III.

The Descent to War

Stanley Baldwin retained Chamberlain as Chancellor and in 1937 he succeeded Baldwin as prime minister. In that office his major aim was to avoid a European war at all costs. His policy of appeasement towards both Adolf Hitler's Germany and Benito Mussolini’s Italy was hugely popular at the time, although Chamberlain’s opponents later attacked it. It was pursued simultaneously with a policy of rearmament, the cost of which prevented Chamberlain from pursuing any further social reform, and in 1939 peacetime conscription was introduced for the first time in Britain.

The accommodation of German expansion culminated in three meetings with Hitler at Berchtesgaden, Bad Godesberg, and finally Munich. At the final meeting, Chamberlain and French prime minister Édouard Daladier agreed to recognize German demands over the Sudeten in the Munich Pact of September 1938, after which Chamberlain returned home proclaiming “peace for our time”. When Hitler invaded Prague in March 1939, Chamberlain recognized the failure of his policy and vowed to provide support for Poland, along with Romania and Greece. When Germany invaded Poland, Chamberlain declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. After the British setback of the Norwegian campaign, Chamberlain was forced to resign in May 1940 after the Labour Party refused to serve in a National government under his leadership, and he was succeeded by Winston Churchill. He served in Churchill's Cabinet as Lord President of the Council until October 1940, when illness forced his resignation. He died the following month.