Page 62 - World History Cover resized

center of the old Ha burg Empire, and he simply needed an excu to get it hu hni provided the excu by lling for an election to determine whether the ople wanted an inde ndent Austria or a Nazi Austria ling this a violation of all their a eements and an a ion against Germany, Hitler nt his tr over the rder on March 13, 1 . It ha ned fast that hardly a shot needed to f ed Neither England nor France t k any action, and Germany a r d Austria
T get #2 was C ch lovakia, which had en carved out of the Ha burg Empire by the Ve Tr ty. C h lovakia included many nationa tie C chs, Hun Slovak But Hitler's main conce were the three and a q rter ion Germans who lived in the S ete a . He gan denouncing the "oppre ion" of the Ge ans by the C ch In May 19 Hitler nt his tr to the C ch rder, announcing to his generals, "It is my un terable decision to smash C ch lovakia by military action in the near future." Gr t Britain and France were finally getting nervous, but th countries were afraid of doing anything that mi t plunge Eu­ ro into another bl y conflict like World War I.
Finally the British Prime Minister Neville Cham rlain flew to Ger­ many veral times to confer with Hitler. At the first conference he a eed that the Sudetenland should gove ed by Germany. At the c­ ond he a eed that the German army could immediately march into the Sudeten nd The C chs had n rsuaded to go along with the f st surrender, but at the cond they balked and gan mobilizing their tr ps. Euro was in a state of fear and sus n , with everyone a uming that general war was now inevitable. But once again Cham rla few to Ger­ many, meeting Hitler at Munich. Finally on ptem r 30 Cham rlain and the Czechs a d that German tr could march into the Sudeten­ land on to r 1 In retu Hitler lemnly promi d Cham rlain that he had no further ambitions in Euro and would demand no more terri­ tory. Cham rlain re ed to London, announcing that the Munich con­ ference had won ace in our time." This licy of ving in to dictators is known as appeaseme .
C ch lovakia's inde ndence lasted just five and a half more month With the Sudetenland cupied C ch lovakia was helple a inst Germany. On March 15, 1939 Hitler's army cupied the rest of the country, as Hitler announced that he was protect g the ople against a tyrannical gove ment England and France did nothing.