Appeasement is the policy of acceding to the demands of a potentially hostile nation in the hope of maintaining peace. This is done by giving in to demands of a leader in order to satisfy their short term goals and avoid conflict. It was a policy used by the leaders of France and Britain with Hitler in the 1930s because they hoped that if they showed understanding and gave Hitler what he asked for, there would be no reason for fighting or war to break out. Some of the things followed for appeasement that the Western Leaders did were, When Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland, France did nothing, France and Britain did not oppose his rebuilding the German military. Britain, in fact, signed a treaty with Germany allowing them to exceed Treaty of Versailles …show more content…
France and Britain made Germany sign The Versailles Peace Treaty but once Hitler became the leader of Germany, he wanted to change everything in Germany and make it powerful like it was once before. The League of Nations came into being after the end of World War One. The League of Nation’s task was simple to ensure that war never broke out again but eventually the League of Nations failed. As the League of Nations crumbled, politicians turned to a new way to keep the peace appeasement. This was the policy of giving Hitler what he wanted to stop him from going to war. It was based on the idea that what Hitler wanted was reasonable and, when his reasonable demands had been satisfied, he would stop. There were many reasons why Chamberlin appeased Hitler. A few of them …show more content…
Hitler realized that the French and British Leaders were scared of his power and also of war. Hitler needed more living space for the German people and he thought of taking over Poland. Hitler began planning the invasion of Poland. After World War I, Poland's army was relatively weak and ill-equipped compared to Germany. To aid in its defense, Poland had formed military alliances with Great Britain and France. Massing their armies along the Polish border, the Germans staged a fake Polish attack on August 31, 1939. Using this as a pretext for war, German forces flooded across the border the next day. On September 3, Great Britain and France issued a warning to Germany to end the fighting. When no reply was received, both nations declared war. Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland before World War 2 but then from 1939 and June 1941 the German army invaded and occupied many countries like Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg,France, Denmark,Yugoslavia, Greece, Norway and Western Poland. In Source C (The cartoon from October 1938 by Low) shows a picture of Hitler as Santa popping every European country into his sack which means Germany over all and also Hitler realized that nobody could stop
However as it was delayed it allowed time for the Germans to advance their weapons and prepare their armies even further, which meant that they would be fully prepared when war would start. By allowing the Germans more time to prepare, the British and the French were allowing them to start using the new armies and resources that they got from the countries they had joined with, meaning that the policy of appeasement allowed Germany to get stronger and harder to defeat in war, which is something the allies wanted to
Hitler, used to the fact that the Allies supported his decisions due to their appeasement policy, demanded the port of Danzig from Poland. However, to his disbelief, Britain refused, followed by France. Poland, Greece, Romania and Turkey were extended protection on 31 March 1939 by the Allies. Hitler realized that if he attacked Poland it would result in war with the Anglo-French. To get more support on his side, Hitler signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact on 23 August 1939 with the Soviet Union, a powerful state at that point of time. Hitler felt that the Anglo-French may change their minds about Poland by seeing the Pact. This never happened. Thus, on September 1st, 1939, Hitler sent 1.5 million German troops to invade Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3rd September. The Second World War had begun.
While leader of Germany Hitler revealed his corruption and dishonesty to the world by violating the peace treaty that brought an end to World War I, The Treaty of Versailles. World War II began when the Treaty of Versailles was violated by Hitler’s rebuilding of the German Army, alliances, reparations, and invasions. Hitler’s first act of corruption towards the Treaty of Versailles was rebuilding the German air force and navy which was a obvious violation of the peace treaty. In 1935 Hitler began his construction on rebuilding the once strong German airforce and navy. The Treaty of Versailles had banned Germany from rebuilding their army which caused Hitler to rebuild in secret (Stokes). The Treaty of Versailles limited Germany’s army to 100,000 men, Hitler had rebuilt the army ten times the size of what the Treaty allowed, he had done these advancements in private while in public he claimed that Germany was committed to the peace intentions (Strokes). Hitler revealed his dishonesty when lied to the public and the world for the sake of his own power. The corruption of the German dictator is illustrated by his violations against Treaty of Versailles for constructing a army that was nor prohibited which also made him put an end to paying reparations. After World War I the League of Nations came together and forced Germany to sign the Treaty of Versailles. In the treaty Germany were given sixty six years to pay 6.6
In the early 1930's during Hitler's uprising, he began to sweep throughout Europe seeking out nations to conquer and add to his already growing German empire. He used the Soviets distrust of the western nations to form a temporary alliance and take over Poland. France, and Britain would soon join the battle against one of the most powerful and destructive European powers.
In the 1930s, European governments found it necessary to appease Hitler and Mussolini. Appeasement is the word that clearly sums up the policies and actions that were taken by the European governments. There were a few reasons that these concessions were offered by European countries: none of the countries wanted another World War, the devastating effects
When Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France finally had to do something as they had signed an alliance with Poland on 25 August 1939. This time they couldn't back down in the face of Nazi aggression. Had they done so, this would have signalled to the rest of the world that they could no longer be regarded as world powers. The invasion of Poland became inevitable as soon as the Germans and Russians signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact as they had agreed to carve up Poland between themselves.
As it became evident that the policy of appeasement had failed in 1939 and that Britain would in fact go to war, the Liberal Leader Sir Archibald Sinclair expressed his feelings on the achievements of appeasement " We have eaten dirt in vain" This statement is clearly expressing the fact that Britain has tolerated the deceitful acts of Germany to no avail or successes. That the policy of appeasement was deemed to fail from the onset. Concluding that the policy was pointless as it only prolonged the inevitable. In order to make an informed conclusion to whether or not appeasement was the correct policy to pursue, it is essential to look at the events and debates leading up to the out-break of world war 2. The system of collective security, which was in part demanded by the British Public, came in the form of The League Of Nations. This was to be a system in which international disputes between nations would be settled by negotiation.
Britain in the 1930s followed a policy of appeasement to retain peace between countries and stop the fascist powers of Italy and Germany causing disruption. There is a subsequent amount of evidence to suggest the policy of appeasement was a failure due to events including the Abyssinian Crisis, the Reoccupation of the Rhineland, The Anglo-German Naval Agreement, the Spanish Civil War and the Anschluss. Although it can also be argued that Britain had some success with preventing the fascist powers making appeasement successful.
Some nations had many strong nationalist feelings and that led to an eagerness to expand which contributed to invading countries. Hitler had many desires of wanting to expand and gain more territory. Hitler started World War II by invading Poland in 1939, the German forces had raided Poland on foot and in air. Hitler had looked to regain lost land and fully gain rule of Poland. Three days after the invasion of Poland, Great Britain had sent Bombing Raids on Germany as a response.
The Treaty of Versailles was created at the Paris Peace Conference as “the treaty to end all wars”, and the treaty that ended World War I. However, unfortunately for Europe and the rest of the world, it only led to the Second World War. The Treaty of Versailles went horribly wrong for the European countries because it did not satisfy the European countries at all, especially Germany, the United States, France, and Britain. The United States was not happy because the U.S. Congress felt that the Treaty took away their constitutional power to declare war, and they disliked the League of Nations. Germany was not happy for a number of reasons, which includes that they were not allowed to participate in the creation of the Treaty, and most of all, the “War Guilt Clause” embarrassed Germans to extensive levels. France was not happy because the French wanted the Treaty to be more harsh on the German people, and they wanted to enforce the treaty even harsher. The British also were not happy because they were not in agreement with the French that the Treaty should be harsh on the Germans. Because so many powerful countries in Europe were dissatisfied with the Treaty of Versailles, they all tried in their own ways to fix it in their countries, which led to the Second World War.
Hitler knew that if he wanted to end Germany’s suffering he needed help to restore their economy, “He allied Germany with Mussolini and Italy. Then Hitler looked to restore Germany to power by expanding his empire.” After joining allies with Mussolini and Italy he began to obtain power. In 1938 Hitler took over Austria and he became highly powerful when the league of nation did nothing to stop Hitler from taking over Austria. As he became bolder he took over Czechoslovakia and a year later, after he invaded Austria. In 1939 Hitler invading Poland, “ September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, which led Britain and France to declare war on Hitler’s Nazi state in retaliation.” Once Hitler had invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany creating the start of World War II.
Hitler wanted living space for the German people in Eastern Europe. He was very aggressive about foreign policy and was considered to be the primary cause of World War II in Europe. He led a large-scale rearmament and on 1 September 1939 and invaded Poland. This resulted in the French and British declaring war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler made the order to invade the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941 the European Axis powers and German forces occupied most of Europe and North Africa.
Winston Churchill once said, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.” He expresses his desire to be victorious in World War II and for this reason, he was ready to sacrifice anything and anyone. Most people know that Adolf Hitler was the main cause of World War II, but why? What compelled him to start the devastating war that left behind a trail of death? Ultimately setting off World War II, Adolf Hitler invaded Poland in order to take revenge for the unfair treatment from the Treaty of Versailles, expand German territories and in result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
First, on September 1, 1939 German forces invaded Poland. In response to the invasion, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Hitler didn’t want to invade Britain. He told his generals that Britain would never surrender. Second, Hitler soon became dictator of Germany.
When Germany received this treaty they were very surprised with the terms. The terms included, war guilt clause, which meant Germany accepted all the blame for World War One. Reparations, Germany had to pay millions in damage from the war. Disarmament, Germany could not have tanks or air force and land was taken away from them and given to other countries. The Germans were not happy with this treaty and thought of it as very harsh. However the Germans took responsibility and continued on in hope to get revenge later. In 1919, to help keep the world safe for democracy the League of Nations was set up. League of Nations would intend that if there were disagreements between countries they would negotiate rather than fight. The failure of the League of Nation can be summarized by points such as, not all countries joining in such as Germany as a punishment and Russia because of the spread of communism. The League of Nations had no power or any army. Countries were hesitant to get involved with an aggressive country and taking direct action against them. These things led to the fall of the League of Nations. People were angry because they did not want to cut off resources with other countries, even if they were aggressive because during the late 1920’s depression hit most of them. “The depression destroyed the market for imported silk from Japan, which had provided the country with two fifths of its export income’’ (The History on the Net Group). Economic problems played a