ABSTRACT
The second half of the eighteenth century was one of the most critical in the history of the Czech people. The long and persistent oppression of the Czech nation which began after the White Mountain and increased in intensity after the Thirty Years War, bore fruit. The traditional opposition of the Czech Estates to the Hapsburgs and their Viennese court seemed also to have quieted to compliance. The Czech of the nineteenth century was more likely to identify the Hussite movement with loyalty to the nation than with pure religion. A portion of the nobility remained faithful to its German connections, and thus helped to retain for German party those positions in social and political life which had been won during the period of eclipse of Czech nationalism. The attitude of the Czech leaders was determined both by the facts of the history of their nation and by a careful estimate of their power and possibilities of their existing position.
