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Appeasement_source_analysis

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Appeasement_source_analysis

Uploaded by

Ashita Naik
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Section C: Move to Global War

German and Italian Expansion (1933–1940): Causes of


expansion. Appeasement.

SOURCE A: British government statement on defence, from The Times, 5 March, 1935;
Clark. M, & Teed, P, (1972), Twentieth Century 1906 – 1960, Hutchinson, London, p.90.

… the principal aim of British foreign policy is, and will continue to be, the establishment of
peace on a permanent footing, but … ‘the National government can no longer close its eyes
to the fact that adequate defences are still required for security and to enable the British
Empire to play its full part in maintaining the peace of the world’ … The Government
welcomes the desire for peace expressed by the leaders in Germany, but they cannot fail to
recognise that not only the forces but the spirit in which the German People, and especially
the youth, are being organised, contribute to the general feeling of insecurity. The
Government also cannot overlook the increase in armaments in Russia, in Japan, in the
United States and elsewhere …

SOURCE B: An historian’s account of Chamberlain’s appeasement policy being the cause of


WWII. Source: Levy, J, Military History, September 2006, Vol.23, Issue 6, p.65.

The diplomatic dance that we now call appeasement failed, but it was a damned sight better
than the alternatives available at the time--capitulation or war. The British and French chose
a rational path of diplomatic engagement and compromise, and Hitler threw it back in their
faces. World War II happened because Hitler was wedded to an irrational course of
unlimited expansion. He imagined that somehow his relatively small and resource-poor
nation could one day rule the world, or at least the Eurasian landmass. In that mad dream
he could neither be dissuaded by compromise nor deterred by rearmament. As Marxist
historian Eric Hobsbawm once pointed out, the causes of World War I are complex; the
cause of World War II was Adolf Hitler. We do history, Chamberlain and appeasement a
disservice when we try to apportion any part of the blame for World War II to anyone but
Hitler. Diplomacy doesn't cause wars--men who substitute violence for diplomacy do.

SOURCE C: Speech of Winston Churchill to the British parliament following


Chamberlain's return from Munich, October 5 th 1938. (As recorded in Hansard*) Source:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2358260/posts

“The utmost he [Chamberlain] has been able to gain for Czechoslovakia and in the matters
which were in dispute has been that the German dictator, instead of snatching his victuals**
from the table, has been content to have them served to him course by course . . . When I
think of the fair hopes of a long peace which still lay before Europe at the beginning of 1933
when Herr Hitler first obtained power, and of all the opportunities of arresting the growth of
the Nazi power which have been thrown away, when I think of the immense combinations
and resources which have been neglected or squandered, I cannot believe that a parallel exists
in the whole course of history. So far as this country is concerned the responsibility must rest
with those who have the undisputed control of our political affairs. They neither prevented
Germany from rearming, nor did they rearm ourselves in time. They quarrelled with Italy
without saving Ethiopia. They exploited and discredited the vast institution of the League of
Nations and they neglected to make alliances and combinations which might have repaired
previous errors, and thus they left us in the hour of trial without adequate national defence or
effective international security.”

* Hansard is the edited word for word report of proceedings of both the House of Commons
and the House of Lords
**victuals means food

SOURCE D: This cartoon by the British cartoonist David Low appeared in the Evening
Standard newspaper in July 1936. The first 3 steps are labelled ‘Rearmament’, ‘Rhineland’
and ‘Danzig’ and the last ‘Boss of the universe’.
Source:http://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII4.htm
Questions
1. a) What issues were of particular concern to the British parliament (Source A) in 1935?
[3 marks]

1. b) What message is conveyed by Source D? [2 marks]

2. With reference to its origin, purpose and content, analyze the value and limitations of
Source C for historians studying the policy of appeasement. [4 marks]

3. Compare and contrast what Sources B and C reveal about the adoption of Chamberlain’s
policy of appeasement. [6 marks]

4. Using the sources and your own knowledge, discuss to what extent the policy of
appeasement contributed to German and Italian expansionism in the 1930s. [9 marks]

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