Czech nationalism

Czech National Revival was a cultural movement, which took part in the Czech lands during the 18th and 19th century. The purpose of this movement was to revive Czech language, culture and national identity. The most prominent figures of the revival movement were Josef Dobrovský and Josef Jungmann.

Following the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, Czech lands experienced Germanisation politics spearheaded by the Habsburg Emperors.

The oppression was also connected with religion – up to 95% of the inhabitants of Bohemia were Protestants (See Hussite) when the Habsburgs took power. Although the Habsburgs had promised freedom of religion, they started rampant anti-Reformation and re-Catholization efforts which made most of the Czech elites flee the country. This violent re-Catholization has been suggested to be one of the reasons behind today's widespread Czech atheism.

During the two following centuries the Czech language had been more or less eradicated from state administration, literature, schools, Charles University and among the upper classes. Large numbers of books written in Czech were burned for confessional reasons – for example, Jesuit Antonín Koniáš alone is credited with burning as many as 30,000 Czech language books. Gradually, the Czech language was reduced to a means of communication between peasants, who were often illiterate. Therefore, the Revival looked for inspiration among ordinary Czechs in the countryside.

Josef Dobrovský published his Czech grammar book in 1809. In 1817, Václav Hanka claimed to have discovered medieval Manuscripts of Dvůr Králové and of Zelená Hora, which were decades later proven as Hanka's forgeries.

Josef Jungmann published the five-volume Czech-German dictionary in 1834–1839. It was a major lexicographical work, which had a great formative influence on the Czech language. Jungmann used vocabulary of the Bible of Kralice (1579–1613) period and of the language used by his contemporaries. He borrowed words not present in Czech from other Slavic languages or created neologisms. He also inspired development of Czech scientific terminology, thus making it possible for original Czech research to develop.

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