Czechoslovak Diplomats in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Czechoslovak interwar diplomacy was unique in many ways, compared with
the diplomacy of the other states established after World War I. Unlike that
of Poland or Yugoslavia, for example, Czechoslovak diplomacy sought to
establish the type of global consular and diplomatic presence which was
generally the prerogative of world powers. This article describes the
construction of Czechoslovakia's network of effective and honorary
consulates in the "remotest" of continents. The article highlights the errors,
the occasional fumbles, and the achievements of the Czechoslovak Foreign
Ministry in Sub-Saharan Africa. The article also looks at the plans for
establishing diplomatic contacts with the first independent African states,
which, however, had never materialised in the early years. The article then
turns to the operations of the Czechoslovak diplomatic missions in Africa
after World War II, when the network of Czechoslovak diplomatic missions
was revitalised and extended even further to cover more countries. The
essay ends with a short sketch of Czechoslovak diplomatic efforts in Africa
in the late 1940s and early 50s, which marked the end or one era of
Czechoslovak diplomacy and the beginning of a new era, where
Czechoslovak African diplomacy became important for the ascendant Soviet
Union and the socialist block.