Czechs have lived in Bohemia and Moravia since the Middle Ages as a cultured people. In the 14th century, they established Prague university and made it the centre of learning on the European civilization. But after the defeat at White Mountain in 1620, their national power was diminished and they were reduced to become the oppressed people in the Austrian Monarchy. Under the circumstance, the Czechs lost their own identity, history, and language, and that German culture and language were adopted instead. These phenomena became more usual among the upper-class of Czechs and the native Czech culture was consequently downgraded. But, through the period of the enlightenment and French Revolution, the Czech national consciousness was awaked, and their own language was begun to revive. Especially the lower-class of Czechs who had kept their own culture were regarded as the main stream of the Czech national movement. Many Czech writers tried to seek for the social basis of a nation in the gentry and peasantry. And they recognized the serf not only as the source of population but also as the guarantor and preserver of the native language. But the nationalism of that times was only emotional and cultural. It was F. Palacky who made the Czech nationalism into a political movement. In his principal work, The History of Czech nation in Bohemia and Moravia, he points out that the meaning of Czech history was the struggle between the Germans and Slavs. He also believed that at this times, when the Czech state had vanished and Czech literature, science and art had disappeared, only history could act as a source of national hope and proof of national vitality. In the storms of liberalism in the 19th century, he remained a conservatist. He considered that the potentialities of Czechs were yet in maturity. Fearing of the expansion of Germany and Russia, he supported the Habsburg Empire which might be the fence of Slav nations. So even when the Austro-Hungarian dual Empire was established, he and his comrades restrained from the radical action. Like almost all Czech political leaders of his and later generations, Palacky did not on principle advocate a policy either of compromise or of opposition toward the authoritarian Habsburg Empire. Czech politicians sought by legal and non-violent means to advance what they discerned to be the national interest. Federation of Empire and the state right of historical Czech land were his lifelong political aim. Though Palacky advocated neither democracy in politics nor Czechoslovak independence, he could in word and deed be regarded as a progenitor of the First Republic. Palacky’s political programs hed been succeeded to T. G. Masaryk. Like Palacky, whose statement about the necessity of Austria was made on the assumption that Austria would become a union of free nations, Masaryk also supported the Austrian Empire as long as the Empire functioned as the protector of Slav nations from Germany and Russia.