29th September 1938: Munich Agreement reached between Hitler, Chamberlain, Mussolini and Daladier

As a result of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War, Germany had lost territory to the newly-created state of Czechoslovakia. Following his rise to power in Germany, Hitler set about reuniting ethnic Germans and laid his sights on the Sudetenland. After the Czechoslovakian government turned down the Sudetenland branch of the Nazi Party’s request for autonomy from the rest of Czechoslovakia, which had been encouraged by Hitler, tensions between the two countries rose.

By the autumn of 1938 the situation had become a crisis, and Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had begun to engage Hitler in discussions aimed to avoid war. Britain and France were both desperate to reach a peaceful resolution and, when faced with Hitler’s demand to annex the Sudetenland in return for making no further territorial demands in Europe, the leaders eventually agreed.

Seen by many as the ultimate act of failed appeasement, the Munich Agreement was tabled on 29 September and signed in the early hours of the next day. Czechoslovakia had no option but to agree to the terms, despite not being involved in the discussions. Meanwhile Chamberlain returned to Britain and made the famous speech in which he referred to the Munich Agreement and the related Anglo-German Declaration as securing ‘peace for our time’.

The agreement was broken by Hitler the following March when he annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia. Britain, alongside France, declared war on Germany less than six months later.