From the beginning, the Slovak Republic was under the influence of Germany. The so-called "protection treaty" ("Treaty on the protective relationship between Germany and the Slovak State"), signed on 23 March 1939, partially subordinated its foreign, military, and economic policy to that of Germany. The German Wehrmacht established the so-called "protection zone" in Western Slovakia in August 1939. In July 1940 at the Salzburg Conference, the Germans forced a reshuffle of the Slovak cabinet by threatening to withdraw their protection guarantees.