Czechoslovak independence

The Czechoslovak Declaration of Independence or the Washington Declaration (Czech: Washingtonská deklarace; Slovak: Washingtonská deklarácia) was drafted in Washington, D.C. and published by Czechoslovakia's Paris-based Provisional Government on 18 October 1918. The creation of the document, officially the Declaration on Independence of the Czechoslovak Nation by Its Provisional Government (Czech: Prohlášení nezávislosti československého národa zatímní vládou československou), was prompted by the imminent collapse of the Habsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire, of which the Czech and Slovak lands had been part for almost 400 years, following the First World War.

In the autumn of 1918, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was collapsing. As one of his Fourteen Points, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson demanded that the nationalities of the empire have the "freest opportunity to autonomous development". On 14 October 1918, Foreign Minister Baron István Burián von Rajecz asked for an armistice based on the Fourteen Points. In an apparent attempt to demonstrate good faith, Emperor Charles I issued a proclamation two days later which would have significantly altered the structure of the Austrian half of the monarchy. The Imperial Austria was to be transformed into a federal union composed of four parts—German, Czech, South Slav and Ukrainian (Galicia would be allowed to secede). Each of these was to be governed by a national council that would negotiate the future of the empire with Vienna, and Trieste was to receive a special status.

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