The Sudeten Germans, led by Konrad Henlein and financed by Hitler, began making claims of mistreatment by the Czech government and increased hostile activities aimed at uniting the Sudetenland with Germany. This convinced Britain and France that ceding the region to Germany was needed to avoid war. At the Munich Agreement in 1938, Britain, France and Italy issued an ultimatum forcing Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany by October 1938.