The early stages of the Third Reich's expansion plans consisted of a series of annexations of territory where the majority of the population were culturally German. This started with the March 1938 Anschluss, the annexation of Austria. Next on the list came the Sudetenland, a portion of western Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia was not interested in giving it up, and unlike the Austrian example, it did not look like France and the United Kingdom were going to simply sit back and watch. Suddenly the possibility of a military confrontation looked very real.
