What is today the Czech Republic was in 1815 a part of the Austrian Empire, having previously been an integral part of the Holy Roman Empire. This meant that Bohemia, the more populous part of today's Czech Republic, was both ruled by German-speaking people and inhabited by a very large German minority. The Czechs did not gain independence from German speakers until 1918, at the end of the First World War with the Austrian Empire dissolved. Keep in mind that the large German minority in Bohemia played a key role in the path towards the Second World War, as Hitler's demands that the German-speaking "Sudetenland," the French and English "appeasement" of these demands at the Munich Conference, and Hitler's subsequent betrayal of the Munich Agreement reflected in his full invasion of Bohemia and occupation of Prague all contributed to the declaration of war in 1939.