Faced with this problem, the Allies still took no real action, continued to condemn and accuse, and then pretended not to see it. In fact, this loophole already existed when the "Contract of Versailles" was formulated. The contract only stipulated that Germany could not annex Austria.
But in fact, it was the Austrian people who chose Germany, which gave countries such as Britain and France, which originally did not want to interfere, even more reason not to intervene.
After the successful merger with Austria, Mustache's strategic goal has been achieved. Germany is no longer a dead place surrounded by hostile countries. With Austria as a channel, Germany is already bordering its ally Italy and even more so Hungary.
A part of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire
After Germany's rise, it naturally chose its original boss, not only emotionally, but also in terms of practical needs.
Germany is more suitable for Hungary to seek refuge than countries such as Britain and France.
If you look at the map of Europe in 1938, you will find that Germany's territory is like a round macrophage, while its neighbor to the east, Czechoslovakia, is like a long bacterium, and most of its body has been infected by macrophages.
The cells were swallowed into the stomach. In fact, Mustache has been coveting this neighboring country. Although its area is not large, this country was the seventh military power in the world at that time, especially its arsenal and weapons manufacturing industry.
It is very developed and many world-famous weapons were invented and manufactured here.
Since Czechoslovakia was originally an important part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, there were a large number of German-speaking residents, Hungarians, and Poles living in Czechoslovakia. Therefore, this country became a complex of ethnic conflicts in several surrounding countries. Germany has always
wanted to dismember Czechoslovakia and occupy its German-speaking areas, but Hungary was unwilling to give up any
The Hungarian brothers suffered. As a result, Poland saw that it could not keep this country anyway, so I might as well take the opportunity to occupy its Polish-populated area, so that I could take advantage. Therefore, the country of Czechoslovakia was born.
Since its inception, its fate has been doomed. Although its small arms and automobiles are sold all over the world, it cannot save it.
The reason why Britain and France wanted to dismember the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I was to get rid of a future trouble. On the other hand, it was also to set up an alliance between the major European countries of Germany, France, the Soviet Union, Italy, and Poland.
Buffer zones, those forcibly divided small countries fill the gaps between these countries, making it impossible for these big countries to be completely aligned or completely hostile, because most of them are not bordering each other.
But after Germany annexed Austria, this pattern was broken. The entire central and eastern Europe fell under the pressure of the German-Italian Alliance. Germany not only geographically surrounded most of the territory of Czechoslovakia, but also with Hungary, Yugoslavia,
Italy is directly connected, allowing the sphere of influence of Germany and Italy to extend from the North Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, cutting Europe from north to south.
The current situation in Europe has changed from Britain and France sitting in Western Europe, with a lot of small countries in between, confronting each other with the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe, to three political blocs: Britain and France in Western Europe, the German-Italian Alliance in Central and Northern Europe, and Poland and the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.
Moreover, Poland and the Soviet Union were not very confrontational, and the Soviet Union did not have much say in European affairs. Generally speaking, Europe became a direct confrontation between the British, French, and German-Italian blocs.
But at this time, Britain and France did not unite to contain Germany and Italy. Instead, they were still at war with each other for dominance on the European continent. Mainly speaking, it was the British policy that made major mistakes. At that time,
The Chamberlain government mistakenly regarded France as the main threat to Britain. It was deeply afraid that France would become too powerful and occupy the European continent, causing Britain, an island country, to lose its due status as a major power in Europe. Otherwise, island countries are a scourge.
The United Kingdom, the island of r, has mixed Asia and Europe into a mess.
Faced with the British's constant disruption, the French also felt very uncomfortable. On the one hand, they had to deal with the pressure from Germany and spend money and effort to win over the Soviets. On the other hand, they had to keep an eye on the pattern of Eastern Europe and try to balance the differences between the countries.
Conflict, in the end, we have to guard against the island country next to us, because it always jumps out to disrupt the situation at the most critical moment, without caring about the interests of France, and is always afraid that France will steal its crown.
With strong enemies outside and bad friends inside, France is alone and has lost its influence and control over Eastern Europe. At this time, France shed tears and said to Britain, "Stop staring at me and turn around."
Go see your cousin, he is a greater threat to you than me. But the British answer is indeed
Yes: I understand my cousin. Although he is a little frightened, he is a real person. As long as you don’t force him, he will not act stupidly. If he wants a little Czech sister, you can give him a little Czech sister to play with. Anyway, she is a little Czech girl.
She's not from your family either. Don't let someone else's daughter affect our friendship.
The neighbors were all evil-hearted wolves, and the property management of the community pretended to be cowardly and indifferent. Finally, in 1938, Britain and France used a piece of paper "Munich Agreement" as a gift to Czechoslovakia.
The Detai area was ceded to
After leaving Germany, more than 3 million Germans living in the Czech Republic became German citizens in an instant. However, no representatives of the Czech government participated in the signing of this treaty. The four countries of Britain, France, Germany and Italy gathered together for a small meeting after lunch.
This is a given.
Faced with the betrayal of the Czech Republic by Britain and France, the original Franco-Czech-Soviet alliance also collapsed. The Czech government originally planned to withstand Germany's three-month offensive and Hungary's one-month offensive in exchange for France's dispatch of troops to the Rhineland and the Soviet Union.
Reinforcements were sent via Romania. As a result, the ultimatum from Britain and France was not to Germany, but to the Czech Republic. They informed the Czech government that if the Sudetai area was not handed over to Germany in accordance with the Munich Agreement, then Britain and France would not be able to guarantee the Czech Republic.
of safety.
The Czechoslovak government reluctantly accepted the cession agreement and handed over the Sudetai area to Germany. Because it alone could not defeat Germany and Hungary. As for whether Soviet reinforcements would come from Romania, it was uncertain.
, because Romania also
It had changed its mind. It was originally inclined to agree to the Soviet Union sending troops through the road, but when they saw that France and the Soviet Union sold the Czech Republic so cheaply, the Romanians also had to consider their own way out. If they continued to follow France and the Soviet Union, would they
Will become the second Czechoslovakia.
Originally, the matter should have come to an end at this point. Mustache himself did not intend to swallow up Czechoslovakia. He planned to delay it for another year or two, and then support the pro-German regime in the Czech Republic just like Austria's annexation to Germany.
came to power and then peacefully occupied Czechoslovakia.
Who would have thought that a stupid and greedy Polish government would pop up at this time. They proposed that Poland should, like Germany, obtain more rights and interests in the Czech Republic. In other words, Poland should also occupy the Polish-populated areas in Czechoslovakia.
As early as 1795, the country of Poland was carved up by Prussia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia until nothing was left. It was also stipulated that Poles could not own their own property and land locally and had to choose one nationality. Otherwise, you would be
Prussian Poles, or you become Russian Poles or Austro-Hungarian Poles.
However, in the early stages of World War I, in order to win over more countries and regions to join their rebellion against the two major powers, Britain and France, the Allied Powers promised to make Poland independent. Of course, the condition was that it must fight together with the Allies. However, Tsarist Russia did not agree to this condition at the time.
So Poland at that time was just a temporary regime established by Prussian Poles and Austro-Hungarian Poles.
After the October Revolution, the Soviet Union withdrew from World War I. As a defeated country, in order to preserve the achievements of the revolution, the Soviet Union had no choice but to sign the "Brest-Litovsk Treaty" with Germany, which included part of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Belarus occupied by Russia.
It was ceded to Germany. In this way, the three parts of Poland that were originally divided were gathered together, and a unified Poland was born in the flames of war. (To be continued...)
