An area of Bohemia in the Czech Republic adjacent to the German border, allocated to the new state of Czechoslovakia after World War I despite the presence of three million German-speaking inhabitants. The Sudetenland became the first object of German expansionist policies when the Nazis came to power; after war was threatened, it was ceded to Germany as a result of the Munich Agreement of September 1938. In 1945 the area was returned to Czechoslovakia, and the German inhabitants were expelled and replaced by Czechs.