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Why are the Munchkins grateful to Dorothy?

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Illustration by W.W. Denslow showing Dorothy comforting the Cowardly Lion on a yellow brick road, with Toto, the Tin Woodsman, and the Scarecrow nearby in a forest. — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz An illustrated page by W.W. Denslow in L. Frank Baum's *The Wonderful Wizard of Oz*.

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Munchkins are grateful to Dorothy because her house landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East. By inadvertently causing the death of this tyrant, Dorothy freed the Munchkins from her rule.1