First Czechoslovak Republic

Czechoslovak Republic Československá republika
1918–1938
Flag Top (1918–1920) Bottom (1920–1938) Middle coat of arms (1920–1938)
Motto: Pravda vítězí / Pravda víťazí "Truth prevails"
Anthem: ’Kde domov můj’ (Czech) ’Where my home is’ ’Nad Tatrou sa blýska’ (Slovak) ’Lightning Over the Tatras’
The Czechoslovak Republic in 1938
Capital and largest city	Prague
Official languages	Czechoslovak[1]
Common languages	List Czechoslovak (Czech · Slovak), German, Hungarian, Rusyn, Romani, Polish, Yiddish
Demonym(s)	Czechoslovak
Government	Unitary parliamentary republic
President
• 1918–1935	Tomáš Masaryk
• 1935–1938	Edvard Beneš
Prime Minister
• 1918–1919 (first)	Karel Kramář
• 1938 (last)	Jan Syrový
Legislature	National Assembly
• Upper house	Senate
• Lower house	Chamber of Deputies
Historical era	Interwar period
• Independence declared	18 October 1918
• Independence proclaimed	28 October 1918
• Constitution adopted	29 February 1920
• Munich Agreement	30 September 1938
Area
• Total	140,800 km2 (54,400 sq mi)
Population
• 1921	13,410,750
• 1938	14,800,000
Currency	Czechoslovak koruna
Preceded by Succeeded by Austria-Hungary Second Czechoslovak Republic Reichsgau Sudetenland Kingdom of Hungary Second Polish Republic
Today part of	Czech Republic Slovakia Ukraine

The First Czechoslovak Republic (Czech: První československá republika; Slovak: Prvá československá republika), often colloquially referred to as the First Republic (Czech: První republika; Slovak: Prvá republika), was the first Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938, a union of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. The country was commonly called Czechoslovakia (Czech and Slovak: Československo), a compound of Czech and Slovak; which gradually became the most widely used name for its successor states. It was composed of former territories of Austria-Hungary, inheriting different systems of administration from the formerly Austrian (Bohemia, Moravia, a small part of Silesia) and Hungarian territories (mostly Upper Hungary and Carpathian Ruthenia).

After 1933, Czechoslovakia remained the only de facto functioning democracy in Central Europe, organized as a parliamentary republic. Under pressure from its Sudeten German minority, supported by neighbouring Nazi Germany, Czechoslovakia was forced to cede its Sudetenland region to Germany on 1 October 1938 as part of the Munich Agreement. It also ceded southern parts of Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia to Hungary and the Trans-Olza region in Silesia to Poland. This, in effect, ended the First Czechoslovak Republic. It was replaced by the Second Czechoslovak Republic, which lasted less than half a year before Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939.