To what extent was appeasement the most appropriate policy for the 1930's?

The League of Nations was set up after the Versailles Peace Conference by the American president Woodrow Wilson, who believed that collective security was the way to stop war. He felt it was the main powers duty to maintain peace after the Great War, and that by acting together, they could control any aggression and settle disputes. It was on these beliefs that the League of Nations was founded. Forty two nations joined immediately, but since America refused to join the League had no power and was doomed before it had even started. The Manchurian Crisis provided a test of worth for the League, but it proved weak and eventually died after Abyssinia in 1935.

The break down of the League of Nations showed how difficult aggression was to control. Instead a new policy was to form. The failure of collective security was one of the main reasons for the development of appeasement. Appeasement was defined by Professor Keith Robbins as "a disposition to avoid conflict by judicious concession and negotiation". He also pointed out that the difficulty lay in deciding when concessions were well-judged and reasonable and what these concessions should be. The assumptions behind Hitler were that he was a reasonable man and that his demands had limits, but it was soon discovered that was not the case.

The general feeling about the Treaty of Versailles from the British public was that it had been too severe, and because of this, allowances had started to be made. When Hitler started to make demands on the Rhineland, the Anschluss and Sudetenland, Britain was more than happy to accommodate this. It was believed that this would redress the balance of the harsh Treaty.

One of the most important reasons for the policy of appeasement being adopted was the weakness of the British army. The First World War had financially damaged Britain and the Great Depression had crippled her even more, so they did not have the funding to re-arm quickly. Compared to the German army which had begun to re-arm promptly, the British army lagged behind for a long while. This was the big reason why the support of appeasement was strong. While Britain appeased Fascism powers, she could build her army back to what it had been in order to attack if necessary.

Another strong reason for the development of appeasement was the enormous fear that people had about another possible war. This fear was strong as the horrors of the war were still fresh in everybody's mind and was shown by support of the Peace Pledge Union and other such similar organisations. As this anti-war feeling was so strong, the government thought it unwise to declare war on the Fascist powers and so resorted to appeasement.

At this time Britain felt that Communism was a bigger threat than Hitler and Germany. In negotiations with Hitler in 1938, Chamberlain clearly showed that he distrusted Russia and felt that Germany could be "a strong bulwark against the spread of Bolshevism". Chamberlain liked Germany being in the way of Russia and was not willing to remove that obstacle.

When war seemed imminent, Chamberlain appealed to the British Empire for help, only to find that it was reluctant to offer any kind of assistance.