Appeasement

Appeasement is a policy of making concessions to an aggressive power to avert conflict. The term is especially associated with British and French diplomacy toward Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

Munich Agreement: A 1938 agreement that transferred the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia to Germany without Czechoslovakia’s participation. It became the defining case of British and French concessions to Hitler.
Neville Chamberlain: British prime minister from 1937 to 1940, closely associated with the policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany. He negotiated the Munich Agreement and defended concessions as a way to preserve peace.
Treaty of Versailles: The 1919 peace treaty that formally ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied powers after World War I. Resentment of its terms made revisions to Germany’s position seem legitimate to some observers.
German invasion of Poland: Germany’s invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, prompting Britain and France to declare war. It triggered the declarations of war that marked appeasement’s final collapse.
Deterrence: A strategy of discouraging an adversary from acting by threatening costs it considers unacceptable. It seeks to prevent aggression through threatened resistance rather than concessions.
Anschluss: Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in March 1938. Its success preceded the Sudeten crisis and went largely unchallenged by Britain and France.
Édouard Daladier: French prime minister who represented France at the 1938 Munich Conference. He accepted the settlement amid France’s military concerns and dependence on British support.
Locarno Treaties: A 1925 set of agreements that guaranteed western European borders and promoted reconciliation between Germany and its neighbors. Their spirit of negotiated revision influenced interwar expectations about resolving disputes.
World War II: A global conflict fought from 1939 to 1945 between the Axis powers and the Allies. The war followed the failure of concessions to contain Nazi expansion.
Collective security: An arrangement in which states cooperate to oppose aggression against any member. It offered a collective alternative to bilateral accommodation of Germany.

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