Policy of Appeasement events - think about how these helped to contribute to the outbreak of WWII

2.  The British allowed Germany to have a larger
navy than what it had been allowed to have
under theTreaty ofVersailles.
 Limits were placed on how big the German
navy could be (it would still be significantly
smaller than that of the British).

3.  Britain hoped that this would help to reduce
German anger at theTreaty ofVersailles
and make the situation in Europe more
stable.
 However, this seemed to show that the
British were encouraging Germany to violate
theTreaty ofVersailles.

4.  Remilitarisation of the Rhineland
 British had sympathy for Germany –
saw it merely as Hitler returning ‘to
his own backyard’
 France unwilling to fight Germany
without British support

5.  Involvement in the Spanish CivilWar
 Western powers, especially Britain, did not want
the pro-communist side to win the Civil War 
Thought Hitler could be trusted as an ally against
communism
 Anschluss withAustria
 Chamberlain didn’t want to go to war to defend
theTreaty ofVersailles
 Hitler promised that he would not take any more
aggressive actions after this

6.  Hitler’s demanded to
take control of the
Sudetenland, which was
a part of another country,
Czechoslovakia.
 Britain, France and the
USSR had promised to
support Czechoslovakia,
and Czechoslovakia was
prepared to fight to
defend the Sudetenland.

7.  Hitler thus took control of the
Sudetenland peacefully,
(Czechoslovakia did not want to risk
fighting Germany without any British
and French help) and Britain thought
that they had managed to avoid war
with Germany.
 Through this, Britain appeared to be
weak and unwilling to stand up to
Hitler.

8.  These events gave Hitler the
confidence to continue his acts of
aggression, since thanks to the
policy of appeasement, he was
able to achieve his demands
peacefully.
 Soon after, Hitler invaded the rest
of Czechoslovakia and then
Poland, which startedWorldWar II.