Neville Chamberlain and the Politics of Appeasement

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Credits:
Host - Simon Whistler
Author - Arnaldo Teodorani
Producer - Jennifer Da Silva
Executive Producer - Shell Harris

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[Elrond_Hubbard_]

Dan Carlin made a good point about this, and it explains a lot about the decisions made leading up to and during World War Two. Nearly all the people involved politically and militarily at that time had been through World War One and the horrors of trench warfare in France and people like Chamberlain wanted to do anything they could to prevent a repeat.

[AL_THOMAS]

This is missing some vital information. Chamberlain also increased funding to the military when he was chancellor and when he was PM. This greatly increased over his term in office. So he ramped up military spending while he was doing everything he could to avoid war. Germany was spending far greater sums on military spending, no-one in the Uk wanted another war either. The Spirfire wasn't available until 1938, the Hurricane only started being produced in 1937, most of our planes were WW1 style biplanes before they came along. On top of that, Britain was overstretched policing its empire and could not afford major rearmament. Its main ally, France, was seriously weakened and, unlike in the First World War, Commonwealth support was not a certainty. Many Britons also sympathised with Germany, which they felt had been treated unfairly following its defeat in 1918.

Strangely, many people I ask think Churchill was Pm when war was declared. Chamberlain did everything he could to avoid war while building up our forces with both people and machinery.
1936 UK military spending 9 billion.
1937 UK military spending increases to 12 billion, Chamberlain becomes PM.
1938 UK military spending increases to 18 billion, 'peace in our time declared' 30 September. Spitfires roll off productions lines for the first time (first commissioned in 1931).
1939 UK military spending increases to 80 billion and war declared in September.
1940 UK military spending increases to 100 billion, Churchill becomes PM in May.

In 1939 the USA was spending less than 10 billion on its military.
I believe Chamberlain deserves far more credit than he gets. Germany had been outspending the other allies by huge margins. No-one wanted to go to war so close to WW1. The USA certainly weren't interested, they didn't even want to be part of the League of Nations.

On top of that, his military advisers told him to wait. General Ismay advised the the British Cabinet on 20th September 1938, saying 'time is on our side', 'we need to catch up with Germany and their air power' and 'if were did come, it would be best to fight in 6-12 months time'.

I don't see what options Chamberlain really had. He followed military advice. He tried to avoid war, a war that was unpopular in the UK. He prepared for war. He declared war when all else had failed. He stepped down when he realised he wasn't the right person to lead the country.

[stevemcdigstraightdown]

“Hitler’s invading the rest of Czechoslovakia...”

“What?”

“Hitler’s invading the rest of Czechoslovakia.”

[Pulchria]

I absolutely LOVED this -a masterly condensed analysis, giving Chaimberline the credit he deserves, where he deserves it. I wouldn't go as far as my mother who always insisted that he sacrificed his honour to give Britain time to arm as he was not aware of the real state of Germany's forces, but there was a tiny smidgin of truth buried in there. Thank you.

[abaddonfrazier]

Everytime i hear “appeasement” i think of oversimplified “you can’t have that thing... OOOK you can have that thing, but nothing else. Aaand repeat” 🤣

[bscottb]

“An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” ― Winston S. Churchill

[KazynskiFisher]

That epic gamer moment when you go home to peace in our time to find out Hitler invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia

[kieranb]

I always feel Chamberlain got given the most brownests end of the sticks in history.

It was his predecessor, Baldwin, whom largely made Britain sluggish in the armament race to 1939. As a result, he knew he wasn't in a position to put the UK in a war, both politically, logistically and financially.

But, alas, he is remembered as the bloke who gave the most vile regime in Western Europe slack.

[Niterider]

Is it just me or does the father look strikingly close to Woodrow Wilson with a monocle.

[Artur_M.]

19:44 "wave after wave of Spitfire fighter planes". Poor Hurricanes, they did majority of the work, but the Spitfires get all the glory.

[i.b.blithe]

Regardless of what one thinks of Chamberlain's policy, history does show once again that Politics of Appeasement when dealing with a dictator does not work.

[adelachobotova]

My 90-year-old great grandma likes to talk about history of Czechoslovakia (since she's lived through most of it) and one day she started about WW2. I was kinda surprised that she didn't really speak about Germany or Hitler, because, in her own words, to a kid that she was the war didn't really matter that much. But at one moment she got REALLY angry and it was when I mentioned Munich agreement and Chamberlain. Though in 1938 it was Germany who invaded us, she blamed almost solely UK and France, because they were supposed to be on our side and betrayed us. She had to leave her hometown Lovosice, which was in Sudetenland, because her father, being a legionary in WW1, refused to live in Germany. She never forgave UK and France. Even today when you mentiona the name "Chamberlain" in Czech republic, the first thing that comes to mind of at least a bit educated people is: that as*hole. And I'm inclined to agree with them.

[TheTripperSmurf]

Thanks Wikipedia: "In 1949, Xerox Corporation introduced the first xerographic copier called the Model A. Defeating computer leader IBM, Xerox became so successful that, in North America, photocopying came to be popularly known as "xeroxing"."

So no, they didn't have photocopiers in 1938.

[registeelix]

Neville Chamberlain wanted "a peace in our time." You know what would bring peace in this time? If you do your biography at 1 million subscribers!

[Docwilson]

Next time on Biographics: Simon Whistler: the Man, the Myth, the Legend

[demonrebel]

"Poor Neville Chamberlain he thought he could trust Hitler"-Winston Churchill

[albertpoolaw]

I think it ridiculous that Chamberlain is saddled with the failure of, what was then, the developed world. I think most of the world leaders of the time were thankful he died, had he lived they could not have used him as a scapegoat.

[siraff]

There is one reason this was obvious. The treaty of Versailles was always going to end in another war.

[HyperionaSilverleaf]

Inconceivable - not inconceptably (not a word).

Fearful - not fearsome (you are fearful of something. Fearsome implies fierceness and something to be feared).

[franciscomm]

I reccomend the video "was appeasement justified" by history matters. It is a short documentary about the appeasement policies of uk and france