From 29 to 30 September 1938, an emergency meeting of the greatest European powers took place in Munich – without Czechoslovakia or the Soviet Union, an ally of France and Czechoslovakia. They quickly agreed on Hitler`s terms. It was signed by the leaders of Germany, France, Britain and Italy. Militarily, the Sudetenland was of strategic importance to Czechoslovakia, as most of its border defense was located there to protect itself from a German attack. The agreement between the four powers was signed in the context of an undeclared german-Czechoslovak war of low intensity, which had begun on September 17, 1938. Meanwhile, after September 23, 1938, Poland moved its army units to its common border with Czechoslovakia. [2] Czechoslovakia yielded to diplomatic pressure from France and Britain and agreed on September 30 to cede territories to Germany on Munich terms. Fearing the possible loss of Zaolzie to Germany, Poland issued Zaolzie with an ultimatum with a majority of ethnic Poles that Germany had accepted in advance and that Czechoslovakia had accepted on 1 October. [3] But despite his promise to have “no more territorial claims in Europe,” Hitler was not deterred by appeasement. In March 1939, he violated the Munich Accords by occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia. Six months later, in September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and Britain was at war. Czechoslovakia was informed by Britain and France that it could either resist Nazi Germany alone or submit to the prescribed annexations.
The Czechoslovak government, recognizing the desperation of the struggle against the Nazis alone, reluctantly capitulated (September 30) and agreed to abide by the agreement. The colony gave Germany the Sudetenland from October 10 and de facto control of the rest of Czechoslovakia, as long as Hitler promised not to go any further. On September 30, after a little rest, Chamberlain went to Hitler`s house and asked him to sign a peace treaty between the United Kingdom and Germany. After Hitler`s interpreter translated it for him, he happily accepted. The Manchester Guardian covered every aspect of the story – from details of the deal, Chamberlain, who appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, to unease among other nations. One editorial considered the piece of paper he had brandished on his return to Britain to be almost worthless. The economic consequences of the Munich Agreement will inevitably be very harsh for Czechoslovakia. The loss of industries, railway heads, knots, etc.
can only lead to serious losses in trade and unemployment. There is also no doubt that Czechoslovakia is becoming the object of quasi-colonial exploitation for Germany. [mute] An agreement signed at the Munich Conference in September 1938 ceded the German-speaking Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany. The agreement was concluded between Germany, Italy, Great Britain and France. Czechoslovakia was not allowed to participate in the conference. In March 1939, six months after the munich accords were signed, Hitler violated the agreement and destroyed the Czech state. On September 22, Chamberlain, who had just boarded his plane to go to Germany in Bad Godesberg for further interviews, told the press that met him there: “My goal is peace in Europe, I hope this journey is the path to that peace.” Chamberlain came to Cologne, where he received a generous welcome with a German band playing “God Save the King” and Germans who gave Chamberlain flowers and gifts. [32] Chamberlain had calculated that full acceptance of the German annexation of all sudetenland without reductions would force Hitler to accept the agreement. [32] When Hitler learned of this, he replied, “Does this mean that the Allies accepted Prague`s consent to the surrender of the Sudetenland to Germany?” Chamberlain replied, “Exactly,” to which Hitler reacted with a nod, saying that the Allies` offer was insufficient. He told Chamberlain that he wanted Czechoslovakia completely dissolved and its territories distributed to Germany, Poland, and Hungary, and ordered Chamberlain to take or leave it.
[32] Chamberlain was shocked by this statement. [32] Hitler went on to tell Chamberlain that since their last meeting on the 15th, Czechoslovakia`s actions, which Hitler said involved murders of Germans, had made the situation unbearable for Germany. [32] Six months later, in March 1939, German troops captured the rest of Czechoslovakia. Poland seemed to be the next most likely victim of Nazi aggression, and Chamberlain struck a deal with the Poles to defend them in Germany. Hitler did not believe that Britain would go to war for Poland after failing to do so for Czechoslovakia. In September 1939, he sent his soldiers to Poland. On the same day, Britain declared war on Germany. The British people expected war to come, and Chamberlain`s “statesman gesture” was initially greeted with applause. He was greeted as a hero by the royal family and invited to the balcony of Buckingham Palace before presenting the deal to the British Parliament.
The generally positive reaction quickly deteriorated, despite the royal patronage. However, there was resistance from the beginning. Clement Attlee and the Labour Party rejected the deal, in alliance with two Conservative MPs, Duff Cooper and Vyvyan Adams, who until then had been seen as a stubborn and reactionary element in the Conservative Party. In the spring of 1938, Hitler began to openly support the demands of German speakers living in the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia for closer relations with Germany. Hitler had recently annexed Austria to Germany, and the conquest of Czechoslovakia was the next step in his plan to create a “Greater Germany.” The Czechoslovak government hoped that Britain and France would come to its aid in the event of a German invasion, but British Prime Minister Chamberlain was anxious to avoid war. He made two trips to Germany in September and offered Hitler favorable deals, but the Führer stuck to his demands. The agreement was generally well received. French Prime Minister Daladier did not believe, as one scholar put it, that a European war was justified “to keep three million Germans under Czech sovereignty.” But the same argument applies to Alsace-Lorraine – unlike the alliance between France and Czechoslovakia against German aggression. Gallup polls in Britain, France and the United States showed that the majority of people supported the deal. Czechoslovak President Beneš was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1939. [52] As the threats of Germany and a European war became clearer, opinions changed.
Chamberlain has been criticized for his role as one of the “men of Munich” in books such as The Guilty Men of 1940. A rare defence of the agreement during the war came in 1944 from Viscount Maugham, who had been Lord Chancellor. Maugham regarded the decision to establish a Czechoslovak state with large German and Hungarian minorities as a “dangerous experiment” in light of previous disputes, and largely attributed the agreement to the need for France to free itself from its contractual obligations, given that it was not prepared for war. [63] After the war, Churchill`s memoirs of the period, The Gathering Storm (1948), claimed that Chamberlain`s appeasement of Hitler in Munich had been wrong, and recorded Churchill`s pre-war warnings about Hitler`s aggressive plan and the folly of Britain`s insistence on disarmament after Germany had achieved air parity with Britain. Although Churchill realized that Chamberlain was acting for noble motives, he argued that Hitler should have been fought because of Czechoslovakia and that efforts should be made to include the Soviet Union. During World War II, British Prime Minister Churchill, who rejected the agreement when it was signed, decided that the terms of the agreement would not be respected after the war and that the Sudetenland territories should be returned to post-war Czechoslovakia. On August 5, 1942, Foreign Minister Anthony Eden sent the following note to Jan Masaryk: The solution to the Czechoslovak problem that has just been found is, in my opinion, only the prelude to a greater solution in which the whole of Europe can find peace. This morning I had another conversation with the German Chancellor, Mr Hitler, and here is the newspaper that says both his name and my name. Some of you may have heard what`s in it, but I just want to read it to you: “. We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German naval agreement as a symbol of the will of our two peoples never to go to war with each other again. [96] Later in the session, a pre-arranged deception was made to influence Chamberlain and put pressure on him: one of Hitler`s advisers entered the room to inform Hitler that other Germans had been killed in Czechoslovakia, to which Hitler shouted in response, “I will avenge each of them. The Czechs must be annihilated.
[32] The meeting ended with Hitler`s refusal to make concessions to the Allies` demands. [32] Later that evening, Hitler worried that he had gone too far to put pressure on Chamberlain and called the suite of Chamberlain`s hotel and said he would only agree to annex the Sudetenland, with no plans in other areas, provided that Czechoslovakia began the evacuation of ethnic Czechs from German-majority territories by September 26 at 8:00 a.m. .m. . . .