Bohemia

   Bohemia, a kingdom of east-central Europe occupying roughly the western twothirds of the current Czech Republic, lost its political independence in the seventeenth century during the Thirty Years War. In the revolution of 1848, an uprising in Prague, the capital, against Habsburg rule was crushed by troops loyal to the crown. In the nineteenth century, Bohemia became the industrial heartland of the Habsburg Empire. Unlike Hungary in the Ausgleich of 1867, Bohemia did not win a privileged position in the political system of the Habsburg monarchy. One of Austria’s crown lands, Bohemia nevertheless played a prominent role in Austria- Hungary ’ s domestic politics. The Czech majority of the population and the strong and influential German minority were involved in a long drawn out nationality con- flict for supremacy. In 1897, it culminated in riots and chaos in the German-speaking parts of Austria, when protests escalated against prime minister Count Badeni’s attempt to put Czech on equal footing with German in public services.

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   FURTHER READING:

    Kann, Robert A. The Multinational Empire: Nationalism and National Reform in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1848-1918. 2 vols. New York: Octagon Books, 1964;

    Macartney, C. A. The Habsburg Empire, 1790-1918. London: Weidenfield & Nicolson, 1968.

   GUENTHER KRONENBITTER