3.1.3 The Sudetenland

Question 1

What was the Sudetenland?

Answer 1

Part of Czechoslovakia, on the German border

Question 2

When had Czechoslovakia been created?

Answer 2

At the end of the First World War

Question 3

In what way did Hitler believe that invading Czechoslovakia would help him achieve his foreign policy aims?

Answer 3

Hitler felt that the invasion of Czechoslovakia would be another step towards destroying the Treaty of Versailles

Question 4

What did Hitler plan to take in the Sudeten crisis?

Answer 4

Lebensraum

Question 5

How much of the Sudeten population was German?

Answer 5

20%

Question 6

Where were Czechoslovakia’s main defences and why was this a disadvantage when Hitler was attacking?

Answer 6

Czechoslovakia’s main defences were in the Sudetenland, so taking it would allow Hitler to invade the whole country. There were natural resources and factories in the area that Hitler could utilise in his war effort

Question 7

What did Hitler use as an excuse to attack in May 1938?

Answer 7

About 20% of the Sudeten population was German. In May 1938, Hitler claimed they were being persecuted and used this as an excuse to attack

Question 8

When did Chamberlain meet Hitler?

Answer 8

15th September 1938

Question 9

Where did Chamberlain fly to meet Hitler?

Answer 9

Berchtesgarden

Question 10

What did Chamberlain do to Hitler?

Answer 10

Chamberlain wanted to appease Hitler to prevent war, so agreed to allow Hitler to take the Sudetenland as long as his actions were peaceful

Question 11

What did Chamberlain do after he allowed Hitler to take the Sudetenland?

Answer 11

Chamberlain then met with the Czechs and forced them to agree to Hitler’s terms

Question 12

What did Chamberlain thought he had secured by appeasing Hitler?

Answer 12

“peace in our time”

Question 13

Why did Chamberlain want to secure “peace in our time” when appeasing Hitler?

Answer 13

Chamberlain knew that peace was important to the British people who didn’t want to have another world war. The First World War hadn’t been that long ago and many people remembered the horrors of it

Question 14

When was the Munich Conference?

Answer 14

29th September 1938

Question 15

What happened on 22 September?

Answer 15

Chamberlain met Hitler at Bad Godsberg, where Hitler changed his demands: the Sudetenland would be handed over to him by 1 October and Hungary and Poland must also be given Czech land

Question 16

Describe the main points of the Munich Conference (5)

Answer 16

• Chamberlain, Hitler, Mussolini and Daladier (the French president) met in Munich
• They accepted the demands Hitler had made at Bad Godsberg
• Chamberlain and Daladier said they had prevented war, as Hitler promised not to take any more land. Chamberlain said he had guaranteed ‘peace in our time’
• The Czechs were not consulted
• The USSR was not consulted. This made Stalin think that he could not trust Britain and France

Question 17

When did Hitler invade the Sudetenland?

Answer 17

10 October 1938

Question 18

Describe the invasion of the Sudetenland (3)

Answer 18

• Troops marched in, but unlike events in the Rhineland and Austria, the Czechs saw this as a real military invasion
• This was the first time Hitler had invaded a country that had never previously been united with Germany
• Hitler completed his invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939. He had broken the promises he had made in the Munich Conference and Chamberlain had to accept that his policy of appeasement had failed