The area of Czechoslovakia had been a part of the Austro Hungarian Empire until the Empire collapsed at the end of the first world war. The Czech speaking areas of Bohemia and Moravia had been under Austrian rule while Slovakia was part of Hungary.
Before the first world war, there had been nationalist movements in both the Czech lands and Slovakia. Despite the Czech area being an industrialised region and Slovakia being a mainly agricultural-based country, the two regions took the opportunity to become a new nation.
‘Czechoslovak’ independence was proclaimed in Prague’s Wenceslas Square on October 28th 1918. The president of the ‘First Republic’ was Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who was the leader of the nationalist movement outside the Austro Hungarian Empire.