The lesson of Munich, in international relations, refers to the appeasement of Adolf Hitler at the Munich Conference in September 1938. If you believe that the posting of any material infringes your copyright, be sure to contact us through the contact form and your material will be removed! Minh - Yes, it was the right policy. it encouraged more aggression. 4) It's not unreasonable to believe other battle fronts would be sufficient to keep the enemy occupied, or simply that the enemy would stop and rest on what they had gained so far. It came to an end when Hitler seized Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939, in defiance of his promises given at Munich, and Prime Minister Chamberlain, who had championed appeasement before, decided on a policy of resistance to further German aggression. A forceful stand could also aggravate the situation and Hilter may be more willing to fight Britain, which at that time had a weak military after WWI. Germany was seen as to push forward and in line with British national interest. All materials are posted on the site strictly for informational and educational purposes! The Labour MP Hugh Dalton identified the policy with wealthy people in the City of London, Conservatives and members of the peerage who were soft on Hitler. In September, the British received assurance that the General Staff's offer to launch the coup still stood with key private sector police and army support, even though Beck had resigned his post. ", Watt, D. C. "The Historiography of Appeasement", in, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 00:08. On 26 September, Hitler made a speech at the Sportpalast in Berlin in which he claimed that the Sudetenland was "the last territorial demand I have to make in Europe",[18] and he gave Czechoslovakia an ultimatum of 28 September at 2:00pm to cede the territory to Germany or to face war. Unfortunately, appeasement back-fired on them and World War II started. On September 30, 1938, they signed the Munich Pact, which gave the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to Germany. They needed time to rearm themselves, or they would be overrun by the German army. First Vienna Award and German annexation of Bohemia and Moravia, German annexation of Lithuania's Klaipda Region, Robert Mallett, "The AngloItalian war trade negotiations, contraband control and the failure to appease Mussolini, 193940.". "The romance of decline: The historiography of appeasement and British national identity. Keep the bluff up as long as possible, per se. 3.They needed Germany to fight against communism. Scott Ramsay. The Neutrality Act of 1939 allowed nations at war to buy arms and other supplies from the United States as long as those nations sent aid the Great Britain. but they failed the overall goal of appeasement, which was to prevent war. Another reason is that the British were low on morale and did not want to go to war. The policy allowed Britain to prepare her economy for war. Had they realised that they needed more men, Britain would be able to turn to France for support as France supported Britain. The policy of appeasement became increasingly attractive after the overwhelming destruction of World War I. In a nutshell, the appeasement policy was done with a good intention, but was poorly executed. Once Germany invaded Poland and so ignited World War II, consensus was that appeasement was responsible. [77], British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher invoked the example of Churchill during the Falklands War of 1982: "When the American Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, urged her to reach a compromise with the Argentines she rapped sharply on the table and told him, pointedly, 'that this was the table at which Neville Chamberlain sat in 1938 and spoke of the Czechs as a faraway people about whom we know so little'". On 12 March, the German Wehrmacht crossed the Austrian border. Another point is that the British did not want to go to war, therefore if Britain had went to war, they would not receive much backing from the people. Italy demanded apologies and compensation from Abyssinia, which appealed to the League, with Emperor Haile Selassie famously appealing in person to the assembly in Geneva. You didn't pass the humanoid test! U.S. President Harry S. Truman thus explained his decision to enter the Korean War in 1950, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden in his confrontation of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the Suez Crisis of 1956, U.S. President John F. Kennedy his "quarantine" of Cuba in 1962, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in his resistance to communism in Indochina in the 1960s, U.S. President Ronald Reagan in his his air strike on Libya in 1986, and U.S. President Donald Trump in the drone strike that led to the assassination of Qasem Soleimani in 2020. He saw the people of Germany and the political climate first hand, "This meant either war or a Hitler surrender. Just like how there was no confirmation that Hitler would side against the Western European powers, there was no guarantee that Hitler would side against the Soviets either. The Republic of China appealed to the League of Nations and to the United States for assistance. Sign in|Recent Site Activity|Report Abuse|Print Page|Powered By Google Sites, More so, not acting with authority cost Chamberlain the chance he may have had to take Hitler down. [88][77], During the Cold War, the "lessons" of appeasement were cited by prominent conservative allies of Reagan, who urged him to be assertive in "rolling back" Soviet-backed regimes throughout the world. [39] Consciously encouraging war with Stalin is not widely accepted to be a motive of the Downing Street appeasers, but there is a historical consensus that anti-communism was central to appeasement's appeal for the conservative elite. [77], During the Cuban Missile Crisis, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay and various hawks within the Kennedy administration for an air strike on Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba compared Kennedy's hesitance to do so to appeasement. In my opinion, appeasement was the right policy for Britain in 1938. Chamberlain, faced with the prospect of a German invasion, flew to Berchtesgaden on 15 September to negotiate directly with Hitler, who now demanded that Chamberlain accept not Sudeten self-government within Czechoslovakia but the absorption of the Sudeten lands into Germany. He criticised revisionist historians for concentrating on Chamberlain's motivations, rather than how appeasement worked in practice, as a "usable policy" to deal with Hitler. Many have judged that belief to be fallacious since the dictators' demands were not limited, and appeasement merely gave them time to gain greater strength. To follow along, you may find it helpful to. Schuschnigg, realising that neither France nor the United Kingdom would actively support him, resigned in favour of Seyss-Inquart, who then appealed to German troops to restore order. However, General Joseph Vuillemin, air force chief of staff, warned that it was far inferior and consistently opposed war against Germany. That was partially a jab at Kennedy's father Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., who had supported appeasement while he was U.S. CreateDebate is a social debate community built around ideas, discussion and democracy. You will examine a variety of documents and, evaluate different perspectives on appeasement, develop a claim and use evidence to answer the. The League set up a commission of inquiry that condemned Japan, and the League duly adopted the report in February 1933. But what England did not know, was that Hitler would take over all of Czechoslovakia and . Before Munich, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had sent a telegram to Chamberlain that said "Good man" and he later told the American ambassador in Rome, William Phillips, "I am not a bit upset over the final result".[20]. giving how discredited the League of Nations was by the time Some Conservatives abstained in the vote, but the only MP to advocate war was the Conservative Duff Cooper, who had resigned from the government to protest the agreement. It isn't just a cut and dry do it or don't. He could not go to war without the support of the people and until 1939 most people wanted peace, almost at any price. Review Guiding Questions and read excerpts. [citation needed] The Anschluss paved the way for Munich in September 1938 because it indicated the likely non-response of Britain and France to future German aggression. In this excerpt, Chamberlain defends the agreement in front of the United Kingdoms House of. This also helped to avoid Germany from having naval superiority which helped to prevent a naval invasion of Britain. Even if they somehow manage to go to war with their sheer lack of resources, the low morale will be detrimental to their campaign. Czechoslovakia was told that if it did not submit, it would stand alone. [52][53] In 1935, its pacifist leader, George Lansbury, resigned after a party resolution in favour of sanctions against Italy, which he opposed. In July the League abandoned sanctions. Rhineland, annexed Austria, and in September 1938, Hitler demanded that Czechoslovakia give Germany the, Sudetenland, a region with a heavy ethnic-German, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met, with Hitler in Munich to find a compromise over, The Munich Agreement (September 29, 1938), Sudetenland, and promised Germany would not, On March 13-14, 1939, Germany violated the. Under the Versailles Settlement, the Rhineland was demilitarised. Answer Guiding Questions. Leaders arose in countries that were unsatisfied with the results of the past war, World War I. Italy, Germany and Japan took action and no one was stopping them. Hitler blatantly violated the Treaty of Versailles, had an Anschluss with Austria which clearly showed that Hitler's interests was in the expansion and strengthening of Germany and re-militarized (which was clearly a challenge to Britain's position in Europe). because its Armed Forces were so small there was nothing that they Many people believed to Germany had been treated too harshly under the Treaty of Versailles. Cite evidence from at least three documents (Attached PowerPoints) to support your answer. Had they known about Hitler's tactics, they would not have tried appeasement. Jenkins, when questioning the future of two-party politics, must surely have remembered his days at Oxford during that autumn of 1938. Some people saw Communism as the biggest threat to European stability. At Chamberlain's request, Hitler readily signed an agreement for between the United Kingdom and Germany. He resigned after the Norway Debate in the British House of Commons, and on 10 May 1940 Winston Churchill became Prime Minister. When asked at press conferences about Hitler's abuse of Jews and other minority groups, he went so far as to denounce these reports as "Jewish-Communist propaganda".[65]. As someone mentioned, even at the end appeasement was a failure as it ended up with war. Historians' assessments have ranged from condemnation ("Lesson of Munich") for allowing Hitler's Germany to grow too strong to the judgment that Germany was so strong that it might well win a war and that postponing a showdown was in the best interests of the West. Germany and Soviet union). 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