In the wake of WWI, England and France gradually adopted a policy of “appeasement” toward the defeated Central Powers of Germany and the Austria-Hungarian Empire. The policy grew out of several factors, including an aversion to war due to the horrible losses suffered in “The Great War;” the grave danger future wars would present to civilian populations; and the harsh treaty conditions imposed on the losing nations that crippled their economies, causing widespread poverty and social unrest.
In March of 1936, when Germany’s Nazi government sent 3,000 troops into the Rhineland, an area of Germany that had been demilitarized under treaty conditions, France and England took no action. Though a few politicians in both countries expressed alarm at Hitler’s actions, they understood their general populations – not to mention their treasuries – would not support military mobilizations.
These attitudes remained largely unchanged two years later when the Nazis annexed Austria. Then in the spring and summer of 1938, a new crisis began building on Germany’s border with Czechoslovakia, a country carved out of Germany and the Austria-Hungarian Empire following the First World War.
The north, west, and southern border areas within Czechoslovakia contained a concentration of German-speaking people. The area was known as the Sudetenland. Its inhabitants were often at odds with the policies of the Czech government in Prague and agitated to become part of Germany. Hitler gladly took up their cause and soon began to threaten military intervention to protect the Sudeten Germans from persecution. In response, Czechoslovakia vowed to fight any German incursion. The dark clouds of war were rapidly building, and in late September Hitler gave the Czechs until 2 p.m. Sept. 28, to cede the Sudetenland to Germany or suffer the consequences.
Under these grim circumstances, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew off to Munich for eleventh-hour negotiations with the German chancellor and French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier. Representatives of the Czechoslovak government were not invited to the talks. In the end, all parties agreed to allow Nazi troops to occupy the Sudetenland as a means of protecting the local populace and avoiding a border war. The president of Czechoslovakia had no choice but to agree to the arrangement.
War had been avoided and Chamberlain flew back to a hero’s welcome in London, famously waving the signed agreement and proclaiming they had secured “peace in our time.” He announced Hitler had pledged his word that Germany would have no further territorial demands.
There was, however, one loud and consistent voice in London that criticized the agreement and appeasement in general. His unstinting comments were making Winston Churchill a pariah in his own party. Hitler, he claimed, could not be trusted. In a few short months, Churchill would be proven right and eventually welcomed back from his political “wilderness.”
More in our next blog.