Neville Chamberlain and ‘Appeasement’

Most people blame Chamberlain for ‘appeasing’ Germany by giving him a part of Czechoslovakia and not stopping the ‘unnecessary war’ when it could’ve been stopped.

However, I believe that at that time, Chamberlain made the right decision and it is wrong to blame him. The situation in England (and most of Europe) was grim after World War 1; everyone remembered the horrors and no one wanted another war.  On top of that, England was also hit by the Great Depression. During times so hard, no one wanted to fight another war and Chamberlain had his country’s best interests in mind when he met with Hitler. 

“How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing!” This was said by Chamberlain in regards to the Czechoslovakia. I totally agree with him because I think that Britain shouldn’t have been expected to put their full commitment into stopping Hitler in the condition that they were in. Maybe if they did, Hitler could’ve been stopped, but how was Chamberlain to know that Hitler was crazy? Most people (including Mackenzie King) liked Hitler when they saw him. There really was no reason to attack or threaten Hitler. Maybe when we look at it now, he should’ve stopped Hitler but there was no way to predict what Hitler was going to do at the time. 

Someone said in class that Germany would’ve had no chance against the Czechs and the Brits and so World War 2 could’ve been avoided. But the issue wasn’t whether or not they would’ve won, because anyhow, a war would’ve been fought (it’s what Hitler wanted) and Britain wasn’t ready for that and had no reason to go to war.   

Were the 20s really roaring?

There are many discussions and debates about whether the 20s were really roaring or not and a lot of evidence supporting both sides of the argument.
     

But I think that the answer is simple: if the 20s were not 'roaring', they wouldn't have come to be known as the 'roaring' twenties. Therefore, the 20s were roaring.
       

Some of the things that made the 20s roaring include the overall excitement and intensity during that time. People in the 1920s just kept on consuming and producing things, barrelling through it all until consumption could not catch up with the production. Technologies both new and old were advanced/developed after the war, the economy was improving quickly from short post-war recession, unemployment rates were low, women gained many rights and people had more leisure time in general.
        

In terms of technology, automobiles and other electronic appliances were invented/improved on and 1 in 4 families in Canada had a telephone and Canada was 2^nd to only the US in the number of privately owned cars. These things were not only ‘roaring’ in terms of noise and volume but they changed the way society functioned, how people spent their free time, and things began moving at a much faster pace.
       

Now to the economy, which was going through a recession after the war, when many people were out of jobs and the European countries were having difficulties recovering (and thus, could not purchase Canada’s imports). But as they recovered, there was a market for Canadian goods again, plus all the new raw material that was discovered in the Canadian Shield. Canada is a land of natural resources and it was during this time when we really made use of it; Canada was the leading producer of paper by the end of the 20s.
         

Because of the economy rising and new technologies, there were many more job opportunities. And although the drought affected the farmers of the Prairie Provinces harshly, many left their farms and moved to the city. This was the beginning of Urbanization, and even though farmers may not have gotten the best jobs in the city, it was better than nothing.
       

So, again, although there were many unappealing things about the 20s, the overall mood was one of exhilaration and thrill.

Iran Nuclear Situation

Iran and World War III?

This week, our class discussed the Iranian nuclear crisis and the possibility of World War III due to the tensions that this is causing around the world.
This is the situation: Iran wants to construct a nuclear bomb (they are gathering uranium) and most other countries are against it, that much is clear, at least. But why is that that all the other countries can have a nuclear program and have nuclear bombs, but Iran can't? Probably because the USA and the rest of the world (UK)see this as a threat (threat to power?).

But will this possibly lead to war? Well, we discussed the topic of 'cyber warfare'. And this, I think is pretty likely as the US has already sent a virus through cyberspace. But Iran doesn't necessarily have the technology or the expertise to really retaliate, so if there will be a 'cyber war' it's going to be pretty much one-sided. Although, according to CNN, Iran has initiated a recent series of cyber attacks against American banks and oil companies in the middle east, they were not successful and all it did was annoy the US and cause them to be more careful. On the other hand, it could possibly escalate to an actual declaration of war as a last resort because President Obama made it quite clear that the "United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon". Now, a world war is a different story. The technology nowadays is so advanced that if a word war was really to start, the world could quite possibly end. (I mean, we have all these insanely effective ways of destroying things and when worse comes to worse during a world war, countries might just drop nuclear bombs on each other). Therefore, I don't think any country is eager to start a world war.

My personal opinion is that Iran should just give up now, before the people have to suffer even more. the UK and US are already putting sanctions in place and Iran is facing a huge economic crisis, and if the US really does declare war, Iran won't stand a chance. I think this is already happening, as Iran is trying to negotiate a 9-step plan that will get the US and UK to lift the oil blockade and the rest of the sanctions.