This lesson describes the Munich Agreement of 1938 as an example of diplomatic appeasement that led to World War II. It outlines the reasons for the Munich Conference, and details its impact on European politics.
Updated: 11/21/2023
The Munich Agreement | Conference, Reasons & Significance
Table of Contents
- What Was the Munich Agreement?
- Reasons for the Munich Conference
- What Happened at the Munich Conference?
- The Munich Conference: Reaction and Aftermath
- The Munich Conference: Significance
- Lesson Summary
Frequently Asked Questions
Why was the Munich agreement a failure?
The Munich agreement was a failure because Hitler did not stop with the Sudetenland. He took the attitude of appeasement as a sign that Western Europe would not declare war on Germany if it expanded even further.
Why was the Munich agreement so important?
The Munich agreement allowed Hitler to increase the size and power of Nazi Germany because France and Great Britain practiced an attitude of appeasement in the hopes of avoiding war.
What did the Munich agreement do?
The Munich agreement allowed Hitler to annex the Sudetenland so long as that was the last territorial expansion under Nazi Germany.
Table of Contents
- What Was the Munich Agreement?
- Reasons for the Munich Conference
- What Happened at the Munich Conference?
- The Munich Conference: Reaction and Aftermath
- The Munich Conference: Significance
- Lesson Summary
The Munich Agreement was a compromise made between the four of the most powerful countries in Europe in 1938. Adolf Hitler was expanding the German Empire, and Czechoslovakia was his next target. The country had been created after World War I in order to reduce the size and power of Germany. However, by 1938, Hitler was fighting to take back control of the Czech borderlands, called the Sudetenland, because a majority of these people identified as and spoke German. The region gained its name from the mountain range that exists in the area which wraps around the rest of Czechoslovakia.
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At the time, many people viewed this agreement as assurance that another world war would be avoided. But within a year of this agreement, World War II had begun.
When Was the Munich Conference?
The Munich Conference was held on September 29th, 1938. This was a meeting between the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the Prime Minister of France, the Dictator of Italy, and the Chancellor of Germany. Negotiations had been ongoing for the entire month, and on this day, these four leaders met to decide the fate of another country, Czechoslovakia. What they came up with was called the Munich Agreement or Munich Pact,
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Many of the reasons for the Munich Conference originate in the Treaty of Versailles, the agreement that ended World War I. This treaty heavily punished Germany for their participation in the war and attempted to disable the country from ever being able to wage war again. This was done by putting German borderlands in other nations in order to reduce the population of Germany from 90 million to just 60 million. This way, Germans would exist across multiple countries, and the hope was this would encourage the German government to remain peaceful with its neighbors who had large German populations. Once chancellor, Hitler vowed to Germany that the Treaty of Versailles would be reversed, and everything he did in the 1930s reflected this desire.
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Additionally, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain wanted to decide the fate of Czechoslovakia diplomatically because Great Britain had guaranteed Czech independence in the 1920s. This means that Great Britain promised if Germany invaded them, that the British would join the war and defend Czech independence. French and British politicians were worried about sliding into another world war and knew if they could negotiate at the Munich Conference, they could avoid having to honor or ignore the guarantee given a decade earlier.
German Expansionism
In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany lost many of the natural resources that made it powerful in the first place. This was a primary motive for Hitler during his early expansion; he wanted to regain resources that could help to fuel a massive military.
Because the Treaty of Versailles had broken ethnic Germans up amongst several countries, Hitler had a justification for his expansion. He used the slogan 'Blood and Soil' to express his desire to reunite all German people into the same country.
The earliest example of this expansion was the Anschluss of Austria in March of 1938. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had been split up in the Treaty of Versailles, and Austria was reduced to a country of 6 million people, with 2 million of them living in Vienna. Such a small country could not support a city of millions of people, and as a result, Austria was easily persuaded to integrate into the German Empire.
However, after this annexation of an entire country, Western Europe was worried that Hitler was going to begin a war with an ally in central Europe. At the time, some people were calling for immediate retaliation to stop German expansion, and others believed that Hitler could be reasoned with.
Western European Appeasement
During the summer of 1938, politicians were uncertain what was to be done about Hitler. It may seem obvious in the present that Hitler could not be reasoned with, but at the time it was not obvious Hitler was not going to stop.
Great Britain and France were still attempting to pay off debt incurred during World War I and did not want to enter into another costly war. These concerns led British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Daladier to seek appeasement. Appeasement is a diplomatic policy of permitting a government to do something undesirable in the hopes that greater catastrophe could be avoided. The most notable example of appeasement surrounding the Munich Conference is when Chamberlain arrived back in London after the agreement and showed everyone the piece of paper Hitler had signed, stating he would expand no further after taking the Sudetenland. At this moment he assured the British people that there would be peace for our time!
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However, while Chamberlain and the majority of British citizens agreed with appeasement at the time, British politician Winston Churchill called for the exact opposite. He referred to the Munich Agreement as a total and unmitigated defeat. Most people wanted to believe appeasement would work, and Churchill's opinion was not popular until it became obvious war was inevitable.
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Hitler made it clear he would be taking the Sudetenland in October. However, Great Britain and France wanted to instead come to a diplomatic agreement by granting Germany permission to do what it already was going to. In late September, there was uncertainty whether Hitler was going to wait for a diplomatic negotiation, and Neville Chamberlain asked for a meeting with the German Chancellor. On September 29th, 1938 they met, and in the middle of the night on September 30th, they signed an agreement.
Participants
This conference was to decide the fate of a single country, but those who had the most influence were not even from that nation.
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- British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain - He was a lifelong politician and was well respected at the time of the agreement.
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- French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier - He was committed to upholding the independence guarantee with Czechoslovakia. This made Chamberlain get involved because, if France declared war on Germany, England would be forced to as well.
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- Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini - Mussolini was the dictator of Italy and seized power in the 1920s. Hitler modeled himself after Mussolini's fascist government.
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- German Chancellor Adolf Hitler - Hitler recognized how unwilling Great Britain was to go to war and used this to his advantage.
- Czech diplomats - Even though the Munich Agreement was deciding the fate of Czechoslovakia, the diplomats present from the country had no influence in the agreement and were left outside of the negotiating room. The country was treated as a pawn in European war games.
The one country notably not at the Munich Conference was the Soviet Union. The country's leader Joseph Stalin felt betrayed by France and Great Britain, and this hampered relations between the countries for several years.
Agreement
The specific stipulations of the agreement were:
- Germany would be permitted to annex the Sudetenland.
- Hungary and Poland would be permitted to annex portions of former Czechoslovakia that had a majority of ethnically Hungarian and Polish people.
- German expansion would cease after this annexation.
The actual Munich Agreement was not made at the Munich Conference. It was issued a week earlier as the Godesburg Memorandum. All France and Great Britain did was sign off on it and have Hitler promise that he would stop expansion after this.
Occupation of the Sudetenland
After the Munich Agreement, Germany completed the process of occupation by October 10th. The German military was already posted along the border, and the only decision the Czech government had to make was whether to go to war with Germany, knowing that no help would likely come from allies. This was unfortunately a simple decision for the Czech government, and all the stipulations of the agreement were honored. The annexation of the Sudetenland was almost entirely peaceful.
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Besides Winston Churchill and a few other Conservatives, Neville Chamberlain received approval from the global community. The Prime Minister of Canada, Australia, and even the President of the United States sent him messages to congratulate this diplomatic achievement.
However, while Chamberlain may have been celebrated by national leaders and British citizens, it quickly became clear the appeasement was a mistake. By March of 1939, all Czech borderlands had been annexed by another country, Slovakia had been formed into a puppet state of Nazi Germany, and the last portion of Czechoslovakia had been captured on March 15th.
Hungary and Poland
Immediately after the Munich Conference, Polish forces rushed into the Czech province of Zaolzie before Germany could take it. Also, in November of 1938, Hitler issued the First Vienna Award which gave Hungary claims to Czechoslovakian lands.
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Complete Annexation by Germany
BY 1939, German, Hungarian, and Polish expansion had reduced Czechoslovakia to a far weaker country. There was no way that France or Great Britain was going to start a war over Czechoslovakia by that point, so Hitler decided to ignore the Munich agreement entirely and planned to invade the remainder of the country.
- On March 14, 1939, the Slovakian portion of the country declared independence under the guidance of Hitler
- On March 15, 1939, Germany invaded and captured the remaining center of Czech lands.
- On March 16, 1939, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia is established as a puppet government, ceasing the existence of Czechoslovakia.
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The conference is significant because it enabled Hitler to consolidate power in Central Europe much more easily than if Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union had upheld their agreement with Czechoslovakia. This example of appeasement illustrates what can go wrong when peace is valued above stability and order.
An Emboldened Germany
This agreement showed Hitler that peace was the primary concern of Western Europe. Meaning that Germany would be able to expand in Central Europe without fear of retaliation from Great Britain and France.
The Invasion of Poland
Because it seemed that Western Europe would allow Hitler to do anything, Joseph Stalin was worried. He sought to form formal alliances with Great Britain and France; however, they were unwilling to join because they felt war would not come. After first going to Western Europe, Stalin then went to Hitler to sign a non-aggression pact, in which they promised not to declare war on each other.
A week after this agreement, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany declared war on Poland, and Hitler expected France and Great Britain to do nothing.
The Start of World War Two
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Great Britain and France also guaranteed the peace of Poland against Germany, but after the Munich Conference, Polish politicians and citizens had no idea if these agreements would be upheld. However, the invasion of Poland made it apparent that Hitler was never going to stop expanding. Declaring war on Nazi Germany set off the following chain of events, as it became necessary for France and Great Britain to maintain order on the Continent and in the world at large.
- September 1, 1939: Nazi Germany invaded Poland
- September 3, 1939: Great Britain and France declare war on Germany
- October 6, 1939: Germany occupation of Poland is complete
Battles between Germany and the countries of Western Europe did not begin for months after this declaration of war because the Allies were still preparing. This hesitancy also reflected a hope that the war might still end before a major conflict began. However, by the Spring of 1940, German forces captured France, and it was clear Nazi Germany was more powerful than Allied forces had expected.
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The Munich Conference was notable because it is an example of appeasement. Neville Chamberlain came home to London and used the signed agreement with Hitler as proof that war had been averted. At the time, most people heralded him as a hero of peace, but Winston Churchill warned that Nazi Germany was only going to grow in power. The Munich Agreement or Pact was already created a week before the Munich Conference; however, Chamberlain and Daladier wanted to be seen as giving Hitler permission to go through with the invasion. This emboldened Hitler to expand even further and was only met with resistance once he began the invasion of Poland. Hitler began this expansion with Austria and the message of 'Blood and Soil' but was not stopped at the Sudetenland or with his further occupation of the country.
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Additional Info
The Munich Conference was held in Munich in 1938. There, Neville Chamberlin, the British Prime Minister; Edouard Daladier, the French Premiere, Benito Mussolini, the Italian Dictator, and Adolph Hitler, the German Fuhrer met to discuss terms that would satisfy Germany and avoid a second world war.
Adolf Hitler's Demands
As Adolf Hitler gained power in Germany, his ambitions grew beyond Germany's borders. Hitler sought to expand Germany for a variety of reasons. One of these was his belief in 'blood and soil.' This philosophy emphasized a unity of Germans 'in the same reich' wherever they might live. This was demonstrated when he took over Austria in early 1938. He was able to do so without any foreign opposition, and so Hitler then set his sights on Czechoslovakia.
Continuing his emphasis of Pan-Germanism, or the philosophy that all German people should be united under one government, Hitler made the argument that the more than three million Germans who were living in the Czechoslovakia should be included in Germany. Hitler called the area with the highest concentration of German citizens 'Sudetenland' in recognition of the Sudetes mountain range that extended into Germany. Hitler stressed that he would act politically and militarily in the name of Germans in the region.
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The Czechoslovakian Government did not agree to Hitler's demands. The democratic government believed that it would enjoy support from England, another democracy, and France, with whom it had a military alliance. However, Czechoslovakia was in a difficult predicament because it was the only democracy in central Europe and it lacked stability in terms of age, being just 20 years old when Hitler's demands besieged it.
In May 1938, Hitler made plans to use the military in order to invade Czechoslovakia. He delivered a passionate speech in September claiming that the Czechoslovakian government was trying to gradually exterminate the German population. Hitler made it clear that military force was would be used to protect his coveted 'blood and soil.'
The Munich Conference of 1938
The day after the speech, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain personally met with Hitler to find a solution to avoid war. Chamberlain believed that war was not prudent for England, and, given the horrors of World War I, it needed to be averted at all costs.
Hitler told Chamberlain that war could be avoided if Sudetenland were unified with Germany. After leaving the meeting to consult with his cabinet and French premiere Eduoard Daladier, it was agreed that the Czechoslovakian government should give into Hitler's demands. Any territory where there was a German population that was over 50% of the total Sudetenland population would be ceded to Germany.
The government agreed on September 21; however, the next day, Hitler added to his demands. He indicated that Germanic people in Poland and Hungary should become part of Nazi Germany. Hitler repeated his intention to use his army to assist German expansion in protecting the rights of German people wherever they might live. He also established October 1 as when military operations against Czechoslovakia would begin.
Prime Minister Chamberlain and French Premiere Daledier headed off to Munich to host a conference that they hoped would avert war. They requested Hitler's European alliance partner, Benito Mussolini, to attend in the hopes of persuasion. In the early morning hours of September 30, a day before Hitler's imposed deadline to use force, an agreement was reached.
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The Munich Conference concluded that the Sudetenland territory would be ceded to Germany. In addition, Hitler would take over portions of Czechoslovakia provided he would not seek further expansion. The Czechoslovakian government was told that it could challenge Hitler to war, but it would do so without any support.
The British and French governments appeased Hitler to avoid war by surrendering to his demands. The only demand they had made was that Hitler would make no more demands. Chamberlain asked Hitler to sign a document that he believed was symbolic of the desire of both nations to never endure war again. Hitler agreed to this promise. With that, the Munich Conference had seemingly accomplished its goal of averting war over a crisis in Czechoslovakia.
Its cost would be realized later. When German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop reproached Hitler for signing the pledge with England, the Nazi leader told his Foreign Minister, 'Oh, don't take it so seriously. That piece of paper is of no further significance whatsoever.'
Results of the Munich Conference
France and England thought they faced a no-win situation in Munich, believing they were either going to sacrifice Czechoslovakia or sacrifice peace. As the conference ended, Chamberlain returned to England, waving the paper with Hitler's signature in the air and declaring peace had been accomplished.
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Winston Churchill famously replied to the news in the House of Commons by saying, 'You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.' Given how the results of the Munich Conference, Churchill's words were prophetic.
The results of the Munich Conference emboldened Germany. By March 1939, the Nazis took over Czechoslovakia and acquired its armaments. Hitler then set his sights on Poland. England realized the folly of appeasement, promising to defend Poland, 'at once.' On September 1, Hitler invaded Poland, while Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later, signaling the start of World War II.
Lesson Summary
There were two sets of motivations that guided the 1938 Munich Conference. France and Great Britain wanted to avoid war, while Germany wanted to see the realization of the Pan-Germanism philosophy. One side believed in the promises written on paper, while the other side had no intention of honoring them. In the end, there were no winners out of the Munich Conference and WWII commenced.
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The Munich Agreement | Conference, Reasons & Significance
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