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Appeasement Explained: Why Did Hitler

Get Away With It?
History Hit
4-5 minutes

Appeasement is a policy of granting political and material concessions to

an aggressive, foreign power. It often occurs in the hope of saturating the
aggressor’s desires for further demands and, consequently, avoiding the
outbreak of war.

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Roger Moorhouse is an historian of the Third Reich and World War Two,
author of The Devils' Alliance, Killing Hitler & Berlin at War. In this
fascinating episode, he discusses the worst maritime disaster in history:
the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945.Listen Now
The most famous instance of the policy in action is during the build-up to
World War Two when the major European powers failed to confront
German expansionism in Europe, Italian aggression in Africa and
Japanese policy in China.
It was a policy motivated by several factors, and one that tarred the
reputations of several politicians, British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain notable among them.

Aggressive foreign policy

Against the backdrop of forcible seizure of political control at home, from

1935 on-wards Hitler began an aggressive, expansionist foreign policy.
This was a key element of his domestic appeal as an assertive leader
who was unashamed of German success.
As Germany grew in strength, she began to swallow German speaking

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lands around her. Meanwhile in 1936 the Italian dictator Mussolini

invaded and established Italian control of Abyssinia .
Chamberlain continued to follow his appeasement until 1938. It was only
when Hitler reneged on the promise he had given to the British Prime
Minister at the Munich Conference – that he would not occupy the rest of
Czechoslovakia – that Chamberlain concluded his policy had failed and
that the ambitions of dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini could not be
quelled.

From left to right: Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler, Mussolini, and Ciano

pictured before signing the Munich Agreement, which gave the
Sudetenland to Germany. Credit: Bundesarchiv / Commons.
Hitler’s subsequent invasion of Poland at the start of September 1939 led
to another European war. In the Far East, Japanese military expansion
was largely unopposed until Pearl Harbour in 1941.

Why did the Western Powers appease for so long?

There were several factors behind this policy. The legacy of the Great
War (as it came to be known at the time) had generated a
great reluctance among the public for any form of European conflict, and

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this manifested in France and Britain not being prepared for war in the
1930s. France had suffered 1.3 million military deaths in the Great War,
and Britain close to 800,000.
Since August 1919, Britain had also followed a policy of the ’10 Year
Rule’ whereby it was assumed that the British Empire would not “be
engaged in any great war during the next ten years.” Thus defence
spending was dramatically cut during the 1920s, and by the early 1930s
the equipment of the armed forces was out of date. This was
compounded by the effects of the Great Depression (1929-33).

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Even though the 10 Year Rule was abandoned in 1932, the decision was
countered by the British Cabinet: “this must not be taken to justify an
expanding expenditure by the Defence Services without regard to the
very serious financial and economic situation.”
Many also felt that Germany was acting on legitimate grievances. The
Treaty of Versailles had imposed debilitating restrictions on Germany and

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many held the view that Germany should be allowed to regain some
prestige. Indeed some prominent politicians had predicted that the Treaty
of Versailles would precipitate another European war:
I cannot imagine any greater cause for future war that that the German
people…should be surrounded by a number of small states…each
containing large masses of Germans clamoring for reunion’ – David
Lloyd George, March 1919
“This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years”. – Ferdinand
Foch 1919
Finally an overriding fear of Communism bolstered the idea that
Mussolini and Hitler were strong, patriotic leaders who would act as
bulwarks to the spread of a dangerous ideology from the East.

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