The Policy of Appeasement

The Policy of Appeasement

Introduction

The policy of appeasement, also known as the policy of concessions, restraint and the appeasement of affirmative action against aggression in order to avoid conflicts, was a famous diplomatic strategy adopted by the western powers especially the Great Britain against Hitler of Germany, during the years preceding the World War II. The policy received widespread criticism as it failed to achieve its objective: to appease Hitler and to avoid major confrontation between the Allied forces and the Germans.

Before World War II, the most active supporters of this policy are the United Kingdom, France, the United States and other countries. As stated earlier, the policy was first adopted in 1930s with the aim of defeating Hitler's Germany by means of acquiring the support of Japan.

Background

After the First World War, the rise of socialist countries and the communist revolution in the Soviet Union was causing fear among the western power corridors as the socialist countries are spreading hatred for imperialism and capitalism. These countries, led by the Soviet Union, started struggling for world hegemony with the aim of weakening the competitive countries. This development has been the motivation behind the policy of appeasement in the western countries as they could not afford confrontation with the Soviet Union the rising German power at the same time.

The origin of the policy of appeasement can be traced back to the then British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and a group of British politicians. These British policy makers, by concluding the Munich Agreement in 1938, tolerated and formally accepted many aggressive actions of the Hitler's Germany. These acts of Germany include the inclusion of the Sudetenland, the annexation of the Czech Republic, the establishment of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in the areas of former Czechoslovakia. The main reason behind this policy by the Great Britain in order to avert a large scale armed confrontation in the Europe, a decision, which proved wrong in the later years as this policy has encouraged Hitler to continue with his aggressive policies in the later years.

Chamberlain, thus, followed the footsteps of his predecessor, Ramsay MacDonald and Stanley Baldwin and continued the policy in his era. MacDonald had been at the Lausanne Conference in 1932, when he urged the French to give way to German demands for a revision of the Versailles Treaty. MacDonald was, therefore, widely considered as the father of appeasement policy of the Great Britain. One of the main principles of the policy of appeasement was a collective, contractually agreed security system of the European states, which was based upon the League of Nations should be established or other international agreements. Among the defenders of the appeasement policy also included the supporters of European federalism as Philip Kerr.

This paper aims at discussing the different aspects of British policy of appeasement towards Hitler's Germany in order to asses why the policy failed to prevent the outbreak of World War II in Europe. The paper also aims at looking into ...