DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CZECH NATIONALISM
the interests of Bohemia, Europe, humanity, and culture. After the origin of Austro-Hungarian dualism and after the victory of Prussia in Germany, Palacký proclaimed that there would either be a federative Austria or no Austria at all. Palacký overcame his former skepticism regarding the independent political existence of the Czech nation and convincingly concluded: “We were before Austria and we will be after Austria.” After the defeat of his Austrian-federation idea, Palacký formulated no positive program for Czech politics. The reason for this lay in the murky perspectives of the serious international conflict which was rising on the horizon, the shift of the axis of Central European problems from Vienna to Berlin, and the aggressiveness of Bismarck’s Germany, whose clouds overcast the whole European continent.
Palacký understood and explained the national principle, i.e., the founding of independent national units, as a powerful historical agent which, since the period of the Napoleonic wars, had been transforming Europe and the world. He correctly estimated the growing effectiveness of this principle and its influence on developments not only in the nineteenth but also in the twentieth century, often assuming the form of violent overthrows and bloody catastrophes. The origin of modern Germany and the Italian states and the founding of national state units in the Balkans undoubtedly affected Palacký’s views. The predominance of these political aspects caused Palacký, who was deeply interested in relations among nations, in the relationship between a nation and a state, and in the internal structure of a national entity, to underestimate economic and social forces in the historical process. Although Palacký realized the historical significance of modern national problems, he refused to predict their results or to judge their positive and negative aspects. Nevertheless, he correctly evaluated future trends. Palacký, who was aware of the strength and historical necessity of the national principle, considered all ideological or physical struggles directed against it as futile and expected that sooner or later any military conflict in Europe would assume the form of a national, tribal, internecine war.
Palacký considered the state only a form of organization, while recognizing the nation as the essential social organism, an element superior to the state. He understood, however, that political activity in a state is a manifestation of the national will and an indispensable condition of national vitality. In Palacký’s view, relations among nations should be based on the idea of the natural rights of nations to existence. In this connection, Palacký stressed the principle of equality among nations, regardless of their relative size, population, and political and economic
