Appeasement In The 1930s

The 1930s were a time of challenges and struggles as countries in Europe such as France, Italy and Britain as well as the USA were trying to recover from the first World War. The great depression during the 1920s and 1930s emphasised the economic problems that countries had to face some severely than others. Alongside, the victorious allies Germany had faced huge economic, social and political issues which contributed to the search for a strong, stable and powerful leader to rule the country. This allowed the Nazi party which was formed in 1920 to rise to power and take charge of Germany where the 1930s was most commonly known as Nazi Germany. Within this period, Hitler became a secure and ambitious leader for the people of Germany in which

Appeasement refers to the verb appease in which this means to satisfy and agree to the demands of individuals. Therefore, the British government used a policy of appeasement to prevent an occurrence of war in 1936-1939. The idea of appeasement was issued by Neville Chamberlain who was the Chancellor of the Exchequer until 1937 where he became the Prime Minster in that year. The British government pursued a policy of appeasements due to the possibility of keeping peace between Germany and other countries. This suggest that appeasement was an appropriate policy as most importantly peace was favourable amongst countries due to the disastrous and lengthy First World War and many wanted to avoid another

Arguably in the case of Germany in 1936-1939 with Hitler as leader other historians and people believe appeasement was not the right decision against an extremist, dishonest and powerful individual. Many believe Hitler was a no ordinary person to appease with and it seemed that Chamberlain treated him as normal where he negotiated with Hitler’s demanded. This implies that appeasement was an overdetermine policy where Hitler was untrustworthy to begin with. Moreover, the appeasement policy failed to prevent a war in which it made Hitler complete his conquest as he disregarded Chamberlains attempt for peace. Additionally, appeasement may have not been suitable as the continuation of this policy could have made Hitler more victorious in gaining land. However, the British public and president Roosevelt appraised appeasement as he was not angered with Chamberlain’s policy. Overall, appeasement was a suitable decision taking into account Britain’s economic and international position where Britain had to maintain their empire. Thus, appeasement was the only feasible policy during 1936-1939 for