But if the league did not want to start a second world war then why didn’t they use the reparation money to rebuild Germany. That way Britain and France would also be benefiting as they could start trading again and start a cycle of prosperity for their countries. In my opinion, the Second World War would not have happened if the league had made this civilised agreement with Germany, instead of taking away their rich parts of land, wealth and dignity. If these three things were taken away from any country I expect that eventually they will want to take some of it back in order to rebuild their country.
Stanley Baldwin was instinctively on the side of the policy that came to be known as appeasement. Also, he was from the generation, which had the sharpest memories of the First World War. But in addition, he chose to keep giving the enemy what they wanted. If he would of
declared war on Hitler as soon as he invaded the Rhineland then it would have stopped Hitler from going any further. Even before Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland Baldwin could have stopped him from rearming the German armed forces as soon as it became known.
On the other hand Britain and France were not ready for a war and needed more support from other countries and more time to rearm. This left Baldwin with no other choice, the only thing he could do was to warn Hitler like a child. E.g. “if you do it again we will have to declare war on you”. This was the use of appeasement, as the league kept threatening Hitler but never actually taking any action.
In 1937, Chamberlain came to power. Chamberlain was forever associated with appeasement as he came to power just as the policy came to use. The league knew that once Hitler took over Poland he would be a serious threat towards Britain. So Britain and France offered Poland a guarantee on the 6th of April 1939 that if Hitler invaded Poland then they would declare war. Hitler and Stalin had secretly negotiated a non-aggression pact called the nazi-soviet pact that gave Germany a free hand to invade Poland as they had to go through Russia o get to Poland. The nazi soviet pact also allowed the Soviet Union to take over significant parts of Eastern Europe.
So, on the 1st of September 1939 Germany invaded Poland, and on the 3rd of September Chamberlain reluctantly declared war. But Britain did not intend an immediate military war against Germany in 1939. So in 1939 there was a phoney war. Britain and France were not prepared for war and could not do anything to save Poland from being defeated in the matter of weeks. But in my opinion, Britain and France should have been prepared for a war because they knew that Germany had been rearming and they had been watching Hitler’s threatening actions increase for 6 years. They could of used those years to build up a strong military force and pushed Germany back before they even stepped foot in Poland.
But chamberlain’s policy to all of this was to wait for Hitler’s next move. In April 1940, Germany launched its war in the west, attacking Denmark and Holland. The British planned to seize the ports of eastern Norway but it went disastrously wrong and threw the government into crisis. There was also a series of lightening victories won by Germany when they invaded Belgium and France. The British armies then became trapped in northern France. Chamberlain then resigned. Foreign secretary lord Halifax had nearly been chosen for the job as prime minister in preference to Churchill. Chamberlain remained in the war cabinet and Churchill replaced him as prime minister.
It became clear that France would surrender, so the Halifax-chamberlain group had to decide whether to make peace with Hitler or to continue with the war. During these 5 tense days (24th-28th May) British
troops were successfully evacuated from Dunkirk. The troops rescue might have also added to the decision to carry on with the war. At the end of May 1940, appeasement came to an end and Britain really went to war.
In conclusion, the appeasement policy was not very reliable and is one of the reasons why there was a second world war. In my opinion, Britain and France should have taken notice of Hitler as soon as he made the first move of rearming the German armed forces. They should have also used the 6 years that Hitler took to reach Poland, to start rearming their own armies. Because they used the policy of appeasement for so long, Hitler did not see them as a major threat, which enabled him to proceed with uniting all Germans together. Therefore, Britain went to war in 1940 because Hitler made threats and took over many countries, chamberlain used the policy of appeasement to try and stop him but appeasement only made it easier for Hitler. Then Britain and France promised to protect Poland by declaring war if Hitler invaded it. But Britain and France should have made a pact with Russia not to let Germany through before the nazi soviet pact. Too many lives were lost because of the First World War, therefore the league should have been ready with a strong army and back up from other countries before Hitler’s name was even known to them.
