1 Look at the cartoon and then answer the questions
which follow.
(a) Describe the the main
features of Hitler's foreign policy? [5] answer
(b) Why did Stalin agree to the
Nazi-Soviet Pact? [7] answer
(c) Was the policy of
appeasement justified? Explain your answer [8] answer
Suggested Answers
(a) You were given a diagram to illustrate
this! There are perhaps three major groups of aims to identify:
Reverse
the Treaty of Versailles
Create
a “Greater Germany” of all German-speaking peoples.
Give
Germans lebensraum, particularly in the east.
(b)Begin by pointing out this was an unexpected
development (explain the ideological differences) and as a result the
subject of a number of contemporary cartoons like the one given to you.
You need to make clear that Stalin had a choice between a non-aggression
pact with Hitler or a military agreement with Britain and France. The
simple reason for the pact with Hitler was that it offered more at less
risk to the USSR. Hitler promised Stalin short-term peace and control over
vast areas of Eastern Europe.Britain
and France were more ambivalent in their offer and promised no land, only
military support that Stalin did not trust.
You have answered an essay question on
this before and as a result ought to have found this straightforward. As
always you need a balance between an attack on Chamberlain and a defence
of him. You will probably find it easier to defend Chamberlain from the
traditional interpretation, although it is important that you outline the
traditional view: appeasement encouraged the dictators and made war more
likely. You might distinguish between different periods of appeasement.Appeasement before the Munich conference might have
encouraged the dictators, but Hitler who wanted his small war saw
appeasement at Munich as a defeat.The
Munich settlement bought time for Britain and France.It also made it much more likely that if war did occur Hitler would
be seen as the aggressor. Thus Munich might be seen as a propaganda coup
that made the support of the British Empire and the United States for the
democracies of Britain and France much more likely. By September 1939 the
public understood war to defend Poland in a way that would not have
understood a war to defend Czechoslovakia.
