Short term aftermath
After returning from the signing of the Munich Agreement, Chamberlain was proud that he had achieved “peace with honor”.
He had been holding a piece of paper which read: “We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the British Prime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed in recognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of the first importance for our two countries and for Europe. We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. We are resolved that the method of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal with any other questions that may concern our two countries, and we are determined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources of difference, and thus to contribute to assure the peace of Europe.”
After reading this, he had declared that it was “peace in our time”.
Then, on March 15, 1939, Hitler annexed the Sudetenland. Not very long after, he threatened to conquer the rest of Czechoslovakia, even with Czech president Emil Hacha trying to appease Hitler. Hitler threatened to bomb Prague, the Czech capital, unless he wasn’t given passage for German troops to cross the border. The same day he was given passage, many German troops entered the rest of Czechoslovakia and took it over without much resistance. Although the Munich Agreement was proclaimed as a success in Britain, it merely just delayed Hitler from attempting to conquer the world.
Nazi troops entering Czechoslovakia. Credit: english.radio.cz