WORLD HISTORY: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS BETWEEN 1919-33 – Part 6
APPEASEMENT
- Appeasement was the policy followed by the British, and later by the French, of avoiding war with aggressive powers such as Japan, Italy and Germany, by giving way to their demands, provided they were not too unreasonable.
- The beginnings of appeasement can be seen in British policy during 1920s with the Dawes and Young Plans, which tried to conciliate Germans and Locarno treaties.
- Appeasement reached its climax at Munich, where Britain and France were so determined to avoid war with Germany that they made Hitler a present of the Sudetenland, and so set in motion the destruction of Czechoslovakia
- JUSTIFICATION OF APPEASEMENT
- It was thought essential to avoid war which was likely to be even more devastating that ever before.
- Many felt that Germany and Italy had genuine grievances as Italy was cheated at Versailles and Germany had been treated too harshly.
- It was believed that economic cooperation between Britain and Germany would be good for both.
- Fear of communist Russia was believed to be greater than the danger from Hitler.
- Britain was unprepared for a full-scale war.
- EXAMPLES OF APPEASEMENT
- No action was taken to check German Rearmament.
- There was half-hearted British action against the Italian invasion of Abyssinia.
- France, though disturbed at the German reoccupation of the Rhineland, did not mobilise her troops.
- No action was taken against Anschluss between Germany and Austria.
- IMPACT OF APPEASEMENT
It convinced Hitler of the complacency and weakness of Britain and France to such an extent that he was willing to risk attacking Poland, thereby starting the Second World War.
