To answer the question: "Was WWII preventable through diplomacy during the 1938 Munich Crisis?" it is important to examine the Germans' intentions for war before the question can be answered.
As an aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression, Germany was left with both economic and political problems. As the country is in despair, the people needed a direction to depend on. An influential leader, Adolf Hitler, rose to his power at this stage in 1933, rearming Germany's army and promising to build up the nation's glory.
With the Great Depression that weakened British economy and the public opinion that suggested avoiding war, Chamberlain was constrained from doing anything else other than appease Germany to avoid war. Seeing that appeasing the Germans was his bet to prevent war, it is reasonable for Chamberlain’s such action. As proclaimed by Chamberlain that he has secured “peace for our time” after signing the Munich Agreement, he obviously didn’t. The only influence he made was forestalling WWII, not prevent it.
The Munich Agreement signed in 1938 was an appeasement that called for the Sudetenland to be ceded to Germany in exchange for guarantees that it would mark the end of the German territorial expansion. After the agreement was signed, the German forces crossed the borders next day. Coming to contempt Britain and France’s fear for another war, Hitler boldly took his next step into taking the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939. While expecting Poland to become the next target, both nations supported Polish independence. WWII was then triggered after the invasion of Poland. With such desire for more territory for “re-distributing” the world, it is clear that WWII was inevitable. It is only delayed by the appeasement in which Chamberlain hoped it could prevent war.
Now to answer the question, WWII is inevitable through diplomacy or any other way. The world can not sit aside and watch the ambitions of Germany come. The Germans were ambitious and ready to have war with any nation that was in their way. In other words, there was not really much that could be done to avoid WWII.
As an aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles and the Great Depression, Germany was left with both economic and political problems. As the country is in despair, the people needed a direction to depend on. An influential leader, Adolf Hitler, rose to his power at this stage in 1933, rearming Germany's army and promising to build up the nation's glory.
With the Great Depression that weakened British economy and the public opinion that suggested avoiding war, Chamberlain was constrained from doing anything else other than appease Germany to avoid war. Seeing that appeasing the Germans was his bet to prevent war, it is reasonable for Chamberlain’s such action. As proclaimed by Chamberlain that he has secured “peace for our time” after signing the Munich Agreement, he obviously didn’t. The only influence he made was forestalling WWII, not prevent it.
The Munich Agreement signed in 1938 was an appeasement that called for the Sudetenland to be ceded to Germany in exchange for guarantees that it would mark the end of the German territorial expansion. After the agreement was signed, the German forces crossed the borders next day. Coming to contempt Britain and France’s fear for another war, Hitler boldly took his next step into taking the rest of Czechoslovakia in 1939. While expecting Poland to become the next target, both nations supported Polish independence. WWII was then triggered after the invasion of Poland. With such desire for more territory for “re-distributing” the world, it is clear that WWII was inevitable. It is only delayed by the appeasement in which Chamberlain hoped it could prevent war.
Now to answer the question, WWII is inevitable through diplomacy or any other way. The world can not sit aside and watch the ambitions of Germany come. The Germans were ambitious and ready to have war with any nation that was in their way. In other words, there was not really much that could be done to avoid WWII.