Editing Munich Agreement (section)

===Consequences===
[[File:Czech refugees from the Sudetenland 3.gif|thumb|Czechs refugees from the Sudetenland]]
On 5 October, Beneš resigned as [[President of Czechoslovakia]] since he realized that the fall of Czechoslovakia was inevitable. After the outbreak of [[World War II]], he formed a Czechoslovak government-in-exile in [[London]]. On 6 December 1938, the [[French-German Non-aggression Pact]] was signed in [[Paris]] by French Foreign Minister Bonnet and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.<ref>{{cite book|first=Douglas M |last=Gibler|title=International Military Alliances, 1648–2008|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y3-iCQAAQBAJ&q=french-german+non-aggression+pact+8+decembre+1938&pg=RA1-PA203|year=2008|publisher=CQ Press|page=203|isbn=9781604266849}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/fyb/part_2.html|title=The Franco-German Declaration of December 6th, 1938|access-date=11 June 2020}}</ref><ref name="http://archives.chicagotribune.com">[http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1938/12/07/page/1/article/france-signs-no-war-pact-with-germany France Signs "No-War" Pact with Germany], ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'', 7 December 1938</ref>

Nazi Germany occupied the Sudetenland from 1938 to 1945.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Glassheim |first=Eagle |date=2006 |title=Ethnic Cleansing, Communism, and Environmental Devastation in Czechoslovakia's Borderlands, 1945–1989 |url=https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/499795 |journal=The Journal of Modern History |volume=78 |issue=1|pages=65–92 |doi=10.1086/499795 |s2cid=142647561 }}</ref>

==== First Vienna Award to Hungary ====
{{Main|First Vienna Award}}
[[File:Košice 11. november 1938.jpg|left|thumb|[[Admiral Horthy]] during the Hungarians' triumphant entry into [[Košice]], November 1938]]
[[File:Polská armáda vjíždí do Těšína - 1938.jpg|thumb|[[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] annexed the Trans-Olza area of Czechoslovakia inhabited by 36% of [[Polish minority in the Czech Republic|ethnic Poles]] in 1938.]]
[[File:Zaolzie karwina 1938.jpg|thumb|"For 600 years we have been waiting for you (1335–1938)." An ethnic Polish band welcoming the annexation of [[Trans-Olza]] by Poland in [[Karviná]], October 1938]]

In early November 1938, under the First Vienna Award, after the failed negotiations between Czechoslovakia and [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]], as a recommendation to settle the territorial disputes by the appendix of the Munich Agreement, the German-Italian arbitration required Czechoslovakia to cede southern Slovakia to Hungary, and Poland independently gained small territorial cessions shortly afterward (Trans-Olza).<ref>Anthony Komjathy, "The First Vienna Award (November 2, 1938)." ''Austrian History Yearbook'' 15 (1979): 130–156.</ref>

Bohemia, Moravia and [[Czech Silesia|Silesia]] lost about 38% of their combined area to Germany, with some 2.8&nbsp;million German and 513,000 to 750,000<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bruntal.net/2007072602-k-otazce-vysidleni-obcanu-csr-ze-sudet-tesinska-podkarpatske-rusi-a-slovenske-republiky-v-letech-1938-1939 |title=K otázce vysídlení občanů ČSR ze Sudet, Těšínska, Podkarpatské Rusi a Slovenské republiky v letech 1938/1939 |access-date=2 December 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141202131759/http://www.bruntal.net/2007072602-k-otazce-vysidleni-obcanu-csr-ze-sudet-tesinska-podkarpatske-rusi-a-slovenske-republiky-v-letech-1938-1939 |archive-date=2 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bohumildolezal.cz/texty/u074-08.htm|title=Fakta o vyhnání Čechů ze Sudet|website=bohumildolezal.cz|access-date=20 July 2019}}</ref> [[Czechs|Czech]] inhabitants. Hungary, in turn, received {{convert|11882|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} in southern Slovakia and southern [[Carpathian Ruthenia]]. According to a 1941 census, about 86.5% of the population in the territory was [[Hungarian people|Hungarian]]. Slovakia lost {{convert|10390|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} and 854,218 inhabitants for Hungary (according to a Czechoslovak 1930 census about 59% were Hungarians and 32% were [[Slovaks]] and Czechs<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.forumhistoriae.sk/documents/10180/70153/hetenyi.pdf|title=Slovak-Hungarian border in the years 1938–1945|first1=Martin|last1=Hetényi|date=2008|access-date=17 July 2021}}</ref>). Poland annexed the town of [[Český Těšín]] with the surrounding area (some {{convert|906|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}, with 250,000 inhabitants. Poles made up about 36% of the population, down from 69% in 1910<ref>Irena Bogoczová, Jana Raclavska. "Report about the national and language situation in the area around Czeski Cieszyn/Český Těšín in the Czech Republic." ''Czeski Cieszyn/Český Těšín Papers''. Nr 7, ''EUR.AC research''. November 2006. p. 2. (source: Zahradnik. "Struktura narodowościowa Zaolzia na podstawie spisów ludności 1880–1991." Třinec 1991).</ref>){{sfn|Siwek|n.d.}} and two minor border areas in northern Slovakia, more precisely in the regions [[Spiš]] and [[Orava (county)|Orava]]. ({{convert|226|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}}, 4,280 inhabitants, only 0.3% Poles).

Soon after Munich, 115,000 Czechs and 30,000 Germans fled to the [[Rump state|rump]] of Czechoslovakia. According to the Institute for Refugee Assistance, the actual count of refugees on 1 March 1939 stood at almost 150,000.<ref>[http://www.radio.cz/en/article/46238 Forced displacement of Czech population under Nazis in 1938 and 1943], [[Radio Prague]]</ref>

On 4 December 1938, elections in [[Reichsgau Sudetenland]] had 97.3% of the adult population vote for the [[Nazi Party]]. About half-a-million Sudeten Germans joined the Nazi Party, 17.3% of the German population in Sudetenland (the average NSDAP participation in Nazi Germany was 7.9%). Thus, the Sudetenland was the most "pro-Nazi" region in Nazi Germany.{{sfn|Zimmerman|1999}}

Because of their knowledge of Czech, many Sudeten Germans were employed in the administration of the [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia]] as well as in Nazi organisations, such as the [[Gestapo]]. The most notable of them was [[Karl Hermann Frank]], SS and Police General and Secretary of State in the Protectorate.<ref>Valdis O. Lumans, "The Ethnic German Minority of Slovakia and the Third Reich, 1938–45." ''Central European History'' 15.3 (1982): 266–296.</ref>

==== German invasion of rump Czechoslovakia ====
{{main|Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)}}

In 1937, the ''[[Wehrmacht]]'' had formulated a plan, "Operation Green" (''Fall Grün'') for the invasion of Czechoslovakia. It was implemented shortly after the proclamation of the [[Slovak State]] on 15 March 1939.{{sfn|Herzstein|1980|p=184}} On 14 March, Slovakia seceded from Czechoslovakia and became a separate Nazi-subordinate state. The following day, [[Carpatho-Ukraine]] proclaimed independence as well, but after three days, it was completely occupied and annexed by Hungary. Czechoslovak President [[Emil Hácha]] traveled to Berlin and was left waiting, and orders to invade had already been given. During the meeting with Hitler, Hácha was threatened with the bombing of Prague if he refused to order the Czech troops to lay down their arms. That news induced a heart attack from which he was revived by an injection from Hitler's doctor. Hácha then agreed to sign the communiqué accepting the [[Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|German occupation of the remainder of Bohemia and Moravia]], "which in its unctuous mendacity was remarkable even for the Nazis."<ref>Noakes, J. and Pridham, G. (eds) (2010) [2001] "Nazism 1919–1945", Vol 3, ''Foreign Policy, War and Racial Extermination'', University of Exeter Press, Exeter, p. 119</ref> Churchill's prediction was fulfilled, as German armies entered Prague and proceeded to occupy the rest of the country, which was transformed into a protectorate of the Reich. In March 1939, [[Konstantin von Neurath]] was appointed as Reichsprotektor and served as Hitler's personal representative in the protectorate. Immediately after the occupation, a wave of arrests began, mostly of refugees from Germany, Jews and Czech public figures. By November, Jewish children had been expelled from their schools and their parents fired from their jobs. Universities and colleges were closed after demonstrations against the occupation of Czechoslovakia. Over 1200 students were sent to concentration camps, and nine student leaders were executed on 17 November ([[International Students' Day]]).<ref>N.J.W. Goda, ''Tales from Spandau. Nazi Criminals and the Cold War'' (2007). pp. 161–163.</ref>

By seizing Bohemia and Moravia, Nazi Germany gained all of the skilled labour force and heavy industry located there as well as all the weapons of the Czechoslovak Army. During the 1940 [[Battle of France]], roughly 25% of all German weapons came from the protectorate. Nazi Germany also gained all of the Czechoslovakia's gold treasure, including gold stored in the [[Bank of England]]. Of a total 227 tons of gold found after the war in salt mines, only 18.4 tons were returned to Czechoslovakia in 1982, but most of it came from Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was also forced to "sell" war material to the ''Wehrmacht'' for 648&nbsp;million of prewar [[Czechoslovak koruna]], a debt that was never repaid.<ref>David Blaazer,  "Finance and the end of appeasement: the Bank of England, the National Government and the Czech gold." ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 40.1 (2005): 25–39.</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2004-1202-505, Prag, Burg, Besuch Adolf Hitler.jpg|left|thumb|Adolf Hitler on his visit to [[Prague Castle]] after the establishment of a German [[Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia|protectorate]], 15 March 1939]]
Chamberlain claimed the Prague annexation was a "completely different category" that moved [[Second Thirty Years War#The move beyond legitimate Versailles grievances, 1938-9|beyond the legitimate Versailles grievances]].<ref>McDonough, 2002, p. 73</ref> Meanwhile, concerns arose in Britain that Poland, which was now encircled by many German possessions, would become the next target of Nazi expansionism. That was made apparent by the dispute over the [[Polish Corridor]] and the [[Free City of Danzig]] and resulted in the signing of an [[Anglo-Polish military alliance]]. That made the Polish government refuse to accept German negotiation proposals over the Polish Corridor and the status of Danzig.<ref>Władysław W. Kulski, "The Anglo-Polish Agreement of August 25, 1939", ''The Polish Review,'' (1976) 21 (1/2): 23–40.</ref> Chamberlain felt betrayed by the Nazi seizure of Czechoslovakia, realized that his policy of appeasement towards Hitler had failed and so began to take a much harder line against Germany. He immediately began to mobilize the British armed forces to a war footing, and France did the same. Italy saw itself threatened by the British and French fleets and started its own [[invasion of Albania]] in April 1939.<ref>Winston Churchill, ''The Gathering Storm'' (1948) pp 381–401.</ref>

==== Strengthening of Wehrmacht armaments ====
Since most of the border defences had been in the territory ceded as a consequence of the Munich Agreement, the rest of Czechoslovakia was entirely open to further invasion despite its relatively-large stockpiles of modern armaments. In a speech delivered in the Reichstag, Hitler expressed the importance of the occupation for strengthening of German military and noted that by occupying Czechoslovakia, Germany gained 2,175 field guns and cannons, 469 tanks, 500 anti-aircraft artillery pieces, 43,000 machine guns, 1,090,000 military rifles, 114,000 pistols, about a billion rounds of small-arms ammunition, and 3&nbsp;million rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition. That could then arm about half of the Wehrmacht.<ref>{{cite book|last=Motl|first=Stanislav|title=Kam zmizel zlatý poklad republiky|publisher=Rybka publishers|place=Prague|edition=2nd|year=2007|language=cs}}</ref> Czechoslovak weapons later played a major role in the German conquest of Poland and France, the latter having urged Czechoslovakia into surrendering the Sudetenland in 1938.{{full citation needed|date=May 2022}}

====Birth of German resistance in military====
{{main|Oster conspiracy}}

In Germany, the Sudeten crisis led to the so-called [[Oster conspiracy]]. General Hans Oster, the deputy head of the ''Abwehr'', and prominent figures within the German military opposed the regime for its behaviour, which threatened to bring Germany into a war that they believed it was not ready to fight. They discussed overthrowing Hitler and the regime through a planned storming of the [[Reich Chancellery]] by forces loyal to the plot.<ref>Terry M. Parssinen, '' The Oster Conspiracy of 1938: The Unknown Story of the Military Plot to Kill Hitler and Avert World War II'' (2001). {{ISBN?}}</ref>

====Italian colonial demands from France====
{{Main|France–Italy relations}}
Italy strongly supported Germany at Munich, and a few weeks later, in October 1938, tried to use its advantage to make new demands on France. Mussolini demanded a [[list of free ports|free port]] at [[French Somaliland|Djibouti]], control of the [[Addis Ababa]]-[[Djibouti (city)|Djibouti]] railroad, Italian participation in the management of [[Suez Canal Company]], some form of French-Italian [[condominium (international law)|condominium]] over [[French protectorate of Tunisia|Tunisia]] and the preservation of [[Italian culture]] in French-held [[Corsica]] with no French assimilation of the people. France rejected those demands and began threatening naval maneuvers as a warning to Italy.<ref name="H. James Burgwyn 1940. p182-183">H. James Burgwyn, ''Italian Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918–1940'' (Praeger Publishers, 1997),  pp. 182–185. {{ISBN?}}</ref>