How did the policy of appeasement affect World War 2?

Policy of Appeasement

Here are opinions:

• Appeasement allowed the British and French to ignore an imminent threat and produced a fake peace which led to many deaths.
  
• Appeasement bought Britain the precious time it needed to prepare for an inevitable war.

• Appeasement led Hitler to believe that no one would oppose his expansionist policies. In short, if Europe had abandoned its appeasement policy by 1935 WWII probably could have been averted.

• Britain, already economicaly damaged and knowing that a war was impossible to avoid, tried to buy vital time. She had stepped up production ao arms but was still unable to realistically fight another great war in a quater of a century. What Chamberlain brought back from his talks was time and it proved the balance between winning an unprovoked war.

• England under the premiership of Chamberlain, I believe, made the correct deision to appease Germany, a weakend, abused country deeply buried in debt after its ill-treatment in a post treaty of Versailles europe. Slowly climbing out of debt, England had not the economy, or gun power to rsk and survive an all-out war with any country. Chamberlain also upheld beliefs about peace and felt that diplomacy, not mindless slaughter, was the answer in dealing with a responsible leader, as Hitler was to his German people. (Jews and other minorities were not threatened at the time.) Hitler was not the epitomy of evil, and should not have been treated as such, at that time.

• The policy of appeasement used by Neville Chamberlain, while intended to preserve the peace, hindered the Allies and help Germany when WWII broke out. Letting Germany increase its navy, army, and air force, reoccupy the Rhineland, and give it the Czech Sudatenland all helped to strengthen the German postition in Europe. It would lead to Germany taking over most of Europe with relative ease in a matter of months.

• Appeasement refers to the foreign policy of England and France toward Germany in the years prior to WWII. They let Hitler rebuild the German army and navy, occupy the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakia. If they had put up a fight at the beginning, perhaps Hitler would not have kept pushing until the situation turned into a World War. Or maybe not.

• Originally Appeasement was a positive concept, it had started in 1919 after the Treaty of Versailles. During the 1920's Britain had control however by 1930's Hitler had seized the intiative. Appeasement was apopulare concept especially among British policy, there were several reasons as to why Neville Chamberlain favoured this policy- people in Britain during the early 1930's had voted against war and favoured collective security, this could also be down the economic problems that had arised after the Great Depression such as high unemployment which the treasury had wanted to improve rather than muntions armament. Due to the econonmic problems this led to military weakness as the country virtually had no airforce and the navy was insufficient as was the army. In light of all these problems Neville Chamberlain had seen the effects of Hitler and the Nazis however he had believed that by getting Hitler to sign compromise documents that this would successfully bind Hitler into keeping his promises. Was Chamberlain naive? Chamberlain persisted with appeasement well after it had been crushed i.e. the Czech Crisis. However in doing so he had stepped up rearmament to give him more time. So did Hitler take advantage of Chamberlain's naivity? Subject to evidence it can be almost certain to say the answer is yes, the evidence is seen clearly right from the remilitiarization of the Rhineland up to the Munich Conference. Historians say that Chamberlain appeased Hitler in order to avoid war, others say that he was propelling Europe into war by basically allowing Hitler to do as he pleased. As Hitler prepared fo invasion of Poland, Chamberlain had no choice but to issue an ultimatum to Hitler over Poland- invade poland and risk war with Britain or step back from Poland and reintroduce peace? Hitler did not think that Britain would go through with its 'ultimatum' so invaded Poland sept 1939. Had Britain and France resisted German aggression world war II might not have broken out.

HOWEVER:

1. The policy of appeasement predates Chamberlain's premiership. Already in the early 1920s many British politicians believed that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh and were, in principle, willing to make adjustments in favour of Germany.

2. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, the official British policy was multilateral disarmament and talks were in progress to try to achieve this. Britain and France were caught out at the time.

3. It's not clear how well informed Baldwin and Chamberlain really were about the intentions of the Nazi regime.

4. The ultimate irony is that in many respects the policy of appeasement continued well into WWII. Britain and an even more reluctant France declared war on Germany supposedly in order to uphold Polish sovereignty - but did absolutely nothing to give any practical assistance to Poland. Viewed coldly, the declaration of war in 1939 bears the hallmarks of grandstanding, of an empty gesture. In many ways it was a barely rational act ... Among some British grandees there was talk of making peace - until the Nazis bombed civilian areas of London in September 1940.

5. Britain never had much influence in Eastern Central Europe. It was an area where Britain could only have acted by proxy.

6. There's a widespread belief that all Britain needed was to "do something", but very few are realistic about what that something should have been. A thunderous roar of condemnation (for example, in 1935 or 1936) might well have strengthened, not weakened Hitler, as Germans would have rallied round. A few minutes with a good atlas of Europe should make it clear that Britain would have had to act *through France*. In the mid and late 1930s France was bitterly divided into Left and Right and not well placed to take decisive action, as the events of 1940 made very clear.

7. Although Britain had a vast empire at the time it was rather weak in Europe.

8. As for Chamberlain being 'naive', people seem to think that politicians operate in a vacuum, which is not the case. Chamberlain had become Prime Minister in May 1937 and inherited a very difficult situation. Moreover, Britain was (and is) a democracy, and fighting a major war without broad support is very foolish.

Answer

Appeasement gave Germany and other Axis powers an opportunity to build strength before attacking the rest of Europe.

[It also gave Britain more time, too.]

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First answer by Stephen Filbin. Last edit by Sharey. Contributor trust: 38 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 347 [recommend question]