Some people felt that war was imminent because of Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement. What Britain was now facing were aggressive, predatory powers who viewed appeasement as a sign of weakness. People in England felt that Hitler was encouraged to be more aggressive by appeasement. Every time that Hitler got away with acts of aggression, he became surer that Britain and France would never act upon him. There is evidence that Hitler was unsure whether marching his soldiers into the Rhineland was the right idea as he said that if they were challenged in any way they should pull out but to his surprise nobody did anything. He could have been stopped by Britain and France there and then but he wasn’t and then his confidence again grew which then encouraged him to make new demands for land.
The Russians did not trust Chamberlain. The USSR was scared of appeasement and so they were not happy with Chamberlain’s actions at the time. Stalin believed that Britain would not help Russia if Hitler invaded, because Britain did not stand up to Hitler when he invaded Czechoslovakia even though he made an agreement with Hitler that he would not do it. People feel that Chamberlain should have tried to stop him because of the fact that he agreed with Hitler when he signed the Munich agreement. All this persuaded Stalin to make an agreement with Hitler and the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed. This later allowed Hitler to invade Poland. Poland was the final straw for everyone in Britain and they felt that Chamberlain should do something about it except for appeasement as this was not working.
There was, on the other hand a lot of things which Chamberlain did that were found to be positive to many people. For example, he prepared Britain for war. Chamberlain believed that the League of Nations should listen to Germany’s complaints and find a solution; he also felt that Britain should prepare them-selves for war just in case this failed. Britain had reduced the size of their army after the First World War and Chamberlain felt that it was useless fighting Hitler if Germany’s army was so much stronger. This is an important point as this is what led Chamberlain to appease Germany. Chamberlain felt that this rearmament had to be done at the exact right time and most of the British agreed with him at this point.
By the 1930’s many people felt the appeasing Germany was a good idea because they felt that Germany was treated too harshly in the Treaty of Versailles was brought out. People thought that by doing this Hitler would be content and settle down. With Chamberlain wanting appeasement this made the people of Britain happier as they felt that this would help them in the long run. This brings in the self-interest of Britain; they did not want a war with Germany as this would cause them harm and they would, yet again have to rebuild Britain, and once again, have to rearm.
With people not wanting war with Germany of the Treaty of Versailles, appeasement seemed the best thing for Britain. But after Hitler breaking the Munich agreement British public opinion started to change and it was united in favour of war to stop the Germans. The British empires also were starting to feel that war to stop Hitler was a good idea and this was vital to Britain. In 1939, Chamberlain stopped appeasement for good after the invading of Poland by Germany. This was of course the last straw for Britain and they were happy with Chamberlain’s decision.
I feel that overall evidence suggests that Chamberlain did not deserve the title of one of the ‘guilty men’. He had Britain’s best interests at heart. He may have made some mistakes but they were not selfish mistakes and they were made as he maybe didn’t understand, at the time why what he did may have been a mistake. The things that he did do right pleased the majority of people in British and in the British empires.
