After the Anschluss with Austria was pulled off pretty much without a hitch, a bullish Adolf Hitler turned his attentions towards the East. Lebensraum was at the forefront of his mind. The only obstacles to this aim were Britain and France. And, following the policy of appeasement, they didn’t prove to be much of an obstacle at all.

The Sudetenland Crisis and the Munich Agreement, 1938

The Sudetenland was an industrial region of Czechoslovakia that had a large population of German speakers. In Hitler’s eyes, these people deserved to be part of Germany, and their territory was rightly German land. In September 1938, Nazis in the Sudetenland began to demand to become part of Germany. At this point, Britain, led by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, became involved in negotiating a solution, backed by France. He suggested that all parts of the Sudetenland where more than half of the population were German should be given to Germany. Hitler demanded all of the Sudetenland.

* Britain, France and Germany then held a conference in Munich on 28 and 29 September. Hitler said he was not interested in starting war, and in return Britain and France stood aside as Germany invaded the Sudetenland.

* Chamberlain returned to Britain from the conference believing that he had prevented war and guaranteed peace for the future by getting Hitler to commit to no further acts of aggression. It took around six months for him to be proved completely incorrect.