Czechoslovakia. A Decoration For The Czechoslovak Volunters Of 1918-1919

Pametní odznaki Ceskoslovenské dobrovolniki. Instituted in 1938. In bronze, measuring 36.3 mm in diameter, original ribbon with dual prong pinback, extremely fine.

Footnote: The lands of Czechoslovakia had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire since the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620 crushed Bohemian independence. The independence of the Czechoslovak Republic was proclaimed in Prague on October 28, 1918 and ratified by the treaties of Saint Germain (Austria) and Trianon (Hungary) that concluded the First World War, the Austro-Hungarian defeat in the war having enabled the protagonists of the long-fought battle for independence to triumph with Allied support. Despite ethnic and economic problems and the rise of Nazi Germany, Czechoslovakia remained independent and democratic until the Munich Agreement of September 1938, which allowed Germany to dismember it.