How Did Appeasement Cause The Second World War

Australia and the Second World War

“To what extent did Appeasement cause the Second World War?”

To some extent, Appeasement caused the Second World War. Appeasement was the policy made by Britain to make sure war was prevented with Hitler by giving him some of the things that he wanted in hope that he would be satisfied. Other factors that also lead to Appeasement causing World War 2. These factors include The Great depression from World War 1, Nazi’s ideology and Hitler’s megalomania.

“Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless”. Germany was in ruins after WW1 as the total number of military and civilian casualties was over 37 million. Over 16 million deaths whilst 20 million wounded. Approximately,

The idea of Nazism was created by Hitler to invent common enemies such as Jews, homosexuals, gypsies and communists, etc. Hitler especially hated the Jews. This hatred was developed when Hitler blamed the Jews for losing WW1 and economic crisis – which was completely false. Hitler saw the Jews were a “. . . virus, one of the greatest revolutions that has taken place in the world. The battle in which we are engaged today is of the same sort as the battle waged, during the last century, by Pasteur and Koch. How many diseases have their origin in the Jewish virus! ... We shall regain our health only by eliminating the Jew”. To add on, many people believed Hitler when he stated that all Germany’s problems were caused by the Jews and solution to all the problems were to banish the Jews from society. With this political message, his party won the election in 1932 and came into power in 1933. Furthermore, “If only one country, for whatever reason, tolerates a Jewish family in it, that family will become the germ centre for fresh sedition. If one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education, with no synagogue and no Hebrew school, it [Judaism] is in his soul. Even if there had never been a synagogue, a Jewish school, or an Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning and there is no Jew, not a single one, who does not personify it.” These speeches eventually lead up to the Holocaust where approximately 11 million people where killed. Through Nazism, Hitler also planned to remodel working classes by making workers focus on ‘higher ideals’. These ‘higher ideals’ include extreme racism, nationalism and war. Hitler’s overview of the world seem too impossible and dreadful to become real. Some of the overviews of Hitler’s