Germany Occupies Czechoslovakia — Appeasement Collapses

Six months after the Munich Agreement gave Germany the Sudetenland, Hitler ordered Wehrmacht forces into the Czech heartland, creating the 'Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.' Slovakia was declared a puppet state. The occupation violated Munich's explicit guarantee and shattered Chamberlain's belief that Hitler could be satisfied. Britain and France immediately began serious rearmament and issued security guarantees to Poland and Romania. The fall of Czechoslovakia and its world-class Škoda arms factories materially strengthened Germany while destroying Allied credibility.