Internatinal Diplomacy

The disasters of World war one brought severe consequences upon the countries that were involved; politically, socially, economically ,but most importantly it gave people the fear of another second world war occurring , therefore the policy of Appeasement was introduced and implemented by Neville Chamberlain and Britain was to avert another World war at any cost. Chamberlains policies of avoiding war with Germany have been the subject of intense debate for many years among academics, politicians and diplomats. The historians' assessments have ranged from condemnation for allowing Adolf Hitler's Germany to grow too strong, to the judgment that he had no alternative and acted in Britain's best interests. At the time, these concessions were widely seen as positive, and the Munich Pact among Germany, Britain, France and Italy prompted Chamberlain to announce that he had secured "peace for our time" as said by Hunt.

The idea behind the policy of appeasement was all about listening to the opponent and addressing their grievances instead of using violence as a resort and given the fact that the British already had a huge empire , they would perhaps gain more power as Churchill stated ' Jaw jaw is better than war war'. However, this idea was contradicted by the Conservatives themselves as Appeasement was giving into the demands of aggressive powers. It was seen as a weak policy as it was asked how Britain with such a strong status would allow Germany to bully them in order to gain what they wanted, and then ask for more e.g. giving Hitler Czechoslovakia (Sudetenland) so he could then ask for Poland. It was evident that this would destroy Britain's reputation which they had gained from their proud empire and eventually Hitler would take over if appeasement was to be carried on, but because Britain wanted to avoid another war, appeasement was a policy Britain had to follow. As well as this the RAF and the Royal Navy had been rundown, as not enough money had been spent on this and because Britain had disarmed, the Policy of Appeasement and disarmament went hand in hand and the idea seemed realistic, especially because Britain was not prepared for another war so soon after the first as said ''poor state of Britain's armed forces greatly influenced the adoption of the policy of appeasement". On the other hand, the policy of Appeasement could have been successful if there was not a strong dictator like Hitler in power who could never be pleased.

Furthermore, after World War One, wars were thought to be evil amongst those who were affected. It has been proclaimed that 750,000 from the UK were war dead and 250,000 from the Empire and the death of Chamberlains cousin Norman (officer in Grenadier guards) who had written letters saying losses in trenches warfare should not be repeated can relate to a hatred of war on his cousin's part which led to appeasement. Also,