tribes of any larger ethnic unit, they carried physically and otherwise so much in common they must be regarded as one and the same people.

Several such sub-divisions of the Czechs occupied the western-most parts of the new heavily forested territory, extended gradually over the same, absorbed the remnants of preceding dwellers, and by the fifth century AD are seen to be firmly established in the natural geographic unit of "Bohemia" and to the northeast of it in Silesia.

A little to the east of Bohemia, in the rich plains of the Moravia river, settled other clans or tribes of the same stock, which from their territory became known as the Moravians. And from eastern "Moravia" along and partly in the Carpathians, to the faraway boundary of Ruthenia, became settled still other sister clans or tribes that eventually became known of the "Slovaks", clans whose collective name is probably from the old "Slav" or "Slavian".

The history of the Czechoslovak tribes, from the dawn of written records to the present day, has been one of everlasting struggles against invaders, on the west, northwest and southwest the Germans, on the southeast the Magyrs. These struggles affected the people differently in the several territories they occupied. They resulted in admixtures, in the settlement in parts of the lands of German and Magyar elements, and in differing cultural developments. The Czechs in particular suffered, were much admixed, but through force of circumstance rose also culturally. The Slovaks, who up to 1029 formed a unit with Moravia, were then torn away by the Magyars, isolated from the west, forced away from the best grounds in the warm lowlands, and eventually repressed in every way.

Yet they, as well as the bulk of the Moravians, remained purer than the Czechs, and their dialect, as also that of the Moravians, has suffered less, so that both remain nearer to the original language of the tribes; but the rude mountains environment of the Slovaks, their isolation, and the oppression they were subject to, particularly since the earlier part of the nineteenth century, have restricted their cultural advance. In direct proportion to this the Slovaks and the Moravians have preserved more of their wonderful folk art tend their individuality, while the Czechs have become more cosmopolitan.

From the seventh century when they organized against the Avars into the Moravian State, to the seventeenth when they fell under Austria, the Czechoslovak people had shown remarkable political and cultural developments. Long before America was discovered Bohemia had already a great University (1348), which exists to this day. From the 13th to the 16th century Bohemia, including Moravia and Silesia, is one of the foremost cultural torchbearers of Europe. It excels in education and the arts, and prospers under a long line of rulers. In the fifteenth century it leads with Jan Hus and his followers in religions reformation, and from 1419 to 1432 it shatters every armed effort of the "Holy Roman Empire" at its subjugation. It is not until 1620 when the Czechs, worn out by political and religious strife and temporarily without proper leaders, succumb to the Austro-Germans.

From 1620 to the end of the 18th Century is the dark age for the Czechoslovak people. Their foremost families exiled by the tens of thousands, properties confiscated and given to those who helped in the conquest or oppression, religiously persecuted and with their culture systematically destroyed, the Czechs pass through a dormant period which lasts until the beginning dawn if modern enlightenment and liberty towards the restoration of the language, towards the acquainting of the people with their history, towards inculcating once more into them national self-consciousness, and towards gradually preparing them through mental and physical discipline and development for a resumption of their historic estate and self-government.

Since long before the World War the Czechoslovaks are in open intellectual warfare with Austria-Hungary; from the moment the War starts they are, wherever they exist, with the Allies, assisting them in every way possible. And eventually, on the 28th of October, 1918, they terminate their three-hundred-years-long vassalage to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire and become once more, with the help of the Allies and America in particular, an independent unit of the human family.

Physically the Czechoslovaks, like all larger ethnic groups, while presenting basic similarity show also some diversity. The original type is best preserved in parts of Moravia and Slovakia. It is a type characterized by good stature, strong, well proportioned body, face more rounded than oval, physiognomy frank, smiling, intelligent and attractive, hair and eyes ranging from light to medium brown, absence of prognathism. Their principal mental characteristics are cordiality, sensitiveness, idealism, valor, with love of family, music, dance, and of everything good and beautiful. Also, considerable individualism, ingrained love of the soil and all that goes with it, of order and cleanliness. And there is a universal hunger of knowledge, which leads to higher education of many of the children.

The Czechoslovaks are industrious and thrifty. Their sense of honor and their idealism are above the general average, their criminality is practically restricted to the mentally abnormal. They do not make good money-makers, nor in general good politicians, having but infrequent inclination in this direction; but they excel in music, art, science, and literature. They enjoy good living, but not luxury. While justly proud of their past and loving their country of birth, they love equally and make the most loyal citizens of this Country.

The Czechoslovaks, in their home-lands, number at present 9,500,000. Of this over two-thirds are Czechs, Moravians and Silesians, a something less than one-third Moravian and more eastern Slovaks. As there is in every respect a gradual transition between the two elements of populations, exact numbers of each may be impossible. In addition several millions of Czechoslovaks are dispersed over the world, mostly in the United State, in Russia, Austria, Hungary, and Germany. In the United States the 1930 census has recorded 491,638 persons of Czechoslovak birth, and there were many hundreds of thousands of those born here but of Czechoslovak derivation.

What's New Here | Slovak Genealogy | Czech Genealogy

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