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 region of Czechoslovakia with Germany. This convinced Britain and France that ceding the territory to Germany was needed to avoid war. In 1938, Britain, France and Italy pressured Czechoslovakia to surrender the Sudetenland to Germany at the Munich Agreement, appeasing Hitler's demands but weakening Czechoslovakia's defenses.

1. CONTENT
ROAD TO WAR
HITLER’S
FIFTH MOVE
SUDETENLAND 1938
10

2. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
SUCCESSOR STATES
Czechoslovakia had been created by the peace treaties at the end of
the First World War.
The part of Czechoslovakia on the border with Germany was called
Sudetenland (Sudeten Mountain Country).
Most of the population were Germans.
Hitler financed and controlled the Sudeten-Germans who were led
Konrad Henlein.
They began claiming that they were mistreated by the Czech
Government and Hitler ordered the German army to be prepared to
act.
It was at this stage that Neville Chamberlain, the British PM, decided to
intervene.

3. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rofmja5WGqA

4. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
ANNEXATION PREPARED BY THE SUDETEN GERMANS
The annexation of the
Sudetenland by Germany was
prepared by the Sudeten
Germans, who—after accepting
with great reluctance the Treaty of
Saint-Germain, which had placed
them under Czechoslovak rule in
1919—responded with increasing
approval to the German
nationalist, anti-Czech, anti-
Semitic propaganda disseminated
by the Sudeten German (or Nazi)
Party during the mid-1930s.

5. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D

6. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
HOSTILE OUTBREAKS AND INCIDENTS
The Sudeten Nazis increased their activities, which were basically
aimed at uniting the Sudetenland with Germany and included hostile
outbreaks and provocative incidents.
They not only succeeded in embarrassing the Czechoslovak
government but also convinced Great Britain and France that the
situation in the Sudetenland was highly inflammatory and that the
Czechoslovak leaders must be persuaded to take extreme action, even
ceding the region to Germany, to avoid a war.

7. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
Sudetenland
Czech infantry conducting an exercise prior to the annexation of the
Sudetenland, September 1938.

8. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
Mussolini, Hitler and Chamberlain

9. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
APPEASEMENT IN ACTION
The Czechoslovak government responded to the Sudeten Germans’
grievances to the satisfaction of the non-Nazi groups (1937).
But the Czech government was unable to reach an accommodation
with Hitler (who was using the Sudetenland as a pretext for the
eventual takeover of all of Czechoslovakia).
France and Great Britain arranged to meet with Italy and Germany at
Munich (September 29–30), where they issued an ultimatum to
Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland to Germany by October 10.

10. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D

11. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
AFTER THE WAR
After World War II the Sudetenland was restored to Czechoslovakia,
which expelled most of the German inhabitants and repopulated the
area with Czechs.

12. CAMBRIDGE IGCSE – ROAD TO WW2 – MR. D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci-Sl1OD_W4