British Policy of Appeasement Essay

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World War 2 was officially started on the first of September 1939 as Germany invades Poland however the build-up to the colossal war that resulted in the holocaust and two atomic bombs stretched back as far as the end of the First World War (the Great War).
The treaty of Versailles was signed on the 28th of June 1919 exactly 5 years after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand (which triggered WW1). The treaty was signed by the allies (Britain and France) except the US as president Woodrow Wilson believed that the terms of the treaty were too harsh. The treaty terms were:
1. The war guilt clause: this made Germany accept full responsibility for the war
2. Germany’s massive military was reduced to 100000 men, no tanks, submarines, only 6 battleships and the military had to leave the Rhineland entirely.
3. Germany lost some colonies and some land in Europe
4. Germany had to pay 6600000000 marks or £284 billion in today’s currency.

When the Germans were given the papers to sign they were outraged at the unreasonable terms however the allies held the power and if provoked they could have easily taken over Germany, forcing the Germans to sign the treaty. A theory as to why the treaty was so harsh was that the big three wanted revenge for what Germany did to their countries and economies. The most aggravated of all three was Clemenceau as he was scared of Germany and reasonably so as France is Germanys next door neighbours this was the reason one of the terms is to leave the Rhineland. The treaty was key in starting the war as it sparked hatred towards the allies and gave all Hitler needed to convince people to vote him into office.
The League of Nations was created at the end of the First World War by Woodrow Wilson and was designed to prevent conflict and encourage debates. The league can be compared to the United Nations that is still functioning today however there are some major differences. When the league was set up the countries that had fought the allies were not allowed to join, this made the allies enemies feel as if they had liberties that would have been restricted if they had been in the league making them reckless and uncontrollable. The USSR was banned as the capitalistic countries viewed them badly as they were communist (many countries were scared of communism as I could destroy economy’s) however even if the USSR had received an invitation they most likely would have declined as they viewed the league as a “club of capitalists”.
Adolf Hitler was born on the 20th of April 1889 in Austria. Hitler moved to Vienna in 1907 where he applied to the Viennese Academy of Fine arts, but was twice turned down. This experience made Hitler angry and during this period Hitler appears to have developed the world view that would characterise his whole life and a hatred for Jews. In WW1 Hitler was a trench runner this job was especially dangerous as you had to carry messages from trench to trench however he got gas attacked and woke up in hospital to learn that Germany had surrendered this infuriated him. After the war Hitler became a politician in the Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) he swiftly rose until he held control and started to change the way things were run. He gave the party storm troopers also called the brown shirts and surrounded himself with personnel bodyguards dressed in black also known as the SS (later to be notorious for Jew hunting). Hitler declared his party as the new government and marched through the streets however they were stopped by the police and Hitler was put in jail where he wrote his book mein
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