Appeasement in the 30s- How it directly led to the Second World War.

Essay by Keir May 2005

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Appeasement was a diplomatic policy which tried to solve the issues between two countries by negotiating instead of using military force. Hitler was appeased by Britain and France more than twice: when Hitler rearmed the German army in March 1935 he broke the treaty of Versailles, and France and Britain appeased him by letting him enforce his army because they were convinced that the treaty of Versailles had been too harsh on Germany. About a year after Hitler marched into the Rhineland with only twenty-two thousand soldiers. In this event France could really stop Hitler from invading the Rhineland because of the limited number of soldiers marching in. After this, Hitler wanted to invade Sudetenland because he was convinced that it belonged to Germany. So in March 1938 he invades it. This broke once more the treaty of Versailles but France and Britain were still appeasing Hitler by actually agreeing to let him take Sudetenland into German territory.

So after Sudetenland Hitler demanded the whole of Czechoslovakia. On March 1939 Hitler marches into Czechoslovakia. Britain and France were starting to realize that Hitler was actually trying to make up his own empire and take over Europe. But then in 1939 Hitler tries to get German Nazis to revolt to the government. When he failed to do this Hitler threatened to start a new war and Chamberlain, the British prime minister, signed a secret treaty with Poland which stated that Britain would defend it from German attacks. So when Hitler invades Poland, Britain declares war to Germany. I think that the appeasement was mostly bad.

The main reason that Chamberlain and France used appeasement towards Hitler was to keep peace in Europe so that he could control hid colonial empires (India and the middle east) better, Britain and France didn't want...