Czechoslovakia

In March of 1938 Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss, Hitler then turned his attention to the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia which contained a number of German speaking peoples (the Sudeten Germans). Hitler started to agresivly advocate for ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia, while Sudeten Nazis demanded autonomy from the Czech government. This "Sudeten Crisis" resulted in British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flying to Germany for a confrence with Adolf Hitler on the 15th of September at Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat. Chamberlain agreed to cession of the Sudetenland to Germany, a decision that was made with no Czech representitives present.

To confirm the agreement, Chamberlain meet with Hitler again on the 22nd of September 1938 in Godesberg. But this time Hitler demanded the Sudetenland, along with military occupation of Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia!

To ratchet up pressure Hitler gave the Czech government until 2:00PM on the 28th of September 1938 to cede the Sudetenland or face war. At this point Italian dictator Benito Mussolini stepped in and suggested a conference of major powers to resolve the dispute. On the 29th of September 1938 Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini, and French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier meet and agreed to a proposal provided by Mussolini. A proposal that was actually prepared by Hermann Göring, which immediatly ceded the Sudetenland to Germany.

Again the Czechoslovak government was not a party to the confrence, having not been invited to the confrence or even consulted. But submitted to the agreement on the 30th of September 1938 to avoid a larger conflict. Germany moved into the Sudetenland with occupat completed around the 10th of October 1938. The occupation was determental to the defence of Czechoslovakia as extentive fortifications had been constructed throughout the Sudetenland, now these fortifications were in German possession and the Czechoslovak military had little time to realign its defences with the loss of the Sudetenland.

Following the Munich Agreement came the First Vienna Award which sort to find a solution to the demands of Hungary and Poland upon Czechoslovaka. Arbitration by Germany and Italy awarded Hungary with southern Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia, while Poland invaded Trans-Olza territory.

38% of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia terratory had been annexed to Germany, along with 3.2 million German and 750,000 Czech inhabitants. Hungary annexed 4,588 square miles in southern Slovakia and southern Carpathian Ruthenia, while Poland annexed 350 square miles around the town of Český Těšín and 87 square miles around the northern Slovakia border regions of Spiš and Orava.

Czechoslovak Republic had effectivily been dismembered and was in political disaray. Eventualy the Czechoslovak Republic reformed into three autonomous parts: Bohemia and Moravia, Slovakia, and Carpatho-Ukraine.

Ignoring the Munich Agreement, Hitler started prepreations to invade Bohemia and Moravia on the 15th of March. Behind the scenes Hitler negotiated the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia with the Hungarians and the Slovak People's Party (the political party that controled Slovakia).

On the 14th of March 1939 Slovakia declared independence, Carpatho-Ukraine also declared independence but Hungarian troops marched in and occupied it on the 15th of March.

After advice from the British Ambassador, the Czechoslovakia President Hácha traveled to Berlin to meet Hitler to discuss the fate of Czechoslovakia, telling German Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop that "he wanted to place the fate of the Czech State in the Führer's hands."

Upon meeting Hitler, Hácha was given two options, cooperate, in which case the "entry of German troops would take place in a tolerable manner" and "permit Czechoslovakia a generous life of her own, autonomy and a degree of national freedom." Or face a scenario in which "resistance would be broken by force of arms, using all means."

Hácha agreed to German occupation, seeing little choice, but suffered a heart attack when Hermann Göring threatened to bomb Prague when the Czech government could not guarantee that the Czech army would not fire on the advancing Germans.

German troops marched into what little remained of Czechoslovakia, the only organised resistance occured at Místek, when an infantry company under the command of Karel Pavlik resisted the invading German troops. Hungarian troops marching on Carpatho-Ukraine quickly overwhelmed Czech ressitance they faced.

Adolf Hitler proclaimed the German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from the Prague Castle on the 16th of March 1939. The country's resources were then plundged to feed the German War Machine, 500 tanks and 1,600 aircraft were confiscated. While the Czechoslovak reserves of gold and hard currency were seized, Czech Mines were put to work carving out the raw materuals German industry craved. While factories such as Skoda were taken over and repurposed to produce material for the German Army.