Appeasement

What Was Appeasement? Neville Chamberlain, Britain’s prime minister, felt that Germany was treated unfairly after WWI, and that they had grievances that needed to be addressed. Neville believed that if he catered to demands of Hitler and Mussolini, Britain could avoid another European war.

Appeasement...cont'd Neville firmly believed that if he catered to the demands of Hitler and Mussolini, Britain could fully avoid another war in Europe. This policy became known as “appeasement”, which is defined as “the policy of granting concessions to potential enemies to maintain peace.”

Fear of Communism Overall, communism was dreaded more (by capitalists) than Nazism. Even though Chamberlain feared Hitler, he feared communism and revolution more. Hitler was the “lesser of two evils”. Communism was abhorred because it destroyed established order, caused famines, Red Terrors, as well as fear and violence among people of different nationalities.

Benito Mussolini Soon after the end of WWI, a strict leader named Benito Mussolini set up authoritarian rule in Italy.

Mussolini Challenges The League... In 1935, a border dispute between the Italian Eritrea and Ethiopia caused Italy to invade and attack Ethiopia without an official declaration of war. This went against what the League of Nations stood for and they quickly declared Italy an aggressor. In response to this, the League simply lifted the minor sanctions they had placed on Italy, but did not take any truly effective action. Their true concern at the time was with Germany, not Italy.

Violations As leader of Germany and head of the Nazi party, Adolf Hitler made many violations of the Treaty of Versailles… Military expansion was only allowed 100,000 men, and Hitler tripled the allowed capacity. Hitler also constructed the Anschluss, uniting Germany and Austria.

Anschluss After Hitler became chancellor, demand grew for the unification of Austria and Germany. On March 13th, 1938, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, head of the Austrian Nazi Party, asked the German Army to occupy Austria. The uniting of Austria and the new German Republic was called Anschluss, and it was forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles.

Violations...cont'd Germany refused to pay reparations under the “War Guilt Clause” in 1933. Along with military expansion, Hitler also began to rearm his country, which put military hardware at high demand. Hitler also sent troops into Rhineland in 1936. Interesting enough, the Allies did nothing in response.

Czech Crisis of 1938 Czechoslovakia had become a nation in 1919. It was birthed out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and was full of ethnic diversity: 3,200,000 Germans 7,450,000 Czechs 2,300,000 Slovaks 720,000 Magyars 560,000 Ruthenes 100,000 Poles

Czech Crisis...cont'd The Germans in Czechoslovakia created the Sudeten Germans Peoples’ Party, which demanded that their western region (Sudetenland) be put under German control. The Czech government denied them; the SGPP gained Hitler’s support. Negotiations were made during three separate conferences over the placement of Sudetenland.

Sudetenland Conferences During the first meeting at Bertesgaden, it was agreed that any area that was more than 50% German should be given to Germany. During the second conference at Bad Godesberg, Hitler demanded German troops occupy Sudetenland. He also wanted lands with majorities of Poles and Magyars be returned to Poland and Hungary.

Munich Conference The Munich Conference was the third of the three meetings held to negotiate who the territory should go to. The leaders of Britain, Italy, France and Germany who met here, decided that Sudetenland be given over to the Germans immediately…without consulting the Czechs.

The Crisis Continues... The Czechs were told that if they wanted to keep the territory, they would have to fight Germany alone. On October 1st 1938, Czech frontier guards abandoned post and the German troops now occupied the Sudetenland. Polish and Hungarian troops took areas of Czechoslovakia which contained the majority of Poles and Magyars. 

The treaty violations, the Czech crisis, the Anschluss, and the actions that Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini were taking all planted the roots for WWII. Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement was not as successful as he had hoped, for once again Britain and the world were on the road to war…

What Did You Learn? 1.) How did Mussolini challenge the League of Nations, and what was the response? 2.) List several ways that Hitler violated the treaty of Versailles. 3.)What was the Anschluss, and the Czech crisis? 4.) What happened at the Munich Conference? 5.) What is appeasement? What did the fear of communism have to do with the policy of appeasement?