Chamberlain's Policy Toward Germany Essays

England and France, fearing another war established a policy of appeasement to by time and rearm its forces. The European countries believed that Hitler would only retake the Sudetenland; this land was historically Germany's homeland(6). This was another mistake by France and England because with the Sudetenland he gained the famous Skoda armament factories and was ultimately a more dangerous military opponent(6). Until the remainder of Czechoslovakia was swallowed in 1939 all Hitler had done seemed reasonable(6). Until then he had only tried to obtain lands where ethnic Germans lived(6). The disregard of the Treaty of Versailles would be the main factor that allowed Germany to regain their power and ultimately bring the world into another war.

     Britain’s policy of Appeasement (May/June 1937 – March 1939) was also a cause of World War Two. Neville Chamberlain became the British Prime Minister on May 28, 1937, and followed the policy of appeasing Germany, believing that all Hitler wanted to do was unite German-speaking people. In doing so, Hitler would break the Treaty of Versailles but Chamberlain did not believe Hitler would cause war. Churchill disagreed, citing Mein Kampf (1924) where Hitler has written that Germany must regain lands ‘in the East… by the power of the sword.’ Little did Chamberlain know that he had misinterpreted Hitler’s aims.

On February 3, 1933 during a meeting with German military leaders Hitler said his foreign policy was the conquest of Eastern Europe (Weinberg, 1970), also in 1933 Germany withdrew from the League of Nations, which should have been a warning sign that they were planning something big. This along with the increase of the Wehrmacht (German Army) to 600,000 should have thrown up some red flags to Britain and France that Hitler was up to no go. This was another of Hitler’s direct violations of the Versailles Treaty, yet no one stopped him, instead they let him continue untouched. Then in March of 1936

Appeasement was destined to fail because Hitler could never be satisfied and the appeasers did not understand they were dealing with an aggressive, unreasonable dictator. Hitler Nazi ideologies stated the future of the German people could

Britain still hoped to avoid the war at this time and offered an appeasement to Germany stating that they would willing give Sudetenland to them if they left the rest of

Treaty of Versailles' Role in Hitler's Rise to Power The Treaty of Versailles was important to Hitler's rise to power because, it was the cause of Germany's downfall. Hitler felt very strongly about the Treaty of Versailles and thought the terms were unfair towards Germany. Many German people also despised the treaty, and wanted something done about it. Hitler was there to turn to. He wanted to abolish the treaty and all of it terms.

Eubank also stated the French “feared a repetition of the bloody sacrifices of 1914-1918.” and the British wanted to appease Hitler. Not many countries had agreed with the Munich Agreement.

Britain, France and Italy believed that Hitler would keep his word after this appeasement and wouldn’t try to take over any other land. Their continuous appeasement did not solve anything, and Hitler’s Nazi Party kept accumulating more and more lands, creating more problems. William Shirer stated, “His waiting ten short days has saved Europe from a world war,” (Doc. 4), but this is not true, since this appeasement only postponed the war, and let the Nazi Party gain more power. This is a simple example of how appeasement was not

However, British and French military intervention in the Rhineland incident, 1936 could have been an alternative to appeasement. Their reluctance to take action permitted Germany to increase her power (within 18 months Germany’s rate of rearmament surpassed that of Britain and France), whilst also contributing to the burgeoning belief that the League of Nations was ineffective. Hitler himself stated that "If France had then marched into the Rhineland; we would have had to withdraw with our tails between our legs." Indeed, many historians concur as invading the

Moreover, while Jews in Germany were being tormented and war was approaching, Great Britain did not want to take part. Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of the British from 1937-1940, decided to sign an appeasement “a peace treaty” with Hitler stating that the British only wanted peace (Neufeldt, 109). However, Hitler already had his plans, and the

that Hitler was a “sincere man who had no intention to provoke a war.” He too,

As previously stated, the situation in Europe was poor. The Great Depression in the U.S affected the British economy. Unemployment and stagnant economic growth made the public reluctant to add Germany into the list of problem that Britain had to face. In addition, pro nazi sentiment in Britain was active. The Daily Mail and former prime minister David Lloyd George expressed friendly sentiment towards the Nazis. Furthermore, Neville Chamberlain expressed that he could secure peace between the two nations by appeasing to Hitler. Chamberlain argued that Hitler only wanted the German people living in Czechoslovakia, not conquest. By doing that Chamberlain believed he secured “peace for our

Throughout history, negotiation has been a powerful tool used by world leaders to avoid violence and solve conflict. When negotiation succeeds all parties can feel that that have achieved their goals and met their expectations, but when negotiations go awry countries and relationships can be damaged beyond repair. The Munich Agreement of 1938 is a primary example of this type of failure, which was one of the catalysts to the start World War II and Czechoslovakia’s loss of independence. The Czech people were greatly overlooked during this agreement process, which still in some instances affects the country today. The 1930s were a challenging time for Europe and the powers within it due to the aftermath of WWI and the worldwide economic

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain structures his 1938 statement to Parliament as a persuasive speech. A persuasive speech tugs at the listeners heart strings and urges them to do or believe in something or someone. In this case, the purpose of Chamberlain’s speech was to persuade Parliament of the importance of accepting the Munich Agreement. Chamberlain truly believed he was doing the right thing for the people of England by signing the Munich Agreement, along with Germany, Italy and France. But if only he had realised what the future held for England, and the entire world, as WWII followed not long after.

Churchill openly opposed this agreement proclaiming, "That there has been a gross neglect and deficiency in [Britain's] defenses." But still no one listened to Winston Churchill. Finally the rejoicing of peace came quickly to a halt when Nazi troops invaded Prague, Poland in the spring of 1939. It was inescapable that Britain would pay its price for not listening to Churchill's warnings. Britain had wasted about five years of valuable time, which could have been used to strengthen Britain's Army and arm the Air Force. This price would ultimately be war. Germany invaded Poland on September 1st 1939, and after two days of bombing, Britain, on September 3rd 1939 gave Germany two hours to evacuate its troops from Poland. There was no response, and thus Britain was at war with Germany. As the people as well as the government began to realize the danger of this approaching war they also realized the importance of having a man like Winston Churchill in the cabinet. In the same month as war began, Churchill was once again appointed to the cabinet as First Lord of the Admiralty. Consequently, Churchill did not remain First Lord of the Admiralty for long. When Hitler invaded Britain's allies, Norway and Denmark, Prime Minister Chamberlain became defensive saying he could not "believe that there [was] anything different [he] could have done… [He]