<P> As a result of the annexation of the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia lost 800,000 citizens, much of its industry and its mountain defenses in the west . It left the rest of Czechoslovakia weak and powerless to resist subsequent occupation . In the following months Czechoslovakia was broken up and ceased to exist as Germany annexed the Sudetenland, Hungary part of Slovakia including Carpathian Ruthenia, and Poland Zaolzie . On 15 March 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and, from Prague Castle, Hitler proclaimed Bohemia and Moravia the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, completing the German occupation of Czechoslovakia . An independent Slovakia was created under a pro-Nazi puppet government . </P> <P> In March 1939, Chamberlain foresaw a possible disarmament conference between himself, Edouard Daladier, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin; his home secretary, Samuel Hoare, said, "These five men, working together in Europe and blessed in their efforts by the President of the United States of America, might make themselves eternal benefactors of the human race ." </P> <P> In effect, the British and French had, through the Munich negotiations, pressured their ally Czechoslovakia to cede part of its territory to a hostile neighbor in order to preserve peace . Winston Churchill likened the negotiations at Berchtesgarten, Bad Godesberg and Munich to a man demanding £ 1, then, when it is offered, demanding £ 2, then when it is refused settling for £ 1.17 s. 6d . British leaders committed to the Munich Pact in spite of their awareness of Hitler's vulnerability at the time . In August 1938, General Ludwig Beck relayed a message to Lord Halifax explaining that most of the German General Staff were preparing a coup against the Fuhrer, but would only attack with "proof that England will fight if Czechoslovakia is attacked ." When Chamberlain received the news, he dismissed it out of hand . In September, the British received assurance that the General Staff's offer to launch the coup still stood, with key private sector, police and army support, even though Beck had resigned his post . Chamberlain ultimately ceded to all of Hitler's demands at Munich because he believed Britain and Nazi Germany were "the two pillars of European peace and buttresses against communism ." </P> <P> Czechoslovakia had a modern, well - prepared military and Hitler, on entering Prague, conceded that a war would have cost Germany much blood . But the decision by France and Great Britain not to defend Czechoslovakia in the event of war (and the exclusion from the equation of the Soviet Union, whom Chamberlain distrusted) meant that the outcome would have been uncertain . This event forms the main part of what became known as Munich betrayal (Czech: Mnichovská zrada) in Czechoslovakia and the rest of Eastern Europe, as the Czech view was that Britain and France pressured them to cede territory in order to prevent a major war that would involve the West . The Western view is that they were pressured in order to save Czechoslovakia from total annihilation . </P>

When did britain and france adopt a policy of appeasment toward germany