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Hitler does away with the
restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles
1933 was an important year for what was about to happen in the
years coming in Europe and be later on considered as a
significant turning point. Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany
and attempted to ease or even put an end to the restrictions
that were placed on his country by the Treaty of Versailles,
which resulted into a great depression and crisis in Germany. He
therefore decided to take over in his country in order to start
acting and became an immensely strong and influential leader who
could easily persuade the suffering. The process of rearmament
was secretly begun and the conscription to the German army was
introduced. Later on the remilitarization of the Rhineland zone
took place followed by the annexation of Austria two years later
which became the last step to truly bury any remnants of the
treaty.
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The Sudetenland
Czechoslovakia at that time was an ally of France and Russia and
there was particulalry one region that Hitler was interested in
getting – the Sudetenland, an area inhabited by almost three
million ethnic Germans. This region used to belong to the Austrian
territory in the past and the German ethnic group living there
claimed to have been mistreated which was used as an excuse by
Hitler to claim this territory . The propaganda campaign in the
mater of this region was begun in 1938. Moreover, Hitler
considered Czechoslovakia back then as being strongly influenced
by German´s enemy – the Soviet union.
The following summer, there was a demand by the pro-Nazi Czech
Germans to sucede from Czechoslovakia. The Czechs could not resist
it easily without the support and help from their allies or Great
Britain. This lead to the signing of the famous Munich Agreement
on September 29, 1938 between Germany, the United Kingdom, France
and Italy. The British prime minister Neville Chamberlain, who
became best known for issuing this document, did not gain much
popularity, though, for this policy of appeasement. This step is
by some historians even regarded as a refusal of Allies to
confront Nazi aggression. Chamberlain, on the other hand, was
convinced that this was a sensible and a wise step preventing the
entire Europe from a potential outbreak of another war. He
believed to have done a compromise, though enabling the Nazi
Germany to gradually expand their power eastward by gaining this
strategic territory.
How did Hitler reach the agreement?
On September 22, after the talks over the Sudentenland broke down,
Hitler gave Great Britain and France an ultimatum of 2 p.m. on 28
September after which he said he would invade Czechoslovakia which
would look like a war. Mussolini stepped in and proposed a
four-power conference, to which the Russians and the Czechs were
not invited. This conference was held on 29 September, at 12.45
pm. Hitler repeated his demands at this meeting and Mussolini
proposed a compromise which met Hitler´s requirements. It was
accepted by Chamberlain and Daladier and Hitler was given
everything he asked for.
The Munich Agreement itself was not actually signed until 1 pm on
30 September, but it is dated September 29. The Czech Army was
supposed to pull back from the German areas of Czechoslovakia by
10 October. An ‘International Commission’ was to oversee the
occupation, and plebiscites were to be held in areas of mixed
race. The Agreement guaranteed the boundaries of the new Czecho-Slovakia,
and Britain and France promised to support Czecho-Slovakia against
future attack. In the end, the Germans took much more land than
had ever been given at Munich. The plebiscites were not held and
the guarantees were never kept.
Chamberlain returned to London with what he described as ‘a
piece of paper. Churchill called the agreement „a total,
unmitigated defeat“. Wild crowds cheered Chamberlain – ‘the
man who gave me back my son’ one woman called him (meaning her
son did not now have to go off to fight a war). Chamberlain said
he had got ‘peace with honour…. Peace in out time’. However,
what followed later on can definitely not be called as peaceful
since the German expansion and ever growing attempt to seize power
kept going further and further.
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