Explain the role of Czechoslovakia in the appeasement story.

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David E-Evans

Explain the role of Czechoslovakia in the appeasement story

Czechoslovakia was the best example of appeasement in action. But the origins of the crisis are routed back during World War One: Towards the end of World War One after the Austrian empire had collapsed. It was clear that out of central Europe several new states would be formed.  This was because in Wilson’s Fourteen Points he had stressed the importance of self-determination in point 10. Wilson wanted to re-draw the frontiers of Eastern Europe so that races ruled themselves. This was confirmed by the Treaty of Versailles which formed the new states of Finland, Poland, the Baltic States (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia), Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia. Thus Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Ottoman Empire all lost territory. In all, nine nation states were set up including Czechoslovakia which was formed because quite a few Czechs and Slovaks wanted a country of their own.

Thomas Masaryk was undoubtedly the father of the new state he was great campaigner from the independence of the Slavic peoples from Austria-Hungry. When the First World War broke out he had to flee the country to avoid being arrested for treason, going to Geneva, Italy, and then London, where he continued to agitate for Czech independence. In 1917 he went to Russia to help organize Slavic resistance to the Austrians. In 1918 he went to the United States, where he convinced President Woodrow Wilson of the righteousness of his cause. With the fall of the Austrian Empire, the Allies recognized him as head of the Provisional Czech government, and in 1920 he was elected the first President of Czechoslovakia.

But the new Czechoslovakia was a multi national state as there were many minorities in the country such as Hungarians and the Germans in the West. But when the new state was created the Czechs were so overjoyed that they forgot about the other minorities in their country who had not gained the ability to govern themselves. The Germans in Czechoslovakia did not like being second-class citizens but they accepted it. This was partly because during the 1920s Czechoslovakia developed in to a good democracy system. Therefore during this period there were no problems with the German minorities. But in the 1930s after the Great Depression and the revival of Germany problems began to emerge.

Czechoslovakia was neighbours to Germany and thus they were very aware of the recovery and rearming of Germany. Up to now Germany’s action had had no direct effect on Czechoslovakia but in Mein Kampf Hitler had stated his ambition to gain living space in the East. Therefore it was obvious that it would be not too long before Hitler began to take steps to invade Czechoslovakia.

Before the Wall Street Crash there had been no problems with the German minorities. However, afterwards the Germans began to separate themselves from the rest of Czechoslovakia, segregating themselves in what they now referred to as the Sudetenland. The key reason for this was the Wall Street Crash had created mass unemployment across the world. In Czechoslovakia this unemployment was more pronounced in the German areas. Thus the resurfacing of German nationalism began especially when the newspapers began to report about Germany’s improved employment figures. Therefore unrest slowly increased.

The Czechs were quite slow to see this. Possibly because they believed that their model democracy was working perfectly as it was admired by the rest of Europe. Moreover, the government saw the German minorities as an internal problem and they were slow to spot the link between the unrest and the rise of Hitler. They believed that they could deal with the slight unrest in the Sudetenland.

In 1934 in the Sudentenland the Nazis party emerged which was promptly band by the Czech government. But a new party calling themselves the ‘Sudeten German People’s Party’ began in 1935. It was led by Konran Henlein who advocated some degree of self-government for the Sudeten Germans. But he was careful not to be to extreme or his party might have been disbanded.

Therefore, he very effectively balanced the extremist and moderate views and in 1935 he won a very large number of seats in West Czechoslovakia. But in these elections the Communist Party linked Henlein’s Party very directly to Hitler. The Communists said that by voting for German People’s Party they were voting for Hitler and therefore voting for war. This link was of course denied and Henlein managed to get away with it because the World’s attention in 1935 was focused on Abyssinia and on the Rhineland in 1936. Thus there were a few warning signs regarding the future. So although the 1935 elections were a bit of concern they passed without any real great observation.

The British conservative government in their election said that they would focus their attention on the League of Nations and really push the cause of collective security. But this basically meant Britain would appear to be firm without any real intension of going to War. Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia was the League of Nations first test. But Mussolini was not dealt with affectively.

The first time appeasement in action really hit the world stage was when Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland. The British people tended to give Hitler the benefit of the doubt as they believed that Germany had been badly mistreated in the Treaty of Versailles. They thought the Hitler was only moving ‘into his own backyard’ but this was the French’s front yard. After this French officials came to Britain but the British advised doing nothing which was what the French government was very happy to hear as they did not really want to go to war. Britain’s feeling was that Germany had not gone about this in the right way but this time the government gave them the benefit of the doubt.

In May 1937 Chamberlain inherited the appeasement policy from Baldwin who had just been fairly successful in handling the abdication of Edward VIII. When he stepped down there was no debate that Chamberlain was the right man to succeed, as he was a very skilled and able man who had been a very successful Chancellor of the Exchequer. But the problem was that he was not trained in foreign policy and he had the misfortune to deal with one of the most ruthless dictators ever. His view was that if you can discuss the problem you will be able to come to an agreement. Chamberlain had been a businessman until he was fifty and thus had spent a lot of his life doing deals. Another problem was that he was an English gentleman so his word was his bond so when Hitler gave him his world Chamberlain expected and thought that he would keep it.

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He also thought that if you are going to pursue a peace policy you do it properly this was especially the case as he had lived through World War One. So for Chamberlain the idea of a Second World War was horrible and he was fiercely determined to prevent it. Whereas Churchill possibly because of his warlike ancestors saw war as something that happened as part of the human experience. Thus Churchill did not have the fear and dread of war that Chamberlain had. Therefore Chamberlain followed a policy of positive appeasement but this was also the view of the ...

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