Why did Chamberlain sign the Munich Agreement on September 30th 1938

Another reason he may have signed the contract was because he wanted peace and he thought it was more important than Czechoslovakia so this was another ideological reason. However this could link to pragmatic reason as Chamberlain may have believed that it was not possible to save Czechoslovakia which means the only reason he gave them up is because he knew he could not win. We see evidence of this in conferences they had, Eduard Benes hardly had any say in the matter.

There may be another pragmatic reason for the signing. Before the meeting in Munich, Chamberlain was told by the head of the Britain’s armed forces to check if they were ready for war and he told him that they needed 12 more months. So he may have signed the agreement just to delay the war for as long as possible as his army needed more time and their air defences weren’t ready either. If Britain had gone to war then, surely they would have lost.

The British public were very sympathetic towards Germany because they felt guilty of what happened in the Treaty of Versailles so they were willing to make up for it. As half of Czechoslovakia’s population was German, they thought it would only be logical for them to be allowed to gain control over it. And Chamberlain had to also obey the public or he would be very unpopular and may even be sacked. He needed public backing for war otherwise he would not be allowed to fight.

I think Chamberlain signed the agreement because of ideological reasons. Czechoslovakia was worth giving up to Hitler in return for peace. No one wanted another war after what they experienced in WW1. Chamberlain was not thinking realistically when he signed the agreement because if he was, he would have seen Hitler’s intentions.

Word count: 426