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Core Study: Power and Authority in the Modern World 1919-1946
Quick questions on Appeasement and the road to war: HSC Modern History Core Study
11short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the logic of appeasement?Show answer
Appeasement was the policy of conceding to Germany's revisionist demands in the hope that a satisfied Germany would not start a general war. The policy was driven by several factors.
What is anschluss (12 March 1938)?Show answer
Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg attempted to call a plebiscite on Austrian independence. Hitler issued an ultimatum; Schuschnigg resigned. Austrian Nazi Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the new Chancellor, "invited" the Wehrmacht in. Hitler entered Vienna on 14 March.
What is the Munich Agreement (29 to 30 September 1938)?Show answer
Hitler demanded the Sudetenland (the German-speaking border regions of Czechoslovakia, home to 3.5 million ethnic Germans and most of the country's industry and fortifications). Chamberlain flew to Germany three times in September 1938: Berchtesgaden (15 September), Bad Godesberg (22 September), and Munich (29 to 30 September).
What is the pivot to Poland?Show answer
The Prague occupation ended British public support for appeasement. On 31 March 1939 Chamberlain announced a unilateral guarantee of Polish independence. Hitler took this as evidence that the democracies would interfere with his plans for Lebensraum in the east. On 23 May 1939, in a speech to his generals (the "Schmundt Memorandum"), Hitler declared war on Poland to be unavoidable.
What is the Nazi-Soviet Pact (23 August 1939)?Show answer
Negotiated by Foreign Ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov, the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact stunned the world. Secret protocols divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence: Estonia, Latvia, Finland, eastern Poland, and Bessarabia to the USSR; western Poland and Lithuania to Germany. Stalin's logic was strategic: Anglo-Soviet talks earlier in 1939 had stalled, Munich had shown the west would not fight, and the pact bought time to rearm after the Purges. Hitler's logic was tactical: avoid a two-front war.
What is the invasion of Poland (1 September 1939)?Show answer
A staged "Polish" attack on the Gleiwitz radio station (31 August 1939) gave Hitler his pretext. Germany invaded at 4.45am on 1 September 1939. Britain and France issued ultimatums and declared war on 3 September 1939. The USSR invaded eastern Poland on 17 September.
What is historiography?Show answer
A.J.P. Taylor (The Origins of the Second World War, 1961) argued Hitler was an opportunist German nationalist responding to circumstances, not a uniquely demonic master planner. He blamed appeasement and Anglo-French miscalculation, especially over Poland.
What is treating appeasement as a single decision?Show answer
It was a five-year policy, from the Rhineland (1936) to the Polish guarantee (1939).
What is forgetting the Munich participants?Show answer
Czechoslovakia was not at Munich. The phrase "Czechs decided" is wrong.
What is treating Taylor as the consensus view?Show answer
He is the most famous revisionist, but Overy's view is now dominant.
What is misdating the Nazi-Soviet Pact?Show answer
23 August 1939, not 1 September.