Concept
Sudetenland
Related concepts (20)
Nazi concentration camps
From 1933 to 1945, Nazi Germany operated more than a thousand concentration camps (Konzentrationslager), including subcamps on its own territory and in parts of German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. Following the 1934 purge of the SA, the concentration camps were run exclusively by the SS via the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and later the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office.
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia (ˌtʃɛkoʊsloʊˈvækiə,-kə-,-slə-,_-ˈvɑː-; Czech and Československo, Česko-Slovensko) was a landlocked state in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland became part of Nazi Germany, while the country lost further territories to Hungary and Poland. Between 1939 and 1945, the state ceased to exist, as Slovakia proclaimed its independence and the remaining territories in the east became part of Hungary, while in the remainder of the Czech Lands, the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was proclaimed.
Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)
The military occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany began with the German annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938, continued with the creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and by the end of 1944 extended to all parts of Czechoslovakia. Following the Anschluss of Austria in March 1938 and the Munich Agreement in September of that same year, Adolf Hitler annexed the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. The loss of the Sudetenland was detrimental to the defense of Czechoslovakia, as the extensive Czechoslovak border fortifications were also located in the same area.
Bohemia
Bohemia (boʊˈhiːmiə ; Čechy ˈtʃɛxɪ; ; Čěska; Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohemian kings, including Moravia and Czech Silesia, in which case the smaller region is referred to as Bohemia proper as a means of distinction. Bohemia was a duchy of Great Moravia, later an independent principality, a kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire, and subsequently a part of the Habsburg monarchy and the Austrian Empire.
Self-determination
The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a jus cogens rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It states that peoples, based on respect for the principle of equal rights and fair equality of opportunity, have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no interference. The concept was first expressed in the 1860s, and spread rapidly thereafter.
Irredentism
Irredentism is usually understood as a desire by one state to annex a territory of another state. This desire can be motivated by ethnic reasons because the population of the territory is ethnically similar to the population of the parent state. Historical reasons may also be responsible, i.e., that the territory previously formed part of the parent state. However, difficulties in applying the concept to concrete cases have given rise to academic debates about its precise definition.
Opava
Opava (ˈopava; Troppau, Opawa) is a city in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 56,000 inhabitants. It lies on the river Opava. Opava is one of the historical centres of Silesia. It was a historical capital of Czech Silesia. Opava is made up of eight self-governing boroughs in the suburbs, and of central part which is administered directly.
Olomouc
Olomouc (UKˈɒləməʊts, USˈoʊloʊ-, ˈolomouts; Olmütz; Ołomuniec) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 102,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on the Morava River, the city is the ecclesiastical metropolis and was a historical co-capital city of Moravia, before having been occupied by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War. Today, it is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and the sixth largest city in the Czech Republic.
Cheb
Cheb (xɛp; Eger) is a town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 32,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře river. Before the 1945 expulsion of the German-speaking population, the town was the centre of the German-speaking region known as Egerland, part of the Northern Austro-Bavarian dialect area. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument reservation.
Czechoslovak border fortifications
Czechoslovakia built a system of border fortifications as well as some fortified defensive lines inland, from 1935 to 1938 as a defensive countermeasure against the rising threat of Nazi Germany. The objective of the fortifications was to prevent the taking of key areas by an enemy—not only Germany but also Hungary and Poland—by means of a sudden attack before the mobilization of the Czechoslovak Army could be completed, and to enable effective defense until allies—Britain and France, and possibly the Soviet Union—could help.