At the end of The First World War, Europe was in an economic mess; it was unstable socially, politically, and most importantly economically. Almost everyone involved believed that the war proved unnecessary; thousands of families had lost husbands, fathers and sons therefore the war seemed more of a loss than a gain. Following the war the main powers throughout Europe introduced various methods to prevent any further aggression that could lead to another “great war.” The Treaty of Versailles was the first method introduced by the allies to maintain further German aggression in Europe; furthermore the harsh terms of Versailles introduced the second and probably the most controversial policy in the 20th century. Appeasement was the method introduced by Neville Chamberlain; defined as the policy of granting concessions to potential enemies to maintain peace, it was stretched to its limits by countries such as Great Britain and France whom were giving into the belligerent demands of Nazi Germany in order to avoid a substantial clash. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany through the 1930's, got what he wanted through this policy and the lack of aggressive action by Britain and France to stand-up to Nazi Germany. Furthermore the policy was also used by the United States to a certain extent; in the 1920's there had already been several changes to the Treaty of Versailles including the dawes plan 1924, and the young plan 1929 which reduced the economic demands of the treaty. The controversy lies around Neville Chamberlain and the policy consequently criticised by historians to be one of the main outbreaks of World War II, but where these appeasements necessary?
Following World War I, Britain felt that it was crucial to avoid war at almost any cost. The country was unprepared economically and was not stable militarily. The American stock market crash in October 1929 had caused foreign trade to decrease and unemployment to increase rapidly seeing how so many...