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| 1919, April 16 |
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| The Land Reform Bill. This involved the confiscation, with compensation, of the large estates and their partition among the peasants in lots of about 25 acres, with state aid, ensuring peasant support for the new republic. | 1 |
| The new government also solidified working-class support with laws establishing an eight-hour workday, special insurance schemes, and unemployment benefits. | 2 |
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| 1920, Feb. 29 |
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| Adoption of the constitution, closely modeled on that of France. | 3 |
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| April 18 |
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| The first regular elections. There were numerous parties, representing ethnic groups and social strata. The country had to be ruled by various coalitions, representing chiefly the bourgeois, democratic elements. The first government, headed by the Social Democrats, faced crisis soon after these elections, however. As the Social Democrats split between Communists and reformists (the latter, while representing the minority of the party, controlled the government), the Communists attempted to take over the party. The more conservative elements beat off the challenge, but the Communists responded by turning against the system and calling for a general strike. President Masaryk then stepped in, instituting repressive measures to prevent the strike and replacing the Social Democratic head of the government. After the crisis passed in 1921, Czechoslovakia returned to parliamentary government and the Czechoslovak Communist Party accepted its place in the electoral system. | 4 |
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