Munich Agreement

Munich Agreement. A settlement of the crisis over Czechoslovakia, signed by Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy in Munich on 29 September 1938, commonly regarded as the culmination of the Western democracies’ policy of appeasement of the Nazis. It ceded the Czechoslovak territory of the Sudetenland to Germany and provided for frontier adjustments for Poland and Hungary at the expense of Czechoslovakia. The four powers then guaranteed the rump of Czechoslovakia against unprovoked aggression. The agreement precipitated an internal crisis which enabled Slovakia to achieve autonomy within Czechoslovakia on 8 October 1938, a status demanded by and granted to Ukrainian Transcarpathia (Subcarpathian Ruthenia) on 11 October. The frontier adjustments promised in the agreement were regulated by the Vienna Arbitration of 2 November 1938.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]