Causes of World War Two: Appeasement?

Question

How did Appeasement help cause World War One. What was it and how did it cause it???

Any Help Will be appreciated.

Thanxz

Answer 1

France, Great Britain, and the United States had attained their wartime objectives. They had reduced Germany to a military cipher and had reorganized Europe and the world as they saw fit, with the French Empire and the British Empire controlling much of the globe. The French and the British frequently disagreed on policy in the post-war period, however, and were unsure of their ability to defend the peace settlement. The United States, disillusioned with the Treaty of Versailles, with the selfish nature of Allied war aims, and with the secret treaties they had signed during the war, disavowed the treaty and the League of Nations included in it, and retreated into political isolationism.

Answer 2

The Treaty of Versailles after WWI saddled Germany with a lot of debt for war reparations and also pretty much dismantled Germany's fighting forces. Germany's Army was forced to be reduced to basically enough troops to guard borders and keep internal peace. The navy was severely limited in what could be built, or what could be replaced from losses in WWI. The airforce was similarly slashed.

As soon as Hitler came to power, he started ignoring the treaty, and rebuilding the German war machine. Rebuilt factories that had been destroyed in WWI were fitted so that they could be turned into war production factories in a matter of days. Everyone in Europe knew that he was re-arming, and no one said anything about it. England and France kept track of everything he was doing, but everyone in Europe was so tired of war they were afraid to confront Hitler. They did nothing when he annexed Austria. They did nothing when he annexed the Sudetenland. Basically, appeasement means accepting the unacceptable in order to avoid conflict, and that's just what Europe did. England's Chamberlain was slammed for refusing to call Hitler's bluff. The only person who really spoke out vehemently was Churchill, but he was not in a position to make decisions. The best he could do was try and prepare for the war he knew was inevitable.

Appeasement helped cause WWII because no one stopped Hitler from re-arming and preparing Germany for another war. Everyone could see it coming. Everytime he made another land grab, he would say it was the last one, but he would do it again. Everytime someone mentioned broken treaties he ignored them and carried on like nothing was wrong. The English and the French were in the best position to stop him, but they chose an uneasy peace that was simply a postponed war, instead. Hitler's invasion of Poland finally forced them to act, and that's when appeasement stopped and war started.

England gets all the blame, really, but it was everyone in the world's fault. Anyone could have called his bluff at any time, but they all chose to just sit idly by while he built a huge war machine which would soon roll over most of Europe, leaving it a smoking ruin.

Answer 3

Historically Appeasement was the conciliatory policy adopted by the British government, in particular under Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, towards the Nazi and fascist dictators in Europe in the 1930s in an effort to maintain peace. It was strongly opposed by Winston Churchill, but the Munich Agreement of 1938 was almost universally hailed as its justification. Appeasement ended when Germany occupied Bohemia -Moravia in March 1939.