CHAPTER 3 QUESTIONS

“The policy of appeasement was a policy of miscalculation, cowardice and weakness.” How far do
you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. (10)

Since the year of 1945, Historians have been divided on the controversial policy of appeasement that
had been associated with the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain during the 1930’s. The
policy, on the one hand, worked on the basis of foolishly trusting Hitler, who was a cunning man,
however with the benefit of hindsight, many today argue that appeasement was indeed necessary at
the time.

In my personal opinion, I believe appeasement definitely had flaws, but I also think it is very easy for
us to criticize the policy today, but not understand the difficult position that Chamberlain and the
allies were in.

Addressing the question, the policy of appeasement could be thought of as a policy of miscalculation
or a policy that was implemented at just the right time. On the one hand, the policy was the perfect
opportunity for Hitler to gain more land and resources, and gave Germany more time to rearm. It
was perhaps the ideal policy for Germany before the war – as due to it, Germany gained the whole
of Czechoslovakia, not just the Sudetenland. Along with this, the policy scared the USSR, which
forced them into signing a pact with their opposition, the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939, that stated that
the two forces would not attack each other, and in secret, Poland and Baltic areas were to be
divided amongst them. USSR was also in fear as he was not invited to the Munich Agreement which
decided the fate of Czechoslovakia in 1938.

However, on the other hand, we must take into account the factors that appeasement was able to
give Britain more time to re-arm. In the years between 1936-39, Britain’s aircraft increased from just
1800 to 8000. As well as this, Britain’s public, after facing the horrors of WW1, needed to be
seriously convinced to prepare to fight in another World War. By witnessing Germany’s actions of
invading country after country, the last straw being Poland, Britain was ready to call for war against
Germany. Appeasement was also, in a way, beneficial to the Allies as at that time Hitler was not the
only concern of Britain and the allies. The allies were concerned about the dangers to world peace
posed by Stalin and the threat of communism. If anything, many saw Hitler as the buffer to the
threat of spreading communism.

Chamberlain’s personality had never witnessed a fanatic such as Hitler, and so he always believed in
the power of talk and negotiations. Chamberlain trusted Hitler, and if USSR and USA had helped
Britain beforehand, perhaps the policy of appeasement could have well been avoided. Of course,
USA’s isolationist policy was against this and USSR could definitely not be trusted.

To conclude, the policy of appeasement was not a policy of cowardice and weakness, although not
well thought-out, It was very beneficial to the Allies as they were not prepared to fight a war without
the implementation of the policy being able to buy them time and show the British public the true
colours of Adolf Hitler.