Circular bronze medal with laterally pierced ribbon suspension; the face with a gothicised cross botonny bearing an upright sword with the inter-twined letters ‘CS’ imposed and the dates ‘1918’ and ‘1919’; the reverse with the date ‘MCMXXXVIII’ (= 1938), a branch of thorn above supporting the arms of Czechoslovakia (comprising the arms of the provinces of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia), a bough of linden below; on original ribbon. 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 28 October 1918 and ratified by the treaties of Saint Germain (Austria) and Trianon (Hungary) that concluded World War I, Austro-Hungarian defeat in World War I 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 allowed Germany to dismember it.
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