Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 31 1917.pdf/193

Rh in tradition or history, were of a peaceful nature, following the desolation and abandonment of the land through wars.

Like all people at a corresponding stage of development, they were subdivided into numerous tribes which settled different parts of the country, and the names of some of these clans, with remnants of dialectic, dress, and other characteristic differences, persist even to this day.

Their documentary history begins in the seventh century, at which time they already extend as far south as the Danube. They are agricultural and pastoral people, of patriarchal organization. Their government is almost republican, under a chief, elected by an assembly of representatives of the main classes of the people. Later this office develops into that of hereditary kings, whose assumption of the throne must nevertheless be in every instance ratified by the national diet. The nation possesses a code of formal supreme laws, and the people are noted for their physical prowess, free spirit, love of poetry, and passionate jealousy of independence.

In the ninth century the pagan Czechs accept Christianity, with Slav liturgy, which becomes at once one of their most cherished endowments, as well as a source of much future hostility from Rome. The various tribes become united under the Premysl Dynasty, begun by the national heroine Libussa, with her plowman husband, and lasting in the male line until the first part of the fourteenth century.

Under their kings the Czechs reach an important position among the European nations. They rule, in turn, over large parts of what are now Austrian provinces, and briefly even over Hungary, Poland, and Galicia. But their fortune varies. From the time of Charlemagne they struggle, often for their very existence, with their neighbors, irritated by their presence, their racial diversity, and their riches. The first recorded war with the Germans dates from 630, when the Frank Dagobert endeavors by force of arms to impose vassalage on the Czechs, but suffers defeat; and from this time on the Bohemian history is replete with records of fighting with the Germans. How the nation escaped annihilation must remain a marvel of history. It is sometimes reduced to almost a German vassal; yet it is never entirely overcome, and rises again and again to assert its individuality and independence.

Some of the Bohemian kings, under political and other influences, permit, and even invite, settlements of Germans on the outskirts of Bohemia. This is the origin of the German population of the country, which has played and still plays such a large part in its politics.

The latter part of the thirteenth century is a most critical period of Bohemia. Under Otakar II, one of its ablest kings, the country has readied the acme of its power. It extends from Saxony to the Adriatic, and Vienna is its second capital. Many of the German principalities are its allies and the king comes near to being called to head the Holy Empire.

But Rudolph of Habsburg is elected to this office, and from the moment of the advent of the house of Habsburg commence Bohemia's greatest misfortunes. The only offense of the Bohemian king is that he is Slav, but that, with the jealousy of his power, the democratic institutions, and the wealth of his country, which contains the richest mines of silver in Europe, is sufficient. Great armies, German and Hungarian, are raised against him; finally he is treacherously slain in battle, his kingdom torn apart, and Bohemia is ravished and reduced almost to a "possession" or a fief of the Empire.

Yet the wound is not mortal, the nation is too strong; it rises again, and within a few decades, under Otakar's son, regains its independence and much of its former power. In 1306, however, the last Bohemian king of the great Premysl family is slain by an assassin, and there begins a long period of dynastic difficulties, which become in time the main cause of Bohemia's downfall.