Declaration of Independence of
the Czechoslovak Nation
(October 18, 1918)

At this grave moment, when the Hohenzollerns are offering
peace in order to stop the victorious advance of the Allied armies
and to prevent the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary
and Turkey, and when the Habsburgs are promising the federalization
of the Empire and autonomy to the dissatisfied nationalities
committed to their rule, we, the Czechoslovak National
Council, recognized by the Allied and American Governments
as the Provisional Government of the Czechoslovak State and
Nation, in complete accord with the declaration of the Czech
Deputies made in Prague on January 6, 1918, and realizing that
federalization, and still more, autonomy, mean nothing under a
Habsburg dynasty, do hereby make and declare this our Declaration
of Independence.
We do this because of our belief that no people should be
forced to live under a sovereignty they do not recognize, and
because of our knowledge and firm conviction that our nation
cannot freely develop in a Habsburg mock-federation, which is
only a new form of the denationalizing oppression under which
we have suffered for the past three hundred years.We consider
freedom to be the first pre-requisite for federalization, and believe
that the free nations of Central and Eastern Europe may
easily federate should they find it necessary.
We make this declaration on the basis of our historic and
natural right.We have been an independent state since the seventh
century; and, in 1526, as an independent state, consisting
of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, we joined with Austria and
Hungary in a defensive union against the Turkish danger. We
have never voluntarily surrendered our rights as an independent
state in this confederation. The Habsburgs broke their
compact with our nation by illegally transgressing our rights
and violating the Constitution of our state which they had
pledged themselves to uphold, and we therefore refuse longer
to remain a part of Austria-Hungary in any form.
We claim the right of Bohemia to be re-united with her
Slovak brethren of Slovakia, once part of our national state,
later torn from our national body, and fifty years ago incorporated
into the Hungarian state of the Magyars, who, by their
unspeakable violence and ruthless oppression of their subject
races have lost all moral and human right to rule anybody but
themselves.
The world knows the history of our struggle against the
Habsburg oppression, intensified and systematized by the
Austro-Hungarian Dualistic Compromise of 1867. This dualism
is only a shameless organization of brute force and exploitation
of the majority by the minority; it is a political conspiracy of
the Germans and Magyars against our own as well as the other
Slav and the Latin nations of the Monarchy. The world knows
the justice of our claims, which the Habsburgs themselves dared
not deny. Francis Joseph, in the most solemn manner repeatedly
recognized the sovereign rights of our nation. The Germans
and Magyars opposed this recognition, and Austria-Hungary,
bowing before the Pan-Germans, became a colony of
Germany, and as her vanguard to the east, provoked the last
Balkan conflict, as well as the present world-war, which was begun
by the Habsburgs alone without the consent of the representatives
of the people.
We cannot and will not continue to live under the rule—direct
or indirect—of the violators of Belgium, France, and Serbia,
the would-be murderers of Russia and Rumania, the murderers
of tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers of our
blood, and the accomplices in numberless unspeakable crimes
committed in this war against humanity by the two degenerate
and irresponsible dynasties.We will not remain a part of a State
which has no justification for existence, and which, refusing to
accept the fundamental principles of modern world-organization,
remains only an artificial and immoral political structure,
hindering every movement toward democratic and social progress.
The Habsburg dynasty, weighed down by a huge inheritance
of error and crime, is a perpetual menace to the peace of
the world, and we deem it our duty toward humanity and civilization
to aid in bringing about its downfall and destruction.
We reject the sacrilegious assertion that the power of the
Habsburg and Hohenzollern dynasties is of divine origin; we
refuse to recognize the divine right of kings. Our nation elected
the Habsburgs to the throne of Bohemia of its own free will and
by the same right deposes them. We hereby declare the Habsburg
dynasty unworthy of leading our nation, and deny all of
their claims to rule in the Czechoslovak Land, which we here
and now declare shall henceforth be a free and independent
people and nation.
We accept and shall adhere to the ideals of modern democracy,
as they have been the ideals of our nation for centuries.
We accept the American principles as laid down by President
Wilson: the principles of liberated mankind—of the actual
equality of nations—and of governments deriving all their just
powers from the consent of the governed. We, the nation of
Comenius, cannot but accept these principles expressed in the
American Declaration of Independence, the principles of Lincoln,
and of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the
Citizen. For these principles our nation shed its blood in the
memorable Hussite Wars five hundred years ago, for these
same principles, beside her Allies in Russia, Italy, and France,
our nation is shedding its blood today.
We shall outline only the main principles of the Constitution
of the Czechoslovak Nation; the final decision as to the Constitution
itself falls to the legally chosen representatives of the liberated
and united people.
The Czechoslovak State shall be a republic. In constant endeavor
for progress it will guarantee complete freedom of conscience,
religion and science, literature and art, speech, the
press and the right of assembly and petition. The Church shall
be separated from the state. Our democracy shall rest on universal
suffrage; women shall be placed on an equal footing with
men, politically, socially, and culturally. The rights of the minority
shall be safeguarded by proportional representation; national
minorities shall enjoy equal rights. The government shall
be parliamentary in form and shall recognize the principles of
initiative and referendum. The standing army will be replaced
by militia.
The Czechoslovak Nation will carry out far-reaching social
and economic reforms; the large estates will be redeemed for
home colonization, patents of nobility will be abolished. Our
nation will assume its part of the Austro-Hungarian pre-war
debt;—the debts for this war we leave to those who incurred
them.
In its foreign policy the Czechoslovak Nation will accept its
full share of responsibility in the reorganization of Eastern Europe.
It accepts fully the democratic and social principle of nationalism
and subscribes to the doctrine that all covenants and
treaties shall be entered into openly and frankly without secret
diplomacy.
Our constitution shall provide an efficient, rational, and just
government, which will exclude all special privileges and prohibit
class legislation.
Democracy has defeated theocratic autocracy. Militarism is
overcome,—democracy is victorious;—on the basis of democracy
mankind will be reorganized. The forces of darkness have
served the victory of light,—the longed-for age of humanity is
dawning.
We believe in democracy,—we believe in liberty,—and liberty
evermore.

Given in Paris, on the 18th day of October 1918.
Professor Thomas G. Masaryk
Prime Minister and Minister of Finance
General Dr. Milan R. Stefanik
Minister of National Defense
Dr. Edward Benes
Minister of Foreign
Affairs and of Interior

Source: George J. Kovtun, The Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence: A History
of the Document (Washington, D.C., 1985), 53–55.