After several encouraging statements came the recognition by France of the Czechoslovak National Council as the supreme body controlling Czechoslovak national interests; the other Allies soon followed the French initiative. On September 28 Beneš signed a treaty whereby France agreed to support the Czechoslovak program in the postwar peace conference. To preclude a retreat from the earlier Allied declarations, the National Council constituted itself as a provisional government (October 14). Four days later, Masaryk and Beneš issued a declaration of independence simultaneously in Washington, D.C., and Paris. Events were moving rapidly toward total collapse of the Habsburg monarchy. The last attempt to avert it, the manifesto issued by Charles on October 16, brought no positive results. After that, Vienna had no choice but to accept Wilson's terms. The surrender note, signed by Count Gyula Andrássy, the last foreign minister, was accepted as a sanction of the idea of independence. The Prague National Committee proclaimed a republic on October 28, and, two days later, the Slovak National Council at Turciansky Svätý Martin acceded to the Prague proclamation.


Establishment of Czechoslovakia
Despite all efforts to maintain contacts between the leaders abroad and those at home, the early years of the republic were hindered by differences of opinion and occasional frictions. Masaryk returned to Prague on December 21. Beneš stayed in Paris and was joined by Karel Kramár, who had been prime minister since November. The Slovak leader Štefánik decided to return home but died in an airplane crash in May 1919. Masaryk and Beneš conducted foreign relations, and the leaders of five major parties controlled home affairs. Of the many tasks facing the new government, negotiations at the postwar peace conference, though complicated by dissensions among the Great Powers, were the least onerous. The frontiers separating Bohemia and Moravia from Germany and Austria were approved, with minor rectifications, in favour of the republic. The Slovak boundary also was satisfactory. The dispute over the Duchy of Teschen strained the relations with Poland; the partition of the duchy in 1920 was opposed by powerful Polish groups, and the Polish senate did not ratify the treaty. The northeastern counties of prewar Hungary (Carpathian Ruthenia) were attached to the new state. The area was inhabited by Slavic peoples, the majority of whom were keenly aware of their kinship with the Ukrainians. Consolidation of internal affairs proceeded slowly. The winter of 1918–19 was critical. The most urgent task of the new government was to replace the wartime economy with a new system.