This thesis examines the emergence of Czechoslovakia in Central Europe during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It analyzes the nationalist views of the expatriates who immigrated to the U.S. from Bohemia, Moravia, Austrian Silesia, and Slovakia (the territories that later constituted the country of Czechoslovakia), the activities of the exiled Bohemian leaders in Western Europe, and the actions of the people who remained within the boundaries of the Habsburg Empire. The thesis argues that for many years autonomy within the Empire, not independence from the Empire, was the Bohemians’ primary objective. This thesis analyzes the leaders’ writings to maintain that, until the advent of the First World War, it was primarily the émigrés and exiles who sought independence from the Habsburg Empire, while those back in Bohemia wanted to stay a part of the Empire. The lands of Bohemia, Moravia, Austrian Silesia, and Slovakia included Czechs, Slovaks, and Germans who had a desire to create their own self-governing lands within the Habsburg Empire. They wanted to regain the national identities that existed before the Habsburgs arrived. As the First World War approached, and when it started and quickly became apparent that the Habsburg Empire might come to an end, the goals and efforts of the exiles in Europe and of the expatriates across the globe changed. It was during these critical years that the nationalists realized they had no choice but to seek a separate state outside of the Habsburg Empire. Finally, this thesis argues that the activities of Czech and Slovak expatriates abroad, the endeavors of their exiled compatriots in Western Europe, and the efforts of their compatriots at home back in the Habsburg Empire, were all necessary in the struggle to form the new country of Czechoslovakia.