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Czechoslovakia-France refers to the historical relationship between France and the former state of Czechoslovakia. Due to the turbulent history of Czechoslovakia, this relationship is very diverse and defined by the french policy towards new states after the First World War as well as Cold War policies.

History

Background, before 1918

While the first diplomatic relations between Bohemia and France (and its precursor state, Francia) date back to the early middle ages, Bohemia and Moravia became part of the Austrian Empire following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. When Austria-Hungary (the successor state of the Austrian Empire) was dissolved in 1918 after the First World War, the First Czechoslovak Republic was proclaimed. France, on October 28th 1918, the day that the Czechslovak Republic was proclaimed, became the first nation to recognize the new state.

Interwar Period

The Czechoslovak foreign policy of the 1920s in general was otherwise heavily influenced by foreign minister and later president Edvard Beneš. Beneš was an influential and renowned spokesperson at several international conferences at the time, such as the Lausanne Conference or the Paris Conference, where the Treaty of Versailles was negotiated. ^[1]He also strengthened Prague's connections to the West, especially to France, who helped Czechoslovakia out of the political isolation they were in as a new founded state. ^[2]

French foreign policy at the time on the other hand consisted mainly of representing the french interests, which diverged to a large degree from those of its allies, at the post-World War I international conferences. Another important topic of french interwar politics was maintaining the South-East Asian colonies, which had over the previous years been shook by various uprisings and revolts. Regarding Czechoslovakia, however, France, especially Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, was initially sceptical ^[3] of American president Woodrow Wilson's devices which included that each people (of former Austria-Hungary a.o.) should have their own nation, the idea that was Wilson's main reason to support the young nation and which was a major subject of his fourteen points.

When Adolf Hitler was appointed German chancellor in 1933, Beneš was worried about a possible German invasion, as Hitler laid claims on the Sudetenland, where the German minority was striving for more autonomy. The Czechoslovak government looked to form alliances with France and, in spite of their western-orientated policy, the Soviet Union. The result of these negotiations was a 1935 agreement between the three, which ensured that France would aid Czechoslovakia in case of invasion, and obligated the USSR to do so as well, once French assistance would have arrived.

Despite the agreement with Stalin and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, France signed the Munich Agreement in 1938 which ceded the Sudetenland to Germany, ultimately sacrificing Czechoslovakia to prevent the outbreak of war. The agreement, negotiated without Czechoslovak consult mainly by english Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as part of his appeasement policy, was voted for by all French parties except for the communists.^[4]

The Anglo-French surrender of Czechoslovakia for the preservation of peace was a heavy blow for the young state, which was few weeks thereafter occupied by German troops.

Third Czechoslovak Republic

Due to the short existance of the Third Czechoslovak Republic from the end of the Second World War in 1945 until the Czechoslovak Coup d'état in 1948, there were not many contacts with France within this period, mainly because the new republic fell into the Soviet sphere of influence. However, the Czechoslovakian government under Edvard Beneš did agree to attend the precursory debates of the Marshall Plan upon French and English invitation in 1947. Consequently, the Soviet Union under Josef Stalin summoned Klement Gottwald, prime minister of Czechoslovakia and leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ), to Moscow and convinced him not to attend. ^[5] Shortly thereafter, in February 1948, the KSČ seized power in Czechoslovakia, with Soviet support, and established the socialist Fourth Czechoslovak Republic.

Cold War Era and Dissolution of the RČS

With the Czechoslovak Communist Party seizing control in 1948, France and Czechoslovakia were political opponents in the light of the Cold War. Having joined the Warsaw Pact in 1955, Czechoslovakia supported the Viet Minh in the First Vietnam War, thereby nominally standing against France.

As was common in times of the iron curtain, there was little to no political exchange between the Soviet Client States and the NATO members and their allies. This was no different with Czechoslovakia and France, albeit France, since 1958 the French Fifth Republic, did pursue a less American-orientated policy after having left the NATO integrated military command.

France, as many other western countries, welcomed Alexander Dubček's policy of Socialism with a human face in early 1968. The French government, as all NATO members, denounced the following Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, but in the light of the Vietnam War and the 1968 protests it was overshadowed in France. Additionally, the West was careful not to provoke the Soviet government as they were aiming for a détente in the Cold War and did thus not take further action^[6].

After the Warsaw Pact Invasion, diplomatic exchange between Czechoslovakia and the Western Bloc became even rarer than before. With USSR chairman Leonid Brezhnev having installed a regime that fully obeyed Moscow, there was soon no longer a Czechoslovak foreign policy, as all relevant decisions were made by the Soviet government.^[7]

Following the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the Fifth Czechoslovak Republic was proclaimed. The democratisation process that began with this ultimately led to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, which was split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1992.

Embassies

In 1919, the French embassy in Prague moved into the Palais Buquoy, which the French government bought in 1930. ^[8] In the same year, the Czechoslovakian Government rented a palais in 15 Avenue Charles Floquet, Paris, where the seat of the Czechoslovakian Embassy in Paris was set up.^[9]

References

[1] ttps://www.hrad.cz/en/president-of-the-cr/former-presidents/edvard-benes

[2] ttps://academic.oup.com/book/27567/chapter-abstract/197572299?redirectedFrom=fulltext

[3] ttps://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/wilson-georges-clemenceau/

[4] ttps://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1968/09/30/en-france-seuls-les-communistes-deux-deputes-et-quelques-journalistes-ont-combattu-l-accord_2481194_1819218.html

[5] ttps://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-62748-6_5

[6] ttps://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/72235/ssoar-2018-peto_et_al-The_Prague_Spring_and_the.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&lnkname=ssoar-2018-peto_et_al-The_Prague_Spring_and_the.pdf (pages 13-15)

[7] ttps://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/72235/ssoar-2018-peto_et_al-The_Prague_Spring_and_the.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&lnkname=ssoar-2018-peto_et_al-The_Prague_Spring_and_the.pdf (pages 13-15)

[8] ttps://cz.ambafrance.org/Le-Palais-Buquoy-siege-de-l

[9] ttps://www.mzv.cz/paris/fr/ambassade/index.html

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