APPEASEMENT

Appeasement was an active policy of Britain and France throughout the 1930's. However, It had clearly failed by the German invasion of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. It also had the effect of enabling and empowering the dictatorships in Germany, Italy and Japan, encouraging them to become more aggressive and contributed to the outbreak of World War II.

Why did the British and the French choose to pursue this policy?

1. Memories of World War 1 were still fresh. 10 million people had died in the conflict and politicians in both countries were desperate to avoid another European war.
2. The Great Depression had started. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 had a devastating effect on global markets and contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930's. There was mass unemployment and low economic growth. This caused political instability in Europe and helped lead to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany. Fascist dictatorships in Germany, Italy and Japan chose to respond to the Great Depression by becoming more aggressive. Britain and France did not want to risk war in fragile economic times. In addition, many of Britain's colonies (e.g. Canada) were also dealing with the Great Depression and it was not certain whether they would support a war against Germany.
3. Britain and France were democracies . In the early 1930's, British and French voters were consumed by economic problems and frightened by the prospect of war in Europe. The leaders of these countries had to listen- remember Neville Chamberlain was declared a hero on his return from the Munich Conference in 1938 for preventing war. It was not until Germany invaded Czechoslovakia another 6 months later that the policy of appeasement was discredited. When the public mood became more accepting of war, politicians reflected this.
4. Britain and France were unsure who their real enemy in Europe was. Both countries had been threatened by the Russian Revolution of 1917 as the Communist Party in the Soviet Union had talked about spreading revolution. They knew Hitler despised communism and hoped that Nazi Germany could act as a buffer against any future Soviet aggression. Equally, some of the results of Hitler's policies were popular in parts of Britain. He was a nationalist after all and had accomplished much to get Germany back on its feet after World War I.
5. There was a recognition that the Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh. This was especially true in Britain, who did not share a land border with Germany. When Hitler ordered the remilitarization of the Rhineland, one politician commented that "they are only moving into their own backyard". A similar response occurred when Germany and Austria agreed to an Anschluss.
6. US isolationism. During the 1930's, the USA were determined not to be dragged into another European conflict. Britain and France were concerned that any action against Germany would not be effective without their support.

What were the effects of Appeasement?

1. It encouraged Hitler to be more aggressive.
2. It allowed Germany to become stronger. By seizing resource-rich territories, Hitler was creating a stronger country with a powerful economy that could wage war for longer.
3. It blinded British and French politicians to Hitler's untrustworthiness. As they were invested in Appeasement (they were trying to impress voters too), they desperately wanted to believe that Hitler was telling the truth about his intentions. Did they believe him to easily at the Munich Conference in 1938 when he declared that the Sudetenland was the limit of his territorial ambitions. Appeasement was reliant on the belief that Hitler was an honest and reasonable diplomatic partner and British and French leaders assumed that he was, in hindsight against their better judgments. Hitler took complete advantage of this naivety.
4. It antagonized the USSR. Stalin felt that Britain and France were trying to encourage a German war with the Soviet Union in order to destroy two potential enemies. As a result, Stalin felt he had no choice but to sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact in 1939 and contributed to his ever-increasing paranoia about the West. This would become even more significant during the beginnings of the Cold War.