Young Czechs
|
National Liberal Party
Národní strana svobodomyslná |
|
|---|---|
| Historical leaders |
Karel Sladkovský, Julius Grégr, Eduard Grégr, Alois Pravoslav Trojan, Josef Kaizl, Josef Barák, Emanuel Engel, Karel Kramář, Alois Rašín |
| Founded | 1874 |
| Dissolved | 1918 |
| Split from | Old Czech Party |
| Succeeded by | National Democracy |
| Headquarters | Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia |
| Newspaper |
The National Newspaper The Czech Revue |
| Ideology | National liberalism |
| Political position | Centre-right |
| Colours | Blue |
The Young Czech Party (Czech: Mladočeši, officially National Liberal Party, Národní strana svobodomyslná) was formed in the Bohemian crown land of Austria-Hungary in 1874. It initiated the democratization of Czech political parties and led to the establishment of the political base of Czechoslovakia.
The 1848 Revolutions, starting in Sicily before spreading to the rest of Europe, led to the formation of the first Czech political parties in the Austrian Empire. Upon the resignation of State Chancellor Klemens von Metternich, the new Austrian government under Prime Minister Franz Anton von Kolowrat-Liebsteinsky finally ceded to the provisional Bohemian "national assembly" (Svatováclavský výbor roku 1848) the right to hold elections for a Landtag parliament in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. Though initially backed by the Austrian governor Count Leopold von Thun und Hohenstein, the attempt failed due to disagreement with Moravian and Austrian Silesian representatives as well as the resistance of the German-speaking minority.
In June 1848 the Prague Slavic Congress, led by the historian František Palacký, who had rejected his mandate to the Frankfurt Parliament, demanded a federation of the Austrian states and the withdrawal from the German Confederation. The succeeding "Whitsun Riot" from 12 to 17 June 1848 aimed at the independence of the "Czech lands" of Bohemia, Moravia and Austrian Silesia, similar to the Hungarian Revolution; it was crushed by Austrian troops under Field Marshal Prince Alfred I of Windisch-Grätz. The Czech people were given a taste of freedom of assembly and government only to experience defeat, which was completed with the failed Vienna Uprising and the dissolution of the Kremsier Parliament in 1849. Despite this defeat and its implications, the 1848 experience boosted ethnic nationalism in the Habsburg lands, and activists looked upon the Czech National Revival with pride.
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