Transcript Appeasement

Appeasement
History 12
Ms Leslie
Definition
• The policy followed first by the British and
later by the French, of avoiding war with
aggressive powers by giving way to their
demands – provided that they were not
unreasonable.
Two Phases
• First Phase: from the mid-1920’s to 1937,
during which people generally felt a war
must be avoided at all costs.
• Second Phase: from May 1937 to mid 1939,
when British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain took the initiative in trying to
reason with Hitler, showing him that
negotiation, rather than force, would
resolve all reasonable claims.
Roots of Appeasement
• Lloyd-George himself felt that the Versailles
Treaty was too harsh – but it was not politically
acceptable for the British government to
modify its position at the time.
• Most British politicians, of all parties,
supported appeasement.
Roots of Appeasement
• The Locarno Treaty of 1925 deliberately left the
door open to revision of Germany’s Eastern
boundaries.
• According to Foreign Minister Austen Chamberlain
(Neville’s half-brother), “no British government
would ever risk the bones of a British Grenadier in
defense of the Polish Corridor.”
Popular Support
– It would avoid war, which modern technology made
unacceptably devastating.
– Both Italy and Germany had been badly treated at the Paris
Peace Conference.
– The League of Nations had no teeth.
– Deals between the powers were needed to preserve peace.
– Economic cooperation between Germany and Britain would
help both. Prosperity in Germany would reduce violence.
Popular Support
• Fear of communism was particularly strong
among conservatives. Stalin, not Hitler, was the
chief threat.
• Some, in Britain, and many in France, admired
Hitler.
Popular Support
• War at a time when the USA was in isolation, France
was politically divided, and Britain militarily
unprepared, was thought foolish.
• Time was needed to allow Britain to regain her
strength.
France’s Position
• Although France initially opposed appeasement,
early in the 1920’s, it late modified this position –
sometimes supporting and sometimes opposing it.
• Militarily, France had invested hugely in the static
Maginot Line.
• Her strategic position was, therefore, predicated on
defense and not mobility.
German Revisionism
• Hitler moved quickly to rearm, but insisted that
Germany would disarm if the rest of the world did
so.
• Germany’s signing of a 10 year non-aggression pact
with Poland in 1934 was seen as evidence of his
willingness for peace.
• However, his real intention was to split the FrancoPolish alliance.
German Revisionism
• Germany’s signing of a 10 year nonaggression pact with Poland in 1934 was
seen as evidence of his willingness for
peace.
• However, his real intention was to split
the Franco-Polish alliance.
• British Lord Lothian, in January 1935,
said “…what the Germans are after is a
strong army which will enable them to
deal with Russia.”
The Dolfuss Affair
• In 1934, Hitler suffered a setback when he
attempted to bring about Anschluss (union)
with Austria.
• Austrian Nazis, directed by Hitler, staged a
revolt, murdered the Austrian Chancellor
Englebert Dollfuss, and tried to seize power.
• Italy responded by massing 3 tank divisions on
its Austrian frontier.
• Hitler backed down.
The Stresa Front
• The Dollfuss Affair seemed to
push together Fascist Italy and
the Western European
democracies to contain Hitler.
• In April, 1935, Britain, Italy and
France set up the Stresa Front to
oppose further revision of
Versailles.
• Hitler responded by acting with
much more restraint.
Saarland Returned
• In 1935 the Saar was returned to Germany after
90% of its inhabitants voted for union with
Germany.
Anglo-German Naval Agreement
• In June, 1935, Britain and Germany signed the
Anglo-German Naval Agreement, which set the
allowable size of the German navy to 35% that
of total British tonnage.
The Abyssinian War
• Feeling that Britain and France needed his support,
Mussolini expected a free hand in avenging Italy’s
19th century defeat at the hands of Abyssinia
(Ethiopia).
• Newsreel film and eyewitness reports of the Italian
use of poison gas and flame throwers brought public
outrage in Britain and France.
The Abyssinian War
• In October, 1935 the League of Nations denounced
Italy as an aggressor and imposed limited economic
sanctions.
• Austria, Hungary and Germany refused to apply
sanctions.
• Coal, oil and steel, the goods most needed by Italy,
were not restricted.
• Britain even allowed Italy to use the Suez Canal.
The Abyssinian War
• Trying to patch up the Stresa Front, Britain
and France proposed the Hoare-Laval Plan,
which would grant 2/3 of Abyssinia to Italy.
• When word of the secret agreement leaked,
it forced the resignation of Sam Hoare, the
British Foreign Minister.
The Rhineland
• With the world’s attention focused on Abyssinia,
Hitler marched into the demilitarized Rhineland.
• German troops were ordered to withdraw if they
encountered any Allied resistance.
• They did not.
• Britain was too sympathetic to act, believing that
Germany was “going into their own back garden.”
• The League of Nations protested feebly.
• France was too politically divided to act alone.
The Spanish Civil War
• In July, 1936 General Francisco Franco rebelled
against the Leftist government of Spain.
• A week after the rebellion commenced, Hitler
agreed to provide the rebel general military aid.
• German aircraft were instrumental in transporting
Franco’s Moroccan army to peninsular Spain.
The Spanish Civil War
• Italy also helped the nationalist uprising – on land
and at sea.
• The Republican government had sympathy
abroad, but the Western democracies pledged
neutrality.
• Only individual volunteers in the International
Brigades, and the Soviet Union offered help to
the Republic.
The Spanish Civil War
• German and Italian forces
gained significant combat
experience and tested
their weapon systems.
• The German bombing of
Guernica gave notice of
what air war would mean
for civilians.
Anschluss
• With the world’s attention focused on Spain
and Britain consumed with the issues of the
monarchy, Hitler again turned to his boyhood
home.
• In February, Austrian Chancellor Schuschnigg
was summoned to Hitler’s mountain retreat
at Berchtesgarten and bullied into granting
amnesty to Nazi plotters.
Anschluss
• To avoid further street
fighting, Schushnigg
announced a plebiscite in
March on whether or not
Austrians wanted to unite
with Germany.
• Fearing an embarrassing
loss, Hitler demanded the
resignation of the
Austrian Chancellor.
Anschluss
• Schuschnigg appealed
for British and Italian
support.
• None was offered.
• On March 12, German
troops crossed into
Austria and Hitler
returned home in
triumph to the cheers
of Austrian crowds.
• Hitler’s plebiscite
received 99%
support.
The Sudetenland
• Czechoslovakia felt
vulnerable after
Anschluss.
• It was now surrounded on
three sides by Germany,
at a time when Hitler was
fomenting trouble among
Czechoslovakia’s 3.5
million Sudeten Germans.
The Sudetenland
• Konrad Henlein, the Sudeten Nazi leader, claimed
Czechoslovak discrimination against the German minority.
The Sudetenland
• From June, 1938 German pressure on
Czechoslovakia began to build.
• Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, sent Lord
Runciman to Czechoslovakia to report on the
situation. He suggested Sudeten autonomy within
Czechoslovakia.
The Sudetenland
• Hitler was unsatisfied.
• He wanted the immediate
surrender of the entire
area.
• The Czechoslovaks were
opposed, as the territory
included virtually all of
their strong mountain
defences and one of the
world’s greatest
armament factories – the
Skoda Works.
The Sudetenland
• Chamberlain and French Prime Minister
Daladier suggested areas with more than
50% German population might be
surrendered after a plebiscite.
• Fearing abandonment by its French ally,
Czechoslovak President Benes agreed.
The Sudetenland
• Hitler refused to compromise – but agreed to
a meeting with Chamberlain at Bad
Godesberg.
• Here, he ranted and raved, demanding
everything by October 1 or there would be
war.
• Chamberlain left, badly shaken.
• War seemed imminent.
• In Britain, civilians filled sandbags for defense
works.
The Sudetenland
• Stalin pledged to stand by Czechoslovakia
against Hitler.
• However, Benes mistrusted Stalin.
– The USSR had no common border with
Czechoslovakia and there was no guarantee
Poland or Romania would allow Soviet troops
to pass through.
– The fighting ability of the recently purged Red
Army was doubted.
– Benes was as unhappy at the prospect of
Soviet troops in Prague as German ones.
The Sudetenland
• Chamberlain was convinced that the British
public did not want to fight for this “far
away country.”
• British rearmament was now underway –
but air defenses were dangerously weak.
The Munich Conference
• In the midst of the Crisis,
Mussolini offered to
mediate in a 4 Power
Conference in Munich.
• Czechoslovakia and the
USSR were not invited.
• For the British and French,
it offered a way out of
war.
The Munich Conference
• Mussolini was hardly the
“honest broker” he
claimed to be.
• The deal he proposed was
drafted by the German
Foreign Office.
• The deal gave Hitler
everything he demanded
at Godesberg – but by
October 15.
The Munich Conference
• In a side deal,
Chamberlain got Hitler to
sign a document
promising no additional
claims would be made in
Europe – the famous
“piece of paper.”
• Chamberlain believed he
had “peace in our time.”
The Munich Conference
• Chamberlain’s deal was
welcomed by a wildly
enthusiastic public.
• Others, however, felt
otherwise.
• Duff Cooper, First Lord of
the Admiralty, resigned in
disgust.
• Churchill called Munich “a
total and unmitigated
defeat.”
The Munich Conference - Results
• Czechoslovakia had no choice but to sign.
• It was crippled, losing 70% of its heavy industry
and almost all of its border defenses.
• Slovakia, with German encouragement, began to
demand autonomy.
• Poland and Hungary made territorial claims
• Hacha, the Czech leader, was pressured into
requesting German help to restore order.
The Czechs Betrayed
• In March, 1939
German troops
occupied the
remainder of the Czech
part of the country.
• Britain and France did
nothing, though they
had guaranteed
Czechoslovakia against
further German
aggression. The
promise was invalid,
they claimed; the
Germans were invited
in.
End of Appeasement
• Chamberlain was appalled.
• Britain pledged to defend Poland against
attack and France renewed its 1919
alliance.
• After Italy invaded Albania at Easter, Britain
and France gave guarantees to Romania
and Greece.
End of Appeasement
• Despite the ideological aversion
to dealing with the Soviets,
Britain and France opened
military talks with the USSR.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
• However, the Western
Democracies had nothing
to offer – if war broke out
in the East, Russia would
do the fighting and would
get nothing in return.
• Hitler had more to offer –
a division of Eastern
Europe between the two
powers – with the lion’s
share offered to Stalin.
Poland
• Hitler gambled and won on every occasion since
his first attempt at Anschluss.
• German pressure on Poland began as early as
March, 1939 – when Hitler demanded the
return of the Free City of Danzig to Germany
and free passage through the Polish Corridor.
Poland
• British negotiators still sought to preserve
peace – but with little confidence that Hitler
could be trusted.
• British rearmament was picking up
dramatically.
• On March 30, Britain & France guaranteed
Polish security
Poland
• Negotiations with Britain continued, but Germany
unilaterally withdrew from the German-Polish NonAggression Pact of 1934 and the 1935 London
Naval Agreement.
• There was no prospect of success.
• On August 31, Hitler ordered German forces into
action against Poland.
• Appeasement was finished.
Conclusions
• Hitler largely guessed right until late 1939.
• His aggressive posture worked against leaders
who wanted, above all, to keep the world safe
from the horrors of world war.
• The appeasers were reasonable men, but
Hitler was not.
Conclusions
• Hitler’s game of brinksmanship won Germany
much, but it ultimately plunged it into a war it
realistically did not have much chance of
winning.
• Chamberlain, more clearly than Hitler,
understood that the alternative to reason was
the destruction of Europe.
• In the end, he was willing to pay that price to
halt Hitler’s megalomania.
Conclusions
• However, it is probably a
shame that Chamberlain
did not come to this
realization earlier.
• While Britain’s air
defenses were clearly
better in the autumn of
1939 than they were a
year earlier, the situation
on the ground was far
worse.
Conclusions
• Czechoslovakia had been a democracy; Poland
was a dictatorship.
• Czechoslovakia had strong mountain defenses
and a fine army that matched the Germans
ranged against it. Poland was a flat country
with obsolete forces – and the Wehrmacht had
acquired all Czech armaments.
• In 1939 Stalin pledged to stand with the
Czechs; In 1939 he was effectively a German
ally.
Conclusions
• When war finally came, Britain and France
found themselves honouring commitments
that they were ill-equipped to undertake.
• Germany found itself fighting a war that it
was ill-equipped to wage over time.