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Who was to blame for the outbreak of world war 2
Mussolini. There was also the worry of “the bomber will always get through”.
The events after the Nyon conference show that maybe a firmer stand would have been more effective. British and French navies were to destroy non-Spanish ships in the med. The piracy finally stopped. The question is whether this stance would have worked in other situations.
The argument for appeasement is not helped by the claims that it was Hitler’s policy from the beginning to start a war. The Hossbach memorandum was shown to have Hitler ideas including a war. “Germany’s problems could only be sorted by a matter of force”.
Although this may only be speculation it may show that Hitler never had peace on his mind and if this were the case then the policy of appeasement would have been no use.
The Sudetenland crisis was a key event. These sequences of events show the difficulty of justifying appeasement due to the fascist aggression. In Hitler’s aim of uniting all Germans he had to overcome the problem of 3.5 million Germans living in Czech Sudetenland.
Hitler was warned not to go in by Britain France and Russia. This seemed to anger Hitler and it seemed to make war look inevitable. Then Neville Chamberlain, who was very much in favour of appeasement, managed to negotiate with Hitler at three meetings all in Germany – Berchtesgaden, Bad Godesberg and finally Munich for the Munich conference which stretched appeasement to all limits which was called a “negotiation” but it was really giving Hitler all he had asked for.
This was probably a step to far for appeasement. This was letting Hitler do anything he wanted and it was at this stage, if not before, that the policy of appeasement should have been dropped.
This point of appeasement failing is backed up a month later when Germany invaded Poland which was the final straw for the appeasers and war was declared. The one thing to debate is whether this should have been done earlier. The liberal leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair shows his feelings on the matter with his comment “we have eaten dirt in vain”.
Many people relate the policy of appeasement to the weakness of Britain and in particular Neville Chamberlain. Britain were weak due to disarmament and were still unprepared for war in 1938. But on the other hand it is said that the German military and their strength was exaggerated and in the early stages that they would have been beaten if Britain and France had stood up to them.
There is also evidence that Hitler may have pulled out of the Rhineland if he was questioned. The Rhineland was probably the turning point. This gave Hitler the confidence to continue and he then knew he would be confronted with appeasement and not force.
Historians who have justified appeasement in the past have said the empire was weak and would not support them in war or the military was weak [next page]