(This is the second of a series of blog entries on the Second World War. The first entry, entitled "European Politics in the 1930s," is dated December 29, 2010.)
By the late 1930s, Germany was behaving increasingly aggressively towards its neighbors. In March of 1938, Germany annexed the country of Austria, which put up no military resistance. Later that year, Hitler began threatening the neighboring democratic nation of Czechoslovakia about a region known as the Sudetenland. The Sudetenland was a territory within western Czechoslovakia bordering Germany (see the area in yellow below) in which there were large numbers of German speakers, known as Sudeten Germans.
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From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir1/chamberlainandappeasementrev2.shtml
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Many Sudeten Germans belonged to a political party which was encouraged and subsidized by the German government and which was calling for autonomy (a kind of independence) for the Sudetenland within Czechoslovakia. Hitler hoped that by sponsoring the Sudeten German political party, he could could create a crisis that would provide an excuse for Germany's sending troops over the border into Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak government resisted the calls of the Sudeten Germans, fearing--properly--that a Sudetenland that was granted autonomy would in turn ally with Nazi Germany.
Hitler, in 1938, sought to take advantage of the crisis that he had helped create by publicly accusing the Czechoslovak government of the absurd charge of trying to terrorize Sudeten Germans.
For a while, it seemed as if Germany might invade Czechoslovakia. Hoping to resolve the crisis, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler a few times in September of 1938. At these meetings, Hitler demanded of Chamberlain that Czechoslovakia surrender the Sudetenland. For their part, Czechoslovak leaders, who were not present at these meetings, didn't want to give up the Sudetenland, whose rugged territory they saw as armor against a potential German invasion.
At a meeting held at the end of September in the German city of Munich, attended by Chamberlain and Hitler as well by as the leaders of France and Italy--but not by the Czechoslovaks--it was jointly decided that Czechoslovakia should turn the Sudetenland over to Germany. The Czechoslovak government, whose military capacity was a fraction of Germany's, had little choice but to allow German troops to march into the Sudetenland. In short, Hitler had secured the Sudetenland through a policy of subversion and intimidation.
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British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, after flying back from the Munich conference.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/30/newsid_3115000/3115476.stm
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Chamberlain sincerely believed that by acceding to German demands, he had prevented the outbreak of another world war, declaring, after his return to Britain, "I believe it is peace for our time." Too, Chamberlain's fear of communism may have encouraged him to think of Nazi Germany as a useful counterweight to the Soviet Union.
In March of 1939, in clear violation of the terms of the Munich agreement, German forces occupied almost all of the rest of Czechoslovakia. At about the same time Germany was making increasingly insistent territorial demands on Poland.
Hitler's pressure on the Poles worried the leaders of Britain and France, who feared that he would soon be in a position to dominate Europe, and who issued pledges to protect Poland in case of German attack. The British and French also began negotiating with the Soviets in the hopes of forging a diplomatic alliance. But such a possibility was ended in August of 1939, when German and Soviet diplomats struck a deal--Germany and the Soviet Union pledged not to attack each other, and both nations would get to carve out respective empires in eastern Europe. Under the terms of the agreement, known as the Hitler-Stalin Pact, Germany was to control the western half of Poland, while Russia was to have the eastern half. The Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia would also go to Russia. By signing this agreement in August of 1939, Hitler precluded the possibility of the Soviets allying with the British and French, and no longer had to worry about fighting three major European powers at once.
The Outbreak of War
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, at which point Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Second World War had begun.
Prime Minister Chamberlain goes on the air to state that "this country is at war with Germany."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/subjects/history/ww2clips/speeches/chamberlain_declares_war
Chamberlain recruited Winston Churchill to serve as First Lord of the Admiralty, which meant that Churchill was now the top commander of the British Royal Navy. For the most part, the British and French did not aggressively wage war on Germany. The British did impose a naval blockade of German ports and did dispatch an army across the English Channel to assist in the defense of France, and their bombers dropped propaganda leaflets on German cities. The French staged a low-key invasion of Germany, but then just as quickly retreated, despite meeting little opposition. The Germans, for their part, held off on invading France. Poland was defeated within a month, thanks to the assistance of Stalin's Soviet Union, which invaded eastern Poland in mid-September. Caught between two massive armies, the Poles had little choice but to surrender. According to the terms laid out in the Hitler-Stalin Pact, Germany occupied the western part of Poland, while Russia occupied the eastern half.
After the defeat of Poland, there was relative peace along the front lines between Germany and France--and this period was known as the "Phoney War," as very little French, British, or German blood was being shed.
