Why did Neville chamberlain appease Hitler at Munich?

Answer 1

Why did Chamberlin appease Hitler?After Hitler had taken back some of the land that Germany had lost in the treaty of Versailles, Chamberlin (leader of the Labour party and Prime Minister at the time) was faced with the difficult decision of letting Hitler get away with this or not and possibly sending Britain to another war.

One reason was that Britain was still weak after the destruction of WW1. Even if Chamberlin wanted to go to war Britain wouldn't be ready, it still needed time to re-arm. In WW1 Britain received the help from many thousands of soldiers from their empire and over sea colonies. This time however Britain had all but lost it's over sea powers and had very little support to rely on. But it wasn't only Britain's over sea colonies that wouldn't fight; France wanted peace and at all costs wanted to avoid war. Britain couldn't fight Germany alone. I think that these reasons were ones that Chamberlin would have had near the front of his mind, ones that maybe had an influence on his decision.

As usual politics had a huge part to play in the decision. Many people in Britain approved some Nazi Policies; With Hitler at the head of Germany it was becoming stronger, many people saw this as a good barrier to communism and the Russians. As well as that it was thought by many that an issue such as this would be dealt with by the League of Nations. It wasn't However. Since Chamberlin wasn't a dictator himself he couldn't order Britain to war without the majority vote. This would be an issue as many conservatives liked and supported Hitler's strong, right-wing government. These would also have been important reasons but these also show that some people approved of Hitler, so if war was declared Chamberlin wouldn't have the support of the whole country.

The horrors of the First World War were still vivid in everyone's mind including Chamberlin's. When he did return home from making his decision he said "I feel it is in my duty to strain every nerve to avoid repetition of the First World War." This shows that almost everyone wanted peace. However Hitler was able to use this to his advantage as he could take more risks, gamble more, and effectively grow stronger as everyone else was trying to keep peace. The Spanish civil war had shown how the technology and weaponry had improved and was made more deadly. The fears of a war where no one is safe, where the enemies can bomb the cities killing hundreds every night was the stuff of nightmares and was to be avoided at all costs. I think of all the reasons that these are the most important as it was these thoughts that were shared by not only Britain but by France, Italy Belgium and many other countries but it was these reasons that allowed Hitler and Germany to grow bigger and stronger.