Question

Why did the British and the French fail during the 1930s in their efforts to keep Hitler in check? Why did the British and Americans decide to focus on defeating Germany during World War II?

How did the Marshall Plan contribute to the rebuilding of Western Europe’s economy and how did this rebuilding help bring the spread of Communism in Europe to a halt? How was NATO supposed to stop the spread of communism?

Answer 1

• As the League of Nations crumbled, politicians turned to a new way to keep the peace - appeasement. This was the policy of giving Hitler what he wanted to stop him from going to war.
• It was based on the idea that what Hitler wanted was reasonable and, when his reasonable demands had been satisfied, he would stop.
• Although historians recognize appeasement in the actions of Britain and France before 1938, the Sudeten Crisis of 1938 is the key example of appeasement in action.
• Neville Chamberlain was the British prime minister who believed in appeasement. In 1938, Germans living in the border areas of Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) started to demand a union with Hitler's Germany. The Czechs refused and Hitler threatened war.
• On 30 September, in the Munich Agreement - without asking Czechoslovakia - Britain and France gave the Sudetenland to Germany.
• There were many reasons why Chamberlain appeased Hitler, but the main reasons are:
• The British people wanted peace and they would not have supported a war in 1938, many of Hitler's complaints appeared reasonable at the time - especially about the Treaty of Versailles, Chamberlain wanted a strong Germany to serve as a barrier against expansion by communist Russia, Britain's armed forces were not ready for a war, and they could not have helped Czechoslovakia anyway, many people admired Hitler.
• In 1938, the American magazine 'Time' declared him 'Man of the Year' and Chamberlain remembered the slaughter of the First World War; he thought another war would destroy civilization.
  
  
• The Marshall Plan contributed to the rebuilding of Western Europe’s economy by restarting the stalled economies of the former enemies and the allies. For five years, Austria, West Germany, France, Britain, Italy, and others benefited from this fund of U.S. dollars available for loan.
• The conditions imposed by supervisory agencies ensured a new spirit of collaboration between governments and also between governments and employers for the benefitof the general public.
• The average rate of growth in Western European gross national product during 1948--1972 was approximately 4.5 percent per annum. Some nations did much better, andno recessions or business crises occurred.
• As a result, The Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) was founded and it was the supervisory arm of the Marshall Plan aid to Europe.