The Hussite movement quickened the spirit of nationality among the Czechs, and arrested the process of Germanization which had made such progress under Charles of Luxemburg. Endless internal dissensions and the extraordinary com plexity of the political fabric, with its maze of jurisdiction, stood, however, in the way of the erection of a permanent Slavic monarchy. From 1458 to 1471 the throne of Bohemia was occu pied by the shrewd and able George Podiebrad. His successor, Ladislas II., of the Polish House of Jazellon (1471-1516). was chosen to succeed Matthias Corvinus on the throne of Hungary. Louis. the son and successor of Ladislas II., was likewise King of Hungary. He lost his life in 1526 On the field of Mobiles, where Sultan Sol' man the 3.1agnificent overwhelmed the Ilungari :111 S. The Estate: of Bohemia now bestowed the crown upon Louis's brother-in-law, Ferdinand of Hapsburg, the brother of the Emperor Charles V. Ferdinand ruled over the old hereditary domin ions of the House of Austria, and simultaneously with his election in Bohemia was chosen King by a portion of the Hungarians. Thus were laid the foundations of the Slav-German-Magyar State of Austria-Hungary. The Bohemian realm, or the lands belonging to the crown of Saint Wen ceslas, at this time included Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Lusatia. The crown of Bohemia soon became virtually hereditary in the House of Hapsburg. The Hussite movement had paved the way for the introduction of the Reformation into Bohemia. The Hapsburgs directed their energies toward the suppression of Protestant ism, and in the struggle that ensued Bohemia lost alike her political freedom and her religious liberties. Ferdinand 1. was unable to stein the progress of the Reformation, which continued to spread rapidly under his successors. Bohemia had arrived at a high state of culture at this time. The University of Prague was one of the greatest seats of learning in Europe. The na tional literature of the Czechs witnessed its Golden Age in the First Century after the Refor mation. In 1618 the Protestants of Bohemia rose against the Hapsburgs and precipitated the struggle of the Thirty Years' War. In 1619 the Bohemian estates placed the crown upon the head of the Elector Palatine, Frederick V. (son-in law of James 1. of England), who had to take up the struggle against the Catholic League of Germany, in arms for the newly elected Emperor of Germany, the bigoted Ferdinand II. of Aus tria. The Catholic forces triumphed at Prague (battle of the White Mountains) in November, 1620. Bohemia lay prostrate at the feet of Ferdi nand, who wreaked his vengeance in a merciless way, crushed out Protestantism, and turned the country over to the Jesuits.
Bohemia was a bloody battle-ground in the Thirty Years' War, which ended where it had begun, at Prague. It is estimated that the popu lation of about 2.000.000 was reduced to 700,000, and the civilization of the country suffered a blow from which it never recovered. The people bore meekly the rule of the Hapsburgs. no con siderable portion of the population being any longer estranged from them by differences of religion. In the latter part of the Eighteenth Century, however, there was a vigorous reawak ening of the national feeling among the Czechs, which, under the stimulus of patriotic writers, gradually developed into an active yearning for national indep•ndenee. An emphatic utterance was given to this sentiment in 184S, when a. Pan-Slavic Congress was convened in Prague. At this time the capital was the scene of an insurrection, which was suppressed by the guns of Windischgriitz. Since then the efforts of the Czechs to regain their autonomy played an important part in the history of the Empire. The reorganization of Austria-Hungary on the present dualistic basis only intensified the an tagonism between the Germans and the Slays of Bohemia. The Czechs refused to enter the Vi enna Reichsrat of 1867: their leaders, Palacky and Rieger, ostentatiously attended the Pan Slavic Congress at Moscow in 1868, and the demands fur national autonomy grew more em phatic with each concession, made by the Tan lie and Badeni ministries, as to the establishment of a Czech university at Prague and the status of the Czech language in the courts and the admin. istration. United as the Czechs are as against the Germans on national issues, they are sharply divliled within themselves on other points. the Old Czechs representing the feudal and clerical party, and the Young Czechs the radical and irreconcilable element. It is the latter that has within recent years placed itself into such vio lent antagonism to. German pretensions in the Vienna Reichsrat. The apparent impossibility of reconciling the Czechs to the existing order of things in Austria-Hungary constitutes the chief danger that threatens the stability of the Empire_ Consult: Bourlier, Les Tchecques ct la Bo 116ne cot:temporal/lc (Paris, 1897); Count Lilt zow, Bohemia: Art Historical Sketch (London, 1896) ; Maurice, Bohemia from the Earliest Times to 1620, a popular account in the Stories of the Nations Series (New York, 1896) : Ginde ly. History of the Thirty Years' War. 2 vols., English translation by Ten Brook (New York, 1834), for the Bohemian insurrection and its results.