IB History Appeasement Neville Chamberlain and Munich Agreement Key Definitions

An agreement signed on September 30, 1938 by Germany (Hitler), Italy (Mussolini), Britain (Chamberlain), and France (Daladier), requiring Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany within ten days. Czechoslovakia was not a party to the negotiations. The agreement was presented by Chamberlain as "peace for our time." Hitler had threatened war if his demands were not met, and Chamberlain and Daladier chose to concede rather than risk a conflict. The agreement became the defining example of appeasement. In March 1939, Germany violated Munich by occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia, ending any justification for further concessions to Hitler.

The border regions of Czechoslovakia inhabited by a predominantly German-speaking population (around 3.5 million people), which Czechoslovakia had acquired as part of the 1919 peace settlement. Germany had no historical sovereignty over the Sudetenland, which had been part of Austria-Hungary. In 1938, Hitler demanded the Sudetenland's transfer to Germany, using the Sudeten German minority's alleged mistreatment as a pretext. The Munich Agreement of September 1938 transferred the region to Germany without Czechoslovak consultation. In March 1939, Germany violated Munich by occupying the rest of Czechoslovakia (Bohemia and Moravia), demonstrating that Hitler's demands had not been limited to ethnic Germans.