Lewis Bernstein Namier

“ Unaided, entirely by its own strength, the Czech nation has survived the trials of centuries; and yet by the logic of history the common war-aim of all those who fight on the side of the Entente is now closely bound up with the cause of this most isolated of nations. The international position of Bohemia after the war will be the truest test of victory.
The war broke out over an attempt on the part of the Central States to lay down the law to Europe on a question in which the interests of other nations were known to be involved. ”

“ But whilst the German-Magyar scheme thus threatens the fringes of the British Empire, France, Italy, Russia and Roumania, it postulates the complete destruction of two nations—the Serbs and the Czechs. These must cease altogether to exist as nations if “Mittel-Europa” is to arise: for they intervene between the Germans and Magyars, and the Magyars and Bulgars. The Serbs stand in the way of the Central European steam-roller. The Czechs are a spoke in its wheels, and unless broken up they threaten to paralyse its movements. Bohemia occupies the centre of “Mittel-Europa” ”

“ As for the races of the unredeemed lands, their very existence is imperilled by the basic requirements of Central European Union; not even the very modest measure of national self-government, such as was allowed to them in Austria before the war, will be tolerated anywhere in “Mittel-Europa,” once they have been an issue in an armed conflict. ”

“ In spite of the extraordinary development of wealth, and the growth of education which put them on a level with the most progressive nations of Europe, they were weighed down by the consciousness that Bohemia was being buried alive. Her enemies were growing in strength and closing in on her. By the Dualist Settlement of 1867 the separation between the Czechs and the Slovaks was made absolute and the Slovaks were handed over to the mercies of the Magyars. ”

“ But James I., with an insular aloofness, a pharisaic honesty and a political blindness not yet altogether extinct in these islands, was busy studying the constitution of Bohemia, and the rights and wrongs of the case, whilst the rebels were succumbing in the desperate, unequal battle on the White Mountain. Never has so great a disaster befallen any other civilised nation. ”

“ The vision of a great empire in Central Africa has faded into the background, except in the minds of a small minority, and allusions to the lost colonies are rare and perfunctory. As regards Russian Poland, most Germans would probably be prepared to accept any solution which would leave and guarantee to Prussia the possession of her present Polish provinces. ”