The ‘return to Europe’: intellectual debates on the global place of Czechoslovakia in the interwar period

Abstract

In the East Central European context, the phrase ‘return to Europe’ has been used mainly in the period after 1989, referring to political, economic and social changes as well as mental relocations towards a ‘Western’ system. However, debates about the national whereabouts on a mental map – whether one was part of Eastern, Central or Western Europe – also abounded in the years following the founding of the nation-states after the First World War. Concentrating on Czech discourses on the national whereabouts both in a European and a global perspective in the years preceding and following the great upheaval of 1918, this article traces the changing Czech national identity, ranging from a self-perception as a ‘small nation’ in the Habsburg Empire to a European power with colonial ambitions after the foundation of the Czechoslovak republic, and finally to the acknowledgement in the 1930s that these ambitions could not be met. The study is based on sources ranging from Czech travelogues mainly to Africa and Asia, but also South America, to economic writings and colonial brochures, which offer a broad range of debates on the role and location of both the Czech nation and the Czechoslovak state both in Europe and the world.

Keywords:

• Czechoslovakia
• national identity
• globalisation
• 1918
• transformation
• East Central Europe

Notes

1. The “other Europe” has been used as a term in literature and in historical research alike, as the following examples demonstrate: Karady, Elite Formation in the Other Europe: (19^th-20^th Century) = Elitenformation im ‘anderen’ Europa. (19.–20. Jahrhundert); Stasiuk, On the Road to Babadag; Iordanova, Cinema of the Other Europe.

2. This typical phrase is linked to most if not all “Eastern countries,” as the few selected examples will show: Deletant, “Romania’s Return to Europe,” 83–98; Lindstrom, “Between Europe and the Balkans,” 313–29; Byrnes, “The Catholic Church and Poland's Return to Europe,” 433–48; Jetel and Mirjam, “Tschechoslowakei – auf dem Weg zurück nach Europa,” 173–214.

3. Čapek, Gespräche mit Masaryk, 183.

4. Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe.

5. As discussed in the introductory article of this volume, the term “transformation” has until recently been mainly used for rapid economic and political changes, generally in connection with the processes of democratisation in the 1970s in Southern Europe and South America, or in the 1990s in Eastern Europe. Recently, the concept has been applied to rapid changes in other time periods as well, such as regarding the changes around 1918. So far, however, the focus has shifted only marginally away from the economic and political spheres, often neglecting the transformation of the cultural and social fields. This contradicts somewhat the understanding of transformation as a “particularly radical, comprehensive and rapid change of the political system, the economy and society”, as proposed by Philipp Ther, Die neue Ordnung auf dem alten Kontinent, 28.

6. Michael Harbsmeier terms it the “unfreiwillige kulturelle Selbstdarstellung der Ausgangskultur der Verfasser und ihres Publikums im Spiegel des jeweils ‘anderen’”. Harbsmeier, “Reisebeschreibungen als mentalitätsgeschichtliche Quellen,” 2.

7. This assessment is borrowed from Zídek, Československo a francouzská Afrika.

8. As seen in a picture taken during the festivities for Baťa’s departure on his world tour. Baťa, Za obchodem kolem světa: Baťova letecká obchodní výprava kolem světa 6.I.-1.V.1937.

9. Kybal, Jižní Amerika a Československo, 6.

10. These presentations were soon published in an economics series by the Oriental Institute, therefore increasing their potential influence. This series includes publications such as Cicvárek, Obchodní poměry ve východní Asii; Hanč, Hospodářské síly na dálném východě; Millner, Obchodní poměry v Siamsku a Malajsku.

11. The figures on imports show an even more drastic increase in numbers, as they rise from 2.5% in 1924 to 9.5% in 1929 and to an astonishing 22.2% in 1937. Teichova, “Die Tschechoslowakei 1918–1980,” 617.

12. Cicvárek, Obchodní poměry ve východní Asii, 15.

13. Millner, Obchodní poměry v Siamsku a Malajsku, 15.

14. Pospíšil, Čínou za revolučního varu. Dojmy z cest po jižní a střední Číně, 167.

15. Havlasa, České kolonie zámořské.

16. Němec, Je-li nám třeba kolonisace? Ze zkušenosti v Habeši.

17. Ibid., 3.

18. Ibid., 5.

19. n.N.: “Úvod,” 3.

20. Němec, Je-li nám třeba kolonisace?, 4.

21. Kořínek, Koloniální problémy zítřka (přednesl ve schůzi společnosti dne 30. ledna 1939 v Praze), 17.

22. To refer to the interwar period as “globalized” may sound somewhat contrary to the prevalent narrative of the 1920s and 1930s as a phase of “de-globalisation.” However, since Czechoslovakia was expanding its contacts worldwide during the two decades of its existence in all spheres (political, economic, cultural or academic), which was also accompanied by a growth of publications, lectures or exhibitions on countries of every continent, globalisation both as a process and as the current condition was part of the interwar experience in Prague and presumably in other towns of the country.

23. Mayer, Egypt, 15.

24. Svoboda, “Rakousko-Uherská kolonie v Káhyře,” 228.

25. The following may serve as examples: Baum, Africkou divočinou; Matiegková, V objetí sfingy.

26. Doubek, Dvě cesty Spexoru do Afrika a Asie, 30, 31. The fraternisation with all Slavs en route is a constant topos in the travelogues, as well. Cf. Foit, Autem napřič Afrikou, 17.

27. Harbsmeier, “Reisebeschreibungen als mentalitätsgeschichtliche Quellen,” 2.

28. Fait, “Na vlnách nilských,” 10.

29. Ibid.

30. Baum, Africkou divočinou, 141.

31. Ibid., 176.

32. Pertold, Ze zapomenutých koutů Indie, 50.

33. Among others: Matiegková, V objetí sfingy, 113; Foit, Autem napříč Afrikou I, 18.

34. Šimon, Listy z cesty kolem světa, 127.

35. Baum, Africkou divočinou, 124.

36. Baum, Africkou divočinou, 180.

37. Rio de Janeiro sheltered approx. 300 Czechoslovaks. Cf. Strejček, Průvodce po čsl. Zahraničí, 104.

38. Pertold, Ze zapomenutých koutů Indie, 50.

39. Foit, Autem napříč Afrikou I, 101.

40. “Žádný kraj na světě není tak odlehlý, abychom tam nemohli nalézti krajana, a tak i zde setkali jsme se se Čechem.” Baum, Africkou divočinou, 45–6.

41. Průvodce po čsl. zahraničí. Ed. Karel Strejček, 114.

42. Baum, Africkou divočinou, 56, 91; Foit, Autem napric Afrikou I, xi.

43. Foit, Autem napříč Afrikou I, 51–2; Pospíšil, Čínou za revolučního varu. Dojmy z cest po jižní a střední Číně, 132.

44. Domin, Za jižním sluncem: zápisky přírodopisce z cesty po středomoří, 432–33.

45. Baum, Africkou divočinou, 183.

46. “Naše národnost mu působí poněkud obtíže, ale nedá to na sobě znáti: ‘Yes, I know, já vím, Šlekoslávik – vy jste dříve patřili k Albanii.’” Baum, Africkou divočinou, 183.

47. Pospíšil, Čínou za revolučního varu, 60.

48. Štorch-Marien, “Naši v cizině,” Přítomnost, 4/36 (1927), 575.

49. Kybal, Jižní Amerika a Československo, 11.

50. Pospíšil, Čínou za revolučního varu, 4. He also told a very similar story about the French military command in Syria, who, in his words, knew less well than their Turkish counterparts that Czechoslovakia was an ally of the French (p. 2).

51. Born as Alois Bohdan in Prague.

52. Brikcius, V záři půlměsíce: moje pout do Mekky a Mediny, 146.