was appeasement the right policy for england in 1938?

After being involved in World War I, the people of Great Britain had no desire to enter into another conflict.They thought appeasing Germany would keep them safe from harm. Was appeasement the right choice for England in the 1930s? Knew the appeasement policy was in ruins as Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia Thought appeasement wasn't the right policy as they only got 6 months of peace Against Doc D Doc B Elected to Parliament in 1938 Opposition to appeasement Worked as a reporter in Godesberg, Germany when Chamberlain and Hitler met Against Doc C By signing the appeasement, not only they can buy more time to rearm, it will also gain support from the masses. The League of Nations was set up in the aftermath of World War I in the hope that international co-operation and collective resistance to aggression might prevent another war. Some people saw Communism as the biggest threat to European stability. The new country included Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia and had border areas with a majority-German population that was known as the Sudetenland and areas with significant numbers of other ethnic minorities (notably Hungarians, Poles and Ruthenians). In December 1934, there was a clash between Royal Italian Army and Imperial Ethiopian Army troops at Walwal, near the border between British and Italian Somaliland, in which Italian troops took possession of the disputed territory, and about 150 Abyssinians and 50 Italians were killed. ", Finney, Patrick. Scientific Revolution and the Enlghtenment, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1976-063-32,_Bad_Godesberg,_M%C3%BCnchener_Abkommen,_Vorbereitung.jpg, https://www.flickr.com/photos/48868038@N02/6091904837, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_foreign_policy_of_the_Neville_Chamberlain_government, https://www.boundless.com/world-history/concepts/the-united-kingdom-and-appeasement-0-17946/. I agree. In 1938, Britain was still recovering from WWI after losing many soldiers and the military was weak. Slovakia separated and created under a puppet government of Germany. James P. Levy argues against the outright condemnation of appeasement. 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. Arthur Marder, "The Royal Navy and the Ethiopian Crisis of 193536. He was startled by the response of Hitler that the cession of the Sudetenland was not enough and that Czechoslovakia, which Hitler had described as a "fraudulent state", must be broken up completely. [45][46], Public opinion in Britain throughout the 1930s was frightened by the prospect of German terror bombing of British cities, which had started during the First World War. Even though appeasement did not work in the end, they had no way of knowing that Hitler would not keep to his promise. Chamberlain did state that: "I cannot help feeling that if, after all, war had come upon usrecord their readiness to serve their Country,where-ever or however their services could be more useful". 8, August 2009, "Twilight of Truth: Chamberlain, Appeasement and The Manipulation of the Press | Richard Cockett", "A quietening effect? 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. [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. Even though Chamberlain had helped Hitler in his expansionist policy, it gave the other countries the time to rearm and expand their military capabilities. 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. Thus, appeasement was the right policy, for it gave time for the British to rearm against a superior German military, whereas declaring war on Germany to defend Czechoslovakian Honour would have resulted in disaster. His criticism of Hitler began from the start of the decade, but Churchill was slow to attack fascism overall because of his own vitriolic opposition to communists, "international Jews" and socialism generally. Develop Hypothesis #1, drawing from Documents A and B. In May 1936, undeterred by sanctions, Italy captured Addis Ababa, the Abyssinian capital, and proclaimed Victor Emmanuel III as Emperor of Ethiopia. Historians' assessments have ranged from condemnation ("Lesson of Munich") for allowing Hitler's Germany to grow too strong to the judgment that Germany was so strong that it might well win a war and that postponing a showdown was in the best interests of the West. Instead, it only postponed the war, which was actually a bad thing. [52] British communists, following the party line defined by Joseph Stalin,[57] argued that appeasement had been a pro-fascist policy and that the British ruling class preferred fascism to socialism. As someone mentioned, even at the end appeasement was a failure as it ended up with war. Planning an independent trip to the UK will take more time and effort than a package purchased from a travel agency. The book and Churchill's authority confirmed the orthodox view. However, due to appeasement, the citizens did get more prepared for war. Even if they went to war, the war would have ended much earlier and the British might not have suffered such drastic losses. On 22 September, Chamberlain flew to Bad Godesberg for his second meeting with Hitler and said that he was willing to accept the cession of the Sudetenland to Germany. The UK government had no choice but to offer appeasement in 1938 ", Strang, G. Bruce. But at the same time, Hitler was also able to re-arm. Hitler's expansionist aims became clear in 1936 when his forces entered the Rhineland. British Home Secretary, Samuel Hoare, said, "These five men, working together in Europe and blessed in their efforts by the President of the United States of America, might make themselves eternal benefactors of the human race". If they had been more aggresive against Hitler, they would have prevented war. This resulted in weak western governments and this allowed Hitler and other countries to take advantage and cause war. In the following months, Czechoslovakia was broken up and ceased to exist, as Germany occupied the Sudetenland; Hungary took part of Slovakia, including Carpathian Ruthenia; and Poland annexed Zaolzie. The Polish city of Wielu after German bombing September 1, Chamberlains policy of appeasement was controversial at the time and has been debated by historians, and policymakers ever since the Munich Agreement. Firstly, and this isn't part of my argument, they threw Poland and Czechoslovakia to the dogs, which was a dick move. "The spirit of Ulysses? They would not have time to rearm, But without time to rearm and immediately going to war, they have more to lose due to their weak defence and they could have lost the whole country instead of some parts of the land around them. When asked at press conferences about Hitler's abuse of Jews and other minority groups, he went so far as to denounce these reports as "Jewish-Communist propaganda".[65]. This can also can be shown where Hitler was also useful to them in removing communism. The book defined appeasement as the "deliberate surrender of small nations in the face of Hitler's blatant bullying". They thought that Germany could act as a buffer, especially as Hitler was very anti-Communist. [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 1937, Stanley Baldwin resigned as Prime Minister. However, instead of throwing Germany the whole meal, assuring them that they can take as much as they want, Britain should have only fed them Scraps. The Republic of China appealed to the League of Nations and to the United States for assistance. To an extent it did bring some good to Britain by giving them more time to rearm and prepare for war. I would seek to expound on this concept further below. 1. aggressive foreign policy. Lord Runciman was sent by Chamberlain to mediate in Prague and persuaded the Czechoslovak government to grant autonomy. Even though Britain could have had a more forceful stand, but they would not be able to predict that appeasement would cause WWII. October 1938. [77] The spectre of appeasement was raised in discussions of the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Later in the day, Hitler resiled by saying that he was willing to accept the cession of the Sudetenland by 1 October. Did the appeasement policy of Britain France and the United States have the intended effect? [28], By August 1939, Hitler was convinced that the democratic nations would never put up any effective opposition to him. This is supported by the fact that the British had low moral due to WW1 and did not have the spirit to start another war, the Great depression had hit and a war was expensive, and the fact that nobody in general wanted ti start another war due to the memories of the first WW. Schuschnigg complied and appointed Arthur Seyss-Inquart, a pro-Nazi lawyer, as interior minister. Although, we now know that in hindsight, it was perhaps a bad move as it egged on Hitler to persue a much more aggressive policy, at the time it was the correct choice. Therefore appeasement bought time for Britain in the sense that Communist forces were weaken to a certain extent and would prevent substantial damage if Britain was to engage in a 2 front war ( ie. Earlier, in April 1935, Italy had joined Britain and France in protest against German rearmament. Almost no country was able to afford to go to war at that point of time as they were rebuilding their infrastructure and economy which fell after The Great Depression and WW1. Advertisement Advertisement While many thought it wasn't the best policy for England at the time, it gave 6 months of peace before rearming.Over all, it wasn't the right policy at the time because, everyone tried to control the peace, but it all depends on how others. Review Guiding Questions and read excerpts. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the British governments of Prime Ministers Ramsay MacDonald (in office 1929-1935), Stanley Baldwin (in office 1935-1937) and (most notably) Neville Chamberlain (in office . [56], A few on the left said that Chamberlain looked forward to a war between Germany and the Soviet Union. Such a collapse will bring peace or security neither to the UK nor to France". it encouraged more aggression. 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. This enabled Britain to rally its people and ensured that they were convinced that fighting was the only option and unified Britain in wartime. 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). Even though if they knew about what Hitler was doing, they would still go for appeasement or public shame of Germany and they would not want to go to war with them. Britain and France was able to have time to rearm. After all the government is to serve the people's interest. "Few appeasers were really prepared to seek peace at any price; few, if any, anti-appeasers were prepared for Britain to make a stand against aggression whatever the circumstances and wherever the location in which it occurred". Chamberlain managed to avoid [citation needed]. Scott Ramsay (2019) instead argues that Britain demonstrated "benevolent neutrality" and was simply hedging its bets by avoiding the favouring of one side or the other. He criticised revisionist historians for concentrating on Chamberlain's motivations, rather than how appeasement worked in practice, as a "usable policy" to deal with Hitler. and reinterpreted these events. If the Brits used the inflatable tanks and boats they're so fond of early on, they could lie through their teeth to Germany to keep them at bay long enough to rearm. Czechoslovakia was told that if it did not submit, it would stand alone. Instituted in the hope of avoiding war, appeasement was the name given to Britains policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked. [9][15] Nevertheless, the initial response of the British public to the Munich agreement was generally favourable. It is exactly because of Chamberlain's appeasement policy that Germany grew stronger and caused the amount of damage it did during World War II. [4], As alarm grew about the rise of fascism in Europe, Chamberlain resorted to attempts at news censorship to control public opinion. Instituted in the hope of avoiding war, appeasement was the name given to Britain's policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked. 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. This would cost them time as rearmament is fairly expensive, which is why they needed to buy more time with appeasement. The Czechoslovak government refused and ordered a partial mobilisation in expectation of German aggression. Japan was undeterred and went on to occupy the whole of Manchuria. 2) There is always a mix of rhetoric on both sides and many differing voices on what to do. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in Munich, The Munich Agreement became synonymous with the policy of, On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, which initiated, On September 3, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on, Orme) Wilberforce (Albert) Raymond Blackburn (Alexander Bell, The Appeal of Fascism to the British Aristocracy During the Inter-War Years, 1919-1939, The Career of Lola Montez in the American Theatre, In the Simplistic and Sometimes Pernicious Categorisations Which Have So Often Been Applied to the Political Personalities of Th, Introduction 1 Women in the Political Background, A Union of Circumstance: Chamberlain and Hitler, 1 Randolph Churchill and the Wavertree By-Election, February 1935, Transition and Memory; London Society from the Lata Nineteenth Century Ta the Nineteen Tbirties, British Conservatism, 1945-1951: Adapting to the Age of Collectivism. Frequent question: How much snow does London get in a year. 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