Was Appeasement

Justified?
What was appeasement?
 The actions of the allies leading up to world war
two
 They basically let Hitler get away with actions
such as the reoccupation of the Rhineland, and
the invasion of Czechoslovakia
 Therefore they effectively “appeased” him, in the
hope that he would become satisfied and demand
nothing else
Arguments FOR appeasement:
 It bought time for rearmament- Britain especially was
just not ready for war in 1938, the time of the
Czechoslovakian crisis. Their rearmament programme
was not due to finish until 1940. Appeasement meant that
when war did come, they were relatively prepared
 There was a lot of sympathy for Germany- due to the
increasingly common belief that the Treaty of Versailles
had been really harsh on Germany, people began to
genuinely believe that Hitler was only taking back,
through actions such as the occupation of the Rhineland
and Rearmament, what had been unfairly taken from
Germany in the first place.
Arguments FOR appeasement continued:
 There was a desire for peace- after WW1 no-one wanted to
repeat the same bloodshed and trauma that had been
experienced by all. Therefore avoiding war was seen as a
priority.
 The threat of communism- many people saw this as a
bigger threat than Nazi Germany, and some hoped Germany
and the Soviet Union would fight each other, effectively
weakening both. But most did not see Germany as a more
overwhelming threat.
 The economies of the countries involved were simply not
ready for the huge cost of war so soon after WW1
Arguments AGAINST appeasement:
 The allies underestimated Hitler severely: they treated him
as a rational politician similar to themselves, when he was
really an unscrupulous dictator prepared to demand more
and more from them
 It was morally wrong- basically an excuse for cowardice
and weakness
 They missed lots of opportunities to stop Hitler in his
tracks-
 Hitler said id he had face opposition during the militarization of
the Rhineland, he would have withdrew
 At Munich, 1938, Czechoslovakia was abandoned, when it was
well equipped to face an German attack