Appeasement and the First World War

What is the meaning?
1. It was a policy of avoiding war with aggressive powers, like Germany and Japan, by giving way to their demands
two distinct phases
1. Mid 1920s-1937
  1. There was a vague feeling that war must be avoided at ALL costs
2. After Neville Chamberlain became PM in 1937
  1. Chamberlain believed in meeting reasonable claims by negotiating rather than force
IT FAILED MISERABLY
JUSTIFICATIONS
1. Many people felt Germany and Italy have genuine grievances
  1. Italy had been cheated at Versailles and German had harsh peace; wanted to revise clauses for Anglo-German friendship.
2. Fear of communist Russia
  1. Essential to avoid war
    1. The British public opinion was strongly pacifist
      1. Stanley Baldwin, the PM before Chamberlain, had won Nov 1935 election: "I give you my word that there will be no great armaments."
  2. British conservatives were willing to ignore unpleasant Nazi features because Hitler was thought to be a buffer against communist expansion westwards
3. Britain was buying time to rearm because they were unprepared for war
  1. Therefore they negotiated and tried to deter aggression through appeasement
4. Economic co-operation would be good for both countries.
  1. If German economy recovered, Nazism would die down.
  2. Personal contact between leaders encouraged
    1. For the LON had failed
      1. Chamberlain though he could civilize and control Hiter

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