Aim: Was the policy of
appeasement cowardly or logical?
Do Now: What is the message of this
cartoon?
Hitler’s Foreign Policy was built on
three aims
• To abolish the Treaty of Versailles
• To create a “Greater Germany” by uniting all
German speaking people
• The creation of Lebensraum - living space for
the German people
The Treaty Of Versailles
• The German Army was
limited to 100,000 men
• Germany had to pay
reparations to the allies
• Germany had to accept the
War Guilt Clause (231)
• Germany lost 13% of its
territories and all her
colonies
• Created Yugoslavia and
Czechoslovakia which were
ethnically heterogeneous,
and had substantial German
pop.
LEBENSRAUM
• Hitler’s Greater Germany would have a population
of over 85 million people
• Germany’s land would be insufficient to feed this
many people
• Hitler intended to expand eastward towards Poland
and Russia as many Germans lived in northern,
eastern, and southern Europe (as a result of WWI
displacement).
• Russians and Poles were Slavs-Hitler believed them
to be an inferior race of and so Germany was
entitled to take their land.
The Remilitarization of the Rhineland,
March 1936
• “I have little doubt that if
we had then told Hitler
bluntly to go back, his
power for future and larger
mischief would have been
broken. But, leaving
entirely aside the French,
there was no section of
British public opinion that
would not have been
directly opposed to such an
action in 1936” – Winston
Churchill
Historiography of Nazi Foreign Policy – Do you
think Hitler had a grand plan for Europe?
• Historians debate the relation between Hitler's decision to
remilitarize the Rhineland in 1936 and his broad long-term
goals.
• Those historians who favor an "intentionist" interpretation of
German foreign policy such as see the Rhineland
remilitarization as only one "stage" of Hitler's stufenplan
(stage by stage plan) for world conquest.
• Those historians who take a "functionist" interpretation see
the Rhineland remilitarization more as ad hoc improvised
response on the part of Hitler to the economic crisis of 1936
as a cheap and easy way of restoring the regime's popularity.
• It seems that though Hitler did have a "program" for world
domination, that the way in which Hitler attempted to
execute his "program" was highly improvised and much
subject to structural factors both on the international stage
and domestically that were often not under Hitler's control.
Creation of a Greater Germany
• Hitler wanted a single
homeland for all German
speaking people
• After Versailles millions of
Germans were living in
Foreign countries
• The Treaty of Versailles had
forbidden the union of
Germany and Austria- The
Anschluss
APPEASEMENT
• A policy aimed to prevent
aggressors from starting
wars by finding out what
they want and agreeing to
demands that seem
reasonable
• Neville Chamberlain was
the British Prime Minister
that negotiated with Hitler
in 1938 at Munich
Conference
Chamberlain on Munich
Agreement – “Peace in our Time”
What do you notice about the
speech, and how he was received?
Munich Agreement – Sept. 1938
Nazi Occupation of Czechoslovakia,
1938-1945
A woman in the Sudetenland
greets incoming German troops Czechs expelled from the border
with tears and a Nazi salute. looking for new home, October 1938
LANDMARKS OF APPEASEMENT
• 1933 - Germany leave the L of N - start to rearm in secret
• 1935 -Anglo-German Naval Agreement, Abyssinian Crisis, German
announces conscription.
• 1936 - Remilitarization of the Rhineland
• 1938 - (March) Anschluss
• 1938 - (Sept) Sudetenland crisis and the Munich agreement
• 1939 - Germany take over the rest of Czechoslovakia (March)
• 1939 - Britain and France abandon appeasement and guarantee to
defend Poland
• 1939 – Germany invades Poland (Sept. 1) – Two days later France and
Britain declare war on Germany marking beginning of WWII
BRITAIN AND APPEASEMENT
British Conservative MP and future
PM Winston Churchill
• Most politicians wanted to
avoid war
• The people of Britain wanted
to avoid war
• Britain had only a small army
and air force
• Many people thought of the
Sudetenland in the same way
they had about Austria –
Germany had a legitimate
claim to these lands
• Winston Churchill was a
severe critic of appeasements
but he was in a minority.
"We have suffered a total and unmitigated defeat...
you will find that in a period of time which may be
measured by years, but may be measured by
months, Czechoslovakia will be engulfed in the
Nazi régime...And do not suppose that this is the
end. This is only the beginning of the reckoning. This
is only the first sip, the first foretaste of a bitter cup
which will be proffered to us year by year unless by
a supreme recovery of moral health and martial
vigour, we arise again and take our stand for
freedom as in the olden time.“ – Winston Churchill
on the Munich Pact
The results of Appeasement
• Europe saved from earlier war? Possibly though some historians
argue that if the Czechs, French, British and Russians had stood up to
Hitler he would have been defeated, and would have faced war on
two fronts
• Czechoslovakia was abandoned, and weakened by the loss of
important military defences and resources
• Germany gained the Sudetenland- another step towards the Greater
Germany – stronger strategic positioning.
• Britain and France gained time to build up their armed forces, but so
did Germany
• Hitler decided Britain and France were unlikely ever to oppose him by
force
• Stalin was offended at being excluded from the talks and decided he
could not rely on Britain to help the USSR stand up against Germany –
partially led to Nazi-Soviet (Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) Pact 8/1939