Chamberlain's Policy Toward Germany

Chamberlain's Policy Toward Germany

Appeasement is the term used to describe the foreign policies of the

British Conservative governments of Baldwin (1935-37) and Chamberlain

(1937-40) and also those of France and America to a lesser extent.

Appeasement involved making concessions to the two main dictators of

Europe; Hitler and Mussolini.

Hitler broke many of the stipulations of the Treaty of Versailles, yet

nothing active was done, there was only spoken denunciation of his

actions. Hitler stopped paying reparations in 1933. Hitler began to

openly rearm in 1935. Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland on 7 March

1936. He united with Austria in 1938 and in the same year, he took

over the Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia. This was justified in

that 3.25 million Germans lived there and at the Paris Peace

Conference, there had been a principle of national self-determination,

but it had not been applied to Germans. Furthermore, Britain had been

led to believe (through Nazi propaganda) that Germans were being

persecuted there. However, the Sudetenland was not land that Germany

had lost in the Treaty of Versailles. The loss of the Sudetenland was

also very detrimental to the Czechs - they lost many resources and

arms factories, making it economically difficult for the Czech economy

and its ability to survive as an armed force. Finally, in 1939, he

took the rest of Western Czechoslovakia.

Chamberlain adopted this policy of appeasement for many reasons.

Firstly, the hope was that by making concessions to the dictators,

another terrible war, like the First World War, could be avoided.

Chamberlain wanted to avoid war because the horror...

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...ment was justifiable up to the point where Hitler took

Czechoslovakia, it was definitely not justifiable and aggressive when

Hitler took the rest of Western Czechoslovakia. Sure enough, Britain

and France officially ended the policy of appeasement in March 1939.

They did not, however, step in to help Czechoslovakia when she was

threatened, although they had signed an agreement with her. They only

began rapid rearmament and gave a guarantee to Poland.

Even after this period of appeasement ended, Britain's policy was

still lacking. Their guarantee to Poland was worthless unless they

were allied with Stalin who could give them access. For this reason,

they should have spent the summer of 1939 making a pact with him. As

they distrusted him so much, an agreement was not found and instead,

Hitler gained Russian as an ally.