Old Czech Party

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National Party
Národní strana
Historical leaders
Elections
František Palacký, (lithograph by Adolf Dauthage, 1855)

The Old Czech Party (

Revolution Year of 1848. They initiated Czech national program, forming of modern national through Czech National Revival and better position of Bohemia within the Habsburg Monarchy.[1]

An important event in the history of the party were split of Young Czech wing of the party, in 1874 formed Young Czech Party led by Karel Sladkovský.[2]

Background

The

1848 Revolutions, starting in Sicily before spreading to the rest of Europe, led to the formation of the first Czech political parties in the Austrian Empire. Upon the resignation of State Chancellor Klemens von Metternich, the new Austrian government under Prime Minister Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky finally ceded to the provisional Bohemian "national assembly" (Svatováclavský výbor roku 1848) the right to hold elections for a Landtag parliament in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Though initially backed by the Austrian governor Count Leopold von Thun und Hohenstein, the attempt failed due to disagreement with Moravian and Austrian Silesian representatives as well as the resistance of the German
-speaking minority.

In June 1848 the

Kremsier Parliament in 1849. Despite this defeat and its implications, the 1848 experience boosted ethnic nationalism in the Habsburg lands, and activists looked upon the Czech National Revival
with pride.

Languages in northern Austria-Hungary according to 1910 census
  Czech
  Slovak
  Ruthenian/Ukrainian
  Polish
  German
  Hungarian
  Romanian

As a result of the failed revolution, in 1851 the decreed

Bachist neo-absolutism".[3]: 88  After the defeat of Austria in the Second Italian War of Independence in 1859 Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria was forced to revoke absolutist policies in an attempt to pacify internal dissent by means of the October Diploma which included the implementation of an Imperial Council parliament. Immediately, a Czech National Party (Národní strana, "Old Czech" party) was formed under the guidance of František Palacký and his son-in-law, František Ladislav Rieger
. The National Party sought to achieve a large measure of political and cultural autonomy for the Czech people within a federated Austria.

The February Patent of 1861 from Interior Minister Anton von Schmerling marked an abrupt reversion to centralized ideas applied to the Czech lands. Imperial recognition of an autonomous Bohemian kingdom did not come to pass despite continued efforts by the National Party to receive formal recognition of their autonomy. Nationalities assigned to second class status by the constitutional arrangements of the monarchy in the 1860s could do no more than work for reform within the oppressive and bureaucratic framework of the dual monarchy.[2]: 58  Action was dependent on the occurrence of another international crisis which would compel the Habsburgs to initiate real reform and liberalize the constitution. This state of inaction proved to be a long struggle by the Czechs against the authoritarian Habsburg Empire.

Emergence

By 1863, two clearly defined factions within the Czech National Party had emerged: the Old Czechs and the Young Czechs. Their major areas of contention were: the extent to which the party should cooperate with the conservative landowners, how best to define and advance Bohemian state rights, whether or not to passively resist centralization of the monarchy, and their difference of opinion with the Polish insurrection in

Reichsrat
) meetings. The Young Czechs, on the other hand, felt that Czech national interests would be best served by participating actively in all forms of government.

Two events in particular display the effects of the Old Czechs' policy of passive resistance and cooperation with the nobility. The war in 1866 between the monarchy and Prussia displayed how the Old Czechs' policy of loyalty and cooperation backfired. With the war, the monarchy sought the financial aid of its lands and

Edvard Grégr, heralded the decision to form an independent Young Czech party in December of the same year. The Národní Listy (National Paper) saluted the “seven Maccabees who unsheathed the sword of political activism to defend their homeland” while the loyal Old Czech newspapers decried “the seven Krauts who carried the national cross to Golgotha."[2]
: 73 

After eight years (1871–79) of boycotting the Reichsrat in protest against the collapse of a negotiated agreement with

Emperor Franz Joseph, the Young Czech chose to compromise. Their reentry into legislative politics marked the end of German Reichsrat majority. The Young Czechs held 85 to 87 of the 425 seats in the Reichsrat by 1900.[4]

In 1891, the end of the Old Czech predominance in Czech politics helped to disrupt the conservative “iron ring” parliamentary coalition with whose help Count Taaffe had governed since 1879, and marks the beginning of the modern era of Czech political parties.

In February 1918, the party formally merged with a new coalition, the Czech State Right Democratic Party, which later, under the Republic, became the party of

Czechoslovak National Democracy headed by former Young Czech leader Karel Kramář
.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-8108-5648-6
    .
  2. ^ a b c Garver, Bruce M.: "The Young Czech Party 1874-1901 and the emergence of a multi-party system.", Yale University Press., 1978
  3. ^ a b Frantisek Kavka, An Outline of Czechoslovak History (Prague: Orbis, 1960)
  4. ^ Leff, Carol Skalnik.: "National Conflict in Czechoslovakia.", p 24. Princeton University Press., 1988
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