ABSTRACT
The Bohemian mountains formed an excellent natural frontier for Czechoslovakia against Germany and were reinforced by strong man-made fortifications. The whole of Czechoslovakia had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918, although the western region had belonged to the Austrian section of the empire and the eastern region to the Hungarian. The Czechoslovak economy was operated on the assumption that the Sudetenland was an integral part of the country. A mutual assistance treaty between Czechoslovakia and France dated from 1925. Each country was required to go to the assistance of the other in the event of a German attack which the other resisted. Benito Mussolini's presence was rather difficult to explain, for Italy had no immediate interest in Czechoslovakia, and Mussolini, unlike Neville Chamberlain, had played little part in engineering a settlement. The British cartoon appeared during the May crisis of 1938, when possibly through some misunderstanding of immediate German intentions the Czechoslovak army was partially mobilized.
