Appeasement in Europe

There are many pros and cons that go with the idea of appeasement, but overall appeasement is a poor method used to resolve situations. To appease means to pacify or conciliate, basically it was a method used by the great powers in Europe to keep Germany from becoming an international threat. Sadly the method backfired and appeasement became a cause of WWII.

Starting in 1933 Hitler began to keep his promise of making Germany a strong country, Hitler began to rearm his kingdom. According to the treat of Versailles, Germany was allowed no more than 100,000 soldiers, no air-force, and a seriously limited navy. To make Germany strong once again Hitler began to rebuild the military in secret. Against the treaty he built 1000 aircraft and trained 200,000 men. Shortly after in 1933 Hitler withdrew from the disarmament treaty as well as the league of nations. From 1933-35 Germany continued to secretly rearm to substantial numbers but on March 16th, 1935, “Hitler decided that there was no longer to rearm in secrecy.” He announced that that there would be compulsory military service for all men, because of this the army increased to 550,000 men. This great increase in offensive power was noticed by all the great powers, yet no

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The French rather than threatening Germany with invasion, they built up their defence greatly thus creating the Maginot line. The irony of this situation was that if the French had sent in one man, then the Germany army would run away with their tails between their legs. To annex the Sudetenland, Germany would have to defeat Czechoslovakia’s army which rivalled their own as well fight off their allies of Russia and France. In June of 1935, Britain signed an agreement with Germany that allowed Germany to have one third the tonnage of warships and equal tonnage of submarines. As seen before, France wouldn’t act, and luckily enough the situation was similar with Russia. In 1934 the Nazis tried to overthrow the Austrian government, many thought that Germany would want to unite Germany and Austria.

At the end of the Czechoslovakian crisis, it seemed that appeasement had prevented war from breaking out, but this was merely a mask. The treaty of Versailles forbid more than 60,000 tonnes of warships and tolerated no submarines.

Hitler’s world conquest started in 1938 when he took over Austria and again on another level, Hitler was yet again appeased. Instead, the major powers watered and fed the plant until it became a serious threat and a war nearly took place in the garden of Europe. When the other countries appeased Germany, it seemed like her growth had halted but truly appeasement did nothing but turn the situation in Europe critical

. To prevent this, Mussolini Placed troops on the Italy-Austria border in threatening positions. ”

In 1936 another violation of the treaty of Versailles was made, and again nothing was done. Rather than risk a war which the British figured would do serious damage to them they figured that giving into the demands which were reasonable would be best.

In 1938 Hitler began the takeover of the Sudetenland but this time his expansion involved a greater risk.

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