Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 31 1917.pdf/198



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Austria has been effected. Continuous wars with the Turks and a terrible plague further weaken the Czechs.

Ferdinand proves a scourge. Religious persecution and then general oppression of Bohemia follow. The freely chosen king becomes tyrant and before long the greatest enemy of Bohemia. Backed by the rest of his dominion, by Rome and Spain, he tramples over the privileges of Bohemia; depletes its man-power as well as treasury; by subterfuge or treachery occupies Prague and other cities, and follows with bloody reprisals and confiscations, which lead to an era of ruthlessness and suffering such as the country has not experienced in its history. The weakened state of the country allows of no effective protest, and of its former allies or friends none are strong enough to offer effective help.

Yet even worse was to come from the Habsburgs, the association with whom for Bohemia was from the beginning of the greatest misfortune. During the reign of Ferdinand's immediate successors there is a breathing spell for the Czechs; but in 1616 another Habsburg, Ferdinand II, again under force of circumstances, is elected king of Bohemia, only to prove its greatest tyrant. Within two years the Bohemians are in open revolt, and in another year the king is deposed.