Why did the events of 1939 lead to the outbreak of war?
France and Britain declared war on Germany due to many reason. The three main reasons were the Invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Nazi-Soviet Pact and the invasion of Poland. Britain felt that they were deceived by Hitler, this almost made it inevitable for the outbreak of war.
The first key event that leaded to the outbreak of war was the invasion of the Sudetenland and then the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler’s said that he was only re-uniting the 3.5 million German speakers in the Sudetenland. As Britain had sympathy for Germany after the Treaty of Versailles, they allowed Hitler to populate the Sudetenland on the conditions that they would not invade the rest of Czechoslovakia. The Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said that “we have created peace in our time”. Chamberlain was obviously deceived, as in March 1939 Hitler invade the rest of Czechoslovakia. This was important as Hitler clearly broke the promise with Britain to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia, this made tension in Europe even higher. From this point onwards Britain and France knew that “Hitler” could not be trusted. This therefore led to the creation of the Nazi-Soviet Pact.