Arguments For and Against Appeasment

up his armed forces, increased his navy and moved his troops into the

Rhineland. Britain and France still wanted to avoid another war. They had suffered

terribly and so many had been killed in the First World War. They had

put their trust in the League of Nations and had put their faith in

collective security. It was also the time of the Great Depression and

both countries were unsure whether they could stand the cost of

re-armament. In the 1930's, apart from the Nazis, there was the threat of Stalin's

communist tyranny which they feared as much as Hitler's Germany. They

could not decide whether Soviet Communism or Germany was the greater

threat.

Another justification for appeasement was that realistically, neither

France or Britain could protect Czechoslovakia and Poland from attack

as they were too far away and they also felt that perhaps it was not

altogether their business to interfere. Perhaps the strongest argument to justify the policy of appeasement is that Britain was not in a position to fight. At the time of the Munich

Agreement, they were not ready for war. By giving into Hitler's

demands, the war was postponed by a year and when war was finally

declared, Britain had made just enough preparations to survive.

Unsurprisingly, there are a number of strong arguments against

appeasement.

The appeasers made the mistake of treating Hitler as a rational

politician who was open to reasoned argument. They did not realise

until it was too late that he was a determined tyrant who saw each

concession as a sign of weakness and they failed to recognise that the

more he was given, the more he demanded.

During appeasement, time and again Germany broke international

agreements without punishment, they were allowed to re-arm, invaded

the Rhineland, achieved the Anschluss and took control of

Czechoslovakia in return for meaningless promises. By following the policy of appeasement, both Britain and France missed a number of opportunities to resist Hitler and stand up to him. In 1936, Hitler admitted that he would have withdrawn from the Rhineland

immediately had any resistance been shown. If France had responded to the re-armament then Hitler would have retreated and been made to look weak and perhaps destabilise his position in Germany. At Munich, Czechoslovakia, a country which could have put up a significant resistance to a German invasion, was abandoned by France and Britain.

There are a number of strong arguments justifying appeasement and I

appreciate why the politicians of the time pursued this policy.

However, the policy failed and Hitler used this time to strengthen his

forces, expand his boundaries and when war was finally declared

Germany was in a stronger position than either Britain or France.