Prior to the First World War, Czechoslovakia didn't exist as an independent country and the land of the current Czech and Slovak republics was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The empire was created through a compromise in 1867 between the Hungarian nobility and the Habsburg monarchy. It existed as a dual monarchy where one part of the empire was ruled from Vienna in Austria (German speaking) and the other part was ruled from Budapest (Hungarian speaking). At the top, a member of the Hapsberg family was crowned both as the Austrian Emperor and King of Hungary.
The empire was divided into provinces. The Czech language was spoken in the two provinces of Bohemia and Moravia that lay in Northern Austria and these became the Czech Republic.
The land now comprising Slovakia comprised the Northern part of Hungary, Where Slovak was spoken. Mainly the areas between the river Danude and the Carpathian mountains.
The Emperor in 1914 was Franz Josef. On June 28th 1914, his heir Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assinated in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo by Serb militants of the nationalist group 'The Black Hand'.
Austro Hungary were also worried about losing some of their southern territories These events brought the Empire into conflict with Serbia and over the course of July and August 1914, caused the start of World War I, as Russia mobilized in support of Serbia, setting off a series of counter-mobilizations. Italy remained neutral at the beginning, even though it had an alliance with Austria-Hungary. However in 1915 it switched sides hoping to gain territory from Austria-Hungary.The saxon Slovaks combined together to campaign for independence and they had their own army which fought against the Austrians with the allies during the first world war. As one of the victorious allies they had their own seats at the treaty of Versailles and this led to their land being declared as an independent country.
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