Czechoslovakia first came into existence at the conclusion of World War I and the collapse of the Austria-Hungarian Empire. The new country immediately needed to create a working government, establish a banking system separate from that Austria-Hungary, acquire loans for purchasing flour and grain, establish a diplomatic corp, negotiate treaties, represent its interests at Versailles and I’m sure many other things, very quickly. And
And while achieving all of this in very short order – and apparently successfully – the country also starting implementing changes for the good of its citizens.
Two further important reforms of strongly democratic tendency were carried through by the Kramář Cabinet. The Local Franchise Arc gives all citizens, without distinction of sex, who have passed their 21st year and have been settled for at least three months in their community the local and municipal franchise. The agrarian reform was designed to satisfy the land hunger of the small peasants and at the same time to stop emigration and repair to a certain extent the injustice inflicted by the wholesale confiscations of landed property, and distribution to a foreign nobility after the Battle of the White Mountain, 1620.
-The Encyclopedia Brittanica, Thirteenth Edition, New Volume I, p795
It should be noted that women did not get the right to vote until 1920 in the United States, 1928 in the United Kingdom, 1944 in France. Yet the Czech government decided that was important as it entered statehood.
The social legislation passed during this period shows very clearly the influence of the social groups […] in the National Assembly. Among the principal social measures may be mentioned the eight-hour day, which was adopted on Dec. 19, 1918 […], the Act on unemployment benefits (Dec. 10, 1918), the Act on insurance against sickness (May 10, 1919), the Act on the protection of tenants (Dec. 27, 1918) …
-The Encyclopedia Brittanica, Thirteenth Edition, New Volume I, p795
Other than the eight-hour day – established by the Adamson Act in 1916 – the United States greatly lagged behind this new country. It makes you wonder what Czechoslovakia would have achieved if not thrown under the bus by western allies at Munich in 1938.
