In my opinion, the war was going to happen anyway, and appeasement did not make it any more likely than either the weakness of the League of Nations or Hitler's desire to be a world dominator. Appeasement did mean, however, that the war took place on a much larger scale than it would have if something had been done earlier. One example of this occurred in September 1938 when Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister returned to Britain from the Munich Conference. At the airport he held up a piece of paper which he and Adolf Hitler had signed and claimed that it was Peace in our time . Chamberlain realised that war was unavoidable and so set about putting it off for as long as possible. He knew that Britain was unprepared for war and would need time to build up its defences.

The weakness of the League of Nations was also a major factor in the start of the war. The league was a good idea, but it depended on every nation obeying the covenant (the rules of the league), and the fact that the League had no way of organising an army of its own meant dictators in the 1930 s walked all over it.

Because nobody took it seriously, Hitler was free to do what he liked. Hitler marched his armies straight into Western Czechoslovakia. The league was powerless to stop him, and countries turned a blind eye because they didn't want to be drawn into any conflicts.

Hitler s desire to be a world dominator was what finally brought Britain into the war. In April 1939, Britain promised to defend Poland if a foreign country attacked it. When Germany invaded Poland, in September 1939, Britain had little choice but to declare war on Germany.

I conclude that the both weakness of the League of Nations and Hitler s desire to be a world dominator both played an equal role in the start of the war. Appeasement merely magnified the scale of the war.

Sources:

BBC GCSE Bitesize

School Text Books

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