appeasement – a fatal mistake?

Appeasement – A fatal mistake?L/O:

To explain the term appeasement in your own wordsTo categorise reasons for the policy of appeasementTo evaluate the effects of the policy of appeasement

Key words:AppeasementChamberlainChurchill

IMPORTANT FIGURES

STANLEY BALDWINBRITISH PRIME MINISTER

•23 May 1923 – 16 January 1924•4 November 1924 – 5 June 1929

•7 June 1935 – 28 May 1937

NEVILLE CHAMBERLAINBRITISH PRIME MINISTER

•MAY 1937 – MAY 1940

WINSTON CHURCHILL•SPENT MUCH OF 1930s WRITING AND

WARNING AGAINST APPEASEMENT•PRIME MINISTER 1940 - 1945

“An appeaser is one who

feeds a crocodile - hoping it

will eat him last” - Churchill

“Definition of appeasement: The soothing of threatening

enemies by giving way to their demands.” – Cuthbert,

historian.

APPEASEMENT – WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

“The exercise of

friendliness and

understanding to

clear up all

differences through

discussion without

armed conflict.”

IMPORTANT FIGURES

LORD HALIFAXWAR SECRETARY

•Visited Nazi Germany in 1936 and reported to a friend – "He told me he liked all the Nazi leaders, even Goebbels, and he was much impressed, interested and amused by the visit. He thinks the regime absolutely fantastic.“•In 1937 he was sent to meet Hitler, Goebbels and Goring… In his diary, Lord Halifax records how he told Hitler: "Although there was much in the Nazi system that profoundly offended British opinion, I was not blind to what he (Hitler) had done for Germany, and to the achievement from his point of view of keeping Communism out of his country."

IMPORTANT FIGURES

ANTHONY EDENFOREIGN SECRETARY

-Disagreed with Chamberlain’s methods of appeasement towards fascism and resigned in 1938;-He was reappointed by Churchill in 1940 when Churchill replaced Chamberlain as Prime Minister.

RUSSIA – so

what wasn’t to

like…?

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Pfascists.htm

EMPIRE

EMPIREWhat is an

Empire???

40 million in charge of 1 billion.Could this go on?WHAT WOULD IT

TAKE TO MAINTAIN SUCH AN

EMPIRE???

40 million in charge of 1 billion.Could this go on?WHAT WOULD IT

TAKE TO MAINTAIN SUCH AN

EMPIRE???

KEY POINT

Britain may not have

survived and won WWI had

it not been for the help of

soldiers from colonies of

the British Empire…

KEY POINT

Before and after WWI

Britain faced several

nationalist movements

from within her Empire…

THE 1929 Wall Street Crash had left Britain economically weak. One of the reasons the government followed a policy of appeasement was that they could not afford to fight a war and felt they would be better to spend money on creating jobs.

THE 1929 Wall Street Crash had left Britain economically weak. One of the reasons the government followed a policy of appeasement was that they could not afford to fight a war and felt they would be better to spend money on creating jobs.

At the end of WWI Britain had the largest navy in the world, a brand new air force, and an army that had greatly increased its skill and experience during the war.

At the end of WWI Britain had the largest navy in the world, a brand new air force, and an army that had greatly increased its skill and experience during the war.

Between 1919 and 1934 Britain went from having a very strong armed forces to one she could not rely on to go to war with.

Between 1919 and 1934 Britain went from having a very strong armed forces to one she could not rely on to go to war with.

IMPORTANT IDEA

Morton (Historian) from Britain's Military Weakness 1918-1939, published 2010:

If you do not have the might, then you cannot fight.

Adopted by the British government in August 1919 and stated that “the armed forces should draft their estimates on the assumption that the British Empire would not be engaged in any great war during the next ten years”.

As a result, defence spending dropped between 1919 and 1932...

THINK...ADVANTAGES...DISADVANTAGES...

BRITISH GOVERNMENT DEFENCE EXPENDITURE

1919 – 1920 £766 million

1921 – 1922 £189 million

1932 £102 million

Paul Kennedy, The Realities behind Diplomacy (Fontana, 1981), p. 231.

PROBLEMS CREATED BY THE TEN YEAR RULE...

Churchill, in his role as Chancellor of the Exchequer, made the Rule permanent in 1928. It was to reset each year which meant there was never any need to modernise them...The navy, guns and ammunition were the worst affected areas.

By 1934 Britain had abandoned the Ten Year Rule due to Hitler coming to power in 1933 and pulling Germany out of the League of Nations and embarking on an aggressive programme of rearmament.

1917

Pre December 1941

…so what changed?

SOURCE: http://www.scva.org.uk/education/resources/pdfs/14.pdf

Cost SummaryEconomic difficulties:• impact of 1929-32 economic crisis and depression• reluctance to further damage international trade and commerce.• Public wanted butter not guns – homes fit for heroes, social

improvements.

Military weakness:• Run-down state of armed forces following WW1:Army: conscription ended post WW1, scaled right down in size.Navy: not so run-down but not fully maintained and many obsolete ships.Air Force: lack of adequate air defences and fear of aerial bombing.• Multiple threats – Japan in the East, Italy in the Mediterranean and North

Africa, Germany in Central Europe.• Warnings of Chiefs-of-Staff.• Exaggerated assessments of German military strength.

Public Opinion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJP44kQBar4

??? WHO IS THE GOVERNMENT ANSWERABLE

TO ???

??? WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE

GOVERNMENT ???

??? WHAT DO YOU THINK THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT

SHOULD BE ???