How much did the policy of appeasement contribute to the cause of World War 2?

Answer 1

Policy of AppeasementHere are opinions:

• Appeasement allowed the British and French to ignore an imminent threat and produced a fake peace which led to many deaths.
• Appeasement bought Britain the precious time it needed to prepare for an inevitable war.

• Appeasement led Hitler to believe that no one would oppose his expansionist policies. In short, if Europe had abandoned its appeasement policy by 1935 WWII probably could have been averted.

• Britain, already economicaly damaged and knowing that a war was impossible to avoid, tried to buy vital time. She had stepped up production ao arms but was still unable to realistically fight another great war in a quarter of a century. What Chamberlain brought back from his talks was time and it proved the balance between winning an unprovoked war.

• England under the premiership of Chamberlain, I believe, made the correct deision to appease Germany, a weakend, abused country deeply buried in debt after its ill-treatment in a post treaty of Versailles Europe. Slowly climbing out of debt, England had not the economy, or gun power to rsk and survive an all-out war with any country. Chamberlain also upheld beliefs about peace and felt that diplomacy, not mindless slaughter, was the answer in dealing with a responsible leader, as Hitler was to his German people. (Jews and other minorities were not threatened at the time.) Hitler was not the epitomy of evil, and should not have been treated as such, at that time.

• The policy of appeasement used by Neville Chamberlain, while intended to preserve the peace, hindered the Allies and help Germany when WWII broke out. Letting Germany increase its navy, army, and air force, reoccupy the Rhineland, and give it the Czech Sudatenland all helped to strengthen the German postition in Europe. It would lead to Germany taking over most of Europe with relative ease in a matter of months.

• Appeasement refers to the foreign policy of England and France toward Germany in the years prior to WWII. They let Hitler rebuild the German army and navy, occupy the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia. If they had put up a fight at the beginning, perhaps Hitler would not have kept pushing until the situation turned into a World War. Or maybe not.

• Originally Appeasement was a positive concept, it had started in 1919 after the Treaty of Versailles. During the 1920's Britain had control however by 1930's Hitler had seized the intiative. Appeasement was apopulare concept especially among British policy, there were several reasons as to why Neville Chamberlain favoured this policy- people in Britain during the early 1930's had voted against war and favoured collective security, this could also be down the economic problems that had arised after the Great Depression such as high unemployment which the treasury had wanted to improve rather than muntions armament. Due to the econonmic problems this led to military weakness as the country virtually had no airforce and the navy was insufficient as was the army. In light of all these problems Neville Chamberlain had seen the effects of Hitler and the Nazis however he had believed that by getting Hitler to sign compromise documents that this would successfully bind Hitler into keeping his promises. Was Chamberlain naive? Chamberlain persisted with appeasement well after it had been crushed i.e. the Czech Crisis. However in doing so he had stepped up rearmament to give him more time. So did Hitler take advantage of Chamberlain's naivity? Subject to evidence it can be almost certain to say the answer is yes, the evidence is seen clearly right from the remilitiarization of the Rhineland up to the Munich Conference. Historians say that Chamberlain appeased Hitler in order to avoid war, others say that he was propelling Europe into war by basically allowing Hitler to do as he pleased. As Hitler prepared fo invasion of Poland, Chamberlain had no choice but to issue an ultimatum to Hitler over Poland- invade Poland and risk war with Britain or step back from Poland and reintroduce peace? Hitler did not think that Britain would go through with its 'ultimatum' so invaded Poland sept 1939. Had Britain and France resisted German aggression World War II might not have broken out.

HOWEVER:1. The policy of appeasement predates Chamberlain's premiership. Already in the early 1920s many British politicians believed that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh and were, in principle, willing to make adjustments in favour of Germany.

2. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, the official British policy was multilateral disarmament and talks were in progress to try to achieve this. Britain and France were caught out at the time.

3. It's not clear how well informed Baldwin and Chamberlain really were about the intentions of the Nazi regime.

4. The ultimate irony is that in many respects the policy of appeasement continued well into WWII. Britain and an even more reluctant France declared war on Germany supposedly in order to uphold Polish sovereignty - but did absolutely nothing to give any practical assistance to Poland. Viewed coldly, the declaration of war in 1939 bears the hallmarks of grandstanding, of an empty gesture. In many ways it was a barely rational act ... Among some British grandees there was talk of making peace - until the Nazis bombed civilian areas of London in September 1940.

5. Britain never had much influence in Eastern Central Europe. It was an area where Britain could only have acted by proxy.

6. There's a widespread belief that all Britain needed was to "do something", but very few are realistic about what that something should have been. A thunderous roar of condemnation (for example, in 1935 or 1936) might well have strengthened, not weakened Hitler, as Germans would have rallied round. A few minutes with a good atlas of Europe should make it clear that Britain would have had to act *through France*. In the mid and late 1930s France was bitterly divided into Left and Right and not well placed to take decisive action, as the events of 1940 made very clear.

7. Although Britain had a vast empire at the time it was rather weak in Europe.

8. As for Chamberlain being 'naive', people seem to think that politicians operate in a vacuum, which is not the case. Chamberlain had become Prime Minister in May 1937 and inherited a very difficult situation. Moreover, Britain was (and is) a democracy, and fighting a major war without broad support is very foolish.

Appeasement gave Germany and other Axis powers an opportunity to build strength before attacking the rest of Europe.

[It also gave Britain more time, too.]

Answer 2

The appeasement policy was the efforts by France and Britain in the 1930s to allow Nazi Germany to have pretty much anything it wanted in the hopes that eventually Hitler would be appeased and cease his aggressive policies. Thus they let him build up the German armed forces in contravention of the treaty of Versailles. They let him put German troops in the Rhineland violating the same treaty. They let them annex Austria. They let him take the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Then they let him take the rest of Czechoslovakia. The affect of the policy was that each time Hitler was allowed to get away with something, far from being appeased, it simply whetted his appetite for more. Finally they realized he would never be appeased and they would have to fight in order to stop him. Had they fought several years earlier there would have been a far shorter and less destructive war.

Answer 3

It was instrumental in WWII. I state this because during the mid to late 30's, Hitler made many gambles. In each of these moves, the German general staff was waiting for the Allies to forcefully respond, so they could move against Hitler. Problem is the Allies never did. The reoocupation of the Rhineland, led to the Anschluss of Austria. This in turn also led to the annexation of the Sudetenland, which was followed by the absorption of the rest of Czechoslovakia. Also the Germans repudiated portions of the Versailles treaty as the 30s unfolded. This also brought nothing more than protests from the League of Nations. If at any time the Allies had stood up to Hitler and said no, if you do this, it means war. Then he would have had to back down. This would also have given the general staff it's chance to depose of him. Alas this did not happen, and as a result the worse war in our planet's history occurred

Answer 4

Generally,if you give a mouse a cookie, he'll want a glass of milk. Appeasement was the policy of the West of avoiding confrontation with Nazi Germany. After WWI, Europe was devastated economically, physically, and emotionally. They did not want to be dragged into another conflict so when Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles by reoccupying the Rhineland and expanding the German army past the limit, they did nothing. Meanwhile, in Spain, a civil war and Fascist revolt threatened the democratic government. Despite Germany and Italy supporting the Spanish Fascists, Britain and France refused to fight a proxy war by supporting the Communist government. At Munich, British, French, and German leaders met to discuss Germany reoccupying the Sudetenland of Czech. . They agreed to German control because it was German speaking as long Hitler stopped there. Hitler then took the rest of Czech. but the Allies again did nothing. Finally, on Sept. 1, 1939 and Britain and France declared war on Germany. Despite this common explanation, there is another possibility.

After WWI, Russia became Communist despite the Allies best efforts. Communism quickly became a scary topic and a Red Scare even greater then the one of the 50s took place. During the twenties and thirties, conservatives in Britain and France saw Fascism, not as an evil, but a cure for Communism. (There are numerous quotes by high ranking Allies supporting this fact.) Britain saw Fascist Germany as a way to eliminate Communist Russia. (Hitler described his work Mein Kampf) Britain encouraged Nazi eastern expansion. They saw Hitler as the best way to eliminate Stalin. At Munich, the Soviet Union was not involved in the decision to give up he Sudetenland. However, when Hitler gave a portion of Czech. to Austria as a gift, Britain realized that Hitler might attack France BEFORE attacking the Soviet Union. Look into this, its pretty interesting.

add. Indeed the Fascict party was set up in Italy to oppose Communism, which had great appeal to the impoverished. The actual symbol of this was the fascisti - a bundle of sticks bound so as to give them strength greater than one stick. This symbol was borrowed from the Romans, and appears on Italian coins of the time. Of course, communism pre-dates the Russian Revolution. Fascism intended to present a joining-together of peoples for a common purpose.

Mussolini possibly struck the first blow of WWII when he invaded Abyssinia, though this was a minor conflict. It however symbolized the failure of the League of Nations which had been formed after WWI.

Without going further into war detail, I believe that Chamberlain's 'Triumphant return from Munich' was a big PR campaign - Britain had realized concretely that war was on the horizon and after this she swung thoroughly into preparing her Air Force and Navy for war. The "Peace in out Time" appeasement was just to give time to build up. Of course, there was a lot of pro-German feeling in Britain, and Germany probably did not really think that Britain would join in war.

Answer 5

The policy of Appeasement adopted by the British Government led by Chamberlain before the second world war allowed Germany to expand eastward by forced annexations of Austria and Czechoslovakia. Britain had hoped that Hitler and Russia would confront each other and ensure that France and England were not attacked. But when Hitler invaded Poland then British public opinion rallied behind Winston Spencer-Churchill to resist Hitler and ultimately declare war on Germany. That was the end of Appeasement for a while.

Answer 6

Appeasement postponed WWII for a year or so.