Britain And France Sought To Appease Hitler History Essay

Britain And France Sought To Appease Hitler bill EssayBritain and France desire to appease Hitler non unpollutedly because it was militarily, economically and politically rational to do so, plainly because of personal judgments do by Chamberlain. The calming policy was a policy adopt by Britain and France and it was a major player in the outbreak of the contendfare. Appeasement was first introduced in the middle 1930s by Stanley Baldwin who was then the British Prime Minister. nevertheless it was Neville Chamberlain who changed this calming policy when he ascended to power in 1937. The British goernment defines calming as the settlement of issues through negotiation and via media. The British were very committed to this policy and they followed it confidently with the expect that it will foreshorten the chance of a world press.Neville Chamberlain was the greatest advocate and pursuer of the appeasement policy. He sought this appeasement so as to conciliate with G erm all so as to bring forth a stable atomic number 631. His personal view was that Germany would be well-provided with what he offered and especially the restoration of its recoiler colonies. There are reasons that catch Chamberlain seek appeasement with Hitler. One of them is that he represented the British citizens who did not want a struggle as they were in the process of mend the wounds from world strugglefare one. Also he did not want to go to war with Germany because the fall of Germany would mean the victory of the Soviet Union and the send of communism therefore. Both he and the British citizens did not want this happening. So Chamberlain was testing as much as he can to countermand a war with Germany and at the same time the spread of communism. The appeasement policy that Chamberlain campaigned for was merely to avoid war. But it can desirewise be seen as a strategy that he used in grade to take in some time of re-arming his forces. Though he really treasur ed to avoid the war, there came a time that he knew that war was in evitable. It was still afterwards the failure of the negotiations between him and Hitler that he haved war against Germany2.Chamberlain matt-up that he had been betrayed by Hitler and that his appeasement policies were failing him. That is when he dogged to get word on a hard line approach towards the Nazi. Britain and France began arming themselves. Italy on the other(a) hard invaded Albania in April of 1939. It was Hitlers invasion of Poland that do these devil countries declare war and blink of an eye World War officially began on 3rde family 1939.The Versailles Pact which had been subscribe after the First World War with an pay off of ending all wars was greatly hated by the Germans3. It was subscribeed by the four nations. It was argued that the contract if it were to stand wound ruin the economic stipulation of Germany. The Germans were not allowed to percenticipate in the negotiations and the big three countries which participated each had its aver personal goals. The Germans felt they were humiliated with the French feeling a reek of insecurity. The British championed for the reestablishment of world trade and they wanted nothing to a greater extent enchantment the Americans were to give up their principles and ideals of self determination especially on matters that touch on Germany. With all these issues in place, a disaster was inevitable4. This treaty is seen by some historians as the lead cause of the Second World War. The countries combat-ready signed it for their own benefits without considering other countries in Europe. France wanted revenge to the Germans. Britain signed it hardly to prevent a war while America looked at the bigger picture of making more than money5.Many Britons proverb hope after the signing of this treaty. They wanted to avoid another(prenominal) war and that is why the British government had to give in to the demands presented by Hi tler6. The British economy was fairing very deplorablely hence Britain was not ready for a war. It was not even in a postal service to fund and rearm its troops force due to the bad economic status. So Chamberlain well- tried as much as possible to avoid a war with Germany. The way Hitler was progressing meant that there was not even time for Britain to organize war strategies and prepare its force. So Chamberlain had to find a way of avoiding war and/or gaining sometime to rearm the military. The only solution present was appeasement7.Hitlers important aim was to nominate Germany as super power and a joined Germany. He also wanted to enlarge the Germany territory through what he called recapturing of lost territories8. Hitler believed that German will become strong again only through the use of military infringement and war. He directly challenged the Versailles treaty in 1934 by rearming his armed forces and preparing them for war. This he did through production of tanks, s ubmarines and aircrafts in huge masses. When it was announced that Hitler was rearming his military forces, which was in conflict with the Versailles promise, Britain and France protested to the League of Nations with the hope that it can be moderateped9. The League of Nations did not try to stop these aggressive rearmament plans by Hitler on the grounds that there were no military or economic sanctions that had been imposed. It was due to the appeasement which make Hitler more confident. In short France and Britain solely turned a blind eye on this public breach of Versailles treaty. The Anglo-German Naval agreement that was signed in 1935 was the form of appeasement of the British towards this rearmament. This was because the agreement acknowledged that the rearmament of the German should be special(a) to only 35% of the fleet owned by the British. The agreement which was made by the British solely without the agreement from Italy and France became the first time that Britain hold and approved a German contravention of the treaty of Versailles. It was after 1936 that Hitlers cartel of waging a war climaxed. This was because he had accumulated enough mercenaries of war and also had fully prepared his military force. He was confident that France and Britain as the appeasers would not stop him. He did this knowing very well that he was flouting the Versailles treaty.Rhineland was a strategic military position that could determine the fate of Germany. It was a read/write head where by the French could use to invade and strike then purport of the Germanys power. It was due to this reality that Hitler ordered its reoccupation and remilitarization. This was an open breech of the treaty of Versailles but France and Britain just turned a blind eye. Hitlers aim of doing this was to stop any attack from France. The Rhineland could have been used by France to attack Germany. Remilitarizing it meant that Frances attack on Germany would be immediately repelled by t he Germany forces. But they did not even try to stop him because he was taking back what belonged to Germany originally. At this stage, France could have halt the reoccupation of the Rhine region but she did not want to start a war with Germany due to the lack of support from the British10. This made Hitler even more confident that he even saw an opportunity to challenge the brace of Europe power. The appeasers had no say round Rhineland because they argued it was a Germany territory and it could do whatever it wanted with it including having its military force there. Even though, Hitler had ordered his regular army to withdraw with immediate effect if the French intervened. But since there was no any intervention from the French he became more confident. Chamberlain apprehension that by allowing Hitler to take over the region that formally belonged to Germany, he would at least stop there.Hitler invaded Austria in 1938 and he declared Anschluss. In doing this he was disrupti on the Versailles treaty. The Australian chancellor at the time pleaded with France and Britain to help but these ii countries did nothing about it. Chamberlain sent a protest note to Berlin11. he addressed the cabinet after Hitlers army crossed the border and he blamed both Germany and Austria. Even though, he condemned strongly the methods used by Hitler to annex Austria12.The annexation of Australia in 1938 was seen as a solution to the bothers that set about the war oriented Germany economy. Hitler saw it as a perfect opportunity of fulfilling his goal of uniting all the Germans within the Reich. The Austrian Nazi present demonstrations following orders given by Hitler and this proved a perfect opportunity for Hitler to send his troops to occupy Austria. The appeasers did nothing more after this than mere protests. The link up with Austria strengthened the friendship between Germany and Italy and it also gave Hitler a direct route to southeast Europe. Britain and France appe asements gave Hitler more confidence again to switch Europe. After Austria, Czechoslovakia was next. Due to the success that he had achieved before, he demanded that Sudetenland be structured into the threesome Reich because it was the most industrialized and wealthiest region in Czechoslovakia. And since the appeasers were afraid of a war break out, they pleaded on the president of Czech, Benes to come into as compromise with Hitler. It was with this regard that Chamberlain met Hitler in an attempt to resolve the issues. He met him three generation on separate occasions. It was at Berchtesgaden, where Hitler promised Chamberlain that the case of Sudetenland would be self determined. But in Godesberg, Hitler changed his stand and he instead demanded the immediate incorporation of Sudetenland into the Third Reich. This demand made Chamberlain very angry and on his return to Britain he began organizing the army in prepared ness for war. Czechoslovakia president was forced to sign the agreement. Chamberlain and Hitler signed another agreement to imply that Britain and Germany would never be at war with each other again. The invasion of Czechoslovakia as a square is what opened the eyes of the appeasers and they saw that no matter how much they tried to appease Hitler, war was inevitable. After giving in to all the demands made by Hitler and his continual invasion of Europe, the appeasers realized that the appeasement policy was a failed policy. Hitler went on to invade Poland ignoring the ultimatum that he had been given by Britain and France to stop the invasion. It was after this that the appeasers declared war on Germany13.It was the 1938 crisis whereby the Sudeten Nazis started demonstrations and causing trouble led by Heinlein and under(a) orders from Hitler which is seen as the true appeasement because Chamberlain intervened. Henlein demanded union of Sudeten with Germany. This was what led to the collision at Berchtesgaden which was held on the 15th day of September. here(predicate) Hitler and chamberlain met and Hitler threatened to wage a war but he promised Chamberlain that it would be the last problem to be solved. Chamberlain saw Hitler as a man who can be trusted and in his intervention he persuaded the president of the republic of Czech to hand over Sudetenland to the Germans. In doing this, chamberlain thought that this was the last demand that Hitler would train for.The Godesberg meeting between Hitler and Chamberlain took place in 22nd September 1938. Here Hitler asked for more demands which Chamberlain refused to offer. It was this mistrust which Chamberlain saw in Hitler that he knew that war was definitely inevitable. Chamberlain did not see Czechoslovakia as an issue that could result to war. He had simply assumed that it was just a conflict between two attached countries and that their conflict could not result to a world warThe appeasement policy can be said to have climaxed in the Munich group discussion held in September 1938 where by Britain and France finally gave Hitler the go ahead to take over Sudetenland. This was a conference held in Germany to discuss the fate of Czechoslovakia amid the demands made by Hitler. The countries that were present wereItaly, France, Germany and Britain Notably, Czechoslovakia was not present. The Munich pact was signed and this allowed Hitler to take over SudetenlandThis was the center of Czechoslovakia as it was where most of its banks and border defenses were situated. By signing this pact, the European powers meant that Hitler was free to take over the integral of Czechoslovakia. By signing this pact, Chamberlain thought that Hitler would be finally satisfied and stop making more demandsThe agreement was proposed by Mussolini though it is claimed that it was prepared by the German foreign office. Czechoslovakia felt betrayed by France and Britain because it was informed to either accept the agreement or fight its more powerful neighbor all by its own14. The pact was signed on September 30th. When Chamberlain returned to London he gave his famous intermission for our time speech. The crowd that had gathered in London was very beguiled to hear that peace has finally been found and that there was no sentiment for war15.The main reason why Britain and France embraced the appeasement policy was because they did not want the whole of Europe to be dragged into a world war by Hitler. It was a policy being persued due to the lessons learnt from world war one.Appeasement policy can be seen as a bad policy that was aimed at achieving world peace while sacrificing some countries like the way Britain and France did to try and appease Hitler at the mercies of Czechoslovakia. Germany was becoming stronger while the countries that were under its threat had no say. There was much tension in Europe as most countries feared the rate at which Germany was becoming strong.. The availability of more resources from the conquered countries s trengthened the Germany economy and therefore it could sustain a war.Though the appeasement policy led to the strengthening of Germany, and the breakout of war, there are other reasons why France and Britain adopted this policy. These two countries were faced with economic problems in the 1930s. The British economy was severely weakened by the Wall Street prostration of 1929 which made the government put the rearming of its armed forces on hold. Chamberlain wanted as much as possible to avoid war. That is why he adopted the appeasement policy. On the other hard, France was not in a position to maintain a war. It needed the support of Britain. It is because of this that it followed Britain in seeking the appeasement. This was because he wanted peace and stability that would allow economic growth for the whole of Europe. The Britons had a positive attitude towards the appeasement in the hope that it would reduce the chances of a war outbreak. Thus it can be concluded that appeasement was a British government policy that was fully supported by the citizens.Britain did not want a war between it and Germany. This was because it was threatened by communist USSR and not because it feared Germany. In case Germany fell, there was a opening move of spread of communism and Britain did not want this to happen. That is why it was in the favour of appeasement policy. Another fear that embraced Britain was forming a coalition with USSR which was its bitter rival. That is why Chamberlain desperately sought for appeasement at the mercies of other countries just to make sure that they did not join hands with USSR in a war against Germany16. The signing of the Munich agreement is viewed by many as a traitorousness especially by Britain. What Chamberlain was doing is to buy some time to rearm British forces. Hitler on the other hand thought it as a helplessness and a sign of fear of the appeasers17. This was a great mistake as all that the appeasers wanted was to preserve th e world peace. This is what made him bold and gain confidence and a sense of security.Therefore the blame for the outbreak of Second World War can only be largely lay on Hitler and not on the appeasers. This is with regard to Hitlers goals and determination to make Germany a super power and to do so war was inevitable as he had severally claimed publicly. Hitler had managed to convince the appeasers that he had no any intentions of aggression through his peace propaganda. This had in a way fooled Britain and France who were not in favor of a war but wanted world sedate coexistence. The appeasers continued to adopt the appeasement policy and this assured Hitler that they would do anything just to avoid a war. This made him think that he could continue to gallop his demands and the appeasers would still continue to give in to them. It was this appeasement policy that gave Hitler a foundation and a base to increase the demands after every prosperous conquest that he achieved.Conclu sionThere are many opinions and views about the appeasement policy with some critics saying it was a betrayal and ritual killing of some nations for the benefit of others. Others say that it was Chamberlains strategy of buying time to rearm Britain. But from Chamberlains point of view, all that he wanted was to avoid another world war. It is not the appeasement policy that triggered the world war two but instead it was the greed of Hitler to enlarge the German territory and make Germany a superpower. The failure of the appeasement policy was because it was only Chamberlain who fulfilled his part of the bargain. He was convinced, on trying to appease Hitler that he (Hitler) was an honest faithful and honorable man which was a mistake and a misjudgment on his part.