Page:The future of Bohemia by Seton-Watson (1915).pdf/9

 surrounding countries. The Riesengebirge, the Erzgebirge, the Bohemian forest hem her in almost upon three sides, and even on the south and south-east there are clear lines of demarcation. The strategic importance of this natural fortress has long been a commonplace with military students; indeed, the phrase, “The master of Bohemia will be the master of Europe,” is far more plausible than the parallel dictum of Napoleon I about Constantinople. The famous Panslavist, General Fadejev, knew what he was about, when forty-five years ago he wrote, “Without Bohemia the Slav cause is for ever lost; it is the head, the advance-guard of all Slavs.”

Geographical unity Bohemia has, but racial unity has been denied to her. For centuries Bohemia has been inhabited by two rival races, the Czechs and the Germans, and has formed one of the chief battle-grounds between the Slav and the Teutonic idea. Into the vexed question, which of the two races has priority or formed the true majority in earlier centuries, we need not enter. Much has been made of such arguments on both sides; but in reality it is quite as immaterial as the similar question whether the Roumanians were in possession of Transylvania before the Magyars, or the Magyars before the Roumanians. In the one case, as in the other, both races have been there so long that no one is entitled to regard either of them as inferiors or interlopers.