Czechoslovak Aviation Assistance to Africa (1960–68)

Abstract

After World War II, the airplane served to dramatically shrink the world, enabling states to expand their diplomatic relations and trade with distant countries. This was especially true for a small landlocked country like Czechoslovakia. Under the motto, “Air is our sea,” Czechoslovak leaders sought to make their country a transportation center by turning Prague into an aviation hub. As one Czechoslovak diplomat put it in the early 1950s, Czechoslovakia was “a small state,” which could “feed its population only through extensive trade with other countries,” and that trade could only be conducted through the air.¹ The Czechoslovak government understood that it needed its own civil aviation capabilities so it would not have to be dependent on foreign airlines to transport its goods and diplomatic delegations. Prague was therefore sympathetic when, during the late 1950s, newly independent African states similarly sought their own national airlines.