Appeasement Policy

• The appeasement policy was promoted in the thirties by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to face Nazi expansionism. It was also adopted by the French government.
• The appeasement consisted of accepting some territorial demands of Adolf Hitler to avoid a conflict that could unleash a new World War.
• The appeasement failed because Hitler continued his military expansion, conquered Czechoslovakia and invaded Poland, which caused the beginning of World War II.

• See also: PERIOD OF DELIVERY (THIRD STAGE)

The historical context

After the allied victory in World War I (1914-1918), Germany was forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles (1919) . Among British public opinion it was considered that Germany had been mistreated, especially for two reasons:

• The exorbitant war repairs that were imposed on Germany.
• The application of the principle of nationalities in Austria, Danzig or Sudetes, which implied the loss of territories with German population that had previously belonged to the German and Austro -Hungarian empires.

This led many British to be favorable to a treaty review. To this was added the desire to avoid a new World War and the awareness that British power to deal with international challenges was in decline.

Before the appointment of Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the attitude of the British Government against the international crises and militarism of Adolf Hitler's Germany (who had come to power in 1933) anticipated the appeasement policy . The clearest examples were:

• The lack of reaction to the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria in 1931.
• The German-British Naval Agreement of 1935, whereby the United Kingdom agreed to ignore the clauses of the Versailles Treaty that prevented German rearmament
• The lack of response to the German military reoccupation of Rhine in 1936.
• British adhesion to non-intervention policy in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).

When Neville Chamberlain agreed to the position of Prime Minister in May 1937, all he did was to continue and deepen that policy.

• See also: World War I peace treaties

The consequences of the appeasement policy

The application of the appeasement policy by Neville Chamberlain is explained, on the one hand, by the fact that I thought Hitler was a political leader with whom he could reach agreements and on the other hand, because he distrusted the Soviet Union (USSR), which at that time was enmity with Nazi Germany.

This explains not to react to the Anschluss Agreement by which Germany was annexed by Austria in March 1938. It also explains that, when the sudete crisis broke out in 1938, it took for granted that the British people would not go to war “for a dispute in a distant country among people who know nothing.”

The signature of the Munich Pact in September 1938 was the logical consequence of this approach. Hitler got Chamberlain and the president of the Council of Ministers of France, Édouard Daladier, will accept the German annexation of the south with the argument that in that region the population was mostly German . Much of British public opinion cheered Chamberlain upon his return from Munich, when he declared that he had achieved “peace for our time.”

The appeasement policy finally failed as demonstrated by the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939. The appeasement had come to an end and Both the United Kingdom and France promised to support Poland in case of being attacked . The Pact of German-Soviet aggression signed in August 1939 left the free path for the German attack to Poland.

On the other hand, far from satisfying Hitler and calm his expansionist impulses, the appeasement policy promoted by Chamberlain persuaded the German government that France and the United Kingdom would remain inactive if Poland invaded. The invasion occurred on September 1, 1939 and two days later the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany .

• It can serve you: German expansion before World War II

Protagonists and critics of the appeasement policy

Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940)

Neville Chamberlain was a British businessman and politician. After managing his father's plantations in Bahamas and prospering in the steel industry, he began his political career in David Lloyd George's cabinet during World War I. He was deputy for the Conservative Party since 1918 and He was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1937 .

Faced with the expansionism of Nazi Germany, applied the appeasement policy related to the traditional British position favorable to the revision of the Versailles Treaty. This policy culminated with The signature of the Munich Pact in September 1938 .

After the signature of the Munich Pact, Chamberlain returned to the United Kingdom and was acclaimed by many people like a hero. The subsequent German invasion of Czechoslovakia showed that the appeasement policy had failed.

Chamberlain rectified his position and declared war on Germany after Poland's invasion In September 1939. The German invasion of France in May 1940 precipitated its replacement for Winston Churchill in the position of Prime Minister. A few months later he died.

Anthony Eden (1897-1977)

Anthony Eden was Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom three times : between 1935 and 1938, between 1940 and 1945, and between 1951 and 1955. He was deputy for the Conservative Party since 1923 and culminated his political career as a prime minister between 1955 and 1957.

In his first period as Foreign Minister, he was first under the authority of Stanley Baldwin and after Neville Chamberlain. He resigned in February 1938 in protest of the appeasement policy applied by Chamberlain .

In May 1940, When Winston Churchill replaced Chamberlain, he returned to the government And he served as Foreign Minister until July 1945, when the electoral defeat before the Labor ended the Churchill government.

After another period as Minister of Foreign Affairs between 1951 and 1955, again in a government chaired by Churchill, Eden agreed to the position of Prime Minister in 1955 . He had to face the Suez crisis, precipitated in 1956 by the nationalization of the Suez Canal by the president of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

On November 5 Anglo-French forces attacked Egypt, days after Israel began attack on this country. The opposite reaction of the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union forced the withdrawal of the Anglo-French troops.

Eden He resigned in January 1957 and declared that he did it for health reasons.

Edward Halifax (1881-1959)

Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, first count of Halifax, was the fourth son of Viscount Halifax. It was an important figure of the Anglican Church and was elected deputy by the Conservative Party in 1910. hereinafter played various governmental positions .

Was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by Neville Chamberlain after the resignation of Anthony Eden In February 1938. His acceptance of the position was controversial because it meant supporting the “appeasement policy” that Chamberlain had been applying.

When France's defeat against Germany precipitated the change of government in May 1940, the new prime minister, Winston Churchill, kept him in office for a short time. In December 1940 Churchill named Halifax Ambassador in the United States .

His period as an ambassador, which lasted until May 1946, was the most prominent moment of his career. His work was essential to strengthen ties between the United Kingdom and the United States during World War II.

Albert Sarraut (1872-1962)

Albert Sarraut was A French politician of the Radical Party . He was deputy between 1902 and 1924 and held various ministerial positions. He stood out for his liberal policy as Governor of Indochina (1911-1914 and 1917-1919), where he expanded the rights of the indigenous population.

He was a senator between 1926 and 1940, Minister of the Interior on several occasions and President of the Council of Ministers twice : between October and November 1933 and between January and June 1936.

In his second term as president of the Council of Ministers, He had to face the German remilitarization of Rhine Ordered by Adolf Hitler. Despite Sarraut's harsh statements against the German threat, the French government did not take any action. He resigned from his position in June 1936.

Édouard Daladier (1884-1970)

Édouard Daladier was a French history and politician who exercised as a radical-socialist deputy between 1919 and 1940.

He was president of the Council of Ministers of France Between January and October 1933 and again assumed the position in January 1934 but was forced to resign a few days later, after disorders organized by extreme right groups.

Between 1934 and 1936 he worked in the organization of the Popular Front, and after the triumph of this left -wing coalition, he held the position of Minister of War in the Government of Léon Blum. After the fall of the popular front, presidio Without socialist support a new government between April 1938 and March 1940 .

Aware of the Nazi threat, Daladier left any social reform program, which faced him with the left, and asked the French a productive effort to deal with Adolf Hitler . In September 1938 he adhered to the British position and signed the Munich Pact with the intention of avoiding a new war.

In March 1940 it was replaced by Paul Reynaud. When Germany invaded France, Daladier was taken prisoner For Vichy's regime. He was judged and arrested. After being released in 1945, he continued his career as a radical-socialist deputy until 1958.

Edvard Beneš (1884-1948)

Edvard Beneš was a Czechoslovaco statesman who He served as president of Czechoslovakia between 1935 and 1938 and between 1945 and 1948. Related from his youth with politician Tomás Masaryk (president of Czechoslovakia between 1918 and 1935) and with Czech nationalism, he headed the delegation of the newborn Czechoslovak state at the Paris Conference of 1919.

As Minister of Foreign Affairs He sought to establish a balance of power in central Europe that stopped German expansionism and Hungarian revisionism (that is, the Hungarian attempt to review the peace treaties to territorially benefit Hungary). To do this, the small entente formed with Romania and Yugoslavia, to which France joined in 1924. In 1935 Beneš signed a pact of mutual assistance with the Soviet Union .

After Masaryk's resignation in 1935, Beneš agreed to the presidency. Could not prevent the signature of the Munich Pact and the consequent assignment to Germany of the Sudetes. Poland soon annexed Teschen. Before the irreversible fragmentation of the country, He resigned and marched into exile in 1938 . He formed a government in exile that returned to Prague in 1945.

Beneš was impotent at the communist ascent and, after refusing to sign the new Constitution imposed by the Communist Party, resigned in June 1948. He died shortly after without having finished the writing of his memoirs, which were posted posthumously with the title From Munich to the new war and the new victory.

Józef Pilsudski (1867-1935)

Józef Pilsudski was a Polish politician and statesman who He served as the first head of state of the reborn state of Poland between 1918 and 1922 . From a young age he was a nationalist activist who conspired against the Russian domain and organized an armed group, the Polish Legion, who fought under the Austro -Hungarian sponsorship against Russia during World War I.

He was taken prisoner in Magdeburg for differences with the Germans and, at the end of the war, he arrived in Warsaw as a national hero. He was proclaimed Head of State and the Army. His popularity increased when he directed the Polish Armed Forces in their victorious struggle against the Red Army.

After retiring for a short time in 1922, He gave a military coup in 1926 and established a new government in which he served as Minister of Defense. In practice was the “strong man” of the new regime.

In 1933 he proposed to France a preventive attack against Nazi Germany. The French refusal forced him to sign in 1934 a non -aggression pact with Germany. At the same time prolonged the non -aggression treaty that Poland had signed in 1932 with the Soviet Union.

From now on tried to apply an equidistance policy with Germany and the Soviet Union implemented by its Minister of Foreign Affairs and a trusted man, Józef Beck. He died in 1935 And he was buried in the Cracovia Cathedral, among the ancient Poles Kings.

Józef Beck (1894-1944)

Józef Beck was a Polish military and political. After fighting the Tsarist Russia in World War I was official of the newly created Polish Army. In 1926 He was appointed Cabinet Chief by Marshal Józef Pilsudski who had given a coup d'etat and established a new regime in Poland.

Beck was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1932. He implemented a controversial foreign policy based on maintaining good relations with the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. He signed non -aggression treaties with the Soviet Union in 1932 and with Germany in 1934 And, at the same time, he tried to improve Poland's international position.

In 1938, after the German annexation of the Sudetes, he snatch Teschen from Czechoslovakia. However, he could not prevent the signing of the Pact of German-Soviet aggression that took place in August 1939 and implied the future cast of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union.

On April 6, 1939, Beck He signed an alliance with the United Kingdom, which joined the one already maintained with France . This alliance precipitated the beginning of World War II because After Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on September 3.

Maksim Litvínov (1876-1951)

Maksim Litvínov was a Soviet leader of Polish origin who entered the Bolshevik ranks in 1903. The 1917 Bolshevik revolution surprised him in exile in the United Kingdom, where he was arrested and, subsequently, exchanged by the British consul in Moscow.

He was Foreign Commissioner since 1930 when he replaced Gueorgui Chicherin. He began a policy based on collective security and collaboration with the great powers. In 1933 he got the United States to recognize the Soviet regime, and in 1934 the Soviet Union entered the Nations Society.

In the Nations Society He called to resist German expansionism and negotiated treated with France and Czechoslovakia to prevent future aggressions from Hitler's Germany. However, Its position was demonstrated contrary to the appeasement policy promoted by British and French governments and, therefore, failed in his attempt to get an alliance with democratic powers against Nazi Germany and fascist Italy.

In May 1939 it was replaced by Vyacheslav Molotov to facilitate the signing of the German-Sovieth Non-Aggression Pact. He was ambassador to the United States between 1941 and 1943.

Continue with:

• Chronology of the interwar period

References

• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2020). Appeasement. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Britannica, Encyclopaedia (2023). Neville Chamberlain. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Kershaw, I. (2013). A friend of Hitler. England and Germany before World War II. Peninsula.
• Sevillano Calero, F. (2020). The Europe of award. The disrupted order. Synthesis.