Arthur Neville Chamberlain
(Birmingham, 1869-Heckfield, 1940) British Conservative politician who was Prime Minister between 1937 and 1940.He was the son of Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914), leader of the Liberals « unionists' who joined the Conservative Party and one of the country's most influential politicians in the late 19th century; his half-brother Joseph Austen Chamberlain (1863-1937) also devoted himself to politics, becoming president of the House of Commons, minister on multiple occasions and fleeting head of the Conservative Party.
Neville Chamberlain
Neville Chamberlain, on the other hand, turned into politics belatedly, having gone into business.He was elected mayor of Birmingham in 1915 (his father had already distinguished himself in that position in 1873-1876).His political prestige was forged at the head of the Ministry of Health (1924-1929); the social reform that he introduced in the British health system consolidated the new populist image of the Conservative Party, which had begun to be built with his father's admission to it.Then he was Minister of Finance in the middle of the world economic depression (1931-1937), to which he responded by adopting protectionist measures.
Finally, in 1937 he got the post of prime minister, which he would keep until 1940.He personally handled foreign policy affairs, in a line of appeasement ( appeasement ) with which he hoped safeguard the peace by offering some concessions to Hitler's expansionist ambitions; This policy culminated in the Munich Conference of 1938, which allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland.
Only after the German occupation of Czechoslovakia did Chamberlain realize his mistake and hastily rectify it, hastening British rearmament for the war to come.He then agreed with France to guarantee the integrity of Poland and, consistent with this commitment, declared war on Germany when Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland (September 1939).
Thus started World War II, Chamberlain was just as clumsy in directing military operations as he had been in previous diplomatic relations; his own party replaced him with Winston Churchill, whom Chamberlain maintained his support from the presidency of the Council of State.
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