Brytyjska polityka ustępstw, a wybuch Drugiej Wojny Światowej

Abstract

British policy of appeasement and outbreak of World War II

The aim of the article is to present British foreign policy called 'policy of ap­peasement’ in the period between May 1937 and September 1939. The article describes among other things English-German, English-Italian, English-Polish relations with regard to situation in Europę, mainly her Central-Eastern part. British foreign policy in Neville Chamberlain’s term of office was typified by larger and larger concessions to Germany i.a. Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Memel (Klaipeda). Chamberlain, upsetby developmentof situation in Europę, decided to grant Poland unilateral guarantees (31 March 1939), which were altered by Józef Beck into bilateral obligation early in April. This change in British foreign policy, concessions replaced with guarantees, did notfinished the policy of appeasement. British politicians still considered peaceful solutions atthe cost of other countries - in September 1939 Poland fell victim to appeasement policy. The Anglo-Polish agreement regarding a provision of mutual aid concluded on 25^th August 1939, which in its assumption was supposed to help avoiding the war, only postponed it for a few days. Although the English joined World War II (3 September), at the beginning they reduced their participation only to propaganda activities, like dropping leaflets on German territory. Conduct of British foreign policy was a great disappointment for Polish governement and society. Great Britain put away direct confrontation with the III Reich and gained time for preparation. According to British opinion the abovementioned actions were one of the factors which contributed to win World War II.