First Czechoslovak Republic

First Czechoslovak Republic

The Czechoslovak Republic (Czech / Slovak: Československá republika), refers to the Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938. The state was commonly called Czechoslovakia (Československo). It was composed of Bohemia, Moravia, Czech Silesia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia.

After 1933, Czechoslovakia remained the only functioning democracy in central and eastern Europe. Under pressure from its Sudeten German minority, supported by neighboring Nazi Germany, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede its Sudetenland region to Germany on October 1, 1938 as part of the Munich Agreement. It also ceded southern parts of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia to Hungary and the Zaolzie region in Silesia to Poland. This, in effect, ended the First Czechoslovak Republic. It was replaced by Second Czechoslovak Republic, which lasted less than half a year before Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia.