Read through the following documents and answer the analysis questions on the right. The policy allowed Britain to prepare her economy for war. However, due to appeasement, the citizens did get more prepared for war. Historians have continually debated. Schuschnigg complied and appointed Arthur Seyss-Inquart, a pro-Nazi lawyer, as interior minister. Britain and France both bought 6 months of time with the policy to rearm. Why did the British follow the policy of appeasement in the 1930s? Because the ultimatum was never set down in writing and did not include a formal deadline, some historians downplay its importance and describe it as a "set of demands", rather than as an ultimatum. Furthermore, when Hitler's Demands were getting more and more bizarre and demanding, such as control over Sudetenland, Chamberlain should have refused. France was anxious to placate Mussolini to keep him away from an alliance with Germany. The UK government had no choice but to offer appeasement in 1938 because its Armed Forces were so small there was nothing that they could do against Germany who had been preparing for war since 1933. On 30 September, on his return to Britain, Chamberlain delivered his famous "peace for our time" speech to delighted crowds. [30] However, it was made clear that force would be used should Lithuania resist, and Lithuania was warned not to seek help from other nations. The British people were unwilling to go to war, but that could be easily changed if the media and propaganda started portraying Hitler as an aggressive person trying to take over Europe. Some Conservatives abstained in the vote, but the only MP to advocate war was the Conservative Duff Cooper, who had resigned from the government to protest the agreement. Chamberlain returned to Britain and promised "peace for our time". At a debate at the Oxford Union Society in 1933, a group of undergraduates passed a motion saying that they would not fight for King and country, which persuaded some in Germany that Britain would never go to war. His expansionist policies could be seen taking place right in front of British eyes, but their politicians were so paranoid about war that they did not do anything about it. The episode, in which sanctions were incomplete and appeared to be easily given up, seriously discredited the League. Was appeasement the right policy for England in 1938? Appeasement helped to build up national unity and not let people believe the British government has done everything they can to try to prevent war. The German Propaganda Ministry issued press reports that riots had broken out in Austria and that large parts of the Austrian population were calling for German troops to restore order. However, even if Britain were to go to war immediately, they would not have the financial capabilities to do so. Appeasement was considered a viable policy because of the strains that the British Empire faced in recuperating from World War I, and Chamberlain was said to have adopted a policy suitable to Britain's cultural and political needs. Appeasement was right in 1938 as this proved to the people of Britain that the government had tried every method before resorting to war. Appeasement was a mistake because it did not prevent war. In response, Japan resigned from the League and continued its advance into China, with neither the League nor the United States taking any action. Vernon Bartlett, a critic of the Munich Agreement and member of Parliament, happened to be acting as a reporter in Godesberg, Germany when Chamberlain had met with Hitler. Review Guiding Questions and read excerpts. Advertisement Advertisement [90] Thatcher, along with U.S. National Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, made similar arguments after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the planning for the Gulf War. The new appeasement was a mood of fear, Hobbesian in its insistence upon swallowing the bad in order to preserve some remnant of the good, pessimistic in its belief that Nazism was there to stay and, however horrible it might be, should be accepted as a way of life with which Britain ought to deal".[79]. Was Appeasement the Right Policy for England in 1938? To follow along, you may find it helpful to. Nevertheless, the Italian economy suffered. Chamberlain became convinced that refusal would lead to war. [36] Anti-communism was sometimes acknowledged as a deciding factor, as mass labour unrest resurfaced in Britain, and news of Stalin's bloody purges disturbed the West. Even if they somehow manage to go to war with their sheer lack of resources, the low morale will be detrimental to their campaign. Unfortunately, appeasement back-fired on them and World War II started. Chamberlain became President in 1937. But what they attempted was logical, rational, and humane". The United States reminded them of their duty under the KelloggBriand Pact to settle matters peacefully. occupation of the rump state of Czechoslovakia. Germany accepted that arrangement under the Locarno Treaties of 1925. [9] In Parliament, the Labour Party opposed the agreement. [56], A few on the left said that Chamberlain looked forward to a war between Germany and the Soviet Union. U.S. President Harry S. Truman thus explained his decision to enter the Korean War in 1950, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden in his confrontation of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the Suez Crisis of 1956, U.S. President John F. Kennedy his "quarantine" of Cuba in 1962, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in his resistance to communism in Indochina in the 1960s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan in his his air strike on Libya in 1986, and U.S. President Donald Trump in the drone strike that led to the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in 2020. [68] As Richard Cockett noted: [Chamberlain] had successfully demonstrated how a government in a democracy could influence and control the press to a remarkable degree. They thought that Germany could act as a buffer, especially as Hitler was very anti-Communist. Appeasement, in an international context, is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power to avoid conflict. ", Watt, D. C. "The Historiography of Appeasement", in, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 00:08. The journalist Shiela Grant Duff's Penguin Special, Europe and the Czechs, was published and distributed to every MP on the day that Chamberlain returned from Munich. In 1961, the view of appeasement as avoidable error and cowardice was similarly set on its head by A.J.P. Albania, Austria and Hungary refused to apply sanctions, and Germany and the United States were not in the League. The Labour MP Hugh Dalton identified the policy with wealthy people in the City of London, Conservatives and members of the peerage who were soft on Hitler. Free shipping for many products! What impact did the appeasement policy of the United States, Britain, and France have on Germany aggression? He wrote in Mein Kampf (1924) that he would attempt a union of his birth country Austria with Germany by any means possible and by force if necessary. Spurred by voters who demanded No more war, the leaders of Britain, France, and the United states tried to avoid conflict through diplomacy. Sudetenland was basically handed over to Hitler, along with all their modern defenses. There's a reason Hitler went over most of Europe before taking France, thus forcing Britains hand. [21], In effect, the British and French had by the Munich negotiations pressured their ally of Czechoslovakia to cede part of its territory to a hostile neighbour in order to preserve peace. However, I'm fairly sure that if they bluffed they could gain the same amount of time, if not more, to rearm. Members of the League were entitled to the assistance of other members if they came under attack. Instead, it only postponed the war, which was actually a bad thing. How did the appeasement policy lead to WW2? Historians such as Richard Cockett, William Shirer and Frank McDonough have confirmed the claim[62][63] and have also noted the links between The Observer The results of an October 1938 Gallup poll, which showed 86% of the public believed Hitler was lying about his future territorial ambitions, was censored from the News Chronicle at the last minute by the publisher, who was loyal to Chamberlain. aggressive foreign policy. On 24 September, Germany issued the Godesberg Memorandum, which demanded cession by 28 September or war. In conclusion, Britains choice to adopt a policy of appeasement during the 1930s was a wise decision, as it delayed war, prolonged the amount of time the country had to build up arms, and pleased the public. Rhineland, annexed Austria, and in September 1938, Hitler demanded that Czechoslovakia give Germany the, Sudetenland, a region with a heavy ethnic-German, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met, with Hitler in Munich to find a compromise over, The Munich Agreement (September 29, 1938), Sudetenland, and promised Germany would not, On March 13-14, 1939, Germany violated the. You will examine a variety of documents and, evaluate different perspectives on appeasement, develop a claim and use evidence to answer the. Churchill delivered a tribute to him in which he said, "Whatever else history may or may not say about these terrible, tremendous years, we can be sure that Neville Chamberlain acted with perfect sincerity according to his lights and strove to the utmost of his capacity and authority, which were powerful, to save the world from the awful, devastating struggle in which we are now engaged". Andrew Roberts, "'Appeasement' Review: What Were They Thinking? Historians have subsequently explained Chamberlain's policies in various ways. As a result of the annexation of the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia lost 800,000 citizens, much of its industry and its mountain defences in the west. Appeasement is the act of satisfying reasonable demands of dissatisfied power in an effort to maintain peace and stability. Now, appeasement of Germany was a good thing for Britain and France because it allowed them to start rearming after their dearming after the Great War (WWI). The rest of Czechoslovakia was left weak and powerless to resist subsequent occupation. In a nutshell, the appeasement policy was done with a good intention, but was poorly executed. The goal was that in a European war Britain would enjoy the "benevolent neutrality" of whichever side won in Spain.[10]. Why was the appeasement the right policy for England in 1938? Germany as such distrusted both sides and thought both sides sought to undermine its survival. At the same time, it gave Germany time to build their army even more and giving sudetenland to Hitler was practically giving Hitler what he wanted. Many people praise the appeasement; they say that it was all part of Chamberlain's grand scheme to buy. By showing that appeasement was a popular policy and that there was a continuity in British foreign policy after 1933, he shattered the common view of the appeasers as a small degenerate clique that had mysteriously hijacked the British government sometime in the 1930s that had carried out their policies in the face of massive public resistance. If they had been more aggressive, the war would have begun before Britain was even close to having a good defence to stop anyone from invading them.Also, at that point of time, Britain was trying their best to avoid a second world war altogether This would easily have led to the fall of Britain, and in the process, demolish all possibilities of not having a second world war. Hitler increased his aggression against Czechoslovakia and ordered the establishment of a Sudeten German paramilitary organisation, which proceeded to carry out terrorist attacks on Czechoslovak targets. By 1938, Germany had rebuilt its military under, Adolf Hitler, in violation of the Treaty of, borders, claiming that he was attempting to, Recent memories of the First World War left, European countries reluctant to prepare for war, Between 1936 and 1938, Germany remilitarized the. The appeasement policy was the right and one of the best policy in 1938. The crowds that applauded Chamberlain as he drove along the Rhine consisted not so much of ardent nationalists, delighted that a foreign statesman had come to make obeisance to their Fuehrer, as of ordinary human beings who wanted to be kept out of warI am firmly convinced that, had Chamberlain stood firm at Godesberg, Hitler would either have climbed down or would have begun war with far less support from his people than he had a year later. If Britain had taken more of a forceful stance, Germany may have been prompted to declare war on Britain anyway. It also gave them time to bring up their economy which was needed during a war. The people wanted peace more than anything else. By taking on a policy of appeasement, it would justify to the people that all options have been exhausted before going to war. In August, Henlein broke off negotiations with the Czechoslovak authorities. Also, by portraying the leaders of the 1930s as real people attempting to deal with real problems, he made the first strides towards explaining the actions of the appeasers, rather than merely condemning them. Appeasement policy bought time for the British Government to rebuild its financial capabilities. [22] Baldwin told the House of Commons that in 1933, he had been unable to pursue a policy of rearmament because of the strong pacifist sentiment in the country. Dimuccio, R.A.B., "The Study of Appeasement in International Relations: Polemics, Paradigms, and Problems". [88][77], During the Cold War, the "lessons" of appeasement were cited by prominent conservative allies of Reagan, who urged him to be assertive in "rolling back" Soviet-backed regimes throughout the world. [92], In 2013, Obama administration officials such as Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel claimed that a failure of the United States to intervene in the Syrian Civil War after the 2003 Ghouta chemical attack would be an act of appeasement towards Bashar al-Assad. In my opinion, appeasement was the right policy for Britain in 1938. The UK government had no choice but to offer appeasement in 1938 [9], Positive opinion of appeasement was shaped partly by media manipulation. [19], In the atmosphere of growing conflict, Mussolini persuaded Hitler to put the dispute to a four-power conference. It came to an end when Hitler seized Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939, in defiance of his promises given at Munich, and Prime Minister Chamberlain, who had championed appeasement before, decided on a policy of resistance to further German aggression. The British government took the role of negotiating with Germany. The Czechoslovaks and the Soviets were to be parties to the talks. Appeasement in 1938 was right as it showed the British population that there was no other way of avoiding war with Germany, unifying Britain against a common threat. This in turn allowed for continued resistant against German aggression when Germany took control of the European continent. The LON was weak (having proven to be ineffective in solving disputes)and so was Britain's army, therefore this would not have been enough to intimidate Hitler into backing down. Neville Chamberlain met with Adolf Hitler twice in 1938 to discuss Germanys. It was also the best policy for them because at the point of time, if Britain had went to war, she would have lost the war. Planning an independent trip to the UK will take more time and effort than a package purchased from a travel agency. Appeasement was not necessary in the first place, as Britain could challenge Hitler immediately at that time and Hitler will be forced to back down because he has to keep his promise of not starting a war that early, or he will start a war with far less support behind him, and Britain could have easily won. Britain and France joined the war against Germany but initially averted serious military involvement during the period known as the Phoney War. : all premiums paid and current) and your ex-husband is a named beneficiary on the policy then . Sign in|Recent Site Activity|Report Abuse|Print Page|Powered By Google Sites, More so, not acting with authority cost Chamberlain the chance he may have had to take Hitler down. [22] In 1935, eleven million responded to the League of Nations "Peace Ballot" by pledging support for the reduction of armaments by international agreement. [96], Tibetan separatists consider the policy of the West towards China with regard to Tibet as appeasement. Would a Europe divided among democrats, fascists, and communists, and possessing jet aircrafts, nuclear weapons, and ballistic missiles, be more inviting than that one that emerged after 1945? "Munich, 1938: The military confrontation. [48][49] Specifically, regarding the fighters, the RAF warned the government in October 1938 that the German Luftwaffe bombers would probably get through: "the situation will be definitely unsatisfactory throughout the next twelve months". Slovakia separated and created under a puppet government of Germany. 2) There is always a mix of rhetoric on both sides and many differing voices on what to do. 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