Second Czechoslovak Republic
| Czecho-Slovak Republic | ||||||||||||||||||
| Česko-Slovenská republika | ||||||||||||||||||
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Motto Pravda vítězí / Pravda víťazí "Truth prevails" |
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Anthem
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.svg) The Czechoslovak Republic in 1939.
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| Capital | Prague | |||||||||||||||||
| Languages |
Czech Slovak |
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| Government | Parliamentary republic | |||||||||||||||||
| President | ||||||||||||||||||
| • | 1938-1939 | Emil Hácha | ||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | ||||||||||||||||||
| • | 1938 | Jan Syrový | ||||||||||||||||
| • | 1938–1939 | Rudolf Beran | ||||||||||||||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | |||||||||||||||||
| • | Upper house | Senate | ||||||||||||||||
| • | Lower house | Chamber of Deputies | ||||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Interwar period | |||||||||||||||||
| • | Munich Agreement | 30 September 1938 | ||||||||||||||||
| • | German occupation | 15 March 1939 | ||||||||||||||||
| Area | ||||||||||||||||||
| • | 1939 | 99,348 km² (38,358 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||||
| Population | ||||||||||||||||||
| • | 1939 est. | 10,400,000 | ||||||||||||||||
| Density | 104.7 /km² (271.1 /sq mi) | |||||||||||||||||
| Currency | Czechoslovak koruna | |||||||||||||||||
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| Today part of | ||||||||||||||||||
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The Second Czechoslovak Republic (Czech / Slovak: Česko-Slovenská republika), sometimes also called the Czech-Slovak Republic, existed for 169 days, between 30 September 1938 and 15 March 1939. It was composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and the autonomous regions of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia, the latter renamed as of 22 November 1938 as Carpathian Ukraine (Karpatská Ukrajina in Czech).
The Second Republic was the result of the events following the Munich Agreement, where Czechoslovakia was forced to cede the German-populated Sudetenland region to Germany on October 1, 1938, as well as southern parts of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia to Hungary. After the Munich Agreement and the German government making clear to foreign diplomats that Czechoslovakia was now a German client state, the Czechoslovak government attempted to curry favour with Germany by banning the country's Communist Party, suspending all Jewish teachers in German educational institutes in Czechoslovakia, and enacted a law to allow the state to take over Jewish companies. In addition, the government allowed the country's banks to effectively come under German-Czechoslovak control.
The Czechoslovak Republic was dissolved when Germany invaded it on 15 March 1939 and annexed the Czech region into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. On the same day as the German occupation, the President of Czechoslovakia, Emil Hácha was appointed by the German government as the State President of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which he held throughout the war.
The Czechoslovak Republic had become a shell of its former self and was now a greatly weakened state. The Munich Agreement had resulted in Bohemia and Moravia losing about 38% of their combined area to Germany, with some 3.2 million German and 750,000 Czech inhabitants. Lacking its natural frontier and having lost its costly system of border fortification, the new state was militarily indefensible. Hungary received 11,882 square kilometres in southern Slovakia and southern Ruthenia; according to a 1941 census, about 86.5% of the population in this territory was Hungarian. Poland acquired the town of Těšín with the surrounding area (some 906 km², some 250,000 inhabitants, mostly Poles) and two minor border areas in northern Slovakia, more precisely in the regions Spiš and Orava. (226 km², 4,280 inhabitants, only 0.3% Poles). Moreover, the Czechoslovak government had problems in taking care of the 115,000 Czech and 30,000 German refugees, who had fled to the remaining rump of Czechoslovakia.
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