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Czech language, at that time spoken only by the peasants, began to be employed again as a literary language.
This revival of the Czecho-Slovak nation was at first only literary and scientific. The movement became political in the ’forties, when Metternich’s era of absolutism was already on the decline. Since 1848 the Czecho-Slovaks claimed with renewed vigour the restitution of their ancient rights of an independent nation. And in less than seventy years they became a nation without any illiterates, with a well-developed art and literature, and with a strong and independent agriculture, trade and industries.
The Czecho-Slovak nation to-day.
The Czecho-Slovak territories, which are four times the size of Belgium, are rich and well-developed economically. Expeditions came to Bohemia and Moravia from Russia and elsewhere to become acquainted with the efficient methods of Czech agriculture. We need not dwell on the importance of Bohemian glass, sugar and beer industries, for which the Czechs are famous all over the world. The largest part of sugar and fine glass imported to England came from Bohemia. Bohemia is also rich in coal, iron, silver, copper and other metals.
In business, the Czechs boycotted German goods long before the war. Czech banks had branches in Galicia, Rumania and all over the Balkans, which fought successfully German economic penetration.
