Date of Award:

5-2016

Document Type:

Dissertation

Degree Name:

Master of Arts (MA)

Department:

History

Committee Chair(s)

Tammy Proctor

Committee

Tammy Proctor

Committee

Jonathan Brunstedt

Committee

Tammy Proctor

Committee

Evelyn Funda

Abstract

Ethnic conflict and its relationship with economics is a difficult subject to understand, both for moral and historical reasons. This thesis was written with a mind to the effects of these forces on the functioning of political systems. Through study of the Habsburg empire it was discovered that industrialization and competition over economic opportunities drove speakers of different languages to establish themselves as distinct ethnic communities who held conflict between each other as a virtue. This conflict and the creation of a nationalist narrative by communities of Czechs and Germans contributed to the breakup of the Habsburg empire. Conceptions of an age old conflict between the two communities where also centered on ideas of a pan ethnic identify, such that all speakers of Slavic languages and all speakers of the German language were juxtaposed against each other as enemies in a struggle for domination of Europe. For the Czechoslovaks these ideas created sympathy for Russia and the idea of Russia as the leader of Slavic peoples. As communism came to power and developed in the Soviet Union, it became to be seen as an inherently Slavic ideology. World War Two accelerated these ideas. After the war the German population of Czechoslovakia was expelled in a final act of ethnic conflict and communism grew in popularity and came to power as the victory in the eyes of the population of Slavdom and Czechoslovak identity.

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