Aggression and Appeasement
- Grades
- Grades 9-12
- Time
- About two 50-minute class periods
- Includes
- 11 ready-to-teach files
- Format
- Word (.docx) · PowerPoint (.pptx)
- Slide deck
- Guided notes
- Guided notes teacher key
- Activity + answer key
- Quiz + answer key
- Exit ticket + answer key
- Teacher guide
- Teacher presentation notes
What students do
- Trace German expansion step by step from the Rhineland in 1936 to Prague in March 1939
- Evaluate the case for appeasement using the constraints British and French leaders actually faced in 1938
- Analyze Roosevelt's September 26, 1938 telegram urging negotiation over force
- Explain what the Munich Agreement cost Czechoslovakia, a country that was not in the room
What it covers
- Why Britain and France gave ground at the Rhineland, Austria, and the Sudetenland before finally drawing a line
- The real constraints behind appeasement, including rearmament gaps, memory of the last war, and no reliable allies
- What changed in March 1939 when Hitler took Czech land with no German-speaker justification left to use
Learning targets
- Trace German expansion from the Rhineland in 1936 to Prague in March 1939.
- Define appeasement and explain what its supporters expected it to achieve.
- Identify the constraints that shaped the British and French decision.
- Explain what the Munich Agreement decided and what it cost Czechoslovakia.
- Evaluate the reasoning behind appeasement using evidence, not hindsight.
Peek inside
The Treaty of Versailles ended the First World War in 1919.
It took territory from Germany and capped its army at 100,000 men.
German troops were banned from the Rhineland along the French border.
Many Germans called the treaty a humiliation they had not earned.
Hitler came to power in 1933 promising to tear the treaty up.
The Treaty Everything Starts From
The Treaty of Versailles ended the First World War in .
The treaty capped the German army at men.
German troops were banned from the along the French border.
Hitler came to power in promising to tear the treaty up.
1. Germany's army was capped at 100,000 men and its troops were banned from the Rhineland by the .
Why this matters
Roosevelt sent a telegram on September 26, 1938, urging negotiation instead of force, from a country unwilling to commit troops to whatever Britain and France decided. Pressure toward appeasement did not come only from exhaustion in London and Paris; it came from an ocean away too, where the strongest potential ally offered advice with no promise attached.
What changes in March 1939 is the excuse, not the pattern: Hitler took Czech land with no German-speaking population left to point to. Weighing rearmament gaps and the memory of the last war against a country, Czechoslovakia, that was never in the room keeps the sympathy honest instead of turning appeasement into an easy target.
From one teacher to another
Every class wants to mock appeasement the second they hear the word, so I built this lesson to slow that reflex down. Britain and France were exhausted from the last war and kept giving ground to avoid another one, and getting students to see why that looked defensible in 1938, instead of simply wrong in hindsight, is the actual skill I'm after here. It opens my World War II unit, carrying the job of explaining how the war most students think they already know actually started.
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