Munich Pact

Munich Pact, agreement formulated and signed by Germany, Italy, France, and Britain at Munich, Germany, on September 29, 1938. The Munich Pact secured the acceptance by Great Britain and France of the demand by Adolf Hitler that the German-speaking region of Sudeten in Czechoslovakia, be ceded to Germany, which it bordered. Local German leaders claimed that the Czech government discriminated against the Sudeten people, and Germany backed their request for self-determination. In a series of negotiations that began in August 1938, cession of Sudeten to Germany had already been agreed upon in principle by the participants in the pact. Great Britain and France, desperate to avoid further war, had accepted Hitler's demands in return for his promise not to claim any other European territory. Chamberlain hoped that the concessions he had made to Germany over the Sudeten region would encourage Germany to settle down as a peaceful power in Europe. The pact, signed by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for Great Britain, Premier Édouard Daladier for France, Adolf Hitler for Germany, and Benito Mussolini for Italy, merely determined the conditions under which the cession should be made.

The Munich Pact set October 1, 1938, as the date for Czechoslovakian evacuation of the territory. German occupation of four specified districts was to take place in successive stages between October 1 and 7. Additional territories of predominantly German population were to be specified by an international commission composed of delegates from France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, and Czechoslovakia. The international commission was also to conduct elections in other territories in dispute. It was also agreed that if the claims of Hungarian and Polish minorities in Czechoslovakia were not settled in three months, a new conference was to be convened. Britain and France agreed, in an additional clause, to guarantee the new boundaries of Czechoslovakia against aggression, as did Germany.

Poland and Hungary proceeded to seize much of the remaining Czech territory they coveted. By insisting that the international commission use the figures of the Austro-Hungarian census for 1910 instead of those of the Czechoslovakian census for 1930, Germany was able to claim much additional territory that was predominantly Czech.

In March 1939 the Germans marched into rump Czechoslovakia and subsequently made most of the country a German protectorate, thus nullifying the Munich Pact and awakening British suspicions of Hitler's trustworthiness. As a result Britain guaranteed Poland. On August 23 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in order to avoid war. On September 1, Hitler launched an attack on Poland, mistakenly believing that Britain and France would not intervene. Both countries, however, immediately declared war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.

The British and French policy of appeasement—the concession to demands of the Nazi state in order to avoid war—ended with Hitler's invasion of Poland. The Munich Pact, however, came to be seen as a symbol of the dangers of appeasement, and of the subsequent humiliation of Great Britain.