Three thousand years ago the Slavic people, today occupying Eastern Europe and Russia, wandered the plains of Central Asia. They were driven to the lands were they live today by barbaric tribes. They developed a civilized community, which during the reign of Charles IV became amongst the most advanced in Europe. They built bridges, universities and cathedrals that even today are utilised in Prague.

After this period, the kingdom fell into a period of darkness and was captured and laid under the Habsburgs who controlled the area until 1918. After World War I the U.S President Woodrow Wilson advocated the principle of national self determination. Each people or nation should also form their own state. This was an important principle in the Treaty of Versailles and other treaties dealing with the new map of Europe, after World War I. Since there was a large mass of Slavic people in the area of the former Czechoslovakia, the Republic of Czechoslovakia was formed in 1918/19.

Former Czechoslovakia and today's Czech Republic is located in a very important strategic location in Central Europe. Furthermore, it was one of the pivotal countries in the Eastern Bloc. Bordering West Germany, East Germany, Poland, Hungary and Austria, it was the Soviet Unions last outpost against the Western Alliance.

Czechoslovakia arose when the Czechs and Slovaks formed Czechoslovakia after the Austrian-Hungarian empire had been dissolved. It quickly became one of the most advanced countries in Europe. Czechoslovakia could build on a strong political and industrial base. Due to the 3 million Germans who lived in the Sudetenland, problems arose. When Hitler became the Führer he demanded that the Sudetenland should be merged with Germany. The Western countries pursuing their appeasement policy, thought that if they surrendered a small country in Central Europe, no one would care. Give the dictators what they want and peace would be preserved.