The Munich Agreement Cedes the Sudetenland
- Date
- 1938
- Category
- Politics & governance
- Region
- Europe (Germany)
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
The Munich Agreement was the diplomatic surrender that let Nazi Germany dismember Czechoslovakia and became the enduring symbol of appeasement's failure.
Signed in the early hours of 30 September 1938 by Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Édouard Daladier, and Benito Mussolini, it authorised Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland—the Czech borderlands where about three million ethnic Germans lived and where Czechoslovakia's strongest defences stood. Desperate to avoid war, Britain and France agreed to Hitler's demands without inviting Czechoslovakia to the table, then informed Prague it must submit or fight alone. Chamberlain returned to London waving the accord and promising "peace for our time," a phrase soon drenched in irony. Stripped of its fortifications and betrayed by its allies, Czechoslovakia was left defenseless; in March 1939 Hitler seized the rest of the country, exposing the agreement as worthless. Munich taught a generation that concessions only emboldened aggressors, discredited appeasement, and pushed Britain and France toward the confrontation that erupted less than a year later when Germany invaded Poland.
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Empires active in 1938
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- Empire of Japan1868 CE – 1947 CE
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE – 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
Related politics & governance events
- Stalin's Great Purge (Great Terror)1936–1938
- Hitler's appointment and Nazi consolidation of power30 January 1933 – August 1934
- Founding of the United Nations26 June 1945 (in force 24 October 1945)
- Treaty of Versailles and the founding of the League of Nations28 June 1919 (in force 10 January 1920)
- Russian Revolutions of 1917March & November 1917 (February & October Revolutions, O.S.)
- Sykes-Picot Agreement partitions the Ottoman Middle East16 May 1916
Also relevant
Further reading
The wider story
Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire
Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.
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