The British public were greatly in favour of Chamberlain and in a survey he undertook 93% of the people said they did not trust Hitler and his territorial ambitions. Also the German public did not like what the German government did in 1919 and so most of them happily supported any war in which Hitler started to rectify the national pride and property and so which both publics supporting their governments if they went to war there was one less barrier to war.
Germany’s aggression along with the aggression of her allies and their ambitions of making big empires fuelled them into favouring war than peace with neighbouring countries. Also the democracies were too passive, the USA was in isolation, France would not do anything without the support from Britain and Britain was sympathetic towards Germany and later appeased her. All three of these powers could have stopped Germany earlier if they had wanted to do so. Also the League of Nations failed to keep peace, which led to fighting rather than discussions.
Although Britain and France were aware of Hitler's actions, they were also concerned about the rise of Communism and believed that a stronger Germany might help to prevent the spread of Communism to the West. In 1936 Hitler ordered German troops to enter the Rhineland. At this point the German army was not very strong and could have been easily defeated. Yet neither France nor Britain was prepared to start another war.
Hitler’s next step was to begin taking back the land that had been taken away from Germany. In March 1938, German troops marched into Austria. The Austrian leader was forced to hold a vote asking the people whether they wanted to be part of Germany.
The results of the vote were fixed and showed that 99% of Austrian people wanted Anschluss (union with Germany). The Austrian leader asked Britain, France and Italy for aid. Hitler promised that Anschluss was the end of his expansionist aims and not wanting to risk war, the other countries did nothing. Hitler did not keep his word and six months later demanded that the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia be handed over to Germany. Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister of Britain, met with Hitler three times during September 1938 to try to reach an agreement that would prevent war. The Munich Agreement stated that Hitler could have the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia provided that he promised not to invade the rest of Czechoslovakia. Hitler was not a man of his word and in March 1939 invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. Despite calls for help from the Czechoslovak government, neither Britain nor France was prepared to take military action against Hitler. However, some action was now necessary and believing that Poland would be Hitler’s next target, both Britain and France promised that they would take military action against Hitler if he invaded Poland. Chamberlain believed that, faced with the prospect of war against Britain and France, Hitler would stop his aggression. Chamberlain was wrong. German troops invaded Poland on 1st September 1939. This shows that although Hitler promised a lot he could not keep his promises and Chamberlain should have seen this in the Munich agreement, but still he appeased Germany and still they invaded more and more so war was really inevitable but Chamberlain at least did realise this a bit and started rearming. This is why the war started in the short term.
