user: write an essay about the Munich Agreements for a masters degree level in european history

assistant: The Munich Agreement

The Munich Agreement set on 30 september 1938 between Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. This agreement was made to preemptively prevent a war which was lurking when germany had just 13 days earlier first attacked Czechoslovakia. Hitler's justification of this attack was the reclaim of Sudetenland, a German-speaking region of Czechoslovakia. This part of Czechoslovakia was defined in 1918 after the first world war, when the Austro-Hungarian empire fell. This region and it's predominant German population were underrepresented in the government and key institutions. In 1933, the SDP (Sudeten German Party) captured two-thirds of votes in the region.

On the 28th of March, Konrad Henlein, the leader of this party, met with Hitler. Henlein was in this meeting instructed to issue a series of demands known as the Karlsbader Programm. Ultimately, the Karlsbader Programm and the underrepresentation of Germans caused significant division between the regions.

Ranging from late 1937 until the start of the attacks in September, Hitler provided invasion plans on Czechoslovakia codenamed Fall Grün (Operation Green) in late 1937, France declared it would not help on May 22 1938.

In july 1938, the Britisch government drafted what is now called the Runciman Mission to Czechoslovakia, a mission to mediate the conflict between Czechoslovakia and the SDP. Former cabinet minister Lord Runcimand was sent as mediator, who arrived on the 3rd of August. On the 4th of September, the President of Czechoslovakia, Beneš, instead accepted The Fourth Plan. This alternative proposal called for the transfer of some predominantly German-speaking territories in Czechoslovakia to Germany and the protection of the rights of ethnic Germans in the remaining areas of the country. However, this proposal would not give the Germans in Czechoslovakia full autonomy, one of the key demands of the Karlsbader Programm according to the SDP. The Runciman Mission reports however read: "Beneš’s 'Fourth Plan' proposals met 'almost all the requirements' of the SdP’s demands.", but also advised that the “frontier districts should at once be transferred from Czechoslovakia to Germany”.  In addition to the months long propoganda in the papers and radio,  ended the German Nazi Party its 10th congress in Nuremberg on the 12th of September, where Hitler declared his intention to protect German interests in Czechoslovakia. In response, the Sudeten German Party (SdP) and its paramilitary arm, the Freiwilligen Schutzstaffel (FS), initiated violence in the borderland region. This led to the declaration of martial law by the Czechoslovak government, the flight of the SdP's leaders to Germany on September 12th, and the eventual banning and dissolution of the SdP and FS by the Czechoslovak authorities. Following France and the Britain's intention of appeasing Hitler and averting war. In meetings on the 16th of September, 1 day before the start of the attacks, Britain and France demanded that Czechoslovakia cede to Germany all territories in which the German population represented over 50% of the Sudetenland's total population. In exchange for that concession, Britain and France would guarantee the independence of Czechoslovakia. The proposed solution was rejected by both Czechoslovakia and opponents of it in Britain and France.

Although small military action was taken from the 17th of september, a real ultimatum of the surrender of Sudetenland by Czechoslovakia to Germany was set to the 28th of September at 2 pm. Fall Grün, the invading plan, was set to start on the first of October if this demand was not met. Negotiations during the next 11 days were strained, and 4 hours before the deadline on the 28th, Lord Perth, the Britisch ambassador to Italy, urged Italy's foreign minister to request Mussolini to contact Hitler to delay the ultimatum. This shifted the ultimatum back 24 hours, and upon speaking with Mussolini, Lord Perth also requested on behalf of Chamberlain that Mussolini attend a four-power conference of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy in Munich on 29 September to settle the Sudeten problem prior to the deadline of 2:00 pm. In the end, the Munich Agreement of 1938 was agreed upon regarding the future of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The agreement allowed Germany to occupy the Sudetenland by October 10th and gave them de facto control over the rest of Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovaks were not invited to the conference and felt betrayed by the British and French governments. The Sudeten Germans celebrated the agreement, the imminent war, it seemed, had been avoided. Hitler, however, seemed to be furious with the agreement. Hitler felt cheated of the limited war against the Czechs which he had been aiming for all summer.

Although in the moment this agreement prevented the immediate war between Czechoslovakia and Germany, this appeasement of Hitler's demands by the European powers was seen as a failure of diplomacy, and ultimately contributed to the outbreak of World War II with the invasion of Poland on the 1st of September 1939, just a year later. After World War II, the Munich Agreement was nullified and considered to be one of the key factors in the start of the war. The international community attempted to rectify the mistakes made at Munich by holding the expellees of Germans from Czechoslovakia accountable for their actions.

Following the end of the war, a large number of Germans living in Czechoslovakia were expelled as a result of the Beneš decrees, which were a series of measures aimed at compensating Czechoslovakia for the injustices suffered during the war and at ensuring the security of the country. This forced migration resulted in the displacement of approximately 3 million ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia, many of whom were sent to Germany as refugees. It s since estimated that 15.000-30.000 ethnic Germans died during the expulsion period. The GErman Church Search Service confirmed 7000 violent deaths, and 7000 death in internment camps. These deaths include at least 3500 suicides. The expulsion of the Germans from Czechoslovakia and the nullification of the Munich Agreement were seen as crucial steps towards resolving the issues that had led to the outbreak of the war. However, the forced migration also resulted in significant human suffering and loss of life, and the aftermath of the expulsions is still felt today.

In conclusion, the Munich Agreement and its consequences highlight the dangers of appeasement and the importance of standing up for the rights and freedoms of all nations. The events surrounding the agreement serve as a reminder of the need for collective action and international cooperation to prevent the repetition of such atrocities in the future.