Central European History. Czech National Revival

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Central European History. Final essay. What was the Czech National Revival and what did it achieve? Czech National Revival was a cultural, political movement, which was during the 18th and 19th century. The aim of this movement was to revive Czech language, culture and national identity. The basis of national revival was capitalist development of the Czech Land and the emergence of the Czech national market. The impact of the ideas French Revolution on the Czech land contributed to increased desire for national autonomy and equality. Czech bourgeois intellectuals express these aspirations. This was evidenced by the end of XVIII century -- new literary and historical works, defended Czech and replaced German and familiarized with the history of the Czech land and its people. After the Battle of the White Mountain (1620) Czech land became a part of the Habsburg Empire. A long period of the Counter-Reformation, cruel feudal oppression German policy began. Oppressors had sought to eradicate Hussite tradition, memories of Europe's first feudal peasant war and the Czech statehood in the minds of "heretical" people. Gentry and the vast majority of the urban population were Germanized. Czechs forcibly turned to the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church. All other religion severely persecuted. Jesuits banned and destroyed a huge number of Czech books. In the XVIII century prints in the Czech language had almost not appeared. A notable exception were some religious writings and "cautionary" literature, adapted to the level of common people and getting into the spirit of the official Catholic Baroque with characteristic juxtaposition of eternal afterlife and earthly existence. The decline of the Czech literature was so strong that in the end of XVIII century, one of the largest Czech scientists, Dobrovsky, expressed doubts whether the Czech language had already dead,

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