What were the positive effects of European appeasement in World War 2?

Answer 1

NONE. If the policy of appeasement had not been followed by Britain and France, WWII might not have happened. If either country had been willing to react militarily, then Hitler would have been in trouble. Hitler's generals were looking for any pretext to attempt to remove him. If his gambles in remilitarizing the Rhineland, or the Anschluss with Austria or the Sudetenland crisis or the Czech crisis had been answered like they answered Poland, then Hitler's world would have collapsed. The policy of appeasement led to WWII and all of the death and destruction from this war can be laid at it's doorstep Two unintended positive effects of appeasement were as follows: 1. It provided time for countries like Great Britain to prepare. Despite chamberlains appeasement he also hedged his bets by rearming. Had he confronted Hitler at Munich the only thing he might succeeded in doing is starting a war totally unprepared. Other European countries did nothing. Oddly enough the two traditionally neutral countries, Sweden and Switzerland also prepared. In fact when Hitler invaded Poland Switzerland and Sweden, along with France and Britain mobilized. The rest of Europe naively declared their neutrality. 2. By pursuing appeasement and then having it shoved in their face, eliminated the pacifists as a political force, at least in Britain. After Poland was invaded almost all of Britain knew Hitler had to be confronted. In a democracy a leader cannot underestimate the need to unify the country under a common purpose. This is something President Bush has failed to do in Iraq. Notice the rest of Europe didn’t do much of anything, hoping they would be left out of any fighting. They were not spared.