![]() When informed by the French and British foreign ministers that if these proposals were not accepted, the Czechs would have to stand alone, the Czechs accepted the proposal on September 21. If one part of the nation were to cede there was a worry that other parts would too, leading to the disintegration of the Czechoslovak nation. Slovakia was unhappy with the Czech dominance of the nation, and there were other minorities who disliked Czech rule. ![]() ![]() The Czechoslovak government firmly rejected this proposal on September 20. Convinced by Hitler that war could be averted only if self-determination were granted to the Sudetan Germans, he returned to London and on September 18, with Halifax, Daladier and Bonnet drafted a scheme whereby majority German areas in Czechoslovakia were to ceded to Germany. ![]() On September 15, 1938, when Henlein declared that the Sudetan Germans now wanted to join Germany, Chamberlain was on his way to Berchtesgaden, hoping for a personal talk with Hitler. On September 12, Hitler denounced Czechoslovakia as an artificial state and insisted that the Sudetan Germans should obtain their rights through self-determination, not as gifts from Beneš rioting spread over the Sudetan areas, and German armies on the frontiers seemed about to invade Czechoslovakia. Early in September he finally approved the last of four plans submitted to him by Beneš, as it embodied nearly everything that Henlein had demanded on April 23 but even this plan was rejected. For two months the Czechs, under pressure of continual recrimination from Germany, negotiated with the Sudetan leaders then, on August 3, 1938, Lord Runciman arrived in Prague as the British government’s emissary, to advise and mediate. On May 28, Hitler decided that Germany’s military preparations were to be complete by October 2.Ĭhamberlain had already told the French statesmen in April of his belief that Czechoslovakia should be urged to surrender some territory to Germany, and Bonnet in May rebuffed a Polish suggestion that France, Poland, and the UK should together discuss the Czech issue. Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš reacted on the night of May 20-21, by calling up five classes for military service and by having the border fortifications manned, thus enabling the Nazi press to raise an outcry about a Czech ‘provocation’. Henlein made a speech on April 23 demanding, among other things, Full self government for the German areas of Czechoslovakia and liberty to profess German nationality and political outlook, as well as a radical revision of Czechoslovak foreign policy and on May 14, when he was summoned by Hitler to Berchtesgaden, rumours spread in Prague that German troops were massing near the frontier. On April 21, 1938, Hitler decided that his intended aggression must be preceded by heightened agitation within Czechoslovakia combined with diplomatic pressures from Germany. The British Prime Minister was Neville Chamberlain and his foreign secretary was Lord Halifax at the time Their French counterparts were Édouard Daladier and Georges-Étienne Bonnet respectively. In the four weeks following the Anschluss with Austria, the UK and France were suggesting through the press that neither country would be willing to go to war to defend Czech interests. Hitler’s only problem was to judge whether France, which was in an alliance with the Czechs, and the United Kingdom would be willing to fight to defend Czech sovereignty. Politically organised from 1933 under Konrad Henlein, these Sudetan Germans could easily be represented by Adolf Hitler as being oppressed by the Czech government. Within the northern, western and southern borders of Czechoslovakia were bands of territory collectively known as The Sudetenland, with an aggregate population of three and a half million ethnic Germans. ![]()
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