ABSTRACT
The Anschluss of March 1938, when Austria was absorbed into the German Reich, marked the beginning of a long, anguished crisis, which neared its culmination on the afternoon of 28 September when Hitler invited Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier and Benito Mussolini to Munich to resolve his dispute with Czechoslovakia over the German minority that had been integrated in 1918 into the new Czech state. France was directly interested in the dispute on account of its treaties with Czechoslovakia: the Treaty of Friendship of 25 January 1924 and the Treaty of Alliance signed on 16 October 1925 within the framework of Locarno. Although the events of this period are well known, it is only recently that serious study has been made of the decision-making process that led French leaders to sign the Munich agreements1-a lacuna the author has sought to remedy, using in particular the contributions of Jean-Baptiste Duroselle and Marlis Steinart to the analysis of international relations.
