The Czech government, for its part, was having none of it, and prepared to mobilize its armies. But capable as its military was, it was not prepared to deal with the much larger Wehrmacht…unless some other Western Power (read: Britain or France) should come to help them.

But in a bizarre twist, the French and British heads of state did meet…with Germany. Rather than risk warfare, they were willing to allow Adolf Hitler to annex the Sudeten region, but only if he promised that his territorial acquisitions were finished. Mollified by the German dictator’s smooth talking, Prime Minister Chamberlain signed away the Sudetenland by putting his signature to the Munich Agreement in the wee morning hours of September 30, 1938.

The French, still in a financial mess and completely unprepared militarily to defend their own country, much less another, could do little but follow suit, and Edouard Daladier signed as well.

There is little doubt that the French Prime Minister was skeptical that this really was Hitler’s final land-grab, but Chamberlain breathed a sigh of relief, confident that armed conflict had been avoided. And he was partially right.

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