Appeasement

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  • Appeasement
    • FOR
      • Gave Britain time to re-arm
      • People wanted to avoid war.
      • France did not want war.   And Britain could not fight Germany alone.
      • Many honestly believed Hitler was the good guy
    • AGAINST
      • It abandoned millions of Austrians and Czechs to the brutal Nazi terror.
      • Gave Germany time to strengthen their armed forces.
      • Hitler became more aggressive as he felt Britain would not take action.
      • If Britain and France would not intervene over Czechosovakia, unlikely they would take any action to defend other threatened countries.
    • What is Appeasement?
      • giving in to the demands of a leader to get to short term goals avoiding conflict.
    • Munich Conference
      • September 1938: the leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy met.
      • Hitler had demanded the possession of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia
        • Sudetenland was the area contained the Czech border fortifications and some heavy industry as well as 3 million Germans
      • British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain tried to talk him out of it but Hitler wouldn't back down
      • Chamberlain decided to follow appeasement and gave in to Hitler on this issue, hoping that Hitler would not make any more demands.
      • All met in Munich with Hitler agreed to  the Sudetenland going to Germany.  Czechoslovakia wasn't invited. Hitler said that it was his "final demand"
        • just five months later, Hitler broke the spirit of the agreement by dismembering the rest of Czechoslovakia
          • Embarassing for the British and French
    • Why did Hitler want Sudetenland?
      • contained 3.5 million Germans
      • he saw it as German land
      • Sudeten Germans claimed the Czechs victimised them, they wanted union with Germany.
      • steel, iron, and related industries were there
    • Rest of Czechoslovakia
      • On 15 March 1939, German troops marched into Czechoslovakia.
      • They took over Bohemia, and established a protectorate over Slovakia.
      • Czechs lost defensive fortresses and industry from sudetenland loss-  vulnerable to German attacks.
      • Czechoslovakian president Emil Hacha appealed to Hitler for help
      • Why didnt France and Britain go to war?
        • They didnt want to sacrifice their troops
        • Neither would go to war without each other and Britain hadnt enough troops
        • Appeasemnt was being followed
    • Nazi-Soviet Pact
      • On August 23, 1939 a 'Non-aggression Pact' was signed. Very surprising
      • Germany had protected itself from having to fight a two-front war in the soon-to-begin World War II.
      • Soviet Union was awarded land, including parts of Poland and the Baltic States
      • The pact was broken when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union less than two years later, on June 22, 1941.
      • Impact
        • Raw materials from Russia to Germany
        • One less country against what Hitler was doing
    • Why did Britain and France go to war in 1939?
      • Appeasement had failed. It was the only other option
      • Germany invaded Poland. France and Britain had a Treaty with Poland to help defend it in case of attack
      • They wanted to stop Germany before it became too powerful.

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