The twentieth-century world, Year 10: appeasement, Munich and the outbreak of war (Inter-war years option)

Appeasement

HintMost closely linked with Neville Chamberlain.

The whyIts supporters pointed to the horror of the last war, the belief that Versailles had been too harsh, Britain's lack of readiness and fear of communism. Its critics, such as Winston Churchill, said it only made Hitler stronger and bolder.

The Sudetenland

HintIt contained the country's frontier defences.

The whyThe Czechoslovak army's defences against Germany lay there. Without it the country could not defend itself.

Germany, Italy, Britain and France

HintNeither Czechoslovakia nor the Soviet Union was invited.

The whyThey agreed that Germany should take the Sudetenland at once. The Czechoslovak government was told to accept or fight alone.

Time to rearm

HintCompare Britain's air defences in 1938 with those of 1940.

The whyBritain's new fighters and its chain of radar stations were far from complete in 1938; the radar chain was fully working by September 1939. Critics reply that Germany used the same year to grow stronger too.

'Peace for our time'

HintHe held up a paper signed by Hitler and himself.

The whyThe paper said that Britain and Germany would never go to war with one another again. Chamberlain was cheered as a hero. Less than a year later the two countries were at war.

German troops occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia

HintFor the first time he took land whose people did not speak his language.

The whyIt broke the promise he had made at Munich six months earlier. He could no longer claim to be righting the wrongs of Versailles or bringing Germans home, and Chamberlain changed course.

To defend it if it was attacked

HintThe first firm line drawn after Hitler broke the Munich Agreement.

The whyChamberlain gave the pledge on behalf of France as well. Germany was demanding the return of the city of Danzig and a route across the Polish Corridor.

23 August

HintNine days before the invasion of Poland.

The whyIt was signed in Moscow by the two foreign ministers, Ribbentrop and Molotov. Two sworn enemies promised not to attack each other, to the astonishment of the world.

Divide Poland between them

HintA hidden section of the pact carved up eastern Europe.

The whyThe secret protocol also placed Estonia and Latvia in the Soviet sphere of influence. Stalin gained land and time to build up his army. Hitler gained a free hand in Poland.

Left the Soviet Union out of the Munich Conference

HintA meeting about Czechoslovakia to which Moscow was not invited.

The whyStalin suspected that the western powers hoped Hitler would turn east. Talks on an alliance in summer 1939 were slow and half-hearted. One view is that this pushed Stalin towards Hitler; another is that he chose the deal that offered him land.

1 September; 3 September

HintThe two dates are two days apart, at the very start of autumn.

The whyBritain demanded that Germany withdraw its troops. When the deadline passed on the morning of the second date, Chamberlain told the country by radio that it was at war.

A war on two fronts

HintThe fear that had haunted Germany's generals in 1914.

The whyWith the Soviet Union neutral, Germany could defeat Poland and then turn west. This is why many historians see the pact as the last step that made the invasion possible, though the decision to invade was Hitler's.