So we have an autonomous state with military power (czechoslovakia), presumably a border patrol which marches along the Sudetenland and suddenly a troop of german soldiers are crossing the borders (since the Czechs did not agree to anything). What happens next? The patrols just run away and the goverment does not send any reinforcements? Ceding, de facto, the land to the germans?
thank you.
Others have already cleared up the proceedings of the Munich Agreement – Czechoslovakia found itself without allies and surrounded from three sides and as such had no other viable choice but to accept the German demands. The following is a brief outline of what happened after the document had been signed on September 30, 1938.
At two o'clock in the afternoon on October 1 the German troops crossed the (former) border. The Czechoslovak army was ordered to vacate the areas to be ceded to Germany over the course of ten days, maintaining a distance of no less than two kilometers between themselves and the incoming forces. The Czechoslovak side was also instructed to make sure no assets would be destroyed in these regions. Additionally, on October 2, Polish troops occupied parts of the Těšínsko region in the northern part of the country.
Originally, there were four set zones which the Germans would occupy, with a fifth to be decided in late November by an international committee. However, already on October 5 did the German leadership decide on the extent of the fifth zone to be annexed, including all areas with a majority German population according to the 1910 census and thus finalizing the new border.
Faithful to the timetable provided by the Agreement, Czechoslovak troops had vacated these zones, and by the evening of October 10 they were under German military control. Later that month on the 20th, the army transferred control of the new part of the German reich – the Reichsgau Sudetenland – to regional authorities under Konrad Henlein.
Of course, the impact of the Munich Agreement did not stop with territorial acquisition. Other clauses such as releasing German speaking prisoners or allowing German speaking citizens to leave the military also came into effect, and of course the entire issue of German-Czechoslovak relations developed or rather deteriorated further, resulting in the occupation of the rest of the country a few months later.
The Czechs actually agreed to the terms of the Munich agreement instead of facing an all-out war against the Nazis. There was no Czech military resistance when the Wehrmacht entered the Sudetenland on October 1 because the territory was part of Germany.
Thus the Germans tok the sophisticated Czech frontier defense system without firing a single shot, making Hitler's later invasion of the entire country a virtually guaranteed victory.
SOURCE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/history/roadwar/munich/revision/1/