In 1938, Nazi Germany threatened to annex parts of Czechoslovakia called the Sudenteland, with a large German population (some 3.5 million in the 1930s). Adolf Hitler justified this rampant act of aggression as a move to put a territory with a sizeable German population under German sovereignty, part of his policy of "living space" for the superior race (Lebensraum). The big question in Europe was whether this would lead to war. French and British leaders flew to Munich in late September for a conference with Adolf Hilter and Benito Mussolini (Italy proposed the conference) to discuss the issue. Britain and France practically agreed to Germand demands and warned Czechoslovakia they would not defend it. Facing economic problems at home and public aversion to a new war, Paris and London gave the O.K. to the German annexation of the Sudetenland . This is what historians call "appeasement."
