IGCSE History

• Home
• Introduction to IGCSE
• The Road to Affluence: USA 1917 - 1941 (A9)
  • 1917 - 1929
    • The impact of the First World War
    • Immigration
    • Henry Ford and mass production
    • Farming in the 1920s
    • The Stock Market Boom
  • 1929 - 1941
    • The Wall Street Crash
    • The Depression
    • The policies of Hoover
    • Roosevelt and the New Deal
    • Reactions to the New Deal
• International Relations 1919-1939 (A8)
  • Collective Security
    • The Versailles Settlement
    • The Foundation of the League of Nations
    • Strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations
    • Successes and failures of the League of Nations
    • Locarno and the Kellogg-Briand Pact
  • Appeasement
    • Manchuria
    • The Disarmament Conference
    • Abyssinia
    • Hitler and the League
    • Appeasement in action
• Revolution in China 1949 - 1996 (A14)
  • 1949 - 1976
    • China under Mao
    • Reform under Liu and Deng
    • The reasons for the Cultural Revolution
    • The impact of the Cultural Revolution
    • China 1971 - 1976
  • 1976 - 1996
    • The defeat of the Gang of Four
    • China under Deng Xiaoping
    • Reforms of the economy
    • The Democracy Movement
    • China in the 1990s
• South-East Asia 1945 - 1900 (A15)
  • Indo-China
    • The end of the French Empire
    • Vietnam 1954 - 1965
    • US involvement in Vietnam
    • The unification of Vietnam
    • Laos and Cambodia
  • South-East Asia
    • The struggle for control of Malaya
    • The creation of Malaysia
    • Singapore
    • Suharto and Indonesia
    • Sukarno and Pancasila
• Conflict and Crisis is the Middle East 1946 - 1996 (A16)
  • Unit overview
  • 1946 - 1967
    • The creation of Israel
    • The impact of the war of 1948 - 1949
    • The Suez Crisis
    • Superpower involvement in the Middle East
    • The Six Day War
  • 1967 - 1996
    • International terrorism
    • The war of Yom Kippur
    • The Palestinian Liberation Organisation
    • Lebanon and the occupied territories
    • Successes and failures from Camp David to Oslo
• The First World War (B4)
  • The Schlieffen Plan
  • Deadlock on the Western Front
  • Gallipoli
  • The Somme and Passchendaele
  • The War at Sea
  • The defeat of Germany
• The USA 1917-1929 (B7)
  • The Roaring Twenties
  • Advertising and consumerism
  • New forms of entertainment
  • Prohibition
  • Gangsterism
  • Hollywood
• China under Mao Zedong 1949 - 1959 (B10)
  • The creation of the Communist State
  • Land Reform
  • Communist society
  • The First Five Year Pan
  • The 100 Flowers
  • The Great Leap Forward
• The Changing Nature of Warfare (C3)
  • Unit overview
  • Warfare at the beginning of the 20th Century
  • Land warfare
  • Sea and aerial warfare
  • Atomic and nuclear weapons
  • Warfare at the end of the 20th Century
• Links

Appeasement in Action

Why was there a crisis at Munich?

It was obvious that Czechoslovakia would be Hitler’s next target. On 12 September 1938, Hitler demanded self-government for the German speaking Czechs in the Sudetenland.

On 15 September Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, flew to meet Hitler at Berchtesgaden and agreed to his demands. The Czech government was informed of Chamberlain's decision.

On 22 September Chamberlain returned to meet Hitler at Bad Godesberg. Hitler now had new demands. He wanted the Sudetenland to be handed over to Germany immediately.

Chamberlain returned to London believing that war was inevitable. But Mussolini suggested a four power conference.

Germany, Italy, Britain and France, met at Munich on 28 September 1938. They agreed to let Hitler have the Sudetenland.

Hitler and Chamberlain signed an agreement that Britain and Germany would never go to war again. Hitler claimed that he had only been interested in uniting Germans.

In March 1939 Hitler occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia. This was a clear violation of the Munich Agreement and showed that Hitler was not just aiming to unite all German speakers in a Greater Germany.

Why did the British government adopt a policy of appeasement?

Appeasement was the belief that the Dictators could be pacified if their demands were met.

There was a strong view that the Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh and that, therefore, it was not unreasonable to allow Hitler to break some of the terms.

Hitler was also admired by some people for the way that he had rebuilt Germany after 1933.

People became more and more convinced that bombing would be highly dangerous. Bombers, high explosive and poison gas meant that the war would affect people in Britain far more than ever before.

People remembered the horrors of the Great War.

Why did war break out in September 1939?

From March 1939 there could be no doubt that Hitler would have to be stopped one way or another.

In April 1939 Britain made defensive alliances with Romania and Poland. These meant that if either country was attacked Britain would go to war to defend them.

In August 1939 Germany and the USSR signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact. On the face of it this was a simple non-aggression pact between the two countries.

There were a number of secret clauses. The Soviet Union agreed not to interfere when Germany attacked Poland and also would allow Hitler a free hand in western Europe.

In return, Germany would allow the Soviet Union to occupy eastern Poland and would not interfere if Stalin occupied the Baltic States and Finland.

On 25 August 1939 Britain signed a formal alliance with Poland.

On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland.

On 2 September 1939, the British Government sent an ultimatum to Germany demanding that all forces should be withdrawn from Poland or war would be declared. This was ignored.

On 3 September 1939 Britain declared war on Germany.

• The Versailles Settlement
• The Foundation of the League of Nations
• Strengths and weakneses of the League of Nations
• Successes and failures of the League of Nations
• Locarno and the Kellogg-Briand Pact

• Manchuria
• The Disarmament Conference
• Abyssinia
• Hitler and the League
• Appeasement in action

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