Reading - The sudeten Germans and Czech security. The approximately three million Sudeten Germans were a majority of the population living in the districts along the Czech-German frontier. A substantial majority of them also wanted their region to become part of Germany. Thus, under the principles of nationalism and minority rights espoused by the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler had a good case. The problem from the Czech point of view was that the Sudeten region was also the strategic. frontier of Czechoslovakia. Those districts contained virtually all of the fortifications upon which the Czechs depended for defense against German invasion. Without this line of defense the Czechs could not resist future German pressure. They would either fall under German political domination or face German military occupation.
The Czechs valued their independence and wished to defend their republic. With their fortifications and relatively strong army, they believed that they could stall a German advance if war did come. That would gain time for the other European nations to mobilize their armies and destroy the Nazi menace.
From the reading 3. Was there any justification for German demands that they be allowed to annex to Sudetenland?
