Appeasement was a policy between Britain and France to let Hitler carry on with his actions and not to stop him. This let Hitler gain his power and confidence and invade more of Europe so he could make living space for the Germans. Britain and France let Hitler do this because they did not want to face another war, as the horrors of World War 1 was still in people’s minds also this gave them time to build up their forces if there was a war. Also, both countries left it too late in stopping him in his actions. Hitler had become confident and powerful enough to carry on invading. Appeasement lead to war because Britain and France would not tolerate what Hitler was doing in the end they had to put a stop to it sooner or later. When this happened Hitler was too confident and powerful that he would not stop so Britain and France declared war on Hitler when he invaded Poland. This links to the Nazi-Soviet Pact
The Nazi-Soviet Pact gave Hitler the confidence he needed in order to invade Poland. In order to do this he signed a treaty with Russia confirming that they would not attack each other. Hitler signed the treaty to make sure that Russia would not stop him, as he and Stalin were archenemies. Britain and France warned Hitler that if he invaded Poland they would declare war. However, Britain and France should have stopped him earlier in his actions when he did not have all the power and the confidence to avoid war. Even with the warning Hitler did not listen and attacked Poland and Britain and France declared war
One of the aims of Hitler’s foreign policy was to abolish the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was harsh on Germany in a few ways for example the reparations were too high, Germany had to disarm to having only 6 battleships and no armored vehicles, aircraft or submarines etc. Germany wanted revenge. So by using his aggressive attitude Hitler destroyed the terms of the Treaty of Versailles for example he remilitarised the Rhineland and united with Austria. If the Treaty of Versailles was not as harsh as it was, then Hitler may not have taken over Austria and rearmed. Therefore Hitler may not have rose to power that much and tensions would not have risen so much. When Hitler abolished the Treaty of Versailles Britain and France did not react so this made Hitler more confident and more powerful to carry on with his actions. Therefore, if the terms of the treaty were fair to Germany then Hitler would have been limited in his gain of confidence and power however, because this did not happen Hitler more of the reason to destroy it and gain his power and aggressive attitude which was partly the reason why war broke out in 1939. This also links to The League of Nations, as they both are quite similar on the reason why war broke out in 1939.
The League of Nations was set up to create world peace and to get nations to co-operate more. However, its failure to do this was partly a reason to why war broke out in 1939. From the start the League was unfair by not letting Germany join the League. Afterwards when Germany was allowed to join the League Germany was the only nation that had disarmed because o the Treaty of Versailles. However, Germany was not to rearm and other nations would not disarm, as they did not trust one another. After the Manchurian Crisis and the Abyssinian Crisis, Hitler had followed Japan and Italy’s aggressive attitude making him withdraw Germany from the League and rearming. Therefore if the League of Nations did its job properly and was fair a war may not have occurred. However, due to the Wall Street Crash tension throughout the world arose this was not the League’s fault. Nevertheless, when the League was dying and it had problems occurring between countries it did not try to solve them, so therefore it did not try to make world peace and reduce tension throughout the world when it was dying out this made war more likely and was one of the reasons why war broke out in 1939.
War broke out in 1939 mainly because of those reasons. Hitler’s actions and Appeasement are the most important. If Hitler did not do what he did then war would not have broke out. However, when he did use his aggressive attitude Britain and France did not stop him therefore it was not just Hitler’s fault that World War 2 broke out.
