‘Appeasement was a sensible response to Hitler’s aggression.’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.One of the reasons why appeasement was a sensible response, is because at the time of action, Britain was too military weak to stand up to Hitler. To many people in Britain it looked like German forces were much stronger than the british army. That was partially because british military equipment was seriously out of date, while Germany was having a full-scale rearmament.Meanwhile Britain only started to rearm properly in 1938, and earlier work was only partial. The only strength of Britain was its navy, yet it only had 352 thousand troops in 1937 against german few millions. In those circumstances it wouldn’t be sensible for Britain to get into war with Germany. Appeasement looked like the most reasonable response, as it firstly bought some time for Britain to rearm and also gave hope that the war can be avoided.Another reason why appeasement was a sensible response is because Britain did not have enough international support to stand up to Hitler’s aggression.Despite trying to unite with USSR and France, east and west could never come to the agreement to the point where a union could be formed. As a result there wasn’t enough military strength on the side oppositng Germany to fight
a war: the two-front war encircling Germany had to be cancelled. Moreover,
Britain chose to conciliate Germany instead of standing up to it, was because it was worried that USA wouldn’t support it. During the 1920s and 30s USA was following the policy of isolationism, where it wasn’t getting involved in foreign conflicts or other type of events. Therefore it was reasonable for Britain to assume that USA wouldn’t join them if it stood up against Hitler’s aggression.Thus, it was reasonable for UK to follow appeasement instead of hostility against Germany.Lastly, appeasement was sensible also because of the anti-communist feeling in Britain and Europe as a whole. USSR was seen as a dangerous country, who was spreading an even more dangerous ideology of communism across the Europe. Compared to Nazi Germany, many European capitalist leaders felt like fascism is smaller evil in the “fight” between the two extremes on the political spectrum. That’s why to them it looked sensible to appease Hitler instead of Stalin. Moreover, by appeasing Germany Britain hoped that it will be able to act as a buffer against Russia if a war was to break out. This was though only possible if hitler’s aggression wouldn’t be opposed.
- / 1