The stranger elected in his place, Frederick of the Palatinate, son-in-law of the King of England, however, proves an incompetent weakling. The Czech armies are disorganized, and November 8, 1620, the main force of 20,000 is defeated at Bila Hora, near Prague, by an army of Germans, Spaniards, Walloons, Poles, Cossacks, and Bavarians.
The following part of the Bohemian history should be read in detail by all its friends—by all friends of humanity.It is a most instructive, though most gruesome, part of the history, not merely of Bohemia, but of Europe, of civilization. In Bohemia itself it is a period of concentrated fiendishness under the banner of religion, and of suffering, of thirty years duration. Beginning with wholesale executions, it progresses to the forced exile of over 30,000 of the best families of the country, with confiscation of their property, and to orgies of destruction of property and life.
Under the leadership of fanatics, every house, every nook, is searched for books and writings, and these are burned in the public squares "to eradicate the devil" of reformation. Rapine reigns, until there is nothing more to burn, nothing to take, and until three-quarters of the population have gone or perished—a dreary monument to the Habsburg dynasty, to the status of mankind in the 17th century. Had not Germany itself been ravaged by the religious wars thus kindled, this period would probably have been the last of the Czechs; as it was, there were not enough Germans left for colonizing other countries. Yet many came in the course of time, as settlers. German becomes the language of commerce, of courts, of all public transactions; the university is German, and in schools the native tongue finds barely space in the lowest grades.
Books have been burnt, educated patriotic men and women driven from the country, memories perverted. It would surely seem that the light of the nation would now, if ever, become extinct. And it becomes obscured for generations—yet is not extinguished. The roots of the stock prove too strong and healthy. The people sleep for 150 years, but it is a sleep of rest, not death—a sleep healing wounds and allowing of a slow gathering of new forces.
BOHEMIA REAWAKENED
Toward the end of the eighteenth century the Czech language is almost wholly that of the untutored peasant. But the time of quickening approaches. First one cell, one nerve, one limb of the prostrate body revives; then others. The history of the nation is resurrected and proves an elixir of life; to learn it is to a Czech enough for a complete awakening. But the awakening period becomes one of constant struggle against all the old forces that would keep him down; yet step by step he advances, over prisons and gallows.
Literature, science, art arise again; journalism begins to develop. The university is regained; Prague, the "mother" of Bohemian cities, is regained, and others follow. Education reaches a higher level ultimately than anywhere else in Austria. A great national society of Sokols ("falcons") is formed to elevate the people physically, intellectually, and morally.
Bohemian literature, music, art, science come against all obstacles to occupy again an honorable position among those of other nations.
Agricultural and technical training progresses until the country is once more the richest part of the empire. Finally journalism has developed until, just before the war, there are hundreds of Czech periodicals. The Czech language is again heard in the courts, in high circles, in the Austrian Reichstag itself; and, though still crippled, there is again a Bohemian Diet.
Where after the Thirty Years' War there were but a few hundred thousands of Czechs left, there are now in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia alone seven millions; besides which there are over two million Slovaks in the adjacent area under Hungary.
Such is the very brief and imperfect abstract of the history of the Czech people, who see once more before them the dawn of liberty which they so long cherished.
