A History of Appeasement - Part 1

If you have to appease then the other person is a bully. This self- evident fact is something no politician has ever seemed able to grasp and the resultant deaths of millions is blamed on any other factor that could be named. There is only one way of dealing with a bully, even though he is bigger and stronger than you, you stand up to him. In such a case it is quite fair and just that you obtain help to even the balance in strength.

The policy of appeasing Germany started in 1925 at the negotiating of the Locarno Treaties. Just seven years after the most horrendous war that humankind had ever engaged in, here were the victors conceding to the bully. International disputes, being normally settled by negotiation or war, it was perfectly in order that they should be sitting at the same table with the German delegation to guarantee common boundaries between various countries and Germany, but it was quite other to allow Germany to dictate to them. Having agreed the boundaries with Belgium and France, the Germans refused to negotiate further on those with Poland and Czechoslovakia and these were left in abeyance, effectively telling the Germans that they could be settled peacefully at some future time. Although Hitler had no real power at this time, it is undoubted that he would have noted the behaviour of the Allies in the confrontation. The Allies backed down because they had no political will to threaten, as they had every right to do, and they had no will because they knew that their own populations had no stomach for further fighting, and the statesmen each represented countries where democracy was the accepted norm. Germany on the other hand had been in turmoil for years, it had just been through the worst currency devaluation ever seen, government was very often by Presidential decree, and the leaders knew that the only way for them to survive was to give the people back some hope of their country's survival. If no one else, Hitler and his embryo Nazi Party would ensure that they did not simply roll over and play dead at the Locarno meetings.

The Locarno meetings led to an invitation to Germany to become a member of the League of Nations and it was this body that Hitler tested on his first foray into international relations in March1933, just after he had become Chancellor. It has been dealt with earlier but the essential point is that Hitler, while appearing to concede, had only agreed to multilateral disarmament if the other members of the League reduced their armaments to the level of those of Germany. When they stipulated that it would take eight years to do that, Hitler accused them of abrogation and left the League in October 1933, leaving himself free to rearm as he wished, despite the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was still operative. This is again the action of a bully. Hitler had no real strength for a full war at the time but he used the threat, and the reaction to his leaving the League was one of acquiescence, rather than a counter-threat. The Allies were capable, just, of forming an army to occupy Germany, whose Army was not yet ready to face such an invasion, to enforce the Treaty but Hitler knew that, once again, there was no political will nor popular support for such a drastic reaction in any of the Allied countries.

Go To Page: 1 2 3