Practice question · Multiple choice
Historians distinguish between explaining a decision and justifying it. How does that distinction apply to Munich?
Hints
- Ask what a full account of the alternatives in 1938 would have to show.
- An explanation says why something happened; a justification says it was right.
Show the answer
D. Identifying military, imperial and political constraints explains the choice without justifying it
Why
The distinction keeps two questions apart. Constraints explain why the option was attractive; whether it was the best available requires comparing it with alternatives, including the far stronger position of 1936. Collapsing the two produces either a caricature of cowardice or an argument that whatever happened was necessary.
Practise The Road to the Second World War
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