Actually the Slovakians became very unhappy when the Czech deligates had them deported back to the new Czechoslovkian state when they attempted to seek more autonomy at the Paris Peace talks. The Czech authorties promply had them arrested and so the unhappiness just continued to grow and grow.
Arghhh. Nooo!!!
Board just ate my response...
Okay, one - this is false as federation
was agreed upon. It just was that by the time the final constitution was accepted in
1921, the war with Hungarian Council Republic, the Czech-Polish War, the border territories trying to secede and the economing slump most Czech politicians believed that Czechoslovakia needed strong central goverment to survive and that Czechoslovakism could be used as a cornerstone fro the country. Of course, with death of Rastislav Štefánik, the Slovaks had lost their largest politician and Czechoslovakism was total idiocy.
Yet, to believe that Slovaks only waited for opportune time to knife Czechs in the back is wrong. Tiso was given two choics in his Berlin meeting, independent Slovakia, or hungarian Slovakia. I can't fault him for his choice (though I can fault him for being clerico-fascist swine). But still many Slovaks remained loyal to the cause of Czechoslovakia, fighting in resistance both at home, as in Slovak National Uprising or assasination of Reinhard Heydrich, and abroad, in Czechoslovak units in France, USSR and North Africa.