At the beginning of November 1938, after the First Vienna Award, after the failure of negotiations between Czechoslovakia and Hungary, as a recommendation for the settlement of territorial disputes by the Annex to the Munich Agreement, the German-Italian arbitration procedure required Czechoslovakia to cede southern Slovakia and one third of Slovak territory to Hungary, and Poland received small territorial cessions (Zaolzie) shortly thereafter. Appeasement apologists have argued that public opinion, whether on the British or French side, was not prepared for war in 1938. This, as recent studies have shown, is controversial. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain received 20,000 letters and telegrams thanking him for avoiding war in Munich. The insane scenes of Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier on their return testify to the will of many to welcome a peace that Czechoslovakia has sacrificed. But the simple relief of not having to fight or endure the dangers and difficulties of war, especially after it has appeared so close, must compensate for much of this enthusiasm. 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 hardened and reactionary element of the Conservative Party.
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: As most of the border defense was in the area ceded as a result of the Munich Accords, the rest of Czechoslovakia, despite its relatively large stockpiles of modern weapons, was completely open to a new invasion. In a speech to the Reichstag, Hitler expressed the importance of the occupation in strengthening the German army, noting that thanks to the occupation of Czechoslovakia, Germany received 2,175 field guns and cannons, 469 tanks, 500 anti-aircraft artillery guns, 43,000 machine guns, 1,090,000 military rifles, 114,000 pistols, about a billion rounds of small arms ammunition and three million anti-aircraft ammunition. This could then arm about half of the Wehrmacht. [93] Czechoslovak weapons then played an important role in the German conquest of Poland and France, the latter of which had urged Czechoslovakia to surrender in the Sudetenland in 1938. In a message sent to the People of Czechoslovakia on 30 September 1940, the Prime Minister had already set out the position of His Majesty`s Government on the agreements concluded in Munich in 1938. Churchill then said that the Munich Accords had been destroyed by the Germans. This statement was officially communicated to Dr. Beneš on November 11, 1940. After the National Socialists seized power in 1933, Germany demanded the “return” of the ethnic German population of Czechoslovakia – and the country in which they lived – to the German Reich. In the late summer of 1938, Hitler threatened to start a European war if the Sudetenland was not ceded to Germany. The Sudetenland was a border area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly German-speaking population as well as all defensive positions of the Czechoslovak army in case of war with Germany.
The leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Germany held a conference in Munich on September 29 and 30, 1938. In the so-called Munich Pact, they accepted the German annexation of the Sudetenland in exchange for Hitler`s promise of peace. An agreement was reached on September 29, and around 1:30 a.m. .m .m. On September 30, 1938,[43] Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Édouard Daladier signed the Munich Accords. The agreement was officially introduced by Mussolini, although the Italian plan was almost identical to Godesberg`s proposal: the German army was to complete the occupation of the Sudetenland by October 10 and an international commission was to decide on the future of the other disputed territories. In the spring of 1938, Hitler openly began to support the demands of the German-speaking people of 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 the rescue 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 continued to increase his demands.
Citing Munich in foreign policy debates is also common in the 21st century. [107] During Secretary of State John Kerry`s negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal, a Texas Republican lawmaker called the negotiations “worse than Munich.” Kerry himself had invoked Munich in a speech in France, in which he advocated military action in Syria saying, “This is our Munich moment.” [108] [Silence] An agreement signed at the Munich Conference of September 1938 cedes the German-speaking Sudetenland of 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. UCLA Film and Television Archive On December 4, 1938, 97.32% of the adult population voted for the NSDAP in the elections in the Reichsgau Sudetenland. About half a million Sudeten Germans joined the NSDAP, or 17.34% of the Sudeten German population (the average participation in the NSDAP in Nazi Germany was 7.85%). This made the Sudetenland the most “pro-National Socialist” region of the Third Reich. [89] London, FridayThe Munich Accords give Hitler (initially) everything he wants, except that they may not quite allow him to get it as quickly as he would have done under Godesberg`s uncircumcised ultimatum. He will begin tomorrow the invasion of Czechoslovakia, as he threatened in his speech of 12 September. It is free to occupy all regions where Sudeten Germans are in the majority, and to do so in rapid stages.
The slogan “About us, without us!” (Czech: O nás bez nás!) summarizes the feelings of the Czechoslovak people (now Slovakia and the Czech Republic) towards the agreement. [Citation needed] With the transition from the Sudetenland to Germany, Czechoslovakia (as the state was renamed) lost its defensible border with Germany and its fortifications. Without it, its independence became more nominal than real. Czechoslovakia also lost 70% of its steel industry, 70% of its electrical energy and 3.5 million citizens to Germany as a result of unification. [61] Sudeten Germans celebrated what they saw as their liberation. The impending war, it seems, had been averted. On 28 and 29 April 1938, Daladier meets British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in London to discuss the situation. Chamberlain, who saw no way Hitler could be prevented from completely destroying Czechoslovakia if that was his intention (which Chamberlain doubted), argued that Prague should be pressured to make territorial concessions to Germany. The French and British leaders believed that peace could only be saved by transferring the Sudetenland German territories from Czechoslovakia. .
The solution to the Czechoslovak problem, which has just been found, is, in my opinion, only the prelude to a broader settlement 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 bears his name, as well as mine. 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 desire of our two peoples never to go to war with each other again. [96] On September 28 at 10:00.m., four hours before the deadline and without Czechoslovakia`s approval of Hitler`s request, the British ambassador to Italy, Lord Perth, summoned Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano to request an urgent meeting. [37] Perth told Ciano that Chamberlain had asked him to ask Mussolini to enter into negotiations and urge Hitler to postpone the ultimatum. [37] At 11:00.m., Ciano met Mussolini and informed him of Chamberlain`s proposal; Mussolini agreed and responded by calling the Italian ambassador to Germany and telling him: “Go immediately to the Führer and tell him that whatever happens, I will be at his side, but that I ask for a delay of twenty-four hours before the start of hostilities. In the meantime, I`ll explore what can be done to fix the problem. [40] Hitler received Mussolini`s message during a conversation with the French ambassador. Hitler told the ambassador: “My good friend, Benito Mussolini, asked me to postpone the marching orders of the German army by twenty-four hours, and I agreed. Of course, this was not a concession, as the date of the invasion was set for October 1, 1938. [41] Addressing Chamberlain, Lord Perth Chamberlain thanked Mussolini and Chamberlain for asking Mussolini to attend a conference of the four powers of Britain, France, Germany and Italy in Munich on September 29 to resolve the Sudetenland problem before the deadline of 2:00.m p.m.
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