With VE Day just been and gone and the heightened media surround the war at the moment there is always the question of how the war began. One often spoken about cause was the act of appeasement by the then British prime minister Neville Chamberlain.
Appeasement is often spat out when discussing him almost as if it was an act of cowardice or malice in some respects. Is this the case? Or, with the First World War likely fresh in the memory of many adult Britons, was this a misguided and failed attempt to prevent something as horrific from happening again? Was this idea a product of post war feeling? Was there a belief that had he acted defiant then the conflict could have been avoided?
Or, with the First World War likely fresh in the memory of many adult Britons, was this a misguided and failed attempt to prevent something as horrific from happening again?
Mainly, this.
And it wasn't just Neville Chamberlain either, his predecessors Ramsay MacDonald and Stanley Baldwin also were on the appeasement side of things.
So start in 1935, Hitler says he's going to expand the German army, navy and airforce, all in direct violation of the Treaty of Versailles. UK, France, and Italy all complain but nobody stops him.
Hitler begins poking at Europe in 1936 with the remilitarization of the Rhineland. It was a violation of Versailles and could have lead to a war that Germany wasn't prepared to fight against France. In fact he sent in troops with the order to withdraw if the French even hinted at a response. Ultimately, France and the UK weren't pleased, but Stanley Baldwin stated that the UK didn't have the forces to backup France and ultimately the UK said it was "Germans marching in their own backyard." The USSR proposes sanctions, but again, not much comes of it.
So, 1938 comes the anschluss - the annexation of Austria. Now, history would show Germans marching into Austria peacefully and being accepted with open arms. Reality is that Hitler was pushing the annexation issue and Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg offered to hold a vote on the issue. Hitler didn't like that plan - he knew Austrians wouldn't vote to become part of Germany. So shenanigans happen - there's claims of riots and that Austrian people are begging Germany for help. Hitler tells Schuschnigg he's going to invade if he doesn't accept the Austrian Nazi party taking power. Schuschnigg looked to France and the UK for help, but found none. Schuschnigg caved to Hitler's demands and the Austrian Nazis took control of the government who gave the country to Hitler. Diplomatic complaints from the UK were recieved. France, Italy, and the US all wag their finger at Hitler's use of coercision, but again, nothing happens. Austria is a German country and ultimately it was seen as Germans coming together. Chamberlain's statement in the House of Commons was: "The hard fact is that nothing could have arrested what has actually happened unless this country and other countries had been prepared to use force."
So then we get to Czechoslovakia. There was the Sudetenland which was again a territory with mostly German people. Hitler wanted it and staged a similar situation - put troops on the border, claim the ethnic Germans want to be part of Germany, and claim to be benevolently liberating your own people. Chamberlain goes to negotiate with Hitler and is face with the fact that France and the UK can't defend Czechoslovakia without invading Germany. Chamberlain tells Czechoslovakia that it has to give up the Sudetenland. His quote on the radio: "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing." - Chamberlain was informed that some of the German general staff would support a coup on Hitler if the UK was willing to invade over Czechoslovakia. But Chamberlain repeatedly dismissed it, instead preferring to preserve peace. Chamberlain felt the UK and Germany were pillars of Europe able to uphold peace and Chamberlain was wary of the Soviet Union. Chamberlain would come back from the Munich agreement with his "peace for our time" speech and popular support.
So when Hitler began wanting part of Poland, Danzig specifically, and started up the same shtick, Hitler was somewhat convinced that the UK and France wouldn't really try to stop him. In fact, Chamberlain was pushing Poland to give up the Danzig corridor and if Hitler gave them a little more time just might have pulled it off. But the reality was that Hitler didn't want just the Danzig corridor, he had already entered into a secret agreement with the USSR to partition Poland and wanted a pretense for the invasion. Hitler still wasn't sure that France and the UK would join Poland. Hitler viewed the UK as a possible ally and likely thought he could get them to assist against the Soviet Union at some point. However, the invasion of Poland happened and ended so quickly that it startled the French and British who choose to wait for Hitler to come to them leading to an 6 month period between the invasion of Poland and the invasion of Belgium called the "Phoney War."
So why appeasement?
First - the first World War was a recent memory and nobody wanted that to happen again.
Second - the perceived inability of France and the UK to counter the German airforce or engage in eastern European theaters like Czechoslovakia. The French and British both feared German bombing raids.
Third - actual unreadiness, not having the troops or equipment to counter Germany.
Fourth - at least they weren't communists. Between 1936 & 1938 was the "Great Purge" in the Soviet Union. While exact numbers aren't known, somewhere around 700,000 (will some stating up to 1.2 million) people were killed. The West wasn't exactly comfortable with what was going on there and some saw Germany as the bulwark against the USSR and a possible ally.
Fifth - it was just eastern Europe, the mentality of France and the UK was "are we really going to war over Austria/Czechoslovakia/Poland"
Was there a belief that had he acted defiant then the conflict could have been avoided?
I just wanted to add here - no. By the time of the Munich agreement and Czechoslovakia, the conflict was inevitable. Hitler was prepared to launch an invasion into Czechoslovakia. He was prepared earlier to launch an invasion into Austria. Had the UK been defiant at either of these situations, the war would have happened. However, a more aggressive UK and France likely could have toppled Germany sooner rather than later. Even in 1939 when Poland was invaded, German generals would comment post-war that they couldn't have held up against a full French invasion at that time. Had Europe really wanted to avoid a war with Hitler, they could have launched sanctions in 1935 when he announced his military buildup or countered his remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936. By the time Chamberlain came around, it was too late to avoid a war because whatever Hitler was demanding, he was willing to backup with an invasion - Stanley Baldwin deserves most of the blame there.