Appeasement

Appeasement is a policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of armed resistance. Since World War II, the term has gained a negative connotation, in politics and in general, of weakness, cowardice and self-deception.

Different views on appeasement

The meaning of the term "appeasement" has changed throughout the years. According to Paul Kennedy in his Strategy and Diplomacy, 1983, appeasement is "the policy of settling international quarrels by admitting and satisfying grievances through rational negotiation and compromise, thereby avoiding the resort to an armed conflict which would be expensive, bloody and possibly dangerous."

Further quotes:

"At bottom, the old appeasement was a mood of hope, Victorian in its optimism, Burkean in its belief that societies evolved from bad to good and that progress could only be for the better. The new appeasement was a mood of fear, Hobbesian in its insistence upon swallowing the bad in order to preserve some remnant of the good, pessimistic in its belief that Nazism was there to stay and, however horrible it might be, should be accepted as a way of life with which Britain ought to deal." Martin Gilbert, The Roots of Appeasement, 1968.

To appease: " Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1963 edition.

"Each course brought its share of disadvantages: there was only a choice of evils. The crisis in the British global position by this time was such that it was, in the last resort, insoluble, in the sense that there was no good or proper solution." Paul Kennedy, Strategy and Diplomacy, 1983.

"The word in its normal meaning connotes the pacific settlement of disputes; in the meaning usually applied to the period of Chamberlain's premiership, it has come to indicate something sinister, the granting from fear or cowardice of unwarranted concessions in order to buy temporary peace at someone else's expense." D.N. DIlks, Appeasement Revisited, Journal of Contemporary History, 1972.

Appeasement of Hitler

By far the most well-known case of appeasement is one which ultimately failed — the appeasement of Adolf Hitler's Germany by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's government in the late 1930s. The Munich Agreement in particular stands as a major example of appeasement. There is, however, a large historiographical debate about appeasement.

Peace for our time

Chamberlain's peace for our time deal (i.e. the surrender of the Sudetenland to Germany) with Hitler was internationally acclaimed and praised at home and abroad, by among others Pope Pius XI, Ireland's Eamon de Valera, the United States administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Canada's Mackenzie King. Chamberlain was acclaimed by many British people for avoiding another war that would slaughter their sons; of course, all this acclaim turned out to be completely for nothing. He was greeted by cheering crowds on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, alongside King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, who themselves supported his policy, both having lost friends and relatives in the last war.

Appeasement's effect on the Second World War

It has been argued that if an overly bellicose war enthusiasm had produced the mass slaughter of World War I, then the resulting determination to avoid war at all costs in the 1930s proved equally counterproductive, with Europe's failure to oppose Hitler leading him to be more aggressive. However, fear of war also motivated the German Army, which at several points was on the verge of removing Hitler because he was too bellicose.

Bibliography

Alex Alexandroff and Richard Rosecrance, "Deterrence in 1939," World Politics 29 (1977)
Robert J. Beck, "Munich's Lessons Reconsidered," International Security 14 (1989) in JSTOR
John Charmley, Chamberlain and the Lost Peace (1989)
Richard Cockett, Twilight of Truth: Chamberlain, Appeasement, and the Manipulation of the Press (1989).
Oliver J. Y. Denton, Appeasing Times: Geoffrey Dawson, The Times and the Appeasement of Nazi Germany 1936-1940 (2006).
Christopher Hill, Cabinet Decisions on Foreign Policy: The British Experience, October 1938-June 1941 (1991)
James Levy. Appeasement and Rearmament: Britain, 1936-1939, (2006)
Frank McDonough, Richard Brown, and David Smith. Hitler, Chamberlain and Appeasement (2002)
Peter Neville. Hitler and Appeasement: The British Attempt to Prevent the Second World War (2005)
Gaines Post Jr.; Dilemmas of Appeasement: British Deterrence and Defense, 1934-1937 Cornell University Press. 1993
G. C. Peden, "A Matter of Timing: The Economic Background to British Foreign Policy, 1937-1939," History 69 (1984)
Stephen R. Rock. Appeasement in International Politics (2000)
Donald Cameron Watt, How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938-1939 (1989).

External links

Eulogy for Neville Chamberlain by Winston Churchill
"Then and now, evil always wants more" by Max Boot, published in the LA Times July 14, 2005

Useful textbooks (especially A-level-oriented)

British Foreign and Imperial Affairs, 1919-39 - Alan Farmer (2nd Ed.)
British Foreign Policy 1919-39 - Paul W Doerr
British Appeasement in the 1930s - William R Rock
Churchill - Roy Jenkins
Baldwin - Roy Jenkins
Anthony Eden: A Life and Reputation - David Dutton
Eden - D.R. Thorpe
Europe and the Czechs - Penguin Books Shiela Grant Duff, September 1938
Neville Chamberlain - David Dutton
The Fascist Challenge And The Policy Of Appeasement edited by Wolfgang J. Mommsen and Lothar Kettenacker, London : G. Allen & Unwin, 1983 ISBN 0049400681.
The Parting of Ways - A Personal Account of the Thirties. Peter Owen, 1982, ISBN 0-7206-0586-5
Munich : Prologue to Tragedy - Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, New York : Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1948.

Peace | World War II politics