Promised to defend USSR if they were
attacked by Germany
Munich Agreement
Secret, Stalin didn't know
Stalin didn't trust Britain and France anymore
USSR didn't trust Hitler either
Thought he wouldn't keep his word
Read Mein Kampf
Hitler wanted
Russian land
Russian re-armed
Britain prefferred Germany, they
thought they'd be a good buffer against
communism
Disarmament conference
Germany left as nobody was disarming
French claimed they needed an army for
protection from Germany
Hypocrisy
(hypocrits)
Introduced conscription in 1935 and began to rearm secretly
10 Year non-aggression pact with Poland
(1934)
Pleased Britain
Saw Germany as trying to be "peaceful"
Invaded Poland 5 years later (1939)
False sense of security
Buying time
3 Aims
Defeat communism - USSR
Anti-comunist
Expand German territory
(Lebensraum)
Invades Czechoslovakia on 15th March 1939
Czechs did not do anything
Britain and France said they'd declare war on
Germany if they invaded Poland
Wanted an empire
Anschluss
He encouraged Austrian Nazi Party to rebel
Resulted in the murder of the Austrian Chancellor, Dolfuss
Prevented by
Mussolini by
moving his army
to the frontier of
Austria
Hitler realised his army was not strong enough
and backed down
Denied any involvement with the Austrian Nazi Party
Abolish the Treaty of Versailles
Reminder of defeat
Unfair, stopped paying reparations
Anschluss with Austria
Gained all of Autria's soldiers, weapons, Iron and Gold ore and land
Anchluss was not unpopular in Austria however the plebiscite
results were 99.75% Yes
Showed the results were rigged
Stresa Front
Britain sympathised with Germany not France
Protest against Germany
introducing conscription
Anglo-German naval agreement
Britain agreed Germany's navy was
limited to 35% the strength of
Britain's but did not include submarines
By signing this agreement Britain agreed to
Germany re-arming
Breaking the Treaty of Versailles
Appeasement
(Avoiding war at all
costs)
ARGUEMENTS FOR APPEASEMENT
Germany deserved a fair deal - By the 1930's many people
thought that the Treaty of Versailles was too harsh
Fear of another world
war - Many people
would agree to almost
anything to prevent
another war
Fear of Communism - Britain saw Germany
as a good buffer against Communism
Many people thought it wasn't worth fighting Germany over Czechoslovakia
There was no point in fighting Germany as
they had a bigger and stronger army than
Britain's, Britain needed time to rearm
ARGUEMENTS AGAINST APPEASEMENT
Appeasement encouraged Hitler to be more aggressive - He kept thinking he could get
away with everything
Germany was growing stronger - Remilitarization of the Rhineland ment he could defenc Germany's border and Anschluss
meant Hitler gained soldiers, weapons and gold and iron ore deposits