Independent Bohemia | Page 3

to violate the liberties of Bohemia which they were
bound by oath to observe, and this led finally to the fateful Czech
revolution of 1618. At the battle of the White Mountain in 1620 the
Czechs suffered a defeat and were cruelly punished for their rebellion.
All their nobility were either executed or sent into exile, and their
property confiscated. The country was devastated by the imperial
hordes, and its population was reduced from 3,000,000 to 800,000
during the Thirty Years' War.
In 1627 Ferdinand II. greatly curtailed the administrative rights of
Bohemia, yet he did not dare to deprive her entirely of her
independence. In his "Renewed Ordinance of the Land" Ferdinand
declared the Bohemian crown to be hereditary in the House of
Habsburg, and reserved legislative power to the sovereign. But
otherwise the historical rights of Bohemia remained valid,
notwithstanding all subsequent arbitrary centralising measures taken by
the Habsburgs. Bohemia's rights were repeatedly recognised by each
succeeding Habsburg. Legally Bohemia is an independent state to-day.
The heavy persecutions inflicted upon Bohemia had a disastrous effect
upon her intellectual life and national development which were
completely paralysed until the end of the eighteenth century, when
owing to the humanitarian ideals of those times, and as a reaction

against the Germanising centralistic efforts of Joseph II., the Czechs
again began to recover their national consciousness. This revival
marked the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak struggle for the
re-establishment of their independence. The movement was at first
literary, and only in the forties became political. It was a continuous
struggle against reaction and absolutism, and if the Czecho-Slovaks
to-day can boast of an advanced civilisation, it is only owing to their
perseverance and hard endeavours, and not because of any good-will on
the part of the Austrian Government which put every possible obstacle
in their way.
2. _The present Austria-Hungary_ is primarily a dynastic estate, for the
crown was always its supreme political driving force, although at
present the Habsburgs are mere slaves of their masters, the
Hohenzollerns. It is this characteristic which justifies us in concluding
that Austria is an autocratic state par excellence. If there were no other
reason, this should be sufficient to make every true democrat an enemy
of Austria. Furthermore, it is this characteristic which makes us
comprehend why the Habsburg monarchy is fighting side by side with
German autocracy and imperialism against the allied democracies of
the world.
Notwithstanding the so-called constitution which is a mere cloak for
absolutism, the monarch in Austria is emperor by "Divine Right" alone,
and is the absolute master of his subject peoples in virtue of his
privileged position which confers on him an inexhaustible amount of
power and influence. The internal as well as the foreign policy of the
monarchy is directed in the real or supposed interests of the dynasty.
The principle divide et impera is its leading idea in internal politics,
and the increase of dynastic power in foreign policy. The question of
war and peace is decided by the emperor, to whom it also appertains to
order matters concerning the management, leadership and organisation
of the whole army. And though in Hungary the power of the monarch
largely depends on the Budapest Parliament, yet even here the
constitutional power of the dynasty is enormous, the King of Hungary
being a governing and legislative factor by no means inferior to that of
the parliament.
Even when attempts were made at enfranchising the masses (as in 1896
and finally in 1905), the motive again was purely dynastic. Such

constitutional measures as were taken, only strengthened racial
dissensions and were equally insincere and inefficient. The present
constitution of 1867, as well as the previous constitutions of 1849,
1860 and 1861, was granted by the crown, to whom it was reserved to
reverse or modify the same. The parliament is absolutely powerless in
Austria. It is a mere cloak for absolutism, since the famous Paragraph
14 provides for absolutist government by means of imperial decrees
without parliament in case of emergency. The dynasty took ample
advantage of this clause during the first three years of this war when
absolutism and terrorism reigned supreme in the Dual Monarchy.
While since 1861 up to the beginning of the war 156 imperial decrees
had been issued, fully 161 have been passed during the first three years
of the present war.
The arbitrary power of the dynasty is based: upon the organisation of
the army, the leadership of which is entrusted to the Germans; upon the
feudal aristocracy who are the only real Austrians, since they have no
nationality, though they invariably side with the dominant Germans and
Magyars; upon the power of the police who form the chief instrument
of the autocratic government and who spy upon and terrorise the
population; upon the German bureaucrats who