Ethnic Groups
1921 ethnonational census| Regions | "Czechoslovaks" |
Germans | Hungarians | Rusyns | Jews | Others | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bohemia | 4 382 788 | 2 173 239 | 5 476 | 2 007 | 11 251 | 93 757 | 6 668 518 |
| Moravia | 2 048 426 | 547 604 | 534 | 976 | 15 335 | 46 448 | 2 649 323 |
| Silesia | 296 194 | 252 365 | 94 | 338 | 3 681 | 49 530 | 602 202 |
| Slovakia | 2 013 792 | 139 900 | 637 183 | 85 644 | 70 529 | 42 313 | 2 989 361 |
| Carpathian Ruthenia | 19 737 | 10 460 | 102 144 | 372 884 | 80 059 | 6 760 | 592 044 |
| Czechoslovak Republic | 8 760 937 | 3 123 568 | 745 431 | 461 849 | 180 855 | 238 080 | 13 410 750 |
National disputes arose due to the fact that the more numerous Czechs dominated the central government and other national institutions, all of which had their seats in the Bohemian capital Prague. The Slovak middle class had been extremely small in 1919 because Hungarians, Germans and Jews had previously filled most administrative, professional and commercial positions in, and as a result, the Czechs had to be posted to the more backward Slovakia to take up the administrative and professional posts. The position of the Jewish community, especially in Slovakia was ambiguous and, increasingly, a significant part looked towards Zionism.
Furthermore, most of Czechoslovakia's industry was as well located in Bohemia and Moravia, while most of Slovakia's economy came from agriculture. In Carpatho-Ukraine, the situation was even worse, with basically no industry at all.
Due to Czechoslovakia's centralized political structure, nationalism arose in the non-Czech nationalities, and several parties and movements were formed with the aim of broader political autonomy, like the Sudeten German Party led by Konrad Henlein and the Hlinka's Slovak People's Party led by Andrej Hlinka.
The German minority living in Sudetenland demanded autonomy from the Czech government, claiming they were suppressed and repressed. In the 1935 Parliamentary elections, the newly founded Sudeten German Party, led by Konrad Henlein and mostly financed by Nazi German money, received over two-thirds of the Sudeten German vote. As a consequence, diplomatic relations between the Germans and the Czechs deteriorated further.
Read more about this topic: First Czechoslovak Republic
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