Fro @mariannewest in #freewrite
Nowadays, the country is sharply divided politically and I don’t want to present examples of modern politics. Rather, I’d like to supplicate to history that, luckily for today’s prompt, have them in abundance.
A good example of coercion was the Nazi’s annexation of The Sudeten part of Czechoslovakia rectified by the Munich agreement in March of 1938.
The Sudeten Germans were ethnic Germans that lived in the border region of Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany. Hitler wanted to bring them back into the Reich along with the area.
Hitler wanted to wipe Czechoslovakia from the map. Originally, he was very optimistic as he felt the French and British armament was underdeveloped and thus the international situation was advantageous. He planned to invade Czechoslovakia before French and the Brits could retaliate. Up to the end of September, Hitler was very eager to go to war even though all his demands specified in Munich agreement were met; Germany annexed the complete border Sudeten region where ethnic Germans lived, which meant that the Czechoslovakian will leave all the defenses there and the country would now be nearly indefensible.