Sudetenland occupation and Slovakia's independence

Sudetenland occupation

Germany entered the Sudetenland on 1 October. Hitler now had control of the Czech fortifications and this would make his next act of aggression much easier. Meanwhile Hitler and Chamberlain signed a piece of paper promising never to go to war with each other. Czechoslovakia was further divided when, encouraged by Hitler, Hungary took control of the region of Ruthenia and Poland claimed Teschen.

The Invasion of Czechoslovakia, also known as the 1938 Defensive War in Czechoslovakia and the Czechoslovak Campaign in Germany was an invasion of Czechoslovakia carried out by Nazi Germany and its ally Hungary, while Poland used the opportunity to satisfy its own territorial claims and started its own independent military operations against Czechoslovakia. The invasion began on October 1, 1938, a day after the Czech government refused to abide to the Munich Agreement, and ended November 26 with Germany and Hungary dividing and annexing the whole of Czechoslovakia.

The morning after the incident, German forces invaded Czechoslovakia from the north, south, and west.

On October 20, 1938 the Hungarians launched their invasion of the Slovak part of Czechoslovakia. In November and December, facing an increased pressure by both the Germans and the Hungarians, the Czechs slowly began retreating towards the final defensive line running through Moravia, thus separating the Czech forces around Prague from the main force in southern Moravia and Slovakia.

On December 1, Germany directly annexed the Sudetenland and established the Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia as a Reich Protectorate. Hungary annexed Slovakia and Carpatho-Ukraine. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance organizations formed the Czech Underground State within the territory of the former Czechoslovak state. Many of the military exiles that managed to escape Czechoslovakia subsequently joined the Czechoslovak Legions in Poland and in France, an armed force loyal to the Czechoslovak government in exile.

Slovakia's independence

After the Munich Agreement, Slovakia gained autonomy inside Czecho-Slovakia. On 14 March, the Slova State declared its independence as a satellite state under Jozef Tiso. 

On March 15, 1939, German troops entered Prague and completed the invasion of Czechoslovakia, ignoring the Munich Pact. He took over Bohemia, and established a protectorate over Slovakia. Hitler forced the actual president, Hácha, to surrender what remained of Bohemia and Moravia to German control on 15 March 1939, establishing the German protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia which was created on March 15. On the same day, the Carpatho-Ukraine declared its independence and was immediately invaded and annexed by Hungary. Finally, on March 23 Hungary invaded and occupied from the Carpatho-Ukraine some further parts of Slovakia (eastern Slovakia).

Beneš and other Czechoslovak exiles in London organized a Czechoslovak Government-in-Exile and negotiated to obtain international recognition for the government and a renunciation of the Munich Agreement and its consequences.

In December 1943, Beneš's government concluded a treaty with the Soviet Union. Beneš worked to bring Czechoslovak communist exiles in Britain into active cooperation with his government, offering far-reaching concessions, including nationalization of heavy industry and the creation of local people's committees at the war's end (which then indeed happened). In March 1945, he gave key cabinet positions to Czechoslovak communist exiles in Moscow.