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12 laws passed by the Estates of the Diet in the preceding centuries, and confirmed by both history and tradition.

It was only natural that the sovereign of these three states should wish to unite his dominions in a closer bond. In each state the constitutional conditions were different, and therefore the power of the monarch differently determined. Seeing that in one of these three states the power of the monarch was almost unlimited, that the Feudal System was on the decline, and that absolutist tendencies were at this period making themselves felt throughout Europe, it was natural that the monarch should endeavour to reduce the constitutions of the other two free states to the level of the institutions of the hereditary state. This singular situation favoured the dynastic pride of the Habsburgs, assisted them in the attainment of their aims, and encouraged them in their political ambitions. Thus, the history of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy is the history of a conflict between these two combatants: on the one hand the Habsburgs, impelled by their dynastic ambitions, encouraged by the peculiar condition of their lands, fighting for a closer union between the three parts of their monarchy, and regardless of their original independence towards one another; on the other hand the Czech and Hungarian group, resisting these constant attacks and trying instead