Chamberlain
...ards Germany. “The Peace of Paris, especially the Treaty of Versailles with Germany, was never popular in Britain because of its perceived harshness toward a Germany that remained-even in defeat-inexorably the greatest continental power and a desirable trading partner”(Adams, xxiii). Adolf Hitler did not only have the support of the German population in regards to the unfairness of the Treaty of Versailles. England also took a sympathetic view, when he broke some of the agreements of the Treaty. Another reason which that illustrates why appeasement was chosen was that no one was willing to take up arms in defense of Versailles, mainly because public opinion opposed the treaty. Britain’s first instance of appeasement came without surprise when Hitler decided to reoccupy the Rhineland previously occupied by France. One reason for this decision on was that “By this time Hitler had made no concessions about the Rhineland and had justified the occupation on the ground that the Franco-Soviet alliance was a threat to German security” (Adams, 75). Thus war over the re-occupation of the Rhineland was never an option for England. In the public of Britain’s eyes, the Rhineland was considered German territory anyways. Another reason why appeasement seemed such a credible choice at the time to Chamberlain was primarily the fact that Britain at the time lacked the military capability to fight a land war in Europe, because much of Britain’s military stock was in their powerful Navy. This proved to be Hitler’s first breech of the Versailles Treaty, and it most certainly would not be his last. Adolf Hitler had successfully violated the Treaty of Versailles. His next step that he took concerned the annexation of Austria known as the Anschluss. Adolf Hitler was born in Austria and had always been an advocate of the Anschluss. The governments of Germany and Austria had ideas of the two countries uniting. As for Britain’s take on the Anschluss “Chamberlain-who had replaced Baldwin in May 1937-saw the crisis not as evidence of a need for stiffer resistance to Hitler but as proof of the necessity for a redoubled efforts to seek a settlement with Germany”. (Fuchser, 110). The Anschluss of Austria had been a success for Germany. The annual Nazi gathering in Nuremburg in September, 1938, celebrated the birth of a larger Greater German Reich, with Austria being part of the Reich. At the last day of the gathering Adolf Hitler announced his next actions which were aimed at Czechoslovakia. "Reeling from the shock of the Anschluss, British and French leaders now had to face demands from Sudeten leaders for the incorporation of all German-speaking Czech subjects into Germany." (Caputi, 121) Justifying his cause the same way as the Anschluss, Hitler claimed his motives were to unite all German speaking people under one nation. Czechoslovakia was a relatively young state. The population of this country generally consisted of Czechs and Slovaks, but also consisted of Hungarians, Poles, Jews and many Sudeten originally Germans. Of the fourteen million residents there were only three million people of German dissent. They lived around the border areas of Bohemia and Monravia. When Czechoslovakia had been created there was a natural border with the chain of mountains between Germany and Bohemia. The Sudeten-Germans were at ends with everyone else in the new republic. The ideas of the national-socialist Konrad Henlein started to gain popularity with this German minority. Czechoslovakia was under the rule of Slavic people, who were ruled previously by a German majority under Austria-Hungary. The German party in Czechoslovakia claimed that the Sudeten-Germans were oppressed, persecuted, and treated unjustly. In 1938, Hitler announced that he would help them. Chamberlain decided to attempt to try and resolve the dispute. A diplomat was sen...