The Best Laid Plans (see also: the Munich Agreement)

I didn't intend to start writing today, but it is raining and I have a cup of tea, and I really should be doing something more important, so I suppose it's inevitable that I'm sat here planning to write about...Hitler. I know, I know. I know. I wasn't going to touch that whole topic, ever. But never say never; the best laid plans will always go wrong and other assorted cliches. I promise I'll write about Ancient Greece or something, next time.

Anyway, yes. Czechoslovakia. On 1st October, 1938, German troops marched into the Sudetenland,  Czechoslovakia, under the auspices of the Munich Agreement. What does this even mean? Well, in very, very simple terms, the Munich Agreement was a little bit of paper that the British Prime Minister at the time, Neville Chamberlain, came back from Germany with, on which was a promise from Hitler that he would not attempt to attack Britain or France in return for them accepting that the Sudetenland (an area of Czechoslovakia) should be ceded to Germany, and, on 1st October, he duly marched in.

(What are you talking about, wanting to know what the people of the Sudetenland felt about all this?! Pfft. As if that matters.)

Anyway, that was all fine and dandy, Mr. Chamberlain truly believed that he had secured "peace in our time", and everything was just peachy. Except of course it wasn't because Hitler is a Terrible Person and immediately (well, in March '39) set about annexing the rest of Czechoslovakia and other European countries, which eventually lead to war in September '39, as of course everyone knows.

The problem is, whilst that's the version everyone knows, it isn't necessarily the right version. The Bad Man Hitler did some Bad Things, and everyone hates him. Of course, he did do some terrible, awful things, and my point is not to try to defend the indefensible, such as the Holocaust, but to argue that there are (almost always) two sides to every story. A lot of people truly believe that it was only Hitler who started the Second World War, and that is just not true. Yes, he played a part in it. But as the Historian AJP Taylor argues, in his brilliant book, Hitler did not set out to cause the war, but blundered into it as a result of the shortcomings of others.

Again, this is not an attempt to switch the blame and point to Chamberlain and the other allied leaders as being the 'Evil' ones - quite the opposite. Hitler and Chamberlain both thought that they were doing the right thing for their country, in creating the Munich Agreement. Chamberlain, like many of his generation, absolutely did not want a repeat of the horrors of World War One, and did all he could to appease Hitler and prevent another war. Hitler also had the specter of the First World War looming large around him, as he believed that Germany had been treated unfairly at the end of the war, and, faced with reparations that they could not even begin to pay, he felt forced to take matters into his own hands.

The problem with History is illustrated very neatly here - it's such a subjective subject that no one can ever say "this person was evil" or "this event was a good thing for everyone" because such simplistic judgments ignore key arguments and don't take into account all of the facts available. Hitler did do some unspeakably awful things, but at this point in time, he was merely trying to help his people as best he could - as were the other leaders of other countries. 

So, never accept anybody - Historian or otherwise - who tries to tell you that what their view is the 'right' view, and that all other arguments are worthless.

Unless that person is me :) 

An Introduction, Of Sorts:

I need to learn how to write. 

That is not to say I am completely illiterate - on the contrary, I know quite a few words, and have recently managed to learn how to string whole sentences together. But, despite my ability to talk the hind leg off a donkey, I cannot write about History very coherently, and as this is a fairly major requirement for any History degree, I feel it would be a good idea if I learnt how to.

So, this is what this blog is about. Well, that and hopefully showing people that there is more to the subject I love than the Hitler History Channel would have you believe. Yes, dear friends, there are more topics available to study than Germany 1914-18, or key battles in Word War Two. Amazing. Though, I should give them their due - occasionally, they'll show the odd documentary on the Tudors, which isn't so bad. I quite like the Tudors. But they do seem to have a firm belief that 98% of History happened between 1914 and 1918, and 1939 and 1945. Like I say, this clearly isn't true. The Tudors were around from 1487 to 1603 and everyone knows about Henry VIII and Elizabeth and...er...stuff.

I would like to do this as a sort of "On This Day..." type blog, though I know I won't be able to write on every day of the year, much as I would like to because I do have a life need to do some proper work, sometimes. But I hope to write as much as possible, and that anyone who reads this enjoys it.

I promise, when it's not about studying Hitler, History really is very interesting.